Reading Readiness?

[flower01]

My DD is 3 and a couple months. My thought process on teaching her has really been to just go with her flow. We do puzzles and read books and sing songs about letters, numbers, colors, etc. But, I have never done any formal teaching with her. I recently picked up some Kumon activity books because they were cheap and I thought it'd be fun for us to do together when baby bro naps. Well, she is flying through them. It's basic stuff...matching, following simple instructions, tracing letters, etc. She loves it. My intention was to do a couple pages a day together, but she has been doing multiple pages on her own. Then one day she just came out and asked me to teach her to read. So I'm thinking of looking into some programs, but before I spend any money I want to make sure she is really ready. The one thing that concerns me is that she is a bit stubborn still and when her mind is made up about something you can't tell her otherwise. For instance, today she thought the letter "A" was a "4" when she saw it on a box. When I gently told her it was an "A" she got upset and firmly told me it was a "4." This is pretty common for her. I don't know if this is just a personality trait that we have to work through, or if this is common for 3 year olds and maybe waiting is better to try any formal reading program.

Any thought?

[AAK]

Sounds normal to me.

I have three kids. The first two have such dramatically different experiences with learning to read, I struggle with giving "advice". My oldest just picked it up, so I can't really take any credit for it. She learned her basic letter sounds and was able to recognize most letters well and then suddenly put it all together. I think I showed her examples of sounding out words, but she was so stubborn that she didn't want me to teach her or (especially) correct her. So, I didn't and she was reading just before kindergarten.

My second child struggles a bunch with reading. She is dyslexic and we are now using specific programs with her. From her (and learning about her, dyslexia, and reading) I learned about phonemic awareness. Her gaps in this have contributed to her difficulties. If you were to get the book "Reading Reflex", and read the first 3 chapters, you will find a great explanation, but here is an overview. Our language is made up of words. The words have syllables and the syllables are made of individual sounds. These sounds are represented by one or more letter. For example, the work cat has three sounds. /c/ /a/ and /t/. The word shop also has three sounds /sh/ /o/ and /p/. If a child can't separate out the sounds in a word (or at least can't grasp the concept at all) they can stuggle with reading. So, I am not expecting the child to say all this to you. Here are some ways they can demonstrate this understanding:

Child can find words that rhyme with other words: ex: You say "cat", they say "mat"
Child can tell you if two words rhyme: ex: You say "cat" and "map" and child should say that they don't rhyme.
Child can give you examples of words that begin with same sound (not same letter!): ex: you say "cat" and child may say "kite" -- note that the sound (not letter) is important.
Child can give you examples of words that end with same sound or have same middle sounds. ex: what sound does "cat" and "map" share. . . the /a/ sound

Those are all ways to segment the sounds of a word. You can also play games with blending. You might drag out the word "cat" by giving the sounds and having the child say the word. You would distinctly say the /c/ (note, it isn't ca or cu) /a/ and /t/ (not ta or tu) and the child would say "cat". My four year old loves this game.

After that, you can introduce the letters in a word. There are many programs for this. Most kids will learn with any program. (I think like 80% or so). Several parents like the "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons". I like ABeCeDarian. And, many parents of dyslexics like the Barton program.

For now, though, have fun with your dd. Play games with the sounds of words, introduce the "basic" sounds that go with each letter. Teach her words that are important to her. Her name, mom, dad, love, etc. They will be happy to be able to "read" those things. Continue to read with her, read nursery rhymes too as they help children with patterns of language. Don't worry about the stubborn part. Look at it as confidence. Maybe show her how different fonts can make letters look different. Another game my four year old likes is a letter hunt. We use word search pages and find the letters in her name. She highlights those. But, lowercase is more important than uppercase for recognition and most word searches are in all caps,

Oh, we also really like the Get Ready for the Code (Get Set and Go for the code too!). They are great for reading readiness.

Amy

[The Amber Lily]

My daughter is 3 and a few months as well. She definitely does the 4-A kind of thing too. Usually, after I state a couple of times that no, it is not an A, it is actually a 4, I just shrug my shoulders to her and move on. She quite often changes her mind later, but I don't make an issue of it. (However, in teaching her the alphabet, I was taught 'zee', but Uncle J told her 'zed' a week ago, and she is firmly sticky to 'zed' - lol.) I think it's an age thing and trying to make sense of what she is seeing and learning, although it does show personality as well.

We haven't done anything formal for DD either, but she's really interested in things like your daughter. I am preparing to start something 'formal' in Sept, and I'm currently working out the details. I mainly want to do something deliberate and purposeful with her every day or 4 times a week or something and to keep a rhythm and cohesiveness to it. Cooking, coloring, crafts, letters, games, etc.

As far as reading goes, I just read "Growing a Reader from Birth' by Diane McGuinness, and 'The Complete Reference Book of Phonics and Spelling, by Margaret Bishop. I highly recommend these two books, because between the two of them, they explain how kids learn to read and how to go about teaching them.

I feel much more at ease and yet purposeful about teaching DD. There is sense and order to the process.

Apparently at three they are learning to expand dialogue, so Diane suggests to have meaningful conversations with them like you would another person, relating experiences, memories, facts, thoughts and feelings - keeping in mind their interests and the direction they take the conversation. Next, the main thing for reading is that they know the letter symbols, and the sounds of the English language. Then, explain that certain sounds are represented by certain letters, or letter teams.

My goal for this year is for DD to have a good understanding of these things, and then by the time she is 4 we will more formally begin reading. Diane writes that at 4.5 kids can learn to read in about 6 months, and I am satisfied with that, lol. I had started teaching her some letters and sounds a few weeks ago, and she was interested but there are just so many that I could see it was starting overwhelm her. She enjoys going over what we've done already but I don't want to push too much.

Currently, we are doing a 'weekly library book club', and I just pick up some books once a week and we read them together and talk. I am putting the focus more on spoken words and conversation at this point, but I also won't hesitate to explain more about printed words as the opportunities and interest arise.