Not reading prior to entering school can have extremely negative consequences. Therefore, if kids must be taught to read, and kindergarten is too late to begin reading, there is only one conclusion: parents and caregivers need to teach their children to read.
While there are many crucial aspects involved in helping kids become good readers—such as working with letter sounds, rhyming, word games and vocabulary—the most important thing for parents to remember is that reading needs to be fun and it needs to be done every day. If parents can simply read aloud to their children for twenty minutes each day and make it enjoyable, they should find that their kids are right on track when the first kindergarten bell rings.
Resources:
My Child's Academic Success - U.S. Department of Education
Parenting Counts
Reading Begins
Reading Rockets