Suggestions for preschooler desperate to read

[Christine B]

DD (3), seems to want nothing more than to be able to read on her own. She has known all uppercase/lowercase letters as well as sounds for some time. She is stuck on putting the sounds together. For example, she can say the sounds b-a-t, but not progress b-at or bat. She picked up on everything else almost instantly, with the sounds she watched The Talking Letters Factory once and mastered them. It just seems like she's not quite ready, given how easily she picked up everything else.

 

I've told her she doesn't need to learn right now. I love reading to her, and we read together a lot. Her comprehension is great, she loves reading books like The Magic Tree House series, or Little House on the Prairie and can follow along and answer questions about the stories. We read lots of picture books, too. She wants to read them to me, but gets SO frustrated, and easily. She beats herself up ("I'm not smart enough to read," "I can't do it by myself," "I'll never be big enough") and it breaks my heart, she's only 3!! (The only place I think that may be coming from is her older cousin (5) entered K and is learning to read. I've overheard her telling DD that she needs to sit and listen to her because she's not big enough to read like L) I've told her over and over that I love to read to her, and she can learn while we read together but she says, "I want to do it now!"

 

What do I do? Do I try to teach her with something like AAR, LoE, or RLTL? If it's so upsetting to her that she can't do it, of course I want to help her learn, but if she's not ready, she's not ready and I don't want it to turn into something she hates!

[Jackie]

The one thing that seemed to work to develop blending ability for my daughter was the "say it slow, say it fast" game. I would say a word sssslllloooowwwwllllyyyy and DD would repeat it back to me at normal speed. We just did this at any random time it popped into my head, especially when stuck in the car. Then when she would sound out words herself, she would stretch out the letters like in the game and it was familiar to her.

[Susan in TX]

You could try ClickN Read Phonics. I used it with my son who was a struggling reader and it worked well. I'm not sure how it would be for a 3 year old but your daughter sounds a bit precocious so it might be just fine. Also, if writing isn't hard for her she might be able to use Explode the Code workbooks. My oldest was rather precocious and she learned to read at age 4 using Rod and Staff 1st grade reading. She could pretty much read anything by the time she was five.

 

Susan in TX

[Guest]

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Edited September 9, 2020 by Æthelthryth the Texan

[Ellie]

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is supposed to be very good for teaching young children to read because it doesn't require writing.

 

 

 

ETA: corrected the title, because I was posting while on vacation, on my cell phone instead of my desktop computer, and my brain wasn't working well enough to correctly remember a book I've recommended for over 30 years, lol.

Edited September 26, 2016 by Ellie

[ReadingMama1214]

We started formal phonics at 3.5, but only after my daughter started blending on her own. Before that we did AAR Pre-Reading which has a lot of pre-reading exercises used to build reading skills. We practiced oral blending, rhyming, , clapping syllables, and similar skills. I feel that it really laid the foundation. At 3.5 Dd started blending CVC words and then we switched to Ordinary Parents Guide to teaching Reading. We go slow and do a lot of review as needed.

 

Blending is a developmental skill. Dd knew her sounds for months before blending. Some kids know the letters and sounds for months or years before blending. It all depends on the individual child's development. I would play games that emphasize the pre-reading skills and blending. The day it slow day it fast game is fun and effective. We also did race car blending. I drew a giant race track on easel paper and wrote words on them. As Dd drove a toy car over the letters in each word she had to say the sound and blend it together. Pinterest probably has tons of ideas to teach blending.

 

At this age keep it fun and stress free! My Dd has no concept of what is age appropriate. We struggle with her own high expectations a lot especially when it comes to drawing and reading. I just have to gently remind her that she's doing a good job and that everyone needs to practice and learn in order to do things.

[ElizabethB]

My blending page has ideas:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html

[Ausmumof3]

The 100 easy lessons book mentioned is what helped my first to move from saying sounds to blending although we literally only did about the first 15 lessons because they were so boring. It is mostly based on the say it fast say it slow method so I guess the game would work the same way.

[Christine B]

The one thing that seemed to work to develop blending ability for my daughter was the "say it slow, say it fast" game. I would say a word sssslllloooowwwwllllyyyy and DD would repeat it back to me at normal speed. We just did this at any random time it popped into my head, especially when stuck in the car. Then when she would sound out words herself, she would stretch out the letters like in the game and it was familiar to her.

 

I love this idea!  She loves games, so I bet it would be great! 

