Parents needing an example of good reading practices now have a hands-on tool that models real-life lessons.

The Aiken County School District released this month a 20-minute video guide Parents: A Child's First Teacher to encourage parents to build literacy skills from birth.

The video is the first in a nine-part series that models teaching methods for literacy and ties into the school district's initiative that offers 90 consecutive minutes of reading each day in schools.

Although the entire series is geared toward teachers and used as a training tool, the committee creating the video wanted to include parents on the series premiere.

"One of the things we wanted to get across to parents was they should have engaging experiences with children in both oral and written language, and those should be fun," said Deborah MacPhee, a University of South Carolina assistant professor of literacy. Ms. MacPhee shares a committee position with about six other district personnel, which includes instruction coordinators and partner teachers.

"It shouldn't be so much that they teach them, but engage them in fun things, the things that showed up in this video," she said.

The guide gives examples of ways parents can engage children from as young as a few months old on into the teenage years, but the guide best serves parents of young children and new readers.

Tips include:

- Sing songs

- Play games that encourage vocabulary, such as Scrabble

- Have children read directions

- Write grocery lists

- Ask questions that require more than a "yes" or "no" answer

- Avoid baby talk or broken sentences

"Spend a lot of time listening to your child and really trying to get kids to tell stories and talk about things. That could mean re-framing our questions," Ms. MacPhee said. "Use 'What did you do today?' instead of 'How was your day?'"

Copies of the video, which was produced and created by district personnel, will be available to new parents through the hospital and area doctor's offices. It can also be viewed on the school district's Web site at www.aiken.k12.sc.us.

The entire series will be released throughout the next year, with the next video about classroom environment coming out later this month.