2.5 year old and sight words

[genny]

I'm not sure if teaching sight words will hinder her...looking for opinons:)  I've got several little one's I'm hs'ing and of course my 2.5 wants to be included.  Well I started to feel guilty for leaving her out so I did up the pre-primer dolch words on cards and stuck them in a special 'word book' for her.  Well she knows all except 2 in a weeks time.  She takes her siblings books and pretends to read them.  I wasn't sure if she really knew the words and so when I was reading to her, I pointed to words from the list and she could read it.

 

Okay, so here's the question.  She knows all the letter sounds but doesn't understand blending.  Should I teach her more sight words or is this a bad idea?  I did phonics instruction with my other kids.  She's quite eager to read.  Maybe I suck at teaching blending.

 

Any suggestions?

[Tanikit]

I have a 2.5 year old who has a large sight word vocabulary at this point. My 6 year old was the same at 2.5 and I started her on blending around 2.5 because I was worried. In those early stages I just blending everything for her - she heard c-a-t cat numerous times and I also blending more complicated words for her (eg w-or-d-s words) because since she was hearing it it did not matter if she she did not know how to read those particular sounds. At 3.5 I started her on OPGTR just with word lists and she now reads at a fourth grade level and is quite capable of blending multi syllable words by herself but she still mostly sight reads. I do not think the sight words hindered her at all - at 2.5 they are pretty adaptable and will learn anything - just change the approach for the blending - just like you showed her the sight words and told her what they said, blending is about hearing it - so just say the sounds and blend for her. Don't test her or expcet her to blend by herself til she does it herself. She'll get it. Shes 2.

[SKL]

If she is learning it easily and enjoying it, it will not hurt her.  I'd take my cue from her.  I would check out the Margaret Hillert storybook series, which use just early Dolch words and is fun for little ones.  Let her play with them and enjoy to her heart's content.  :)

[Korrale]

I would look for sight word readers for her. We loved the Preschool Prep Readers. Once my son could read about 2/3 of those he could read pretty much any early reader in our library system. I just gave my son a lot of opportunity to read. If he came across an unfamiliar word I would show him how to sound it out. And eventually he was doing it on his own.

 

When he turned 3 I did go through and make sure that he did have some phonics instruction. But he really didn't need it. If you feel eventually that your daughter needs phonics instruction you can choose a spelling program like LOE or AAS.

 

OR check out www.readingbear.org.

[genny]

I was thinking of doing up my own books for her but I honestly don't think I have the time (got 4 little one's 6 and under).  I think I'll check out our local library for sight word readers.  I think she might not like them if there is no real story to them but it's worth a shot.  Maybe she'll enjoy them despite the boring stories because  she'll be able to read them all on her own.

[SKL]

The Margaret Hillert books generally have good stories and illustrations.  I personally prefer them over other sight word readers.  Your library is likely to have a selection of them.  Good luck!

[ElizabethB]

I have tutored hundreds of children who have been harmed by sight words. Here is why I believe they are harmful and how to teach all but 5 of the Dolch Sight words phonetically:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html

 

You can work on spelling and trying to teach blending. Both my children could spell before they could blend. She could blend somewhere between 3 and 4, and was reading at a 12th grade level by the end of K with good phonics teaching. She reads and spells more accurately than my husband who got some whole word influences. (He reads well but will occasionally mispronounce a name or place he has not heard. My daughter is able to correctly pronounce almost every single word she sees, she is occasionally tripped up by a word of French or Native American origin. She also reads faster than my husband.)

[Korrale]

The Biscuit books are simple. But my son still enjoys to read them.

I really like Usborne books. My son was also obsessed with their FarmYard Tales. I had to put it up because it was getting well worn.

[genny]

I have both of those books...haven't look at them for a while...are they sight word based?

[genny]

quick question....when I show her a word like 'sad'...she says each sound 's' 'a' 'd' but can't say them quickly together.  readingbear has a quiz and she does pick the right picture for the word about half of the time.  Any tips on how to get her to say the sounds more quickly together?

 

I really don't want to teach her right now because she is so young but I kid you not, if I don't practice reading with her she cries?!?  I try to offer doing something else with her but she insists on doing bear (readingbear.org)

[SKL]

Maybe start with two-letter combinations that don't require a stop.  (For example, "g-o" is harder to blend than "am," which you can do all in one "hum.")  So: am, Sam, I am Sam, sad, I am sad, ham, had, I had ham.  See if it clicks.  If not, wait a while.  My early reader did not blend so early either.  There are many, many kids who start with sight words and do just fine.  One of my daughters could not have learned to read with her peers if it hadn't been for sight words.  All kids are different.

