A way to teach reading thats more fun

[OkiMom]

DD1 is 3 1/2 and is obsessed with learning how to read. She asks me on a daily basis to teach her, carries books around with her, she even sleeps with books in bed with her "just in case I wake up mommy and want to read". She loves to listen to stories but really wants to learn to read before the baby comes. I asked why and she told me she wants to read to the baby when he/she comes. I got her the 100 easy lessons book but she really didn't like it. She did a couple of the lessons but got bored with it really quickly. I guess since she isn't much for repetition having to say the words over and over again isn't something that interested her and she couldn't connect how saying "motor boat" would help her learn to read. Finally she told me "this is silly I want to read".
Is there any way to help start teaching reading to her thats more engaging and fun? Preferably something that doesn't include writing since writing tends to frustrate her (she wants to learn to draw but doesn't have the fine motor skills to yet).

[scheelimama]

I would recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Mommy-Teach-Re...4588717&sr=8-1

It's a very gentle, fun, way to teach a young child to read. I haven't used it myself, but I did read it and thought it looked like a wonderful method!

[PGTlatte]

The Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD is a fun way to learn letter sounds. It is also fun to use the Bob Books and read through them together. The Reading Lesson has a free chart at their website for learning the letter sounds:

http://www.readinglesson.com/pdffiles/abc.pdf

[zeldamomma]

I love progressivephonics.com

The site has free downloadable books that you can either read as e-books on your computer or print out. The program goes from letter recognition up to fairly advanced phonics, and has silly stories where you and your child take turns reading (it starts with you reading almost everything-- the child may read the words "at" "cat" and "fat" and you'd do all the rest, and at the end of the program it's transitioned to them doing much more).

[yllek]

www.starfall.com

[tankgirl73]

I'll echo progressive phonics! The stories are really cute, DD (similar age to yours) loves them. I really like how they're cooperative -- the kid reads the words using the concept being learned (written in big red letters) while the parent reads the rest of the words. So they get more complex stories than just "see dog sit". Plus they're also observing the more complex words being read, absorbing some stuff along the way I'm sure.

We're already up to the intermediate series!

There is a writing companion book it recommends downloading, but we haven't. I think it works just fine without the flashcards and worksheets.

I never got into starfall. Everyone keeps recommending it. I, personally, find it hokey and cheap and hard to navigate, and not a smooth progression of skills either. I also doubt that a kid just starting to read wants to worry about the label of the "short A sound" right from the beginning. It's clunky and over complicates things.

I actually just got 100 easy lessons from the library and I'm quite impressed by it. Despite his admonitions not to skip, though, I decided to skip the first 10 lesson -- well, not 'skip' but 'skim'. There's no point in tons of repetition of skills she already has, so I just made sure we covered the different types of activities so she understands how it all works. Even up to about lesson 20 it's nothing she doesn't already know so I'm also skimming a bit -- the orthography is something she has to get used to, after all. And she really, really likes the 'echo what I say slow... now say it fast" activities. We also skip the writing activities. She IS starting to learn to write, but isn't as far as she is with the reading.

But if the kid doesn't enjoy it -- then use something else.

[kijip]

A few boxed sets of Brand New Readers and lots of reading together of all sorts of books was what clicked it together for my early reader.

[karemore]

At 3 1/2 she may not really be ready to learn how to read. As much as she wants to, most kids don't read at that age.

If she wants to be able to read in order to read to the new baby, I would help her memorize a few of her favorite books.

[yippityskippity]

Happy Phonics. We really enjoy this curriculum. It's gentle, fun and the games take a child all the way from learning the alphabet to advanced phonics.

[OkiMom]

Thanks for the suggestions!
I tried starfall once but shes not interested in computer and rarely even watches movies. She rather either play with her sister or do things with me. Only time she watches movies is either I tell her mommy needs a break and put in a movie for her or if the whole family sits down and then she wants to have a running commetary on the movie and have everything explained..

Kare- I know she might not be ready but I feel bad about discouraging her when she has a natural interest in things. I figure either one of two things will happen, she wil suprise me and actually read some or she will lose interest in a couple of weeks and we will pick it back up later. I don't push things on her, we do everything at her pace so if she just doesn't want to do it after a couple of days or weeks then we stop and start again when she does. She does have several of her favorite books memorized and will tell me the stories, over and over and over again.

Yippity, thanks for the review on Happy Phonics. Thats what my husband wanted me to get but I was hesitant, it just seemed a lot to pay for one thing. I do have to remind myself sometimes that I can reuse things for every child so its not like Im paying and then after one kid I had to rebuy it.