When did you begin to teach reading?

[Guest JennVaT]

I have a son who will be turning four in a couple of weeks. I recently read the WTM and loved it. I was, of course, particularly interested in the preschool portion and found that the WTM encouraged early reading instruction based upon the general readiness of the child. My son has learned his letters and letter sounds and can tell you what letters most words begin with. I never really did formal lessons with him. He just picked up the letter sounds from a Leap Frog Letter Factory video and learned to apply those sounds to words simply by my asking him what he thought certain words would begin with. Lately, he has been trying to figure out what other letters might be in words and is doing quite well.

 

Given all of this and what I read in the WTM I thought my son was ready to learn to read. I bought An Ordinary Parent's Guide to TEaching Reading and eagerly set out to begin. I loved how the lessons were short, but my son hates sitting down for reading lessons, even for ten minutes. It is very frustrating. For the brief seconds he listens, he picks things up. I believe he is able to learn to read, but his issues are really with him being able to sit and listen. We never did "lessons" before.

 

I am not a pushy parent. I am not worried about him out performing peers or giving me something to brag about. Those are not my motives. I am simply trying to make sure I don't miss the developmentally appropriate time to teach him. I have decided to take a break and wait.

 

I am wondering if anyone else started reading lessons early. What advice do you have? At what age did you begin using the WTM methods to teach reading? Should I just wait until five or try again in a few months? I don't want to turn him off to reading, but I also don't want to wait too long if he is ready.

 

MY son still walks around "sounding" things out, but pulls away if I try to initiate a lesson at all. He says it is just "easier" if I read to him...which I do often.

[cathmom]

I would stop trying to have reading lessons. He's only 3. If he's really ready to read, I think he'll start on his own. If not, I would wait until he's about 5.

[Joker]

I started teaching my younger at 3 with the same book but we didn't make it very schoolish. She was bringing me papers and books and reading them to me already - everything was read with a short vowel sound but she was really wanting to read. We usually just sat or laid on the floor and played with the magnetic board and letters. She liked spelling out words and then reading them. I let her put them on the fridge and anything else magnetic as well. I would add in things from the lesson here and there and she seemed to pick them up. We didn't sit for what I would call lessons for a while after she was four.

[kokotg]

I think kids tell you (not necessarily with words) when they're ready to learn to read. I wouldn't insist on formal lessons for a reluctant kid until they're kindergarten age. IME, if a young kid is really ready to learn to read, you won't be able to stop them from learning :).

[catz]

I would stop trying to have reading lessons. He's only 3. If he's really ready to read, I think he'll start on his own. If not, I would wait until he's about 5.

:iagree:

 

Neither of my kids were interested in sit down lessons until they were kindergarten age. Both leaped many grade levels in reading over a few months when they finally discovered the joy of reading. I'd have reading time every day where you read to him - whatever he wants.

[Elizabeth in WA]

I taught/started to teach all four of mine to read at age 4. My philosophy is that you have all the time in the world when they are four and 15-20 minutes of snuggle with mom on the couch and read time a day is not too much for four year olds. If they have difficulty, having started earlier gives you more time to work patiently and methodically on reading before they begin to perceive themselves as behind their peers. (Of course, whether or not this will occur anyway depends on how much peer interaction your children have; suffice to say mine have and still do find their peer groups measuring one another's basic academic skills.)

 

My oldest was not reading fluently until he was six and required lots of hard work and time to learn to read. He also has Asperger's and had severe expressive/receptive language gaps that persist to some extent to this day in spite of lots of professional therapy. All the others learned easily, at least by comparison and enjoyed reading from the very beginning. My youngest insisted her reading lessons had to start right on her 4th birthday since she was terribly upset to be the only non reader int he family.

 

I found first grade work greatly streamlined by having children who could already read fairly well, allowing time for history and science while still keeping short days. (Sadly, at least one of mine acts as if we never did do all that history anyway, sigh. I will insist on a bit more memorization from my youngers than I did my olders in hopes of better retention.)

[6packofun]

We start reading "lessons" at age 4, but it's not from a lesson book. lol ;) We use real children's books and as we go through I just get a feel for what he knows and make a sort of game out of it AS we read. I don't give up reading the book itself, and I think that's important. When reading lessons means that we can't just enjoy the story, then we kill that love of learning, IMO.

 

Some things we do as we read through is see how many times we can point to sight words like "the" or any word that is repeated a lot. After finishing the page, I ask him to point to the word that began with "w" or whatever letter. Which words rhyme? Which words have the "a" sound in the middle? Ask if he recognized any words--can you read any of those words yourself? (No? Move on! Don't make a big deal of it, it's just for fun!)

 

We will take magazines, flyers or catalogs and give the kiddo a marker to highlight all the words that start with "b" or that end with "e", etc. as we look through them. It's all about becoming comfortable with letters and words. :) School time lessons will come soon enough and you'll be amazed at how much is learned just from reading and enjoying books and words together. I use Phonics Pathways along with real books at the child's own pace around age 5. Each of my children has been different!

 

Recommended: Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye (Also check out her Games with Books) http://www.amazon.com/Games-Reading-Playful-Ways-Child/dp/0394721497

 

Recommended: Hey! I'm Reading! by Betty Miles (This isn't a teach-to-read book, rather is shows your child what they already know--and didn't realize they know!--about letters, words and reading!)

http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Im-Reading-Betty-Miles/dp/0375814205/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304445111&sr=1-1

 

Recommended: Teach a Child to Read With Children's Books by Mark Thogmartin (As a supplement and for ideas, not to replace your phonics instruction resource.)

http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Child-Read-Childrens-Books/dp/1883790255/

[Susan C.]

