The parents' role as teacher is important to a child's learning process. Parents tutoring their children are advised to remain positive and patient, be aware of the child's feelings, keep the tutoring time short, select a quiet place away from distractions, use games and manipulative objects rather than more abstract experiences, etc. Informal home and neighborhood learning experiences are suggested, such as growing plants, grocery shopping, and feeding family pets. Survival learning should include such activities as reading traffic signs, using a pay telephone, paying for items in a store, map reading, and planning budgets. Helpful hints for tutoring the child in reading focus on: allowing the child to select his or her own library books, reading comic books or "Sesame Street" magazine, setting a parental example by reading newspapers and books, writing short notes to the child, playing reading skill games, etc. When tutoring in spelling, parents should keep the spelling list short, make a flash card for each spelling word, review all past words frequently, and "write" difficult words with materials such as clay or macaroni. In mathematics, helpful activities include showing the everyday uses of numbers, adding and subtracting things in the home, and discovering number facts using toothpicks. (JDD)