Q: Our son turns 5 in August. My sister suggests we hold him back a year from kindergarten. He's shy and not as academic as her 5-year-old daughter, who reads picture books. Will the school give him a readiness test? What factors determine if we should hold him back?

A: Some parents hold back a child to give "the gift of time" to catch up to today's higher levels of kindergarten readiness. A few do it to give a child a leg up for later participation in sports. But don't do it because your sister tells you to.

There is no clear data on the academic, social and emotional benefits of holding a child back. After reviewing studies, Deborah Stipek of Stanford University concluded that whatever gains might exist in the early elementary years disappear by the end of upper elementary school. There is data from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggesting that an average kindergartner actually benefits from exposure to more mature peers.

Consider the following factors, says Robin Obey, an experienced K-1 teacher in North Bellmore, New York:

-- Each child develops cognitively, socially, physically and emotionally at a different pace.

"Kindergarten teachers expect a wide range of ability and behaviors in each class and are prepared to accommodate each learner," Obey says.

-- Kindergartners aren't expected to be able to read when they enter school. A few may be emerging readers, but most are not.

"Don't compare him with his cousin," says Obey. "She's the exception, not the norm."

-- If your son is in preschool, consult his teachers.

"Their observations can be invaluable in your decision," Obey advises.

-- A kindergarten screening is essential.

"Each school has one and he'll be assessed for speech or cognitive delays," says Obey. "The results can offer guidance."

-- Accelerate your son's readiness.

"Parents don't realize how much they can do with simple activities, says Obey. "The most important? Read to him every day. Include some of the wonderful books about starting kindergarten."

Play word games such as, "I say cat. You say rat." Play I Spy and Categories: "Let's think of things that are red ..." Encourage storytelling: "Tell me what happened when we went to the zoo." Take photos and have your son dictate captions. Have him draw a story; dictate what's happening while you write the words.

Give your son simple tasks, such as sorting laundry or setting the table, to build one-to-one correspondence, number sense and independence. Provide multistep directions to develop listening skills and ability to focus.

Boost his fine motor skills: Sculpt with Play-Doh; tear up junk mail; use scissors; draw.

Provide opportunities to socialize in small and large group settings.

"His shyness can be a personality trait or just how he is right now," Obey notes. "One year, the youngest child in my class barely spoke. She's now the president of her high school class."

Unless the screening tests reveal a problem, Obey advises you to focus your energies on getting your son excited about going to kindergarten this fall.

"Reinforce simple readiness skills every day," she says. "Your school can provide a list of those skills, or find them online at state education department websites."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: Our fifth-grade son has "writer's block," and his teacher says he should expand his vocabulary. Can you suggest useful worksheets and online vocabulary drills?

A: Children's author Ralph Fletcher says vocabulary building is all about helping students fall in love with words.

Nothing will kill a budding love for lexicography like handing your son some boring worksheets. Help him fall in love with words by finding joy in learning new words with him. Try these teacher-tested suggestions:

-- Dinner served with words! Family dinners have positive social and academic influences on kids; having a daily discussion that allows them to hear new vocabulary is one of them. Choose topics to discuss at each meal (such as a recent school event or plans for a family vacation) and ask everyone to weigh in.

Model and encourage rich vocabulary.

For example: "To plan our vacation, let's look up state and national parks within a 200-mile radius of where we live. A radius is the distance from the center of a circle to its edge. On a map, we will estimate a distance of 200 miles from our house and draw a circle around it. Then we will pinpoint and investigate parks we could visit."

Encourage dialogue, but even if kids don't chime in, don't worry. They're still absorbing the words and making them their own.

-- Let pictures launch a thousand words: Find great images from "photo of the day" websites or calendars to get kids talking. A photo of diver encountering a shark generates words like scuba, equipment, adventure, conditions, saltwater, gear and so on, and piques interest in a wondrous ocean species.

-- Have some pun fun, and kick off word play.

