Reading question??

[Willow Rosette]

Toria has learned all her letters, sounds and can write them as well reasonably well.

She is in a pre school that is challanging her in this area. I dont want to mover her cause they are teaching her other things I like.

So I wrote some 2 nd 3 letter words on index cards and I am having her sound out those letters and then I give the word so she can hear the resemblance.

Is there anything else that I can do to help her move towards reading the cards?

I figured you all would know best if I am doing it in a good way or if there is a better way to start word recognition?

Thanks in advance

~VM

[Jade Moon]

This worked for my kids, though perhaps its teaching materialism at an early age, lol.

Use common brand name recognition. Like McDonalds or Coke or Cheerios. I cut out a bunch of these logos and put them on a posterboard. Then whenever we were driving through town or shopping they would point to signs and "read" the words. Its purely visual memorization, but in the long run it teaches them about the letters and what they look like and how they blend to make sounds. Unfortunately, its just a fact that our kids are inundated with advertisements all day, but you can at least use it for a constructive means.

You could also label everything in the house. Like "drawer" or "closet" or "sink." They'll constantly see the words and associate them with items they are already familiar with.

I even sometimes used to put the subtitles on the tv to make being a couch potato a little more educational. I don't know if it made a difference or not, lol. Oh, and I swear by Sesame Street!

Good luck!!

[Willow Rosette]

This worked for my kids, though perhaps its teaching materialism at an early age, lol.

Use common brand name recognition. Like McDonalds or Coke or Cheerios. I cut out a bunch of these logos and put them on a posterboard. Then whenever we were driving through town or shopping they would point to signs and "read" the words. Its purely visual memorization, but in the long run it teaches them about the letters and what they look like and how they blend to make sounds. Unfortunately, its just a fact that our kids are inundated with advertisements all day, but you can at least use it for a constructive means.

You could also label everything in the house. Like "drawer" or "closet" or "sink." They'll constantly see the words and associate them with items they are already familiar with.

I even sometimes used to put the subtitles on the tv to make being a couch potato a little more educational. I don't know if it made a difference or not, lol. Oh, and I swear by Sesame Street!

Good luck!!

Victoria has never been into Seasame Street for some reason. Her favorites are Dora/Deigo, Little Einstein, and Back Yardagains. Im real anal about what she watches so she is pretty limited. I think seasame street is off cause I sing to it and that makes her mad LMAO who knows why kids do what they do.

I like the labeling idea. Her old school had that and it never dawned on me to do it at home.

[Cat]

Read to her daily and show her each word as you read it. There's also a great free website called starfall.com that is all reading, both with phonics and with whole words. I really recommend it.

[Ceres]

Read read read. Let her see you reading. Read her everything you can lay your hands on that you think will interest her. Start reading aloud whether you think it will interest her or not and keep going till she asks you to stop.

Watch the Chronicles of Narnia and then read the chapter book aloud to her while she is playing quietly. I guarantee she will relate to the character of Lucy. Show her that the best hollywood films come from books and then show her how much more rich the story is in print! There are so many you can do this with - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Ella Encanted, Tuck Everlasting......

Read her things off the internet if she shows an interest in anything and you need a quick source of information. Get a library card and visit the library weekly. Show her all the magazines, books on tape, picture books, story books, non fiction books and how to books you can borrow there for FREE.

I do not teach my kids to read, they teach themselves, but I do ardently and sincerely believe in showing them why they would WANT to learn to read. Learning to read is not a difficult skill to learn - no matter what we have been led to believe. It takes about 30 hours total instruction and doesnt require a great deal of intelligence in the student. The more difficult task is teaching children to read so they will become readers who want to do it even when "it doesnt count".

[Willow Rosette]

We read all the time. Not just the 15 minutes before bed but on and off all day. Im a huge reader and so I have been reading to her since before she was born to instill the love of books into her at a young age. I just want to get her started on doing it herself.

Thank you Cat for the link. Im going to check it out right now.