 

You could try ClickN Read Phonics. I used it with my son who was a struggling reader and it worked well. I'm not sure how it would be for a 3 year old but your daughter sounds a bit precocious so it might be just fine. Also, if writing isn't hard for her she might be able to use Explode the Code workbooks. My oldest was rather precocious and she learned to read at age 4 using Rod and Staff 1st grade reading. She could pretty much read anything by the time she was five.

 

Susan in TX

 

Thanks!  I checked it out, and tried a sample lesson with her this morning...she did great!  We may try it, the yearly subscription isn't all that expensive, and it would absolutely be worth it if it helps her.  

 

I had one of those. He just turned 5 and it's now all clicking. He's finally on CVC and some sight words. Pushing on with the formal phonics lessons before only caused a lot of friction so to be honest I switched to letter and sound games, computer games like Starfall and Teach Your Monster to Read, and I read and read and read to him. Oh and we own a crap ton of Leap Frog videos. The games made him feel accomplished but, imo, there isn't much you can do lesson wise until it clicks.

 

Personally I would save my $$ or buy something cheap like OPGTR. There are the letter lessons for the first 26- I know it's review but if she's wanting "school" this could help. I would set the lessons aside for six weeks or so, play the games that let them feel like school and then try again every few months. The joke I've seen around here is that the third program always works- not because it's great, but because of timing.

 

Maybe try some Kumon books or handwriting exercises if she has good motor skills. That will make her feel like she's making progress on something. For us math and memorization had filled that gap. Anyway, hugs. I know it's a frustrating place to be!!

 

Thank you!  I figured that it is just going to take time, and all of a sudden it will click for her and she'll take off.  We have 2 Leap Frog movies...but she LOVES them so I may have to pick up a few more.  I'll check Starfall and Teach Your Monster to Read! :)

 

We started formal phonics at 3.5, but only after my daughter started blending on her own. Before that we did AAR Pre-Reading which has a lot of pre-reading exercises used to build reading skills. We practiced oral blending, rhyming, , clapping syllables, and similar skills. I feel that it really laid the foundation. At 3.5 Dd started blending CVC words and then we switched to Ordinary Parents Guide to teaching Reading. We go slow and do a lot of review as needed.

 

Blending is a developmental skill. Dd knew her sounds for months before blending. Some kids know the letters and sounds for months or years before blending. It all depends on the individual child's development. I would play games that emphasize the pre-reading skills and blending. The day it slow day it fast game is fun and effective. We also did race car blending. I drew a giant race track on easel paper and wrote words on them. As Dd drove a toy car over the letters in each word she had to say the sound and blend it together. Pinterest probably has tons of ideas to teach blending.

 

At this age keep it fun and stress free! My Dd has no concept of what is age appropriate. We struggle with her own high expectations a lot especially when it comes to drawing and reading. I just have to gently remind her that she's doing a good job and that everyone needs to practice and learn in order to do things.

 

Our DD also has no concept of her age.  Took her to the library yesterday and told her she could get anything she wanted...she picked out 6 books about bats and 4 about Russia.  Most kids her age were still going through the board books.  Pretty sure the librarian thought we were nuts.   :lol: It's difficult seeing them be so hard on themselves at such a young age!

Edited September 25, 2016 by Christine B

[PeterPan]

Her angst is normal for a dc learning to read, because they all have that disparity between what they want to do and what they're able to do.  Your dd is just having it earlier.   ;)  It means her language skills are radically higher than her ability to decode.  My dd had that at 5.  My ds is gifted but dyslexic, so he has it in spades.  For him, he was listening to college lectures (Great Courses) and adult books at 5.  You might want to give her access to the things her brain wants to keep her satisfied while this is all coming together. Does she have access to a kindle, ipad, iphone, whatever? Christmas is coming... The new Kindle 8 is out, and for $120 plus warranty plus cheap case you can get a really snazzy device that they will replace 3 times when she (inevitably) breaks it. The kindle uses picture covers for the audiobooks, making it easy for a non-reader to operate. HIGHLY recommend.

 

It's ok to put onto flashcards and drill to fluency any word that she has previously encoded (spelled) or decoded and thus understands.  I wouldn't keep normal instructional techniques back from her just because she's young.  If you can load those words onto apps with games, that could be fun.  I used Quizlet with my ds.  You might find WRTR/SWR helpful with her, because it would let you get through more material more quickly. You could put the words on cards and play little memory games with them. She won't need to do them many times, most likely.

