Reading is the most important skill a child will ever learn. By developing an interest in reading, and thereby developing the desire to learn to read, you will be giving your child the gift to all knowledge. A child who loves to read and reads well can learn ANYTHING!
The interest in reading is developed at a young age. Make time to read bedtime stores. Make time at other time of the day, if possible, to sit and read to your child. Simple, easy to understand children's books with colorful pictures as best for the youngest children.
Not only can you point to the words you are reading as you read, but you can help the child learn recognition of objects and colors by interacting during the reading of the book. Point to the picture of a duck and tell the child, "This is a duck. The duck is yellow". After a few times of doing this, point to the duck and ask the child what that picture is and what color the animal is. Every soon, after grasping language skills, the child will not wait for questions, but tell you "that duck is yellow!"
Select books that teach a lesson about life. Books that teach children how to interact with other children without fighting; books that teach about giving or sharing, are good selections. Books that teach about responsibilities - how to cross the street, never to get in a stranger's car, never to steal, and so one - are also great choices.
Children's classics are excellent choices and may well become family heirlooms that you child will read to their child years down the road. You will soon develop a child that can't wait to learn to read.
I'd like to share a small personal antidote with you. I was raised as a child who was taught an interest in reading. When Mother cooked, she sometimes got out a book and it told her what to do to make good food. When Dad wanted to know when the Christmas Parade or another event was going to occur, he read the newspaper. I had realized that you could learn anything you needed to know if you could read. Mother had taught me to read a few words, and I could go through some of my favorite books by memory, but I couldn't pick up a big book and read it.
I went to school on my first day of 1st grade and came home crying my eyes out, telling Mother I wasn't going back to that bad school. After much questioning and concern on Mom's part, she finally dragged out of me that I considered the school bad because I had not learned to read on the first day! She had to explain to me that by the end of the school year, I would be able to read.
This short story is to emphasis that you want to raise the kind of child who truly can't wait to learn to read. A lifetime of reading provides not only knowledge, but fun, relaxation, and true job.