when she wants to read but she's not ready

[musicianmom]

My almost 4-year-old wants to be able to read. She's doing great with letters and sounds, but she's just not ready to blend. I think we'd probably be better off waiting six months and trying again, but she's not going to be happy with that. This child is very driven. She has worked her way through about half of the HWT K book with minimal help from me, she sometimes sits for an hour working on letters. She falls asleep at night with a book open on her chest.

 

Is there anything I can do to help her? Let me stress that I'm okay with her not learning to read yet. When she was stuck today on her reading lesson, I offered to read her a book instead, and she wanted to keep trying.

[eloquacious]

Webster's Speller, Spalding, or Spell to Write and Read. She can work on encoding before she does decoding, and work the words into her brain the opposite way.

 

Alternatively, something related to Webster's Speller but then moving on to reading, like syllables. There are two old books listed on Don Potter's web site that work this way, and I think it's brilliant. Some of the first things children read? I go by it. Can he and I go? etc. Let me look up which books they are, they're great.

[SilverMoon]

Leapfrog's Word Factory DVD. It's a 30 minute cartoon that will have blending solidified in no time. If you need more letter sound practice, get the Letter Factory one, too.

[eloquacious]

The book is "First Lessons in Reading," which you can read here: http://books.google.com/books?id=0hVKAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=first%2Blessons%2Bin%2Breading&as_brr=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

The original work it is based on is this: http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/12831512?n=1&imagesize=1200&jp2Res=.25&printThumbnails=no

 

 

I wouldn't follow this method all the way, but I really like how it begins. I am currently working on adapting various methods, beginning with this, then moving on into a mix of Blend phonics and Word Mastery.

[Mrs Twain]

My 3 1/2 year old was just like that. She was very driven to read and begged me to teach her since she wanted to be like her older siblings. I started doing 100EZ with her, but I thought she would be bored or frustrated and quit until she was ready later. However, I was completely wrong. She kept asking me to teach her the lessons day after day. She wanted to work hard to finish each lesson in one sitting. She ended up completing the entire 100 lessons in a faster time than her older siblings had done. She is now in preschool reading chapter books (since she was bored with the easier books I had been checking out at the library).

 

Just a story in case you may be interested in trying 100EZ. It is a fantastic method of teaching blending in my experience.

[Create Your Ritual]

When my dd was 4 she insisted I teach her how to read. I went to Costco and at the time they had a complete set of Hooked on Phonics (Levels 1 − 5). What I loved about it was the little sticker chart and the fact that within a week or so she was able to go and grab her first book and read it. This was back before I had any plans of homeschooling my kids, and I had the two eldest reading by the time they were 4. I literally spent about 15 minutes a day with them in the evenings before bed. My dd was reading chapter books by the time she entered kindergarten, so I know they worked well.

 

Before that time, they watched all the Leap Frog videos.. the letter factory, etc. so that they knew their letter sounds and what they looked like.

[LittleIzumi]

Dd loves starfall (we have the upgrade, more.starfall.com). It has a lot of phonics and the blending machine but no pressure. She got to watch and learn for a while until she was ready. Then we went with ETC 1 and BOB books, besides just reading to her. Oh, also Happy Phonics games!

[Amber in AUS]

I also found 100EZ an excellent tool for teaching blending.

[matilda]

Leapfrog's Word Factory DVD. It's a 30 minute cartoon that will have blending solidified in no time. If you need more letter sound practice, get the Letter Factory one, too.

 

My ds was just like yours really wanted to read. I had him alternate these videos every other day and do starfall for 20 minutes. It only took him a few weeks to be ready for BOB books.

[kwg]

Your dd is adorable! And way motivated! :lol: SHe is going places :auto:

 

I think 100 EZ lessons. The leapfrog dvds would be good too.

[beaners]

We used Funnix, which is like 100 EZ lessons on the computer. Blending took off for my oldest within a week. She actually taught her little sister to blend at that point too.

[blondeviolin]

My son is at the same point. We just play games with it because while you can teach some blending, I don't believe you can fully teach complete understanding. Instead, I think some of that blending capability comes as a developmental leap. And he is not there yet. We play Say It Fast a lot and he can blend end sounds, but still struggles with blending some words beginning with consonants (particularly any word that starts with m). Then he starts wildly guessing. At this point, I'd rather give him 4-6 months and see.

 

If your daughter is the same, I'd really recommend Say It Fast. I segment a CVC word into its individual sounds and he blends it. Sometimes we do it with our AAS board and use the tiles. He is not reading, really, because I am

providing him the sounds and asking him to simply blend them. He thinks he is getting a lesson, though!

[momofabcd]

I agree with the 100 Easy Lessons camp. It is working like a charm with my young 4 dd. However, she must have somehow picked up blending by osmosis, becuase she was already beginning to sound out easy words before we started in September. 100 Easy Lessons is great for teaching blending, the best in my book!! The blending exersizes are what helped my other dc learn to blend.

[Mergath]

We have the opposite problem here. My 3.5 year old could probably start reading if she wanted to- she knows all her letter sounds, understands how words work and can blend if I push her to give it a go- but she has no interest. Whenever I ask her if she wants me to teach her to read today, she says, "No, mommy. I just want to read the pictures." Absolutely no interest in reading.

 

:rolleyes:

 

I think we need to have a playdate and hope that they rub off on each other, lol.

[acurtis75]

Leapfrog's Word Factory DVD. It's a 30 minute cartoon that will have blending solidified in no time. If you need more letter sound practice, get the Letter Factory one, too.

 

:iagree: this is a great video. If you aren't already doing explode the code you might try it. Since your daughter loves her HWOT workbook she will probably like explode the code. It will give her a sense of accomplishment during reading lessons. Start with the first book and let her move as quickly as she wants.

[musicianmom]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! Interesting that so many of you mentioned 100 EZ Lessons, because that's what I used with my oldest. However, she had already reached that magical ready-to-blend point by the time we started (at barely 3, now that I have 2 more kids, I realize how weird that is!).

 

I have been using The Reading Lesson, because it seemed more cheerful and preschool-friendly. All is fine until the blending starts, then she's stuck. She's very attached to her book, though, and I don't know how she would react to a total curriculum switch.

Since I already have Talking Word Factory, I'm going to start woth a daily dose of that and teach her to use Starfall.

 

Mergath, just keep asking your dd every month or so if she'd like to learn. My dd always said no until the last few weeks. I felt like I had to ask because I wanted to give her the same opportunity her sister had.