Teaching a 3yr old to read

[mombygrace]

my ds turned 3 in January. He has been itching to read and sounds out 3 letter words his older siblings put together. He already knows his letter sounds pretty well.

I have 100 ez lessons (don't particularly like the page layout), alphaphonics, phonics pathway and the reading lesson on hand.

I had used alphaphoncs with my daughter but she could read at the time and we used it mainly to reinforce and cover the basics.

Which do you think would be best since he is so young?

He is very active even though he loves read alouds. he loves having us make words with magnetic letters and really likes his magnetic/dry erase board.

any ideas on how to go about it would be appreciated. Thanks.

[purplecow7]

I used hooked on phonics and liked the program because I found it easy to use. I did not use the tapes, but I used the work book it starts out with the at family then when they child masters the sounds you reach a page in the work book when it tells you to have your child read a book. The first book is Cat, when the child gets to that book they can read it and are very excited about it.

 

I also used the bob books and tile letters. One of my children really needed to touch the letters and see the sounds pushed together. Then he flew threw the HOP program. Once it clicked.

 

My 5 year dd loves the computer and started using www.starfall.com when she was around 4.

[mombygrace]

thanks we use starfall too and he likes it.

[musicianmom]

100 Easy Lessons worked well with my 3-year-old. She liked the goofy stories and pictures.

[suzf242]

I would just continue what your are doing -- reading aloud, "playing" with the magnets and dry erase board, whatever you think of. Apparently he is enjoying it. That's what I did with my daughter, no formal reading program, and she was reading independently in no time. She is 6 now and a great reader.

 

Take care,

Suzanne

[mombygrace]

thanks everyone, this is so encouraging.

[eternalknot]

I would just continue what your are doing -- reading aloud, "playing" with the magnets and dry erase board, whatever you think of. Apparently he is enjoying it. That's what I did with my daughter, no formal reading program, and she was reading independently in no time. She is 6 now and a great reader.

 

Take care,

Suzanne

 

:iagree: My 8 year old began reading around 3 and continues to truly love reading - it's always been (and continues to be) very informal and low-key.

 

My current 3 year old loves the AAS tiles. Another of her favorites are letter stamps. Melissa & Doug make a set for something like $20 that includes both uppercase and lowercase (print) letters. At first she would stamp random letters and ask us to read them to her; now she is also sounding out words she knows (basic 3 letter CVC) and intentionally stamping those words.

 

A few days ago I stamped out some easy words for her on plain paper. Then I handed her scissors, a glue stick, and an old magazine and let her go to town. I stamped "cat" + "hat" + "van" + "man" and had her fill the appropriate pages with as many cut-outs as she could find that matched the word on the paper. That was an awesome time killer LOL and she has asked to do it again.

[Donna]

I would just continue what your are doing -- reading aloud, "playing" with the magnets and dry erase board, whatever you think of. Apparently he is enjoying it. That's what I did with my daughter, no formal reading program, and she was reading independently in no time. She is 6 now and a great reader.

 

Take care,

Suzanne

 

:iagree: I second the "playing" form of instruction. My dd was beginning to read on her own around 2.5 yo but never became interested in a formal program (she brought me the 100EZ lessons a couple times but quickly lost interest in a couple lessons). We played with Magnadoodle, bath tube letters, magnets on the fridge, and I read and read and read to her. She read CVC words and CVCC type words only for a long time then one day at 4yo brought me a Little House book and read it to me fluently. Like Suzanne's dd, she is 6yo and a great reader.

[mombygrace]

Thanks everyone .We will continue to have fun playing with letters and sounds. I'll try the stamps idea too.

[SunshineMom]

Here is my 2cents: My youngest daughter started reading at 3yrs (like yours) however it took her awhile to really read on her own. She is 5yrs and reads about 3rd grade level. What I did not know was that she was reading along with me when I was reading to her. For example, I was reading Pippi Longstocking and she started following along with her finger out of the blue. So, even if she doesnot start reading books on her own for awhile, she may be reading along with you. Also, I find that she can read words that I didnot know she could read and she seems to have memorized them for she is not sounding them out. Keep up the read alouds!

[ajjkt]

He has been itching to read and sounds out 3 letter words his older siblings put together. He already knows his letter sounds pretty well.

 

I know its not the answer you wanted, but just keep doing what your doing. Don't do anything differently. He's three, and at three if he wants to read he'll teach himself, otherwise wait till he's a bit older. My eldest knew his phonics around then because of speech therapy, but to do anything structured outside of therapy should wait for later.

[mombygrace]

thanks everyone. My other children do a lot of phonics, rhyming games during play and he likes it that way so I'll continue to do that. He has 1 or 2 workbooks he reaches for when he wants to play "school".

I appreciate all your responses.