Reading

Several moms have asked me lately about I taught Elaine to read. Perhaps they are asking every mom in hopes of finding something they haven't tried yet or perhaps they are curious because Elaine is such a very good reader. Either way, I don't know that I did much. But here's my two cents anyway.

First and foremost, just read with your kids. Read to them from the very beginning. Even if they like to flip the pages before you've finished them, just go with it. Get them interested in books. If they like to sit in your lap and look at the pictures while you read, point to small words when you say them. They might not understand yet but you're getting them used to looking at letters/words and not just pictures.

My oldest is now in first grade. According to a few reading assessments, she's reading at about a fourth grade reading level. She went to preschool when she was three. She went in knowing her entire alphabet and what sounds each letter made. Her preschool, though, used a phonics system that I really liked called Zoophonics. Perhaps there are other programs like this - or even better ones. But here's what I liked about Zoophonics.

Each letter is represented by an animal which says it's name and there is a hand/body motion to correspond to each letter as well. So they child is learning what the letter looks like (both upper and lower cases), the sound the letter makes, an animal who starts with the letter and a motion - auditory, visual and kinesthetic. For instance, A is "Allie Alligator" who says "a-a-a" and you use your hands to make an alligator mouth opening and closing.

These were great because even if we weren't reading, I could reinforce the concepts. Here's a typical conversation with a two-to-three year old in my house.

Me: Here's your apple for snack. What letter do you think apple starts with?
Child: Hmmm...I don't know.
Me: Well, listen. Apple...a...a...a... what letter makes that sound?
Child: Hmm...
Me: A..a...a..(while opening/closing my hands aka the alligator mouth)
Child: Allie Alligator! It's A!
Me: Good job! Then what sound comes next? A-P-P-P-le. What makes the "p" sound? (demonstrating the motion for Peewee Penguin)
Child: P!

You get the idea. This was a great way to get them used to the sounds that letters make so they can begin to sound out words using phonics. I liked the program so much that I bought the fonts when we began homeschooling to put together my own reading program for Natalie. But you can buy the whole curriculum from them for homeschooling or just learning/reinforcement.

We then moved on to the Bob books, which are phonics based, with great success. They come in sets of 10-12 books and each book builds on what the child has learned.
The first book called "Mat" just uses three sounds - M, A, T, and S. There are a few sight words thrown in such as "the" and "on." Otherwise all the words contain just those four letters. The next book called "Sam" adds one or two more sounds. I will never forget when my girls read Mat for the first time. Of course I sat and helped them sound out words. But each of them was so excited that they read an entire book! It's only about 6 pages long but they didn't care. It was a whole book!

I believe there are five sets of Bob books which build to more complex words plus one or two sets of sight word books. I think these are an excellent place to start. They are easy and short and give your child huge confidence.

Then we continued building on the reading by going to library and used book stores and getting any early level (pre or 1 to start) "I Can Read" book. There are tons of these books.

Leap Frog also makes great videos on letters/words/numbers and reading. You can find some of them on Netflix and at stores like CostCo, Target, Walmart, etc. They are engaging, fun and educational. Kids learn a lot of the phonics rules there.

(By the way, I know I'm talking a lot about phonics because I do think it's a great way to start reading. However, phonics only gets you part way there. Try asking your child to sound out "was" or "were" and you will get some strange pronunciations. Some things must be learned by sight - also called rote back in the day. That's how our parents learned to read and it mustn't be too bad since they can read and write. I don't go along with the phonics only crowd. It must be mixed with sight words....and learning Latin will help later on down the road. But that's for another posting, another day.)

I know a few people who have also done well with a book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

I bought the book and tried it with Elaine. Perhaps she was too young (I think she was just barely three) or perhaps it was her personality (you have to sit and repeat sounds and look at words only for 10 minutes or so) but this didn't work for her. I still think the book is worth looking at - maybe check it out of the library or borrow from a friend (I have one I'm not using at the moment) - because I think it can work really well. However, if the style of learning doesn't work for your child, try something else. That's how I found the Bob books. They are shorter with a story and pictures. My daughter just didn't get why she was repeating "rrrrruuuuuunnnnn" and then saying it fast "run." I tried it with my second child with more success (as long as we were alone. If the oldest was around, forget it. But that's a different issue altogether.). In fact, now that I think about it, I might pull it out and try it with Natalie again. She didn't mind doing it and it might be better for her personality/learning style.

That's a bit of what we have done. Mostly we just read books a lot. We listen to stories on CD a lot. A love of stories and a love of reading is what we're going for here. If they love the stories, they'll want to be able to read themselves. Then a love of reading is not too far behind.