[HS Mom in NC]

It depends on where you stand on teaching a phonetic language (designed to have letters and letter combinations represent sounds) like English taught pictographicly (by how the whole thing looks.) I'm in the phonics camp myself- the type of phonics that uses very, very few sight words.

I was asked by my neighbor to help her son with reading.  He knew each individual letter as a sound then jumped to doing words by sight.  What a mess! He couldn't distinguish between "house" and "hose" and other words that looked very similar.  He couldn't believe it was possible to look up a word you don't know how to spell in a dictionary by making educated guesses.  He had no idea what to do with a word he had never seen before-he was completely dependent on someone else telling him what is was.  He had no sounding out skill set for letter combinations at the ready to read and learn the meaning of new words in context for himself. He was in the 4th grade at the time.

 

There's all the difference in the world between a child who memorized the word by its shape after someone told him what it said and the child who memorized the word by sounding it out many times using the knowledge of what sounds letter combinations can make. The latter is better equipped to read more independently when (s)he comes across increasingly difficult words. The latter can also use a dictionary for spelling.

 

There is no need for your 2.5 year old to do the next stage of reading if she's not developmentally ready for the next stage.  It might be a couple of years or next month before she can blend.  So what?  My middle child had a gap between letter sounds and blending.  Sometimes kids plateau after they make progress.  Not everything happens at a steady, predictable pace. Do what she can when she can.  Introduce then next thing, if you do it for a while and it doesn't stick, put it away for a while.  Get it out later, give it a go and if it sticks, great.  If not, put it away for a while.

There are all kinds of hands-on preschooly things your youngest can do while the older kids do school.  Mine are 17,15 and 8 now, so I've been there.  Preschool with my older two was me reading aloud literature, making crafts, exploring nature, creative/imaginative play, etc.  With the little one getting older I did more preschool type things just to keep her near and to make her feel included while I worked with the older two on academics.  Coloring books, playdough, simple puzzles, magnetic letters, cards, stamps, cheap colorful workbooks, sewing cards with shoelaces, sorting/matching activities, etc. can be helpful in keeping a little one busy.

[KeepItGoing]

I can't prove this, but it seems likely to me that a kid who tends to cry when you refuse to give her reading lessons, and who picks up lots of sight words quickly at that age, is not likely to be a kid who is harmed by sight words.

 

Don't get me wrong—I fully agree with the value of phonics. But phonics can be taught later, by an alert parent, who knows the danger of a child without phonics. I believe that the danger comes from letting a child struggle for a long time, not from initially teaching them incorrectly.

 

I have a mildly dyslexic daughter who I successfully remediated, and I tutored a high-school-age boy who was so badly dyslexic that he could hardly read at all—but with a few months of daily tutoring he became a reader for pleasure, and of tough books, too! In other words, even kids who do tend to dyslexia can be successfully remediated, so the worst-case scenario isn't that bad, especially if you are alert and teach her phonics as soon as she is ready. And with her interest, it's unlikely, in my opinion, that she inclines toward dyslexia. Not impossible, of course—but you're alert!

 

The point may be moot, anyway. Someone who's motivated may not be stoppable. My mother was an elementary-school teacher who believed in teaching phonics. She also believed (as was taught at that point) that it was best not to teach kids anything academic before first grade, but to leave it to the school. The result? By the time I was four I had taught myself to read without instruction of any sort. She was worried, but gave me phonics workbooks when I was ready and checked up on me occasionally, and it all worked out fine.

 

Enjoy your eager learner!

[bakpak]

I think my DD learned blending pretty quickly around 2.3 because I just started speaking like I was blending any time I remembered to with an easy word. 'Let's go feed the c-a-t' (just using sounds). 'Can you find your p-i-g?' I did that maybe a week and then the next time we went to blend easy CVC words, she got it. A Montessori teacher had suggested that to me, and it worked like a charm. I also felt like she wasn't ready to blend until she was ready to blend, kwim? It definitely seemed like a developmental milestone, where she learned tons of new tricks that month. She had known her letter sounds for months before I started blending with her.

 

BTW, She could DO it at that age, but she didn't really want to practice it too much, so be careful not to push her. Even if you put out magnetic letters of 3 words for her to blend, if she only does 2 and wants to stop, for the love of learning, do NOT push her to read the last one because that would make you feel good. It may very well make her resent it. As the same Montessori teacher told me once, "Always stop before they want to stop. Always leave them eager to learn more." I have found this to be very wise, and a very hard concept for adults to master. If it's a 7-yr-old who needs to finish their math worksheet for school the next day, that's one thing. If it's a 2 or 3 or 4 yr-old who's ahead of the game, and you just want to encourage their interest, always remember to keep it fun.

