I learned to read at age 3 doing simple books that had the same word on like every page. I memorized words and deduced what sounds the letters were making. Then there's the phonics approach too. I have been worried about which one to use. I am a very strong reader but maybe my personality just worked better with the way I learned. I wasn't interested in phonics when my mom tried it.
That said, about a year ago, I started flash cards with Josie. I have some Dick and Jane books, so I made flash cards using the words that were in there. The goal was to learn the words for one chapter, and then she could read the chapter. She had about 18 memorized. The shortest word was "up", the longest was "mother." Then we quit doing it when I had Kyle, and she started to forget the words.
I am not super organized with teaching, but I try to catch the moments as they present themselves. I have a hard time doing any kind of set schedule with the kids. I think I will be able to do this once the kids are older. Roughly my approach is that if we make reading a part of daily life, the kids will want to and learn to read. So, here are some things we do:
1. We read every day. We have a variety of board books and various other kids books. We read every night before we go to bed and various times throughout the day.
2. We go to the library (not as much as I would like, but it gets tough.) When we do go and we bring home lots of books, the kids get really excited again about reading. This is pretty obvious, but let the kids pick out some books on their own in addition to what you pick out. Josie always chooses some annoying princess-y book, but reading has to be what interests them. That's what will keep them going with it through life.
It's fun to get themed books too. Like this week, let's do books all about turtles.
3. I let the kids see me reading my own books. Sometimes I make comments that emphasize reasons for reading like for example when I get the mail, "Hmm, I wonder how much the electric bill was this time. I'd better open it and read it." Or, "This recipe says to use 1/4 teaspoon of salt." Or, "This story makes me laugh."
4. I've started having the two older kids get a couple books and come in my room for private reading time with me every morning while the other one plays or has a snack on their own. It's hard to get one-on-one time with each kids, so this is why I started this.
5. Point out letters and words on signs, etc. as you drive or walk. Read the signs at the park, etc.
6. A few ideas for kinesthetic learners:
Play with alphabet magnets ( I wish I could find these in all one color, as sometimes Josie just wants to arrange them by color).
Make letters and shapes with play-dough.
Write words or letters on blocks to be played with.
One book I love for active little kids is From Head to Toe by Eric Carle. The kids can do what the kids are doing in the book.
7. A tip my mom gave me from when she did flash cards with me: Stop just before the kid gets tired of it. This keeps the interest level up.
8. There's a free website called Starfall.com that has alphabet and reading games if the kid can use a mouse decently. It talks a lot about the sounds letters are making.
9. Listen to books on tape while driving. Josie even likes to listen to these while she takes a bath. These increase vocabulary exposure so when presented with the written words later, the kids will already have heard it. Ones we have listened to are Charlotte's Web read by the author and Little House on the Prairie series, which has a great narrator.
10. Kids are always happier when their tummies are full. Don't try to do anything when they're hungry!
Readers: Do you have any helpful ideas you can share?
4 comments:
Great ideas! Clara learned to read with Starfall, quite by accident while looking over Annika's shoulder.
I think that one important thing to remember is that there is no magic silver bullet. Different kids learn differently, and different approaches are probably more effective at different stages of reading. (I hate it when schools get all huffy about either whole word or phonics--real reading involves both processes.) Also, part of reading is a brain process that works independently of drills or practice. It's like language learning--a little "black box" (to steal Chomsky's phrase) that works when it's ready. I've seen this in my own kids and others--they go from being interested to suddenly, a CLICK! in their brain, and you can SEE that they GET it. And that happens at a different point for everyone.
Also, reading is a lot of work. The more enjoyable it is, the more you'll read, and the more practice you'll get. The more practice, the better you read, and the less work it is. So yeah--reading to them as early and as much as you can will keep the idea sweet in their minds while their skills slowly catch up. (Just thinking about reading in another language! Suddenly I developed a lot more sympathy for slow readers!)
Um, that was me. (Rose)
Austen loved Starfall, and it was a great website to use since he seems to do well with the phonics approach. He mastered the website quickly, though, and I wanted him to learn to sound out words based on what he learned. The Bentonville Public Library has a series of books that teaches reading using word families. This is a good next step for Austen. For example, one title is "Ake as in Cake"
a list of words is given at the beginning of the book that are included in this word family:
bake
cake
rake
take
make
fake
lake
(you get the idea)
Then a story is written with pictures and all of the word family words. I made flash cards for Austen. One card has the suffix -ake
Then, I made one card for each letter (ex: a "B" card). I would then have him sound out the "B" card, and then the "ake" card. We would then push them together and he would read it fast as one word. This seems to have worked well for Austen, and has helped him to learn to sound out words.
There is also a list of 25 "sight words" that children are supposed to master by Kindergarten graduation according to the AR frameworks. (the, at, in, etc.). I also made flashcards for these words. These are mainly memorization, and he has learned them through seeing them often in the word family books and flashcards.
I bet the FPL has this set as well. Good luck and happy reading!
I think you are doing everything you can do already. I like especially that you make sure it is enjoyable and part of your everyday life. If you're using flashcards to work on letter sounds, you might also want to check out the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD, which teaches those in a way that even toddlers learn their letters and sounds. Joseph and Alli learned them at age 2. They also have a reading one. Something that we have done for years is to have the kids repeat the Book of Mormon verse we read aloud at night. Once Mary started gaining some reading skills in kindergarten, we had her read a verse and we supported her reading. We started this just a few months ago. Her teacher noted that during that time period, Mary's reading went from a beginning of first grade level to beyond a second-grade level (she had to quit testing before they found out). I know that is because of her scripture reading. Good luck!
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