[lynn271]

We read all the time. Not just the 15 minutes before bed but on and off all day. Im a huge reader and so I have been reading to her since before she was born to instill the love of books into her at a young age. I just want to get her started on doing it herself.

Thank you Cat for the link. Im going to check it out right now.

That's great, but make sure not to push it. Continue what you're doing with the cards, I'd say, as long as she's enjoying it and wants to learn it right now, and by all means do the labelling of objects in the house. If she gets frustrated or loses interest, drop it for a few months and try it again later. She may just not be developmentally ready to integrate the separate sounds into words yet.

Most of all, don't worry. Radikalwomyn is right. In the environment you describe, it's inevitable that she'll not only learn to read, but that she'll learn to want to read.

[Laoghaire]

Yupz! Radikalwomyn is sooo right...

I grew in a 'reading house'. My mother is addicted to reading. Every evening, even when I was little, I would see here sitting in the couch, hidding behind a book. The thicker, the better!
Uhm... My parents got me on the potty thanks to reading. My father would go first, on 'the big toilet', together with the news paper. Soon afterwards I would follow, with potty and books.
Every evening, my father (sometimes mum, but daddy was MUCH better :p. What a voice...) would read a story to me and my brother. Together we got through 'Witches' (Oh, how I hated this one!), 'James and the Giant Peach', 'Charlie and the Chocoloate Factory', 'The BFG', 'Mathilda' and 'The twits'. Do I need to tell that my father just loved Roald Dahl? I must say, my father is a gifted person... When he did not want to tell a long story, he would invent some kind of funny poem. And when the tale was told, father and mother would sing us a song... Aah, those were the days :p.

Thing is... I've always been fascinated by books. I cannot give a date, I was just too young to remember. When I was a toddler, my mum gave me old magazines. Some children tear them up, I flipped page by page with my two little fingers.
I saw my mother reading... Ah man, the desire I felt back then. But, I was a shy girl and I waited until school. I never tried to teach myself... When I was about 4 or 5, I wrote words. Not real words. I just took all kind of letters (some invented letters as well) and wrote them down. And yep, I asked my parents to read that aloud.

I'm NOT saying you're doing a bad job, of course not. I just wanted to show how thins developed for me, reading Radikalwomyn's post.

*thinks about her learning process*
We worked with very very simple drawings of a family. All these members had very simple names and that's how it all started. Than we would move on to animals, fruit... I learned how to read a story aloud fairly quickly.
But I must say I just love the idea of JadeMoon. That's how it works...
And repitition...

[PeleRising]

Dr Seuss books are awesome for beginning readers... At least thats what we found.

Some of my favorites:

~Go Dog go (by PD Eastman)

~Hand, Hand, fingers, thumb (by Al Perkins)

~Inside, outside, upside down (by Stan and Jan Berenstain)

My ultimate favorite Seuss book has to be Yertle the Turtle... awesome awesome story.

anyways... as the other posters have stated... read with her a lot... read to her and let her read to you... pick out books that allow the pictures to tell the story... Check out the beginning reader section of your local bookstore or library... Most importantly... relax... if you get stressed, worrying about or being concerned about her ability to read she will pick up on it...

Make reading time fun and relaxing... thats the biggest step to developing lifelong readers.

[Hærfest Leah]

Read to her daily and show her each word as you read it. There's also a great free website called starfall.com that is all reading, both with phonics and with whole words. I really recommend it.

I ran across this site ( http://www.starfall.com/ ) today for the 1st time and our 4 year old loves the ABC activities. I'll be using this site a lot for these two.

Another one with free stuff is http://www.homeeducationresources.com/FREE1.htm
I was on the Alphabet Worksheets page and found starfall in the list of recommended websites at the bottom.

Oh theres also:

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/prek.htm
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html

[Scarlettvixen]

i was reading fluently by the age of 3
had to do with 3 older siblings and a favourite book that i always bugged them to read to me..... they read it with me having to point at the words they said (and whinging if they tried to skip any) so i learnt to sight read