(by 2 people)
Teaching your child to read might be because you want them to get a headstart. It might be because your child is begging and they aren't old enough for school yet. It could be because they are at school and it isn't working, or maybe you're just going down the home education/ home school route anyway.
My daughter wanted to learn to read from about the age of three. So we've explored a lot of different systems! In the end it all came together and now at the age of 7 she is a fluent reader, having just polished off Secret Garden and the Railway Children. My son is just 4 and I'm anticipating going through it all again some day soon.
Steps to fluent reading
a few suggestions of how to make life easier all around.
- Start by having books around, even for a baby. Board books, fabric books. Read to a baby, even if what you read is the newspaper. I read Harry Potter to my daughter :)
- As your child gets older, make books a part of everyday life. Let them play with board books, read to them regularly and let them see you reading too.
- Library membership is a good thing from your child being a toddler. Often your local library will put on events such as storytimes, which are good places to meet up with other families too.
- Don't stress about your child reading early, what is more important is them enjoying reading. They don't have to start with early readers or fiction if that doesn't interest them, usborne do some excellent non fiction books for children, or some children enjoy comics.
- Once they start to read, practise is the way forward. Make it little and very often. Don't forget to go on reading to them too, some children don't want to learn to read for themselves as they are afraid they will lose the special time they have with you.
- There's a plateau that sometimes happens once a child is reading independently - again practise is what is needed to bump up the speed so that they can read the books that interest them fast enough to get something out of them.
- Most of all, remember, reading is fun!
the actual techniques
First there are the sandpaper letters - these are used to feel the shape while saying the sound that the letter makes. If you aren't too keen on sand, like me, you can make these from other tacticle substances - I used hama beads.
Running alongside the hama bead letters, you can use a salt tray for your child to trace the letter shapes in.
Once they start to recognise letters you can begin to bring in phonetic 3 letter words alongside little model objects, using a moveable alphabet. This is easy to make if you have access to a computer with printer and a laminator, and plenty of time and patience! It means that the child can practice letter recognition and sounding words out without having to struggle with writing as well, though you may well find that writing to some extent comes before reading.
Learn to read on Amazon.
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
This works differently to any reading scheme you've seen before. Some ppl love it, some hate it. It didn't work for us, but I leant it out to two friends who had great success with it, so I'm still going to recommend it as a great resource.
Amazon Price: $14.96 (as of 10/07/2008)
Used Price: $10.09
Usually ships in 24 hours
The Reading Reflex
Pick and mix everything you need out of here, with progress tests and areas to return to. Well worth it.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/07/2008)
Used Price: $61.40
Jolly Phonics Workbooks 1-7
Bring writing into the equation with jolly phonics workbooks that introduce sounds with actions and writing and drawing too. Real favourites in this house, I'm going to have to get another set for my son.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/07/2008)
Used Price: $16.23
Big Bad Pig (Red Nose Readers)
This whole series is fantastic - there are three different levels starting very easy to read and growing in difficulty. When your child is learning to read the odds are you are going to hear the same books over and over - it it's this series, you might not mind so much.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/07/2008)
Used Price: $1.11
Toe by Toe: Highly Structured Multi-Sensory Reading Manual for Teachers and Parents
This is aimed at dyslexic children I believe, and is indeed highly structured. Not for the faint of heart, it's extremely prescriptive but we did find it got us over a hump, even though there's no dyslexia in the family.
Amazon Price: $44.15 (as of 10/07/2008)
Used Price: $50.14
Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks
Learn to read resources
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
