s/o advice for early readers

[La Condessa]

I didn't want to hijack the other thread, but I have a related question.

 

My daughter is two, and she desperately wants to read. She knows all her letter sounds, and she's okay at identifying starting letters from a word she hears. The problem is that she has a two-year-old's attention span, and she is very high energy. I have been considering getting something to work through with her, but I am hesitating because she is so little.

 

Should I just wait until she's older, or at least until she gets blending on her own? Do you have any suggestions for something to teach a little one in very small bites? Some writing is actually okay, as she has unusually good fine motor skills--I was surprised to catch her writing letters all over my bills the other day.

[cmarango]

Sounds like my dd, but I decided not to combine writing and phonics instruction in the beginning. Phonics Pathways has you begin by blending two letters together. If your dd can easily do that then you can really get started.

 

I believe that it took my dd from about 18 months when she knew all letters and sounds to about 2.5 years old when she was easily blending. I just tried a simple blending exercise once every 3 or 4 months until she was truly ready to begin reading.

[La Condessa]

I just tried a simple blending exercise once every 3 or 4 months until she was truly ready to begin reading.

 

Do you mean an exercise from Phonics Pathways, or did you just write something down and ask her if she could sound it out?

[deacongirl]

Mommy Teach Me to Read by Barbara Curtis.

[Embassy]

Personally, I would wait until she was starting to blend on her own and begging to learn more. The writing letters is an issue in my household. My youngest son wrote early on and developed bad habits. My little girl started writing at a young age too, but I don't want to start something like formal writing instruction when fine motor skills are still developing. I informally talk about how I make my letters when my daughter wants me to write with her. I also purchased a v-tech toy that teaches a child how to form letters in a relaxed manner. She enjoys playing with it.

 

As for reading instruction I personally prefer to expose the child to reading/phonics through read alouds, educational games/toys, and conversation instead of anything structured at that age.

[Kertie]

Introduce her to http://www.starfall.com and just read her lots of books.

[cmarango]

Well, I had the book at the beginning, but I would always write down some practice words on a white board or in sidewalk chalk if we were outside. Words like on, at, it, up, etc. and also some "nonsense" combinations like ap, im, en, etc.

 

My dd also loved Starfall and that is where she learned her lower case letters I believe.

[LittleIzumi]

starfall.com, more.starfall.com, Leapfrog videos, maybe Happy Phonics games or MFW K's letter/blending activities, would all be very gentle intros to blending. Blending seems to be developmental, though. Both of my girls knew letter sounds for quite a while before blending--letters before 2, blending/reading at the end of 3.

[SKL]

If she really wants to "read," pick one or two board books that are very simple, especially if they have words repeated often (e.g., I can __, I can ___) and go over them with her (pointing out how the words are decoded) until she can read them back. Then just let her study the books on her own and occasionally add a new one.

 

Another painless intro is to get her to "help" you read a nice rhyming book, where it is easy for her to figure out the last word on each page based on picture clues and rhyming. A good example I've used is Calico Cat Time to Rhyme (or similar name).

 

Also consider getting some good "wordless" books that require good picture reading skills, but not decoding skills.

 

Keep pointing out how words in her environment are made up of sounds, just taking a moment at a time. When she is ready, she will start figuring them out on her own, little by little.

[jenbrdsly]

I have some ideas on the Where to Start page of my blog. I hope that helps.

[blondeviolin]

I'd wait. Whatever she learns through you teaching now will be a lot easier to teach even in a year. I'd play games like first letter, last letter, rhyming, say it fast (you say: "/c/ /a/ /t/", she says: "cat"), etc.

[Runningmom80]

I'd wait. Whatever she learns through you teaching now will be a lot easier to teach even in a year. I'd play games like first letter, last letter, rhyming, say it fast (you say: "/c/ /a/ /t/", she says: "cat"), etc.

 

 

 

Ditto, I also agree with whoever said to wait until she starts blending on her own.

[La Condessa]

Thanks, everyone.

 

I always planned on teaching my kids to read whenever they wanted to learn; I just didn't expect it this soon. I hate to refuse to teach her when she's wanting to learn, but maybe we can just continue to do starfall together and talk about letters and words when she asks me until she gets blending.

[lizbusby]

I agree about waiting and seeing what happens. My son knew letters and sounds at 2, and in about half a year he had basically taught himself to read without much formal instruction.

