Next Step for Reading Readiness

Hi

I have a five yrs old boy and what I do is, every night I pretend that I can not read. I pick up his Dr. Seuss books beacuse it has the rhyming words which is easy for them to read.
or she can watch channel 13. The program "Learn to read" with an old man

Hi,

I taught pre- K and Kindergarten for ten years. It sounds like she has the tools, the next step is learning to string the sounds together to make the words. Have her start with a 3 letter word and say each sound then really stress the sounds and say them together faster till she makes connection. (This is hard to explain in written form). There are usually lots of good beginning readers @ library so she doesn't get bored or just memorize BOB books. And if she balks don't push. At this age it should be fun!

Tell her there are two kinds of letters, vowels and consonants. Consonants have one sound. Each vowel has many sounds. So every time you see the letter b, it says Buh.Give examples. Every time you see the letter T, it says Tuh. Give examples. But I is a vowel - sometimes I s Ah like BII, sometimes it's long A, like BITE. Teach her the five vowels. Teach her long and short vowel sounds. )just two sounds per letter to start with). read word families. B-A-T (tell her the A is short) is bat, M-A-T is mat. If she can undersand that changing the firstr letter keeps the rhyme but changes the word, she'll be reading in no time. If she can't hear the rhyme or see the pattern, then keep teaching her, but spend more time on sight words. Explain that some words in English are crazy and they don't sound like their letters. Show her "THE'. have her circle all the thes in a page or a few pages. go through the book or pages, reading the THEs.
P.

J., it is great to have a child who loves books and it's important to nurture this love of reading. But I do suggest you proceed with caution. Call you local elementary school, ask if you can get some guidance from one of the kindergarten teachers. Will there be an advanced readers program available when your daughter enters kindergarten? I hate to sound like I'm suggesting holding back a child's enthusiasm, but I work in an elementary school. The kindergarten curriculum is based on teaching children to read. Those who already know how to read when they enter kindergarten are not at an advantage. They are bored. Their parents did not do them a favor. So whatever type of school your child will be going to, find out what they recommend.

Also, there are different strategies for teaching reading and spelling in various schools and districts. It would be helpful to find out what will be used when your child goes to kindergarten. The school district that I work in uses the Wilson spelling program and PAF for reading. If your child becomes accustomed to decoding words in a particular way, she may need to relearn strategy based on the method used in her school.

As a parent, if I still had a young child and she was as your daughter is, I'd make vowel and consonant cards and let her make words. If she knows her letters and sounds, she should be able to sound out and create consonant-vowel-
consonant words (like pop, hat, sun)

Good luck

You can have her tell you about a picture/drawing/etc and then write down her words for her. Read and reread those with her. The words are her own, so she'll love to read them.

"Teach your Child To Read in 100 Days" is a book that I would highly recommend (amazon.com). She will be a fluent reader before kindergarten! It takes 5-10 minutes a day. I used it with my 3 girls before they entered kindergarten and the head-start has helped them immensely. They are all at the top of their classes, making high honors each term. Also, www.starfall.com , is a great website that introduces letters, sounds and reading in an interactive and fun way. Check it out. Reading is so important. You are doing the right thing. Stay involved with her education!

I read to my 1st daughter in utero. I read to her everyday after birth. She memorized her favorite books by 3. It was an awesome thing.By doing so, she started reading on her own and is still a reader. I never pushed anything, and to this day she is an avid reader,writes with correct grammar and spelling. She was the only one in kindergarden who never was late and never missed school. Graduated top of her class. In HS she was valedictorian, and college with with honors. Went to grad school and received the highest grade. So you dont have to do anything. Reading is a gift and she has it. You dont need to do anything but praise her.

Hi J., my daughter is now 12 years old and loves to read, so much so that I can't keep up with her. When we go to barnes and noble to buy her new books she's usually done with it before the weekend is over. When she was your daughter's age I use to put words on everything for her to read. For example, Bathroom, door red wall and anything else I could find. We made her beginning reading a game and not a chore and I think that made a great deal of difference. Good luck and I am sure your daughters will do well.

Make it fun!

