When I was seven, I decided to give my preschool-aged cousin a leg up in the education world: I was going to teach him to read.  Chad was content to sit with me for a few minutes, and then he decided he'd had enough -- more than enough.  I hadn't.  I followed him through my great-aunt's house and around the yard.  Luckily for him, I was not particularly speedy.

We all want our children to be successful readers, but how do we know how much they're ready for, and how soon?  Reading readiness is subject to personal variance, and is not necessarily related to overall intelligence.   Many preschool children are eager to take those first steps toward literacy, but instruction should be developmentally appropriate.  The following are some tips for making reading enjoyable for little ones:

Use read-alouds to model reading strategies.  Point as you read; this teaches children left-to-right directionality and helps them understand what a word is.  Many young children don't know the difference between a sentence and a word (and they may even think "ellemenno" is a random phrase to say in the middle of the alphabet)!  It's been so long since we learned these basic reading skills that we often forget that they are skills and not innate.

Capitalize on strengths.  Some children struggle to blend together separate sounds, yet they can make sense of phonics within the context of rhyme: can, tan, man, ran...

Pick a reading series that lets children use multiple cueing systems: pictures and patterning as well as sight words and phonics. Phonics is an important skill for beginning readers, but if a child struggles to read even 10% of the words in a story, they may lose the gist of the story... and they may also lose interest in reading.  Series I've had success with include Brand New Readers and Real Kid Readers.

Play games to develop skills.  There are so many games in the stores and on the internet.  Here is a simple one that requires only a pad of tiny sticky notes and can travel with you. Write a phonetic word like 'can' on a series of sticky notes, one letter per note.  Read the word, sweeping your finger under each sound.  Then mix the letters around, and try to sound out the new word.  Four- and five-year-olds enjoy mixed-up words and mixed-up sentences -- and when they're enjoying themselves, their minds are actively engaged!

When children are ready to go further, they let us know.  They take pride in their mastery.  They show off how they can read signs and other environmental print.  They may even want to read their parents a bedtime story.  And of course, they may start teaching their younger brother, or their cousins...