"I found 'Pun and Games: Jokes, Riddles, Daffynitions, Tairy Fales, Rhymes, and More Word Play for Kids' by Richard Lederer (Chicago Review Press, 1996) at a yard sale. My son thinks it's crazy-funny," says Anita Burnham, a California math teacher. "We play word games in the car, from how many homonym pairs we can think of in a minute (prey-pray, rain-rein, slay-sleigh) to 20 Questions. We try to 'out pun' each other, too, to keep it fun."

Find word fun in portmanteaus and eggcorns, says Brenda Power, founder of the teacher website Choice Literacy (choiceliteracy.com‬). ‬

A portmanteau combines two words and their meanings into one new word. Some trendy examples are snowmageddon, emoticon and frenemy.

"Discovering a new portmanteau is like finding a buried treasure in a text," Power says. "An eggcorn is a substitution for a word or phrase that may shift its meaning, but still makes sense in the context and is usually accidental on the part of the speaker."

Think cold slaw for cole slaw or bread and breakfast for bed and breakfast. Go egghorn hunting at eggcorns.lascribe.net.

While your son's teacher has identified weak vocabulary as the source of your son's "writer's block," I'll bet that there are other contributing factors. Children's author Fletcher has a book for young writers, "A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You" (HarperCollins, 2003), which will give your son techniques to add to his writer's toolbox.

Better understanding the writing process will motivate him to fall in love with words.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: We've read to our kids almost nightly since infancy. The oldest, now a fourth-grader, is a good reader, but sometimes still listens in when we read to her little sister. Isn't this unusual? What does she get out of it?

A: It's not unusual at all. While fourth-graders probably won't sit still for a reading of a picture book, many would love to hear more complex books read to them, such as the "Harry Potter" series, "The Princess Bride" or "Because of Winn-Dixie."

Scholastic's recently released 2015 Kids and Family Reading Report shows that 40 percent of children ages 6 to 11 whose parents no longer read books to them at home say they wished their parents still did.

"Parents are often surprised to learn this," says Francie Alexander, chief academic officer at Scholastic.

Reading aloud offers many educational and emotional benefits to older children.

"Tweens whose parents still read aloud to them are more likely to view reading as a pleasurable activity -- something we do to relax at the end of a busy day," says Alexander. "They become more interested in books and are more likely to read for fun on their own."

Reading researcher Dr. Michael Milone touts these academic benefits.

"Reading aloud to kids stimulates language development, boosts their listening skills and models fluency and vocabulary," he says. "As students move up the grades, the vocabulary gets harder. When parents read challenging material aloud, students learn new academic and content-area words and how they are pronounced.

"For example, if you read aloud an article about weird winter weather patterns, you might find words such as 'barometric pressure,' 'cumulonimbus,' 'El Nino,' 'Fahrenheit,' 'precipitation,' 'meteorology.' These are all fourth-grade science words that are easier to learn and less threatening when a student hears them in context."

A busy parent might be thinking, "So we have to set aside time for two read-alouds? One for younger children and one for older kids?"

Not necessarily. It depends on what text you choose.

"A good story or article read with expression can attract the interest of kids of all ages and hold the adult reader, too," says Alexander. "A 6-year-old may not be able to read a news story about a dog that saved its owner, but she can follow the story line and enjoy listening along with her older sister."

There's an art to reading aloud, and "The Read-Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease (Penguin, 2006) has taught many parents how. Check out his advice on reading books you don't really want to at trelease-on-reading.com. (There's a YouTube link that offers videos that model techniques.)

Look for recommended read-aloud book lists at many library websites and on readaloudamerica.org. Literacy expert Steven Layne has compiled suggested titles and tips from K-12 teachers who read aloud daily to their classes in his book, "In Defense of Read-Aloud" (Stenhouse, 2015).

Choose age-appropriate stories by popular authors with male and female characters, strong character development, interesting plots and themes and positive messages, says Scholastic's Alexander.

"If a book isn't working, move on," she says. "While the goal is to promote literacy, the benefit is enjoyable family time together."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)