I always use to read to the kids when they were young so they loved books. But I had 4 kids and zero money so I used the cheap method of teaching reading. I got magnetic letters and we'd practice saying the sound each letter made. As they figured it out I made my own flash cards with simple 3 letter words on one and a picture of the item on another. We'd sound out the word and match it to the picture.

Once they got into school they had a list of words called sight words that your child should know without having to sound them out. I took all the sight words, cut them apart into individual words and taped them to one of the sliding glass doors. Every night we'd run thru the words and when they got a sight word correct 3 times in a row the word would be moved to a rewards chart. Once all the words were there we went for ice cream.

HI there,

I don't know how close you are, but Jumpstart Kids Club in Foxmoor (Robbinsville, NJ) has a reading camp this summer for 3-5 year olds, it is for 4 weeks, 2 mornings a week.

http://www.jumpstartkidsclub.com/camp.cfm?section=18

Maybe there is something similar in your area?

Hi J.
it is fun to have a reading advanced child. I have had 3. As a SAHM for 37 years and a homeschooling mom for 10yrs. I lost that job 2 wks ago when my twins finished their senior year and are heading to college in the fall. To answer your question, I recommend "How to read in 100 easy lessons" Most homeschoolers I know use it. There on lists of "sight words" available, you can buy them but I made them on cut in half 3X5 cards for our reluctant reader. There is other curriculum out there for advanced studies. Library is great resource, ask for suggestions, then you read a page and let them read the other.(I chose to read page close to me, and they read the page close to them as we sat together on couch) Bright kids are lots of fun & can do anything they choose as adults; that is lots of fun to see. Keep them challenged,check into homeschooling which can begin whenever everyone is ready. Our younger son read at 4 for sure upon entering preschool, teacher recognized it not me. I thought he had memorized the books. By Kindergarten he was reading on 5th grade level, yup he was reading the newspaper & told me about a story he saw. Yes I was shocked. He is a lawyer today, writing contracts for our government on foreign soil. Homeschooling him would have been a breeze. I did not know you could. Consider it even if it is for these early years.
God bless you and your decisions
Have fun with your family they grow up very fast.
K.

i would make flashcards for her which contain basic sight words. when i was in a classroom, kindergarteners were responsible for 25 basic sight words by the end of the year. standards may have changed, since i've been out of the classroom for 3 years. BASC (I believe) has a great sightword list. I'm sure you are able to pull up various lists on the internet. There are various ways to present the words and help her learn them. I'll be happy to go through my old materials and find some great books\you could purchase and use regularly!

Try interactive reading..... The Story Reader by Fisher Price or any of the Leap Pads by Leap Frog. These encourage reading. I just got The Story Reader for my godson and he loves it.

J.,
If you keep reading to her she will naturally start. She sounds very bright and is naturally curious. Maybe just show her how you sound out words. Read a lot of rhyming books like Dr. Seuss.
If she watches TV (PBS has some great shows to help kids learn to read) put the captions on so she can hear and see the words. Don't mention it so it isn't a pressure..just put them on and see what happens.
I don't think you need to buy any products to teach her how to read. Being read to by a loving parent is fun and cultivates a love for it.
I bet she'll be reading in a month or two! She sounds like she is ready!
You are a wonderful mom!
Take care,
T.

Hi J.,

I found a great website called starfall.com My 4 1/2 year old loves it. he goes on the computer and plays on the sight all very educational and all about reading. sounding out letters and sounding out words. there are many different levels on the sight. I actually started on the sight for my 6 year old who was having some trouble with reading in first grade, and it turns out that my 4 year old enjoys the websight the most.

play around with it. PS the snowman and the gingerbread man sing songs.

W.

Hi J.,

That's so exciting! Your daughter sounds like she's in a great place with her reading. As an elementary school teacher (I just stopped working to have my first baby), I think I can give some advice on what to do next. Get some of the beginner reader books (simple books with only 15-20 or so words in them - you can ask at a bookstore), and begin having her blend sounds together. Put your finger on each word (eventually teach her to do this) and show her how to isolate each sound of the word and then blend them together. For example, if the word is "see," make the s sound and the long e sound individually as you point to the letters and then blend them together and say "see." Do this for each word on the page (there should only be about 3-4) and then repeat the whole sentence in a normal reading pace. Encourage her to look at the pictures and connect the words to the picture. Repeat this process for all the pages in the book. Be sure to only do this when she is excited to do it and stop when she seems tired or bored. This should be fun, and the moment it isn't, she will tune out and get frustrated. Eventually, you can move from demonstrating this technique to doing it together to her doing it on her own. Keep reading for pleasure with her too, we want to make sure she continues to love reading. Good luck and have fun! I can't wait to do this with my little girl one day!