 

Three things we did that haven't been mentioned:

1. I bought a set of sight word flash cards. Don't freak out; I didn't drill for hours each day. I would hand him one or two whenever we got in the car and tell him what they said, and that was it. They were his favorite "toy" for a month or two. I personally think learning sight words first helps young readers to not be so frustrated later.

2. You may or may not like TV, but Word World is a great new program about phonics. Totally not painful like some commercial children's TV. I think this is where my son figured out blending. (The first episodes only say the names, then it moves on to phonics.) Three seasons available streaming on Netflix, two on Amazon, or check your local public TV.

3. Buy a moveable alphabet set. We construct words all the time for "playtime", silly words, usually.

 

What I need are ideas of where to go from here. I'm thinking of buying "all About Spelling" because he need help with some more advanced phonics and formal rules, and I know he'd love playing with the magnetic sound tiles. . . . Anyone on what to do with a young reader (almost 3) who wants a challenge? He's getting bored, and therefore restless.

[Runningmom80]

I don't think anyone is recommending that you refuse to teach her, just that you probably don't need to be very calculated about it. My son learned his alphabet from refrigerator magnets. One day, when he was about 14 months, he brought me an 'e' and I told him what it was, he never forgot, he kept pointing to letters, I kept telling him what they were. Then he started memorizing sight word on his own, and learned to read that way. I didn't start teaching him phonics until he was about 3, only because I went to a Montessori class, and they said it was better to learn that way.

 

 

Point is, just follow what she does. I don't think a plan is necessary at that age. I'm pretty laid back though. :tongue_smilie:

[heart'sjoy]

dd4 was desparate to read. I knew writing would limit our choice of programs.

 

We used:

Alpha phonics

Bob Books

Now I'm Reading (Phonetic readers)

 

Added sight word flash cards when we started long vowels.

Added ETC bk 3-8 after when she was copying 2 sentences easily about 5.5 years.

 

The only problem was finding chapter books a year later at a3rd grade reading level with content appropriate for a 6 year old.

:grouphug:

 

There are many options. This is one for a child who wants to read but is not ready for worksheets/ workbooks.

[LittleIzumi]

I don't think anyone is recommending that you refuse to teach her, just that you probably don't need to be very calculated about it.

 

 

Point is, just follow what she does. I don't think a plan is necessary at that age. I'm pretty laid back though. :tongue_smilie:

 

:iagree:

[Crimson Wife]

My kids all loved the Leap Frog Word Whammer fridge magnets toy at that stage. I don't start a formal phonics curriculum until after they've figured out C-V-C decoding.

[jenbrdsly]

I agree about waiting and seeing what happens. My son knew letters and sounds at 2, and in about half a year he had basically taught himself to read without much formal instruction.

 

Three things we did that haven't been mentioned:

1. I bought a set of sight word flash cards. Don't freak out; I didn't drill for hours each day. I would hand him one or two whenever we got in the car and tell him what they said, and that was it. They were his favorite "toy" for a month or two. I personally think learning sight words first helps young readers to not be so frustrated later.

2. You may or may not like TV, but Word World is a great new program about phonics. Totally not painful like some commercial children's TV. I think this is where my son figured out blending. (The first episodes only say the names, then it moves on to phonics.) Three seasons available streaming on Netflix, two on Amazon, or check your local public TV.

3. Buy a moveable alphabet set. We construct words all the time for "playtime", silly words, usually.

 

What I need are ideas of where to go from here. I'm thinking of buying "all About Spelling" because he need help with some more advanced phonics and formal rules, and I know he'd love playing with the magnetic sound tiles. . . . Anyone on what to do with a young reader (almost 3) who wants a challenge? He's getting bored, and therefore restless.

I didn't hear about AAS until after my son was older, but since I already have it, I'm going to try it with my daughter when she turns three and shows signs of readiness. She is two now, and already likes identifying the letters every time we get the board out for her brother! So I'd say, give it a go. If it doesn't work out at three you can always save the materials for later.

 

I would not advocate pushing reading lessons on children who are not ready, but there are tons of fun activities and games you can play with children that will be quality time spent regardless.

[Beth in SW WA]

BOB Books taught all 4 dc to read. Some earlier than others. We then switch to SWR for phonogram mastery. If AAS was around back then I would have chosen it over SWR. Same ideas. Better presentation.

[La Condessa]

Are the games in Happy Phonics pretty short, and do they involve moving around? She loves to play games.

[LittleIzumi]

Are the games in Happy Phonics pretty short, and do they involve moving around? She loves to play games.

