How to motivate a 3 year old to begin reading and writing.  

Read to her yourself and if she likes the stories you pick, it won't be long. For writing start with her name and you write it on big letters and let her trace them.

Reading to her will help motivate her. You can also play games. Place letters on things throughout the house and have her find ones that are alike sample Television=T and Telephone=T. As she finds them sound them out with her, & as she progresses add letters to each one and have her practice writing them.

Hope this helps you out.

I know you wrote this four weeks ago, and I'm a little late on this discussion but...I began teaching my daughter the glorys of writing and reading at 2. Granted it was a frustrating task. My wife wasn't as enthused with it as I was, but she supported it. By three my daughter made it harder because outside things interfered. I'm a writer, and soon to be published so to me I felt I wanted my daughter to follow in my footsteps in the reading department at least. She is now 8 and the top reader in her class, and her AR scores are phenomenal (AR=Accelerated Reader point given by the School board through certain books they read) The best thing to do is buy the workbooks at the stores that allow her to write in them, such as workbooks. Walmart and Toy's R US have them. Even if she makes mistakes and doesn;'t do it right Encourage her by saying good work, and then erasing it for later use and allow her to do it again (Unless it is color schemes.) Anyhow Reading is important as well, giving her your time which I am sure you do enough of. It makes me happy to hear that others feel like I did. It will be worth it later trust me.

Read children's books to her and buy her a board to write on so that she can play school.

Try the child with picture books with simple text - dog,cat,etc

A book that my daughter enjoyed at that age was My Day (We Both Read) by Sindy McKay and Meredith Johnson. The pages on the left have words you read and the pages on the right have words the child reads (one or two words that match a nearby picture). It's a fun, easy book.

Leap Frog! Its genious im telling you. The kids I sit for love those things, and the 4 year old...reading at a 1st grade level already...

u can read 4 them n try to take them besides u....

Get him/her some nice picture books

I have a 3 year old as well, and while he isn't reading or writing by any means, he is sure starting to show some interest in it. Start reading to her. Eventually, she will want to read to you. You can show her different things and show her the letter that they start with so she will start associating them. Try to make a game out of it. Also, my son love the magnets of letters that go on the fridge. See what kind of things you can do with those. My son knows a few of his letters now, and what they are for. He is also starting to read to me. It isn't the actual words that are on the page, but he is trying and I am jsut encouraging him all the way!