CAREABOUTKIDS

PARENTS: If you want your child to read well and with understanding begin early to lay the right foundation. Encourage children to think about past and future events. Don't allow the conversation to focus entirely on ongoing events. Children who hold lengthy conversations at home learn to reflect on experience and to construct meaning from events. MY WORD: Reading is the start of a child's academic education.

CAREABOUTKIDS

PARENTS Before you begin bathing your child, have all supplies within arm's reach and in front of you. DO NOT leave a baby unattended for even a second. If you need to leave the bathroom, take the baby with you. DO NOT rely on older children to watch the baby for you. Never leave a child unattended while filling the bathtub and always empty bathwater immediately after use. Babies can drown in as little as one inch of water. MY WORD: You never can be too careful when children are near any body of water.

CAREABOUTKIDS

PARENTS The potential for intelligent behavior does not simply unfold. Its development needs experience, encouragement, affection, and tender, loving care along with stimulation from the environment. (Enriching the environment of a culturally deprived child can bring striking improvements in intelligence test scores, especially if a child is quite young at the time of the change.)MY WORD: Cognitive development is challenging for parents.

CAREABOUTKIDS

PARENTS: Children also talk out loud to themselves while doing things, rehearsing words to go with actions. As the child learns and becomes more familliar with language, this self-talk becomes abbreviatd, then whispered. Finally, it disappears, absorbed into the thinking process. MY WORD: It is interesting to see how children develope mentally.

CAREABOUTKIDS

PARENTS: Your child, like most children, will learn how to read. Whether the child will read and read fluently depends partly on you. Children who read well have parents who read aloud to them and talk to them about their ideas and experiences. Talking about experiences helps a child learn about concepts and helps build vocabulary. MY WORD: The library is a warehouse full of ideas and experiences through other people sharing their life with us.

CAREABOUTKIDS

PARENTS: Each time children learn something the information is stored in their memory. The mind sorts what has been learned and finds ways to use it. The older children become, the longer they can store facts, lists, instructions, words, plans, images, and ideas in their memory. MY WORD: Raising children is interesting as you can see how they develop both mentally and physically.

CAREABOUTKIDS

PARENTS: When reading to your child change your voice for different characters. Let your voice get soft and loud. Put some life into your reading. When reading to your child instead of saying "Now stop that amd settle down!" Try , "Let's get cozy for our story." Keep plenty of reading materials around the house. Store children's books on low shelves within their reach. MY WORD: When parents read it sets a good example for the child.