One of the most powerful ways to raise a strong reader is to read to your preschooler every day. You will increase his vocabulary, expand his listening skills, provide background knowledge on a range of topics, and model the joy and importance of reading. Select folk tales, classics, books about nature and any other genre or subject that interests your child. Add engaging games and activities -- read a favorite rhyming book while occasionally asking him to provide the last word of the rhyme, stop before the story ends, prompting your child to provide his own ending, or paint a picture inspired by the story.
The idea of reading from left to right seems natural, but it's actually an arbitrary cultural construct that children are taught; Chinese children learn to read columns of characters written from top to bottom and Hebrew-speaking children read horizontal lines written from right to left. Teach your preschooler the left-to-right directionality of the English language by pointing to the words as you read together. Occasionally use her finger for pointing until she follows along with you on her own.
Exposing your preschooler to the alphabet is another important pre-reading activity. The list of creative ways to approach this is nearly endless: sing the alphabet song, make alphabet cookies, finger paint the alphabet, or create a collage of magazine pictures that start with a particular letter. For a special treat, pick a letter for the day, grab your camera and go on a letter walk. Let him take pictures of the examples you find in road signs, billboards and store windows.
Before your child can read, she needs to learn that words are made from sounds -- an important early literacy skill is recognizing the beginning sound of a word. This is harder than it seems; remember to be patient and encouraging. Tuck word games into your daily routines. While you're helping her get dressed say a word like "bird," asking her to provide more words that start with the same sound. Make up nonsense rhymes with food words during lunch, like "broccoli-woccoli."