Are you concerned about preparing your child for kindergarten or first grade?
BY PENNY FENDT Executive Director Sylvan Learning Centers, Santa Rosa County

Sylvan Learning Center presents a free seminar for youngsters and parents. From this seminar you will learn to create a multi-sensory approach for teaching your child reading, help your child develop a lifelong love of learning, and gain knowledge of techniques to aid your child in remembering what has been learned.

We will offer you an opportunity to make an appointment for a free reading readiness evaluation for your child. If you would like Sylvan to prepare your child for school, we offer summer sessions that build early reading skills with a fun approach. From this program, you can be assured that your child is ready for kindergarten or first grade reading.

DATE: Thursday, 4/5/07 TIME: 7:15pm

LOCATION: Sylvan Learning Center, 5668 Gulf Breeze Pkwy. (Across from the Zoo)

Please call 934-6111 by 4/4/07 to reserve a seat.

Reading is an adventure that begins early in a child's life and should extend beyond the classroom. Children exhibit certain reading behaviors at a young age. By understanding and nurturing these behaviors, parents can make reading fun and motivate their children to develop a lifelong friendship with books.

For pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children, this is their first introduction to reading. They are just beginning to understand that print holds meaning and use illustrations to give meaning to stories and words. Younger children enjoy listening to stories read aloud, and by engaging children in the world of reading, parents can help their children become more proficient readers. Sylvan Learning Center recommends that parents spend at least one hour per week - 10 to 15 minutes a day - performing some type of a reading activity with children.

To help parents nurture their children's reading behaviors, the experts at Sylvan Learning Center offer these tips and ideas for reading at home with prekindergarten and kindergarten students:

Make cookies together. Read the recipe aloud to your child.

Read directions to your child when completing a project.

Subscribe to a magazine for your child (Ladybug, Your Big Backyard, Zoobooks, etc.) to learn about topics of interest to him.

Pick a storybook character (Arthur, Strega Nona, etc.) and pretend that character is coming for dinner. Help your child plan activities that character would like.

Help your child relate read-aloud stories to events in her life.

Read stories aloud and act them out.

Engage your entire family with DEAR, "Drop Everything And Read," time each day.

The Internet can also provide many opportunities for children of all ages who are looking for new things to read. Book Adventure is a free, Sylvan-created interactive, reading, motivation program that can be found online at www.bookadventure. com. Parents can help children choose books from more than 7,000 titles, take short comprehension quizzes and redeem accumulated points for small prizes. Book Adventure also offers teacher and parent resources and tips to help children develop a lifelong love of reading.

For additional tips on instilling the joy of reading, helping children understand math and making learning a fun family endeavor, visit www.educate.com/activities. For more information about Sylvan, call 1-800-31-SUCCESS or visit www.educate.com/info.