How Early to Start? Phonics

[terrikuns]

I'm new here, so forgive me if I misstep, but I didn't find any threads that talked about this question.

 

My oldest is a very verbal 3 1/2 yo, who seems to be teaching himself to read. Although it's hard to tell what is reading and what is memorizing with the usual books, tonight he finished a few of my sentences on a new-to-him library book this evening that I'm fairly certain he'd never seen before. I had been planning to start the OPGTR with him in January when he turns 4, but now I'm wondering if I should start earlier so that he learns correctly from the beginning? He knows all his letters and letter sounds, and is very reliable at distinguishing between his name and his brother's name wherever they are written. For what it's worth, he has a good attention span for his age (I think? he'll sit for 30-40 min while I read to him), and does a lot of "reading" on his own (instead of napping, sigh).

Given that this is our first child, I'd really appreciate anyone who can share their advice or experiences, good or bad, with young readers.

[craftyerin]

I would work through something like All About Reading's pre-reading program.  He'll already know the letter names and sounds, which are a large part of what that level teaches, but he may not have experience with all of the phonemic awareness activities included in each lesson.  I think that building a strong foundation of phonemic awareness is hugely important, and a fun program like AAR's would give you something to do with him now, while  not rushing a 3yo into reading.  My kids already knew their letter names and basic sounds before we started AAR pre, and I still felt like it was worth every penny.  They LOVED it.  My twins were 4 and a few months when we finished it, and were already reading CVC words with confidence.  In the 6 months that followed, we started Phonics Pathways (similar to OPG) and they jumped QUICKLY to reading on a 2nd grade level or so.  

[strange_girl]

I asked this same question on another forum a few months ago :). My then-3-year-old was teaching himself to read. The homeschooling moms on said forum advised me to start phonics so that he didn't develop bad habits in reading, and so we did. He is now 4 and 1 month, and is reading CVC words with no trouble.

 

So no, I don't think it's too young to start phonics :). Just take it slow and enjoy watching him learn!

[Tanikit]

My DD started to sight read to around 3 years old, so I started OPGTR with her shortly before she turned 3.5 so that she would have a phonics base, however because she was already sight word reading quite a bit, I only did the word lists with her and pointed out the phonics we did in whatever she was already reading. I also found at that age that she needed me to write the word lists out for her so that there was less per page and also so that the words were slightly larger - we did 2 sessions of 4-8 words per day depending on what phonics rules we were learning at the time. She picked it all up very fast this way and the sight wording got less and less as phonics took over, but she never did any purely phonics reading from phonics readers as phonics readers seemed pointless by this stage.

 

She was reading cvc words and all the blends long before 4 and we started the silent E shortly before she was 4. She was finished with OPGTR around 4.5 and then we had to work on stamina by reading 2nd and 3rd grade readers from Sonlight and I still find these are the best books for her because of the vocabulary and life experiences issues though she can read any word phonetically and also because of the stamina issues. Picture books at a 5th grade level she can manage, but I would not let her read most 5th grade books because they often deal with topics that are above her - there are some suitable ones, but she is still happier at the lower levels right now for chapter books with no pictures.

 

I found for her keeping it really really short and part of a routine worked well. 

[alef]

If a child is showing interest in learning I think you can start anytime. If the interest wains or they just don't seem to catch on you can always set the lessons aside for a time and try again in a few months. Whatever reading activities they do at that age should be enjoyable.

[Syllieann]

My current 4.5 yo started aar 1 last yr at this time, when he was 3.5. He did great and we are just finishing up lvl 2 now. As long as you keep it light and playful and pace things so that dc feels successful rather than frustrated, I think now is the perfect time to start. We didnt bother with pre level because he already knew all the letters and their basic sounds. He was able to blend though so depending if your ds has cleared that hurdle yet (and your budget) I'm not sure pre level would be worth the money.

[boscopup]

Sounds like he's ready to read. :) It's fine to start some basic phonics. If you get any pushback, just back off and let him go for a bit. My oldest was ready to learn to read at a young age, but he would not let me teach him directly. He preferred to figure it out himself. He was only slightly early at reading, but he was immediately reading at a 1st grade level (skipped that painful sounding out stage), and he quickly progressed with no instruction at all. Today, he remains a very advanced and very fast reader. I went back and covered phonics via spelling, and it was no big deal.

 

My youngest started sounding out CVC words when he was about to turn 3. He's a young 4 now and can read some easy readers. He does phonics lessons when he wants to. PreK instruction is *always* on a "when they ask" basis in my house. So if they want a reading lesson, they get one. If they don't ask for one for 3 weeks, that's fine. Often, they just needed that break. ;) Self-taught readers like this usually don't really need much instruction, so don't worry too much about using a specific curriculum or doing it every day or whatever. :)

[terrikuns]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I think I will start some occasional phonics lessons soon, as I think he would really enjoy that.

[reign]

Once the child can blend I give a lesson or practice with the child whenever they want. At four I start daily lessons.