Introduction

From around the age of five, most children are ready to learn the skills of reading and writing. Everything they learn is helping them to become 'literate'. Teachers, who are professionally trained to teach these areas, do much of the basic work in schools; but as parents, you can do lots of things to help your child at home.

This site provides you with some starting points. There are:

• stories and poems to read with your children
• worksheets, activities, puzzles, quizzes and word lists for you to print out and use, and
• a list of resources than can help you and your child as you work together

About the Activity Pages

All the activity pages are designed to reinforce the work your child is doing in school. They are meant to be fun activities for you and your children to enjoy together. All of them can be printed out for you to use away from the computer.

To help you find your way around the site, the activities are colour coded.
All the activities for the younger age group, (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2), are coloured in Blue;
Yellow is used for the middle age group (Year 3 and Year 4); and
Red is used for the older age group (Year 5 and Year 6).

Please Note: these sections are a guide only. Children may benefit from attempting activities aimed at children younger, or older, than them. Indeed, they may well find it fun to do some of the 'easier' activities, or a 'challenge' to attempt the more difficult ones. The important thing is that they enjoy it!

Most of the words used in each section are appropriate for that age group, but you should encourage your children to talk to you about new or unfamiliar words.

All the activities follow the guidelines laid down by the government for the 'Literacy Hour', due to start in all primary schools from September 1998.

Helping Your Child

There is a set of notes for each age group. The notes give you:

• Things to do: suggestions to encourage reading and writing
• Worksheet notes: ideas and answers