 

We have not done them all, but the ones we have used so far are board-game style, with spinners, or cards, or ladders, etc. My 3-year-old loved them although she never had the patience for Candyland or Hi-ho Cherry-o :lol:.

[La Condessa]

We have not done them all, but the ones we have used so far are board-game style, with spinners, or cards, or ladders, etc. My 3-year-old loved them although she never had the patience for Candyland or Hi-ho Cherry-o :lol:.

 

Thanks. My daughter loves Hi-ho Cherry-o and Candyland and begs to play them all the time--but then halfway through the game her attention is spent and the gingerbread men go skipping across the board hand-in-hand, or she starts baking cherry pie.

[twoforjoy]

My DS really wanted to learn to read right after he turned 3. In fact, he came up to me one day, crying, and I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "I don't even know how to read!" Poor kid.

 

I did some Hooked on Phonics with him, but we only go to the short o sound before he got bored with it. I'm one to err on the side of pushing too little rather than too much, so we dropped it. We still read to him a lot but didn't do any reading/phonics instruction. Then, about six months later, he just started reading. And, not CVC reading; I'm talking about reading actual texts. He would come up behind me while I was reading a novel and start reading off of the page.

[IsabelC]

My daughter wanted to read very young. When she was 1, almost 2, we just practiced basic letter sounds occasionally, when she asked to (using flashcards her older sister was learning with). At 2.5 or so, she knew all the sounds and began to sound out a few cvc words. For some reason she figured out the basic blending technique very quickly without being taught. I tried working on it with her a bit, just trying to gently extend what she was doing on her own, but she was resistant to doing anything I suggested, so I left it alone for a few more months. Then just before she turned 3, she got really keen to learn again, so I started her on OPGTR, but we're doing it very slowly to cater for her attention span and keep it fun for her. I will break the lessons up and take 2 or 3 sessions to cover one lesson, eg today we did a 3 line 'story' and one word family of maybe 16 words. She doesn't have the writing ability that your child obviously does, but she loves to 'do writing', so she does a few minutes on a pre writing skills workbook each day, doing circles, zigzags etc.

 

I don't think it's possible to ruin a child's reading by starting too early, as long as you're really careful not to push. You could either choose a program you like and start it, slowing down and/or modifying as needed, or you could just use games to teach her. Either way, give it a go and watch how she reacts. If she continues to be keen on it, great. If she doesn't like it, you can leave it until she's a bit older.

[boscopup]

I'd wait until she's blending, but let her play starfall.com in the meantime. My oldest knew all his letters and sounds by 2.5, and he could chunk a word by 3.5 (so he could see "cat" and say "/k/-/a/-/t/"), but he couldn't figure out what the word was from chunking (blending) at that point. It wasn't until he was 4.5 that that clicked. He took off from there, but it was a long time between learning letters/sounds and blending. His first book was Go, Dog, Go!, which is grade level 1.5. Now that I'm going through the painful learning to read process with my middle son (who could blend before he knew all his letters :001_huh:), I think I liked the progression of the oldest better. :tongue_smilie:

 

I agree with not doing anything calculated to teach reading (my son resisted if I even tried!), but just continue to talk about letters and words as they come up. Read aloud to her as often as you can (I think that's the best thing I did when he was little - sadly, the younger kids haven't gotten as much read aloud time). Let her play starfall.com. Get plenty of books from the library and let her study them.

[La Condessa]

I agree with not doing anything calculated to teach reading (my son resisted if I even tried!), but just continue to talk about letters and words as they come up. Read aloud to her as often as you can (I think that's the best thing I did when he was little - sadly, the younger kids haven't gotten as much read aloud time). Let her play starfall.com. Get plenty of books from the library and let her study them.

 

Thanks, we're doing all of these things now. Plus, she will 'read' to me sometimes by reciting books she knows by heart--unfortunately she's not content with that, but I think I'd better wait until she figures out blending just the same.

 

Then just before she turned 3, she got really keen to learn again, so I started her on OPGTR, but we're doing it very slowly to cater for her attention span and keep it fun for her. I will break the lessons up and take 2 or 3 sessions to cover one lesson

 

I remember seeing someone here saying that they used OPGTR as a reference for mom, and then did the lessons a little at a time in sidewalk chalk and fun things like that. I thought about trying that with her, but once the letter sounds are learned, the rest of the lessons would probably require comprehension of blending, right? I want to teach what she wants to learn, but at the same time I don't want to frustrate her if she's just not developmentally ready to get it, yet.