How did you teach your child to read?

[stephwhiz]

I was curious to see how you guys taught your child (children) to read. My 4 year old can read those Scholastic early reader books but I think it is because she has them memorized. We read to her a lot and want to join the reading club at the local library this summer. I want to give her a head start for Kindergarten so any ideas would be appreciated.

[AmyB]

Both of my kids memorized books, which I think is one of the steps towards reading.

Working on letter sounds and sight words would be what I'd work on next. I searched online for lists of the words and found a couple links.

http://www.edhelper.com/dolch_sight_...FTHAJAodoweqNg

http://www.kidzone.ws/dolch/kindergarten.htm

http://www.milforded.org/schools/jfk/craig/sightwords/

Supposedly free learning games here, but I haven't tried them...

http://www.cleverisland.com/limited/...?refcode=19151

Yup. Memorizing books is totally the first step to reading.

I would advise a word of caution, not all kids learn best by learning phonics... if it seems to confuse your kidlet to do that, then skip it. MOST kids learn this way, but a select bunch learn better with the whole word method.

This is also a great FREE game site... http://www.starfall.com

I think you're already doing what you need to do! Reading to the kidlets all the time will foster a love of reading, which is exactly what you want!

[Rach]

yup, memorization is first. does she know all her letters? Don't forget that 'typewriter' a, g, are different, etc.

then she should memorize the sounds the letters make. at the same time, just keep reading to her and having her read to you. Sounds like you are doing everything right!

I get books from the library so there's something new, and I am constantly amazed by how much Aiden has just sponged in. Make sure when she's reading to you to give her enough time to process and say the word, then if you want, you can help her sound it out, or just tell her the word she doesn't know. I do about half and half with Aiden.

[kassismom]

I've been reading to my daughter since she was a baby. After a while, I think kids remember them just by hearing it over and over. Kassi memorized 3 short books (Cleo the cat was one of them) before she turned 4, but I didn't push her on it or make a big deal out of it (of course I told her I was proud of her, etc..)- I feel like saying a big huge "duh" right now. I thought that learning phonics was first so that's what we've been trying to do . It's kind of hard. She knows her alphabet and some of the letter sounds, but I can't get her to sit still long enough to learn all of them. She read a couple words last week. Like the word orange......I would ask her "what does the letter "o" sound like" and then cover up the rest of the letters until we got to each one. Yes, that was the hard word for the week LOL. Most of the time it's stuff like "cat".
I had no idea about memorizing books.......didn't know it would help with reading at all. I think we'll get back to that and try it again. Phonics is hard for her to sit through. Or maybe I'm just trying to make her do too much- she just turned 5 last month. Thanks for the info ladies!

[stephwhiz]

Thanks ladies for all of the info! Those website are just what I was looking for. Stephanie

[mommyto3]

try a phonics toy from walmart. it is made from leap frog. it is magnets that go on the fridge and there is a small box that also goes on the fridge. when you put a letter in it, it says b says b, b says b all the letters make a sound a b says b. it also has a button on it that plays the alphabet. when the kids master that one there is also another toy from leap frog called word whammer. it practises 3 letter words. my kids love them. my 6 year old uses the whammer and my 3 yo and 18 mo love the smaller one

We used flash cards that have a subject,verb, and adjective in them..That and the flash cards with short words broken into syllables...She hated flash cards but I made it into a floor game and she ate it up! She was 3 and pretty easy to please back then

[JoyLynn]

Another suggestion... We were told about a book called, "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons". I tried it on my second baby, Carissa, when she was four. It worked so unbelievably well that I used it with Courtney and Chole, too. They all could read a newspaper fluently at four. Couldn't understsand a word of it, but they could read it.

By the way... They were self-motivated to read at that age. We'd only use the book when they brought it to me. I don't agree, personally, with pushing a child to read early when they're not ready. I would just read to them and draw them into the process until it started clicking and they wrere asking for more. Different ages for different kids.


Joy

[luvmy4sons]

I found reading to them to be invaluable! Then as they show interest I think both whole word learning and phonics together works. I do think they need to understand how our language works, but I do have a son who struggled with the phonics, yet it did help him to figure words out when he didn't know them. A lot of curriculums out there use both. They have a list of sight words and they learn phonics too. I have heard of great success with Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons, but never used it. I think it depends on if you are talking about home educating your child through learning to read or just giving her a heads up before you send her to school. Still a little of both as you read together helps, I think.