Some of best things parents can do to help their kids before they come to school are read to them and teach them nursery rhymes. They've kind of become a lost art, but they are very beneficial.

Before children learn to read words they have to develop auditory discrimination, the awareness of how letters and words are put together, and phonemic awareness helps them to develop that skill.

It all builds . . . it goes beyond kindergarten, because when they are familiar with them, then we can expand the skills, cut the words apart from each other and put them together, learn sentence structure and beginning sounds.