miracleone Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Hi, I have a very articulate 3 year old and I would like to start teaching her letter sounds. I know this might be lame to most of you but I don't know how to begin and what to use. Can you kindly tell me how you start teaching? We also read a lot of books. I also want to do Five in A Row with her eventually but do I do that first or letter sounds first? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyofsixreboot Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Star fall or leap frog letter factory and of course just point things out. "oh, look at that s on the stop sign. S-s-s" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erika Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 My ds loves music so when he was 3, I used Hooked on Phonics Pre-K. It came with a CD that taught the letter sounds through song. He loved it. We danced and learned. And I don't even think he knew he was learning!:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennynd Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 starfalls.com. both ds and dd loved it. dd had all her letter sound done when she was 18 months old with that site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I taught my two oldest with foam letters in the bathtub. It was always just a game. I made flashcards when they memorized a lot of them and we would play games with those too (never just going through the flashcards). I'd spread out 6 letters on the ground and say "find /k/" I made lower case and upper case flashcards and had them match them and tell me the sound. Stuff like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 My first one taught himself, but my second child... I spent 3... long... weeks going through OPGTR to learn letter sounds. By the end, he mostly knew them. Still wasn't quite cemented on some sounds. Then I put in the frog... Leap Frog Letter Factory. After a few days of watching that, letter sounds were completely cemented in his head! Next time, I'm skipping the other programs and just letting the frog teach letter sounds. So much easier! :D I also will ditto the starfall.com recommendation. That contributed to my oldest teaching himself to read. Just make sure you supplement with a real phonics program somewhere along the way. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom24boys Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Leap Frog Letter Factory! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Another vote for Leap Frog and Starfall.com Those two things, along with your daily guidance and help pointing out what they have learned, can do wonders! We have a touchscreen laptop and my young children LOVE doing Starfall. The touch screen allows them to start even before they would be comfortable using a mouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrissySC Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I bought a little case of the Einstein(sp?) alphabet books. The block letters were clearly printed on the front of each book. We would toss them on the floor and pick out 3 each week. If dd did not know the sound, I didn't let her see the pictures, LOL. We know the letters now except for a few that get confused. We are starting to sound/blend two letters now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinsfamily Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Another vote for Letter Factory! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aludlam Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 BIG ditto for Letter Factory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeaganS Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 My daughter learned all her letter sounds at 23 months old within 2 weeks because of the Frog! It's painless and it works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALB Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Yes, Leapfrog is great! I don't know how much planning or effort you want to put into this, but I'm really enjoying a little system that I came up with for my ds 3. I made a folder for each letter, and placed different activities inside: a puppet to color, a coloring page with pictures beginning with the letter sound, a poem or nursery rhyme beginning with the letter, an outline of the letter to fill with collage, stamps or stickers, and a normally written letter to glue on beans, pasta, cotton balls, pom poms, etc. Each day we go over the sound of the letter, find things that begin with the letter, repeat our poem (he usually memorizes this, so it counts as memorization, too!), and do one activity. We review previously learned letters a LOT, too. We are on letter S now, and he knows all the other letters solidly. Again, it's probably more effort than what is NEEDED, but he likes the individualized activities with mommy, and we're having lots of fun. You can do Before Five in A Row alongside learning letters, or before or after! Lots of people coordinate the books with letters. There is a chart at homeschoolshare.com that shows you a way to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Another LeapFrog vote here. It's how my older two learned their sounds. We are reviewing them with my son currently, but only because he wants to have his own lessons. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Well, if you start right off with something like Spalding, then you don't have to change anything when she's ready to learn more. In fact, you could even get the CD from Spalding Education International (SEI) and listen to it yourself so you know for sure what the sounds are (you only need to know the single-letter phonograms right now...the letters of the alphabet); then you can buy one of those cute little children's books that has the letters of the alphabet and sit with her, warm and fuzzy in your lap, and "read" together. "See, honey, this is /a/, /A/, /ah/." And she can trace the letters with her sweet little finger (if you buy the manual, Writing Road to Reading, you can simultaneously teach her the correct letter formation at the same time). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Spalding is great! My dd3 will be learning all the sounds of the phonograms instead of just the first sound. Just for fun, here is my cute 15 month old saying the four sounds of OU. :) http://homegrownpumpkins.blogspot.com/2011/05/phonics-road-genius.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kchara Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 The LeapFrog DVDs are awesome!! After mine know their letter sounds, we start introducing phonics. Funnix is working wonderfully for us on that front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Do they like coloring and paper puzzles? Get ready for the code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacus2 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Yet another Letter Factory vote from me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicMama Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Letter Factory, Starfall, foam bath letters, and pointing out letters constantly and casually. My kids also like it when I act confused and say "look at that sign! It has a "s" on it. I have forgotten what s says, does anyone know?!?" The sillier the better of course. And I always try to ask letter sounds that I know that they already know. It seems to encourage them to learn more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Star fall or leap frog letter factory :iagree: I tried everything under the sun with my now 6.5 year old (though I later found out he has autism so that could have added to our struggles) and those two are what actually taught him :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OK Family Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I didn't get to read all the posts, but we have used Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. I am currently using it for my 4 year old and my 3 year old has been listening in. Very simple to use. I originally checked mine out from the library to see how I liked it then bought it from amazon. I guess I am unfamiliar with Five in a Row. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Leapfrog LetterFactory AND the Leapfrog Talking Words Factory I and II, because these latter two are just as good as the first (which is brilliant!). Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miracleone Posted May 17, 2011 Author Share Posted May 17, 2011 Wow, thank you for all the replies! I actually have the leapfrog letter factor and talking words. Thank you!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessieC Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Another vote for Leapfrog Letter Factory. So easy :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janainaz Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Leap Frog Letter Factory - she'll know her letter sounds in no time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 My dd6 was very interested in letter sounds at that age, and she learned a lot at Starfall.com and by watching SuperWhy. But now that ds is 3yo and is showing the same interest, I now know about SWR (and other Spalding derivatives), which start out teaching all of the sounds for each letter. I really like that ds3 is learning, for example, that the letter "C" makes two sounds--/s/ and /k/. I know this sounds ridiculous, but he loves to drill the flashcards, and I have been starting to add some games recommended in the program and on the SWR Yahoo Group to keep it fun and exciting for him. One that I particularly like: You put a bunch of objects in a bowl or basket. Then you ask the child to find the item by saying each letter sound separately (for example, "Find the /d/. . . /o/ . . . /g/"). It helps the child to begin to recognize that words are made up of individual sounds and helps them learn to blend those sounds together. We also played Phonogram Relay today. I put 6-8 phonogram cards across the room and tell him to "get the one that sounds like /t/" and he runs and gets the letter T. It was such a simple thing to do, and I thought it would be dull, but even my 6yo enjoyed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.