I think it is wonderful! Just be sure to keep plenty around to keep her stimulated and interested and keep reading to her as well. My first son read at age 4. My second is still struggling in the 3rd grade. You don't need to push just provide opportunities. Maybe take her to the library. Although I had tons of children's books my sons loved the trip to the library and getting a card and choosing to borrow something...

I would make a trip to the bookstore. Scholastic has books that are designed for pre k, with pictures inserted for some of the words, and other paperback books with easy words to read. My son's favorite book was Dora and the Pirate Ship. we must have read that book a thousand times. My son and I used to read those books by pointing to the words on the page and he would "read" the picture words. After a while I would sound out the easier ones phonetically for him and help him give it a try. Sight words were easier for him to understand, and he was reading pre-k books by the time he was in kindergarten. Don't push though, sometimes at that age they just like to pretend to read, rather than read, and the last thing you want to do is frustrate her because it may turn her off reading.

Hi J., my son is also 4 and is very eager to read. I am an assistant director in a preschool and the Pre-K4 and Pre-K5 children are learning to read sight words. We label all the different items in the classroom with the actual word that they are as well as a picture and this helps them to read more. The pre-k5 children also made short books 3-5 pages with easy sentences in them such as Jane is under the tree, etc. Also the director of my school purchased hooked on phonics for her daughter when she turned 4 and she benefited from that. I have labeled some things in my house for my son and he now can read most of them. I believe you can purchase flash cards with sight words on them or you could make your own. I have flashcards that my son made in the pre-k4 class with words on one side and the picture of it on the other. Some words are very easy and then they get slightly harder. I hope this helps a little.

http://www.abchomepreschool.com/Curriculums/Downloads/Onl...

http://www.time4learning.com/learning-hookedonphonics.shtml

http://www.fiveinarow.com/

http://www.homeschoolacademy.com/curriculum/pre-school-ho...

http://www.sonlight.com/newcomer-p-3-4.html

http://www.verticalphonics.com/

http://www.michigan.gov/greatstart/0,1607,7-197-27385-834...

http://www.preschoolcurriculum.com/

http://www.preschool-program.com/preschool_programs_activ...

I have listed a number of links to help you get started,its best to review them all, so you can get and idea of how you want her to be taught.and what your options are.

Good luck

M

J.,
I think if I were you I would just encourage her to use the reading skills she already has. If you push her to hard she will be too advanced and then she will be bored in school. My son is 7 and in 1st grade and every week he comes home with a list of new words that he can read and the class works on those words all week. If you daughter already has strong reading skills she will be bored and it could cause her to lose interest in school. If she is very advanced you might want to consider putting her in private school where she can be tested and start school a eaearlier or check with your puclic school system and see if they offer any avnced placement.

Hi J.,
I am a Kindergarten teacher. You said that you want your daughter to have all the tools she needs when she is ready to read...well she does! You have done an excellent job by reading with her and letting her read (picture read) to you. These are all the normal steps children go through when learning how to read. There are some things you can do if you want to...when reading a book ask her questions like "what word on this page says cat?" She might find the word cat because it is the only word that starts with c and she knows what sound c makes. You may already do this, but you can also give her a pencil and paper and have her help you make your grocery list (or let her write anything for that matter). Writing reinforces the concept that letters make sounds and when you group some letters together that they make words. Let her use her own inventive spelling - don't correct her at this point - the idea is to get her interested in writing, not checking her spelling. When beginning to write, children usually only put the first sound (consonant) they hear. Eventually they will add the end sound and other middle sounds, and then finally vowels. I love watching the process of children learning how to read! Good luck and have fun!
J.

Keep reading to her!!!
Occasionally skip some of the key words in sentences and let her try them out. Lable things around your house (table, clock, bed...)Flash cards with pictures on them are great!
Write down things that she says so she can see how her own words look especially when she's done something memorable or that she really enjoys. Lots of praise for her efforts.