 

This is just my two cents, but since she's clearly quite strong on her language skills, I would also broaden her out.  Get her into a little tumbling gymnastics class, do something that works on social, do some Kindermusic or start an instrument with Suzuki, etc.  You have twins and are busy?  Maybe find a mentor, someone who will do something with her once or twice a week that is really intriguing.  It's not pushing to give her ways to use her brain energy.

 

Go over to accelerated and talk with people.  I know we joke about "my accelerated fetus" but that's not what you're trying to do.  You're just saying this girl has a lot of brain energy floating around and what can you DO with it.  

Edited September 25, 2016 by OhElizabeth

[PeterPan]

You made the comment about her not knowing what is appropriate for her age.  Honey For a Child's Heart talks about this.  They suggest that it's not *good* to skip all the children's literature, because it lets them explore the emotions and perspective taking.  I think there's some balance.  When you know it's happening, what you do is do BOTH.  You're going to facilitate at IQ level and interest-level, yes, but you're going to get her enough access that she can have those AND have some of the kiddie lit.  So in a given day, my ds will listen to an adult book on WWII *and* listen to books by Beverly Cleary.  Not one or the other.  I throw lots of things at him.  And because it's audio, he can listen by the hour and cover a lot more, kwim?  

 

So that's what I would do, round her out, increase access.  If you need to, make a genre diversity reading chart and use stickers and reward her for diversity.  But hopefully just more access and more variety that is easily accessed can improve that.  Or build into your day picture book read alouds, later a science/non-fiction read alouds, later audiobooks of her choice, etc.

Edited September 25, 2016 by OhElizabeth

[Hunter]

I like Alpha-Phonics for the babies for the same reasons I like it for LDs. They start blending and even reading full sentences with just a few letters.

 

The full website 

http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/Tutor.htm

Direct link to main workbook

http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/Books/Alpha-Phonics%20Workbook.pdf

 

I also love Hoenshel's first grade "chart work" which is basically a concise do it yourself version of the above.

https://books.google.com/books?id=u1cXAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA11&dq=hoenshel+chart+work&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj67uz896rPAhVHOiYKHYHjBToQ6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&q=hoenshel%20chart%20work&f=false

 

Not yet, but when she asks you to write, I like Spalding or Don Potter's free version of Spalding handwriting.

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/shortcut-to-manuscript.pdf

Edited September 25, 2016 by Hunter

[fralala]

Does she enjoy wordless books at all? I told my 3 year old that they are special stories that kids have to tell to their mommies, which is kind of true for us because her imagination is leaps and bounds ahead of mine. I also try to make time for us just to tell each other stories-- there is no reason somebody needs to be able to READ to tell a great story, and often we can use the pictures in books to do that together...

[Susan in TX]

Also, for working on blending it might help to have her put together just a consonant and a vowel like sa, se, si, so, su and learn those combinations first. After she has that down, add on the final consonant: sat, set, sit, sot, sut. This is how Rod and Staff introduces blending and Beginning Steps to Reading also does it that way.

 

And Bob Books might work well for her too.

 

Susan in TX

[Christine B]

Her angst is normal for a dc learning to read, because they all have that disparity between what they want to do and what they're able to do.  Your dd is just having it earlier.   ;)  It means her language skills are radically higher than her ability to decode.  My dd had that at 5.  My ds is gifted but dyslexic, so he has it in spades.  For him, he was listening to college lectures (Great Courses) and adult books at 5.  You might want to give her access to the things her brain wants to keep her satisfied while this is all coming together. Does she have access to a kindle, ipad, iphone, whatever? Christmas is coming... The new Kindle 8 is out, and for $120 plus warranty plus cheap case you can get a really snazzy device that they will replace 3 times when she (inevitably) breaks it. The kindle uses picture covers for the audiobooks, making it easy for a non-reader to operate. HIGHLY recommend.

 

It's ok to put onto flashcards and drill to fluency any word that she has previously encoded (spelled) or decoded and thus understands.  I wouldn't keep normal instructional techniques back from her just because she's young.  If you can load those words onto apps with games, that could be fun.  I used Quizlet with my ds.  You might find WRTR/SWR helpful with her, because it would let you get through more material more quickly. You could put the words on cards and play little memory games with them. She won't need to do them many times, most likely.

 

This is just my two cents, but since she's clearly quite strong on her language skills, I would also broaden her out.  Get her into a little tumbling gymnastics class, do something that works on social, do some Kindermusic or start an instrument with Suzuki, etc.  You have twins and are busy?  Maybe find a mentor, someone who will do something with her once or twice a week that is really intriguing.  It's not pushing to give her ways to use her brain energy.

