Use all the senses

If you want to teach your preschooler to read, get them interested in the finer points of reading using the five senses.

Sight. Readers of English are so used to looking from left to right and from top to bottom that you forget that babies don't automatically know that that's the way it goes. Run your finger underneath the words when you read to show them the direction of thoughts on the page.

Touch. Make or buy letters that babies can hold or trace with their fingers.

Sound. Sing about letters and make up silly songs about words that sound alike (I recently made up a song about how ducks have flippers, but dogs have paws). For ideas about what to sing about, "They Might be Giants" has two great DVDs, one about http://store.theymightbemerch.com/herecomeabcscd.html and another about numbers. I especially like their song about vowels.

Taste. Make pancakes out of letters, spell "hot dog" with ketchup and mustard and carry on conversations about the foods that you and your kids are eating.

Smell. Spend a day talking about the things that you smell; the citrus smell of an orange, peanut butter, trash, flowers, pepper. Make a big show out of pronouncing the letters.

For more ideas about how to teach kids to read before they reach kindergarten, check out Barbara Curtis's website, www.mommyteachme.net. I'm currently reading Mommy Teach Me To Read!