So, I'm a big fan of allowing my little girl to define her own path and set her own timeline, and she seems to be showing signs of wanting to put the pieces together for reading (!) For example, she's started pointing to individual words and pretending to read what they say (purely based on her memory of the book) and half the time she is pointing to a different word from the word she is actually saying. Or, she looks at some of her toys that have names on them, and pretends to sound them out. I'm not sure how this all started (she does have older cousins) but, nonetheless, to me this seems like she is starting to make some connections and I want to support it without pushing her in any way or without even pushing her to read, per se, since she is only 2.5! I just want to follow her cues but I have no idea how to do that and how to facilitate her making those connections with reading organically and on her own. Anyone have any books they can suggest on this topic or advice from their own experience?
Leapfrog has excellent dvd's for teaching letters and their sounds-don't focus on "this is an A" because that actually doesn't teach reading-these videos teach "it says aaaaaaaaa" which is much more helpful and not confusing for beginners.
There are 3 and they have music and dancing letters, it's great. My son watched it 3 times and was sounding out everything.
Teach her the basics and let her progress as she's able.
Good Luck
She sounds ready to read, so personally, I would grab it and see if she wants to do it. We homeschool and go at an easy pace for our kids. Our barely 7 year old is in 3rd grade, mainly because of the math - he hates it, even though he's really good at it, but he finds it redundant. He's reading books at a high school level and reading comic books my husband had as a teenager. He was eager to read, so we taught him and he was full-blown reading at 4.
We actually taught my son to read Spanish first, because the sounds are always the same, unlike English. Once he could read Spanish, which took him no time, he was able to read English, by sounding them out.
PS: Our first languages are not Spanish, in fact, I only took 4 years of it in HS and my husband can ask for another beer. LOL
We JUST bought this for our 3.5 year old, who is learning the sounds of the letters. He learns differently than our other son.
We recommend: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca%7CsearchResults~~...
www.LakeShoreLearning.com
Letter-Sounds Matching Board
He thinks it's the best game. Our 21 month old daughter can name all of the matching items...and it watching us works with the letter sounds and trying them out.
Our friends swear by: The Letter Factory by Leap Frog - video I think.
Anyway, Anytiem my kids show an affinity for learning something, we grab it and run with it, as long as they are stil enjoying it. My son hated kindergarten and hated learning, so we pulled him out and he is doing SO well - socially AND educationally.
I wouldn't hold back, and follow her lead, she will tune out if you go above her understanding, and you will know to back off. I had a homeschooling friend that suggested using karaoke as a fun early reading exercise. I tried using the karaoke machine with my child (we got it when he was 2 1/2) with a basic kids songs disk(I started with ones that he already knew, and bought other cd's of 'grown up' songs later). We simply play it, and it highlights the words as they are sung. Somehow, he started to understand and read the songs. I could tell he was really reading it when he started figuring out words he didn't know to some of the songs. I also always read to him at night before bed, so I started using a little flashlight to highlight the words as I read. This,too, has helped his work recognition. These were completely passive methods that we used when he was very young. He is 4 1/2 and reads at a 1st grade level. Have fun with it!
You can get simple, basic flash cards at the dollar store! Also, look for the puzzle piece sets that have a 3 letter word on O. side and the word printed on the other. She will sight-read those words in no tie and it will not seem like work to her b/c they are puzzles! My son was a pretty early reader and we used to look for signs on the streets--starting out with simple ones (stop, yield) and now he reads all of the street signs as well. Something to do in the car.
Go online and look for your local Learning Tree store. They have a lot of different types of learning tools there that you can choose from and the staff seems to be pretty knowledgeable as well. Basic flash cards that have 3 to 4 letter words would be a good place to start as well. Sending you happy thoughts for you and your little reader.
When my son was 2.5 I taught him to count to 100 and to put the flash cards in number order from 1 to 100 - I did it because he was interested and he was good at it. It's never too young to learn. Definitely teach her as much as you can. Being ahead in reading when she starts school is a great advantage. We have this Leapster Frog that has the alphabet on his stomach and if you hit a letter it sings a song about the sound it makes. She may like that. You can also work with her on on recognizing letters in her books or to recognize signs when you're out driving or walking with her or to recognize her name. My niece did "Head Sprout" on the computer at about 3 years old. It helps you learn to read and spell. Lake Shore Learning has lots of tools you can use to teach your daughter!
Good luck!
Just keep reading to her and enjoying books with her daily. She'll pick up the rest.
Everyone in my family is a reader, therefore when my daughter was your daughter's age she was doing the same thing. She's three and she's reading. It seemed crazy to me, too. She asked me to point to words, then point everything out when we read together. I know she can read because we pick up books she's never read and she reads and comprehends the story. I am a mom who was considering Waldorf and it delays reading until age seven or even later. I wanted to keep her off the academic track and do only play based education but I have a girl who is wired for academics. If that's your daughter too, it will happen organically when you read to her, when she looks at books on her own, when she sees you reading, driving in the car reading street signs, etc. The other night we were both laying back in bed, legs crossed over one another, reading our own books. It was a great joy!
Best to you,
Jen
Hi K.,
Follow her lead, if she is pointing to words as she reads, you do the same. Read the same book daily, (toddlers love repetition) have her point to the words she recognizes and pause while she says them. Count how many "the" or "and" words she sees on a page while pointing to them. When children possess intrinsic interest there is no pushing unless you sit down and force feed your child against their will. Often people wrongly believe academics too early isn't good for children, yes, if force fed, however, if your child identifies and says, "shoes" and is interested in the letter a, it is still identification and vocabulary acquisition, something that comes naturally to small children. Read any book she wants, you may not have to go through the phonics stage at home, she may pick it up at preschool if you are inclined to enroll her.
Happy reading,
Wendy
that is great that your child is interested in reading so young, it's never too early to learn! i have heard of babies this age learning to read before, i would definately encourage it! you can use flash cards with letters on them and show them to him/her every day and say A, aa, apple. or you can just show the words on plain paper and tell them the word so they begin to recognize the words themselves, a lot of parents made videos for their child showing letters and words and alot of them used that knowledge to figure out the sounds of other letters and words, also you can make up a song, that is how my five year old learned to read first with a song (A apple a a a B bear b b b ..) or you can pick a word a week like "the" show her the word and than encourage her to try to find more of them on the page of a book, that also helped my daughter, she is five years old right now and learning how to read so these are great suggestions!
