Learning to read

[eireali]

DD is really interested in wanting to learn to read but I'm not exactly sure what the best way is to proceed. She already knows her abc's (capital and lower case) and she knows most of them phonetically. I don't want to confuse her now or make it harder for her later if I teach her something wrong. Is it alright if she is doing a lot of book memorization? She started that on her own and has a good few memorized but I don't know if that will confuse her down the road. Is that normal? My dd is still so young so I guess that's part of my hesitation. Does anyone know of what to do next or know of any good resources to help me help her? TIA!

[xtrememousey]

my ds is just younger than your dd and we are learning to read.....i'm starting with 2,3,and 4 letter sight words and then putting together sentences

[i.<3.cheesysmiles]

book memorization is fine if she is interested in it and doing it on her own. I think it helps with a sense of accomplishment when a child can read like that. Honestly, at this age, I would not push any "formal" reading instruction. I would do some oral rhyming play, like DS likes to do things like say "cheerio, beerio, feerio," and do other nonsense words. Nursery rhymes and poetry helps, too. The same with a lot of kids songs. One thing I do, too, is label things around the house. DS and I write out labels for things like chair, table, door, etc. And I would continue reading aloud to the child - to model fluency, expose her to concepts of print, and for enjoyment.

I do not know if I would necessarily start teaching how to sound out words. When I taught first grade, I had students who tried sounding out words like this: cuh-ah-tuh for cat. They knew what each letter sounded like, but there wa always an "uh" added to some of the consonants, and when you do that, it makes it hard to blend the letters together. We tried to teach them to say "c" "ah" "t". IDK if it was the parents who taught them this or their kinder teachers, but it bugged me since it was not correct, and made it harder for them to learn how to sound it out. I even hear toys say the letters incorrectly, and that really bothers me.. I guess my only "warning" would be to be careful on how you say the letter sounds :)

I really do think as long as you follow your child's lead at this age, that is the best you can do :) And it is great that she is so interested in reading!

[cheeksy]

starfall.com - they have great free material online and if you want more, you can see whether you can order to Ireland.

We also LOVE old good Ladybird series. They have kindergarten level and primary level and so on. You might want to check. It is originally from UK so should be available where you are.

[tapir]

Dr. Seuss is awesome. Read it to them a million times and they will figure out the patterns...

[cheeksy]

P.S. I just want to add, Tessa is Alannah's age. We also never push anything to her. She enjoys watching Leap Frog Alphabet Factory cartoons, Starfall and she recently started recognizing words on her own. She will see the familiar word, spell it and read it. So if Alannah is interested - just offer her different materials in a casual playful way. If that interest picks up, she will be an early reader. Or she might just take her own time. These days kids are really developing way faster than before. I read on BBC site recently about a 2 (or was she 3? Definitely not older!) year old who taught herself to read. With an IQ of 150 or 160. It's just amazing! I believe reading and writing should start from a certain age but if my DD is interested in more than her age group is supposed to be interested at a time, I will not stay in the way.

[i.<3.cheesysmiles]

P.S. I just want to add, Tessa is Alannah's age. We also never push anything to her. She enjoys watching Leap Frog Alphabet Factory cartoons, Starfall and she recently started recognizing words on her own. She will see the familiar word, spell it and read it. So if Alannah is interested - just offer her different materials in a casual playful way. If that interest picks up, she will be an early reader. Or she might just take her own time. These days kids are really developing way faster than before. I read on BBC site recently about a 2 (or was she 3? Definitely not older!) year old who taught herself to read. With an IQ of 150 or 160. It's just amazing! I believe reading and writing should start from a certain age but if my DD is interested in more than her age group is supposed to be interested at a time, I will not stay in the way.

I agree. If a child is interested, I would pursue it, and keep it playful :) Just nothing too formal :) I always forget about starfall! I gonna pull it up for DS1 as he loves everything on the computer.

[cheeksy]

I agree. If a child is interested, I would pursue it, and keep it playful :) Just nothing too formal :) I always forget about starfall! I gonna pull it up for DS1 as he loves everything on the computer.

I THINK they have an iPhone/iPad app available as well. If you are a Mac person, you might want to get it.

[DucksLikeRain]

Starfall is AWESOME. Our pre-k program here uses it a lot and in kindergarten they seem to use it quite a bit also. Scharae is a reader now, but she has been playing on starfall since she was 3 and I think it's definitely a big reason she was reading before kindergarten started. Well, that and having an older sister who was reading probably spurred her on to "catch up".

[eireali]

book memorization is fine if she is interested in it and doing it on her own. I think it helps with a sense of accomplishment when a child can read like that. Honestly, at this age, I would not push any "formal" reading instruction. I would do some oral rhyming play, like DS likes to do things like say "cheerio, beerio, feerio," and do other nonsense words. Nursery rhymes and poetry helps, too. The same with a lot of kids songs. One thing I do, too, is label things around the house. DS and I write out labels for things like chair, table, door, etc. And I would continue reading aloud to the child - to model fluency, expose her to concepts of print, and for enjoyment.

I do not know if I would necessarily start teaching how to sound out words. When I taught first grade, I had students who tried sounding out words like this: cuh-ah-tuh for cat. They knew what each letter sounded like, but there wa always an "uh" added to some of the consonants, and when you do that, it makes it hard to blend the letters together. We tried to teach them to say "c" "ah" "t". IDK if it was the parents who taught them this or their kinder teachers, but it bugged me since it was not correct, and made it harder for them to learn how to sound it out. I even hear toys say the letters incorrectly, and that really bothers me.. I guess my only "warning" would be to be careful on how you say the letter sounds :)

I really do think as long as you follow your child's lead at this age, that is the best you can do :) And it is great that she is so interested in reading!

Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah I definitely didn't have any plans to start any sort of formal programs or anything. She loves Dr. seuss, Hop on Pop is a favourite at the minute and I think it's great b/c it has small words in it and that's one of the ones she likes to "read" herself. I also read books to her daily.


P.S. I just want to add, Tessa is Alannah's age. We also never push anything to her. She enjoys watching Leap Frog Alphabet Factory cartoons, Starfall and she recently started recognizing words on her own. She will see the familiar word, spell it and read it. So if Alannah is interested - just offer her different materials in a casual playful way. If that interest picks up, she will be an early reader. Or she might just take her own time. These days kids are really developing way faster than before. I read on BBC site recently about a 2 (or was she 3? Definitely not older!) year old who taught herself to read. With an IQ of 150 or 160. It's just amazing! I believe reading and writing should start from a certain age but if my DD is interested in more than her age group is supposed to be interested at a time, I will not stay in the way.

Thanks for the Leapfrog tip! I found some on youtube and she really seemed to like it. We have been using starfall for awhile now and she likes that too. She's able to navigate that one on her own so she does the things on it that interest her. I definitely don't want to stand in the way of anything she wants to learn about. I do have to admit though, I worry about her knowing "too" much when she starts school b/c the schools here are based on the fact that a 4-5 year old knows nothing when they enter. I just don't want her to be bored.