As silly as it sounds to recommend a video when you're trying to teach your child to read - my girls love the Word Factory by Leap Frog. It explains the sounds, how vowels make the words stick together.....and it's done with the frog characters that they love. It works for us!

#1 Keep it enjoyable-
Some suggestions:
NARRATIVES: Start developing her narrative skills: you can do this by retelling stories, talking about what you did that day, making up silly stories, and focusing on problem solving in stories with alternative endings-

WORD SEARCHES: Also make some word searches- you can do them yourself so that they are of the appropriate difficulty level.

You are doing great! My friend is a teacher (reading specialist & special ed)-- in her children's play area she has labeled everything. For example the toy kitchen has labels "sink" "oven" etc. This is great for word recognition. My daughter's preschool teacher will take a book and "pull it apart". They will read the book a few times over the course of the week. Then the children make their own book-- to bring home to keep. My daughter can recognize animal names because of doing this. Eric Carle books are great for this. Also you can teach her to recognize her own name and the first names of family and her friends. My daughter can recognize our first and last names and is now starting to spell them. (A good skill in case she ever gets lost too). Put the names on index cards and read with her--or make up your own book with photos of each person and their name underneath.
We love Starfall.com. Your daughter will be able to navigate through the preschool stories by herself.
Just don't force anything...also remember comprehension is more important then just being able to sound out and recognize words. Make sure it is fun! Good luck!

My 3 year old daughter has just started to read and it's really exciting. She doesn't like to be "taught" anything, so I never pushed it, but let her figure it out on her own. I read Dick and Jane stories and pointed to the words as I read them. Dick and Jane is great because of the repetition. Good luck!

Hi J.-

I have a son, 5, who also loves reading - he started with sight words at 2 1/2. Next step, which you may already be doing is making sure every time you read to her, that you follow along with your finger so she can the words while hearing the pronunciation. She'll eventually start asking you to go back and point out specific words. Since sight reading is the first step taught in kindergarten, she'll be ahead of the game. You can also start to explain combined letter sounds to her (that's what stumped my son) like sh, th, ch, etc.

Good Luck!

Deb Tucci

There are so many good nuggets other moms have shared with you. I think the dolch/sight words are important. (this has been mentioned by previous posters) One thing I didn't see in in previous posts: If you've gone through the consonant sounds and your child really understands vowel sounds and how there are more than one sound per vowel, I would then try consonant blends. SP, ST, PL, CH, on and on... This will help your baby piece words together and increase reading fluency tremendously...this helps move kids from sounding out each letter to actually reading words. Think about how you would read the word 'church' if you were sounding out individual letters and didn't know what sound C and H together-you would probably read it wrong.

Hello J.,
Well I am a Kindergarten teacher so the advice I would give you is to teach her some high frequency words such as I,me,you,here,she,it,am,the,is,to,just to name a few and have her study them so that she can recognize them. Then get early reading books that have those high frequency words in them, she will be reading on her own in no time. Just make sure she still enjoys reading and progress with the reading levels as she builds more vocabulary and word knowledge. I hope this helps. Happy reading!!

I would be careful not to push. My son and I had a game where I would point to the little words that he knew as we were reading and he would read them. It was not my intension, but he read very young (as he turned 3). What was a game turned out to be a powerful way to learn to read. He knew nothing about phonetics, etc.

My other son is a terrific reader, but was not interested in reading alone for a long time. I would not worry if your child reads on her own if the passion of reading (together) is there. Everyone has their own timetable.

It sounds like your daughter might benefit from pattern books. You can get them from scholastic reading clubs. Good luck.

hi I teach 1st grade, your little one is on the right track! Just keep it light and simple. She sounds ahead of the curve for a 4 yr old. You might want to include fun rhyming word games but I wouldn't push her to read. Just keep her loving story time and books. Hope this helps.

Hi J.,

I would encourage you to continue reading to your daughter and to go to the library often. Choose books that are predictable (Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Oola Oyster etc.) and encourage your daughter to retell the story after you have read it with her. You could also encourage her to draw a picture and then have her tell you what is going on in the picture. Then write the words down for her. These are things that I did with my students when I taught. Have fun. It's very exciting when little kids realize that they are able to read! - M.