 

Go over to accelerated and talk with people.  I know we joke about "my accelerated fetus" but that's not what you're trying to do.  You're just saying this girl has a lot of brain energy floating around and what can you DO with it.  

 

 

You made the comment about her not knowing what is appropriate for her age.  Honey For a Child's Heart talks about this.  They suggest that it's not *good* to skip all the children's literature, because it lets them explore the emotions and perspective taking.  I think there's some balance.  When you know it's happening, what you do is do BOTH.  You're going to facilitate at IQ level and interest-level, yes, but you're going to get her enough access that she can have those AND have some of the kiddie lit.  So in a given day, my ds will listen to an adult book on WWII *and* listen to books by Beverly Cleary.  Not one or the other.  I throw lots of things at him.  And because it's audio, he can listen by the hour and cover a lot more, kwim?  

 

So that's what I would do, round her out, increase access.  If you need to, make a genre diversity reading chart and use stickers and reward her for diversity.  But hopefully just more access and more variety that is easily accessed can improve that.  Or build into your day picture book read alouds, later a science/non-fiction read alouds, later audiobooks of her choice, etc.

 

Awesome advice! Thank you so much.  I'm totally impressed with how well you understand our situation!  Not many people do, and actually, overall this is the first forum/group that I've been a part of where I've been given advice that I can actually use and people seem to REALLY understand what I'm asking.   :laugh:

[Junie]

There is a series of books by Susan Canizares that most of my kiddos started with.  Some of the books have only one word on the page.  These boosted their confidence when Dick and Jane books were still a bit too hard.

[fairfarmhand]

Starfall

 

And I had one of those kids who was impatient to read at age 3. She got so mad at me and threw a fit telling me that I was a terrible teacher because I couldn't teach her to read in one afternoon.

[LMCme]

Blending is usually a developmental skill rather than taught.  There are methods for teaching blending, though. Check out Bearing Away from Sound Foundations, which is usually used for children with severe learning disabilities but could conceivably be used for your child.  My advice would be, though, to give it a year and meanwhile if she is truely despirate, let her sound out the letters one by one, then you blend it for her slowly, then have her say it fast: e.g,

Mom: okay, lets do this word, [point]

Child: "buh" "aah" "tuh"

Mom: Good, "baaatttt".  Say it fast!

Child: bat.

Mom:  good, next word [point].

At the end of the sentance, go back and read it to her so to model fluency.

 

Best,

LMC

 

[ElizabethB]

Watch my blending video with her. It teaches blending and explains why it is hard. It also futures Pluto saying that "Blending is hard for young humans," and talks about how a few can learn it at 3 or 4 but even some 5 and 6 year olds find it difficult.

 

[KarenNC]

Here's what we did when my daughter was about 3.5- 4 and desperate to read:  

1) Read aloud from a wide variety of books at her comprehension level and listened to audiobooks in the car as we ran around. The rule was it had to be something *I* could stand to listen to, which cut out a lot of titles and readers! :) We did lots of kids' lit this way.

2) Based on the earlier SOTW and a friend's experience, we tried 100 EZ lessons (she cried whenever we tried it) and Phonics Pathways (same). She loved to draw, so we tried Explode the Code as the workbooks were cheap. She loved it. We did it when she asked for a lesson, and only as far as she wanted to go, though there were many times she asked to do "just one more."

3) She quickly became very frustrated with Bob Books because she wanted to read what she called "real books"--more like the ones we were reading together and that sounded more natural. We branched out to leveled readers and easy readers from the library. The Biscuit series was a big favorite about a little girl and her puppy, Biscuit. As part of this, I also picked up a pack of sight word cards from Walmart and we played a game where she kept the card if she could read it, I kept it if she couldn't. This gave her access to high frequency words earlier than ETC did, words like "the, father, mother, said" that helped the books sound more natural. We did do these in phonics as they came up, but it made a huge difference to have access to them early on. I did sound the words out for her as she learned them, so it was a blended approach.

4) I took a "magnetic" photo album and made simple story books for her that included her name, family names, names of pets, etc, so, yes, many of these were initially sight words to her. Easy to change the story or pages. I'd also write a word (later a simple sentence) on a page and let her illustrate it if she could read it.

5) At one point, although I knew she could read some of the easy books, she wouldn't read aloud in front of anyone but me. We tried the Dick and Jane books to help build fluency They gave her the confidence to start reading aloud to her father.