My ds (and first born) taught himself to read at 3. I didn't even have a clue it was unusual until the preschool teacher talked to me.... He has always loved reading (now an English major at college), and cracked the phonics on his own.

 

Dd didn't learn to read until 8, at the end of 2nd grade. We sweat blood to get her reading. There were no signs of readiness before that, and I was tired of people thinking I wasn't doing a good job homeschooling. So we pushed. She got everything caught up about 5th grade.

[cathmom]

My ds (and first born) taught himself to read at 3. I didn't even have a clue it was unusual until the preschool teacher talked to me.... He has always loved reading (now an English major at college), and cracked the phonics on his own.

 

 

 

Just wanted to say that it's possible to learn to read at 3 and not understand phonics - that's what I did. I didn't understand phonics until I began teaching my second child to read, and I STILL have trouble with short a and short o. But I've been reading non-stop since I was 3!

[mo2]

I didn't read the responses but here's my 2 cents: Three (or four) year-olds and sitting don't go together. However, my newly 4yo knows all his letters and their sounds. We do things like write the letters on our trampoline with sidewalk chalk and then say, "Jump on the A! Now jump on the letter that says /t/!" and so on. We make letters out of PlayDoh. We point out letters on signs when we go for walks. Things like that. **Make learning to read a part of your whole day, not just those 10 or 15 minute lessons. **

 

Also, do you have a copy of LeapFrog's Letter Factory DVD? If not, get one. My son also loves Super Why.

[lorrainejmc]

My 5yr old is currently learning with 100EZ lessons. He also seemed ready much younger but when it got to sitting for lessons, no chance! I just continued with reading readiness activities, HWT pre school book then followed with letterland. By his 5th birthday he knew all the sounds so, so well and asked for proper reading lessons, and it has been effortless so far.

 

I applied the same to math. He could have done MUS primer this year, I think, but I would rather hold back till there was no resistance and possibly go through two books in a year, than struggle on with resistance and no retention. He is asking for math now and will start as soon as I can get it ordered:001_smile:

[Kirch]

Both of mine were starting to read at that age, but instead of sit-down lessons, we used a doodle board, magnetic letters, and other "fun" things to work on concepts. Once we were past what I knew to teach, I got Phonics Pathways, but even then, I didn't have them sit down and use the book until they were older--closer to 5. I just used the book as a guide and created or found activities to teach the concepts in a more hands-on fashion.

[cmarango]

There seems to be a period of time (length varies) between a child knowing the letter sounds and initial blending. I would periodically check (maybe every few months or so) to see if your son can blend two letter words, such as "on" and "am." At that point he will be ready for more instruction. 10 minutes of phonics lessons each day has been more than sufficient for my dd to progress, but we also do not include readers in that time.

[kalanamak]

My son loved Jeeps, so we started reading the word JEEP on the side of them. Then he decided the plates were a special code and would stand behind one as we read the letters and numbers. I believe he was almost three when he started going up to jeeps and reading the plates. Then he started sounding out the names of cars. I thought "oh, an early reader". That came to a halt, and he was fully 5.5 before he was interested again. Then we started SWR as he could write out much better than he could "track" left to right for a word. He was not fluid until after 7.

 

So, in my single tiny experience, it not only varies by child, the child varies in what they can and can't do. When a child can sound out and write "important" and recite the SWR rules as he does so, but can't read "that" on a page, you just have to alter your stride.

 

This is a marathon, not a sprint. You have YEARS ahead of you. This is the single best bit of advice I got here, and I had to hear it many times before I "got" it.

[PentecostalMom]

My dd just turned five about five weeks ago. One thing that helped her was me sounding out words and letting her figure out what they were. I started with short vowel CVC words in every day conversation. It has made OPG that much easier for her.

[nmoira]

My eldest was pushing before two, not for lessons, but to have her questions answered. She was an early reader. Her younger sister showed no interest, and didn't even know all her letters until we started reading lessons at about 5-1/2. I waited until she was ready, regretting this for awhile because it seemed we were going nowhere (but we kept things short and pleasant), and then one day it just clicked.

Edited May 3, 2011 by nmoira
clarity

[ChrissySC]

At the exact age of 4, I began the letter sounds and letter recognition. At 3, I worked on colors, days of the week, saying the alphabet, shape recognition, counting to 50, and puzzles. (Keep in mind that counting to 50 is a reach. We typically make it to 20 before she runs off to do something else, LOL)

 

We will begin reading this summer.

 

Reading is not the only skill to prove or demonstrate intelligence. At 3, dd walks up to my mom and explains that she has a purple shape. My mom replies that it is a nice square. My dd replied that she was a dork-head and it was a paarallelegram. :) *sigh Yes, it was.

[mrs.m]

Take a break for a couple weeks and try again. You be surprised how much they learn and retain. But I find that they can take very small doses with a lot of breaks built in when they start getting ansy. And consider writing the OPGTR part that they read in a notebook using much larger lettering. I learned that lesson from this board a couple weeks ago. That was a night and day difference! He's not nearly in melt-down mode!

[Mommy22alyns]

I would drop the formal teaching for now. My girls learned to read at young ages without any formal teaching.