Hi! My name is Lori Ashby. I've been married 19 years to my favorite Aggie. We have two children who attend Pine Tree schools. We share our home with a calico kitty and three spoiled dogs. I enjoy cooking, playing French horn and, of course, READING! I am living my life's dream of teaching children how to read and sharing with them the joys of learning.

Your child will learn and practice many important reading skills this year. One of the first skills your Little Pirate will work on is letter identification, both capital and lowercase. Perhaps the easiest (and most meaningful) place to start is with the letters in your child's name. With your child, build your child's name with magnetic letters (your refrigerator is a great place to do this!) and then practice naming the letters of the name in order. Once your child has mastered this, ask him/her to build the name. You can then ask your child to locate the letters you call out. Slowly add other names and/or letters, building your child's confidence and knowledge base.

One of the earliest predictors of reading success is phonemeic awareness - the ability to hear sounds in words. Help your kindergartner listen for and repeat the sounds at the beginning of words: "What do you hear at the beginning of 'monkey'?" Your child should respond with the letter sound, not the letter name. Also help your child recognize and produce rhyming words. Songs, poems and nursery rhymes are all great ways to introduce and practice this important skill.

Each week three new Star Words (sight words) will be introduced to your child. These words are selected because they occur frequently in books your child will soon read. Help your child read these words on homemade flashcards or in print (magazines, newspapers, or children's books.) You can also have your child build these words with magnetic letters (have the flashcard available to copy in the beginning!).

If you would like additional information on how to help your child with learning to read, please call me at (903) 295-5095 or email me at lashby@ptisd.org . I will be happy to help! The adorable graphics on my website are from Graphic Garden. Please visit www.graphicgarden.com to learn more.