Tips on how to raise a child who likes to read

Learning to read can be a hard task for a lot of kids, but a reading specialist has some advice that can help.

Reading specialist and CEO of Pre-K Academy Jill Leshin has these tips to help make the process a little easier:

Start the process from day 1
"Begin by simply holding, cuddling and reading to your baby.  Point to the words, use lots of expression when you read and choose age-appropriate books."

Build phonological awareness
"This is the ability to discriminate and label sounds in our environment, like a fire truck or a dog barking. Identifying sounds prepares the brain for phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear and discriminate letter sounds and language patterns in the spoken and written language."

Make the process fun
"Create reading rituals like a Reading Rock Star, Flashlight Fun etc. Write to your child using adorable personalized letters and To Do lists from familylabels.com .   If you personalize it, the children are going to gravitate to it and want to write you back and read Lunchbox Letters etc."

You can find information about Pre-K Academy and their classes by emailing jill@pre-kacademy.com and you can check them out on Facebook and get a coupon for a free class.

Also, when you go to familylabels.com , if you enter the promotional code prek10, Sonoran Living Live viewers will get 10-percent off!