Suhaila Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Hi everyone, I'm very new to homeschooling in general and getting overwhelmed by all the different curricula out there. My oldest is 3 years old and she loves to read. She spends an average of five hours a day sitting on the couch with a huge pile of books. I have to literally force her to go play sometimes, haha. Lately she's been asking me to teach her to read so she doesn't have to wait for someone to read books to her. Today I showed her the vowels (all lower case for now) and taught her the sounds they make, and since then she's been looking for vowels throughout her books. I was thinking of adding on some consonants next and having her sound out some simple cvc words. Is this a good approach so far? I really don't know anything about teaching kids to read. Is there a curriculum I could use that would give me more guidance? She's only 3 so I really don't want to make this a very rigid, academic pursuit for her- I want to keep things fun and based on her interest level. Right now she wants to learn because it's fun, and I worry that most of the curricula are for older children and she would be turned off of reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Personally I like Phonics Pathways and started most of my kids when they were 4. It begins by teaching short vowels, then adds consonants and easy blending. You can use it as a guide or simply work through it reading each page. Another wonderful option is The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. It uses a similar approach and is very well written. My library has both books, so it's worth checking to see if your library carries them as well. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwilk Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 We were successful at 3 with Logic of English Foundations. It's very game heavy, movement centric, and easy to break into REALLY short lessons. It's very appropriate for the young set, highly colorful, and honestly, a lot of fun. I think the website has samples of the first few lessons if you want to try it out. The biggest thing I'd recommend is be ready to move at whatever speed your child wants. Sometimes we'd get through 10 lessons in a week, sometimes it was 2 in a month. And keep reading aloud. DD loves reading, is comfortably reading chapter books, but still loves to cuddle up and be read to. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennSnow Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 (edited) I took the same approach with both of my kiddos and it seemed to work well for us :). Both kiddos were reading fluently at a 2nd grade level by the time they were four with relatively little effort. Continue to read aloud to her as much as you can :). Early on we introduced letter names/sounds by playing with blocks, fridge magnets, sidewalk chalk, ABC puzzles and books, etc... The "Leap Frog Letter Factory" video was a favorite of both of my kiddos :). Once she can recognize the letters (both upper and lower case) you can introduce the concept that letter sounds blend together to form words. How quickly kids grasp this concept is highly individual. For some kids it's right away..for others it takes some time. It's not uncommon to take a year or more after they've learned all of the letter names/sounds to be ready to blend them into words. You don't really need a curriculum to do this..you can use magnets, letter blocks, etc.. Once she can confidently blend letters into CVC words you could start with a gentle phonics program such as Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. You could also begin to introduce some sight words. Google the Dolche sight words list to get started :). One of the first independent books both of my kiddos read was a Dick and Jane treasury. The Dick and Jane books take a sight word approach using some of the most common sight words encountered. It was nice for them to be able to read a book right away without having to sound every word out..once they get more experienced with phonics you can switch over to phonics based readers :). Once she can confidently sound out simple words and has a little bit of a sight word vocabulary build up just start looking for appropriate books at the library to read..books like Little Bear, Frog and Toad, Mouse Tales, Green Eggs and Ham, etc.. Continue to practice and continue to increase the level of challenge in the books you're choosing for her as she progresses :). Most importantly, follow her lead! She'll let you know when she's frustrated, disinterested, or in need of a break :). Happy reading! Edited June 23, 2016 by JennSnow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suhaila Posted June 23, 2016 Author Share Posted June 23, 2016 Thank you all so much for the great suggestions! I'll look for the resources mentioned and keep all your tips in mind. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 Welcome aboard! In addition to all the great advices mentioned above, you can look into progressive phonics that is available online for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suhaila Posted June 24, 2016 Author Share Posted June 24, 2016 Oh thank you, I'll check that out. I like the sound of free! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReadingMama1214 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 (edited) Personally I like Phonics Pathways and started most of my kids when they were 4. It begins by teaching short vowels, then adds consonants and easy blending. You can use it as a guide or simply work through it reading each page. Another wonderful option is The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. It uses a similar approach and is very well written. My library has both books, so it's worth checking to see if your library carries them as well. :001_smile: We've used Ordinary Parents Guide. I've borrowed Phonics Parhways as a supplement, but my daughter didn't like the format. We started formal phonics after she started reading Cvc words. She knew her letters and sounds and started reading simple words at 3.5. We're a little over a third of the way through ordinary parents guide and she can buddy read a lot of books. I'd go slow and take a gently approach. We do a lot of games and review and take breaks where we will just read together. We don't do many sight words. There are a few in ordinary parents guide but not a lot. Dd does memorize those easily, but I'm glad to be taking a phonics based approach. Since she's only in preschool, I'm confident she'll be reading most sight word phonetically by K in fall 2017 Edited June 24, 2016 by ReadingMama1214 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReadingMama1214 Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 Oh and we also love progressive phonics. Dd loves those books and they're a nice way of reinforcing what she has learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Blade Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 We used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy lessons. Our daughter already knew all of the letters and their sounds before starting thanks to various ABC books, Leap Frog Letter Factory, and Bob Books Alphabet. I don't know that knowledge of the letters is necessary before starting 100 Easy Lessons because 100 Easy Lessons goes over the letters and their sounds in the early chapters anyways. We were looking at either 100 Easy Lessons or Ordinary Parents guide to Teaching Reading, which is another commonly recommended book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carriede Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 Another vote for Phonics Pathways! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liza Q Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 Ruth Beechick's the 3rs might be very helpful for you. http://www.christianbook.com/the-three-rs-one-volume-edition/ruth-beechick/9780880620741/pd/620749 For a nice overview of Beechick's philosophy, check out this post - http://amongstlovelythings.com/ruth-beechick-101/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 (edited) Another vote for Phonics Pathways. Something I wish I'd known starting out: with my boys, it seemed blending sounds together was a switch that just flipped one day. We kept practicing until it did, but the wait varied with each of them. It wasn't anything I could force or explain, I just had to wait until they got it. Once they did i, though, progress was quick. Edited June 25, 2016 by JudoMom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted July 1, 2016 Share Posted July 1, 2016 Blending ideas, links to easy free phonics programs, I See Sam is a good choice for a young student. The linked charts and cards should also help. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoutingmom Posted July 2, 2016 Share Posted July 2, 2016 I also think I See Sam is a good choice here. They are little books that are read by her in order. She needs 5 phongrams for the first book (and second). "I", "s", "ee", "a", "m". My daughter is enjoying them. Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bnwhitaker Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 Logic of English (It costs more buts more spelled out for the parent to teach) OR Spell to Write and Read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freelylearned Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 My kids enjoyed the BOB Books with whatever program I used, because they would quickly amass a stack of books that they could read all by themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabritadorada Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 (edited) There is this really great out of print book called Get Ready to Read: A Practical Guide for Teaching Young Children to Read at Home by Toni S Gould -- you can get it for $4 shipped from amazon and it's packed with pre-reading games that flow into phonics games in a really fun way for kids as young as 3. The games are very easy to set up too--just using objects at home. I think with a 3 year old you'd want to keep it pretty light and fun and as she picks up enough letter sounds and symbols--then move into Bob books (or maybe ETC?) and more structured phonics lessons. Edited July 28, 2016 by cabritadorada Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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