 

I always thought pushing meant getting a kid to do something they weren't developmentally ready for or wanted to do. It took me awhile to realize that pushing can also be encouraging them to do one or more of something they really LIKE doing, but they're tired and don't want to do 'Right this Second' or one more time. 

 

Hope that's helpful to folks.

[Embassy]

If your little one wants to be included, I might start some of the activities in the Getting Ready to Read book.  It helps a child develop phonemic awareness and it builds on skills toward reading simple words.  It is mostly paper activities, but it can be adapted to be play-based.  Rhyming is a fun thing to do with your child too.

 

 

 

 

 

[Embassy]

I would caution you about doing a sight word approach this early on though.  There may be a need for a few sight words, but you want the majority of words to be words that are sounded out.

 

This is from a person who is currently using a sight word reader with my child.  The phonetic readers were quite boring and my daughter approaches the sight words by sounding them out.  The repetition in the sight word approach has helped her confidence too.  So, in short, I'm using a sight words reader with a phonetic approach.  

[Embassy]

quick question....when I show her a word like 'sad'...she says each sound 's' 'a' 'd' but can't say them quickly together.  readingbear has a quiz and she does pick the right picture for the word about half of the time.  Any tips on how to get her to say the sounds more quickly together?

 

I really don't want to teach her right now because she is so young but I kid you not, if I don't practice reading with her she cries?!?  I try to offer doing something else with her but she insists on doing bear (readingbear.org)

 

If she likes bear, I would just have it on a setting where it sounds it out for her.  Eventually, she will do it on her own.

[bakpak]

Actually, my DD probably learned the blending trick faster and better with Starfall when I let her mess around with their early phonics stuff. Just hearing the program repeat the sounds, followed by the whole word seemed to sink in better than me doing the exact same thing. I think at that age I was doing the mousing for her, but letting her direct me on where to click. An IPAD will be handy one day....

[Runningmom80]

Hmm, my DS learned to read by sight around 2-2.5. He now tests high school level for reading. It didn't harm him in the slightest, or if it did, I'm failing to see it. He learned phonics shortly after, because his preschool teacher scared me into it, but I'm very skeptical that it does real harm. My twins are learning to read by sight as well now. I'm not worried. As long as they also learn phonics, I personally don't see a problem.

[zenjenn]

I don't think it would hurt, but I'd be very, very 'on it' in terms of monitoring *yourself* into falling into a 'teaching routine'. With a child that young, back off if there is anything less than self-driven curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. (And with a child that young, it is more than likely there will be phases of interest that wax and wane as other curiosities arise. Go child-led.)

[genny]

I don't think it would hurt, but I'd be very, very 'on it' in terms of monitoring *yourself* into falling into a 'teaching routine'. With a child that young, back off if there is anything less than self-driven curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. (And with a child that young, it is more than likely there will be phases of interest that wax and wane as other curiosities arise. Go child-led.)

 

no teaching routine with this little one...I'm busy enough with my older two :lol:  The last thing I want to do is kill her love of learning.  I do phonics with the older two on the whiteboard.  She loves to watch and scribble all over the board with marker :lol:   I do a little reading on the board with her.  I think she's catching on to the blending.  I wrote cat today on the board and said each sound to her...she repeated each sound "c" "a" "t" and then I asked her what it said and she said cat :hurray:   She was so happy...I drew a silly cat for her and we just goofed around on the whiteboard making silly pictures.

 

She's a smart girl.  Sometimes when I'm doing math with my second oldest she'll give the answer before he does and I'm like "did I just hear that from her" :confused1:   I guess she's observing more than I realize. 

 

I was wondering if anyone ever had an advanced child that they didn't instruct early?  I'm not opposed to teaching her but to be honest, I'm not eager because I have 4 kids to handle, 2 to school and a house to maintain.  Part of me is feeling guilty :confused1:  but I know I shouldn't because she is so young...

[Embassy]

 

I was wondering if anyone ever had an advanced child that they didn't instruct early?  I'm not opposed to teaching her but to be honest, I'm not eager because I have 4 kids to handle, 2 to school and a house to maintain.  Part of me is feeling guilty :confused1:  but I know I shouldn't because she is so young...

 

My oldest was self-taught until age 5.  It was harder for the younger ones because they were around schooling and wanted some involvement.  My oldest just made huge leaps and bounds when we started schooling.