My Three Year Old is DESPERATE to Read!! Resources?

[SparklingGemini]

My DD, aged three, is dying to be able to pick up a book and read it. I wasn't going to address any sort of formal reading lessons until she was at least five but I'm thinking I need to follow her lead and at least give her a chance, without any sort of expectations or pressure.

So, I'm looking for resources for gentle reading lessons.

She already knows all her letters by sight, both lower & upper case. And can tell me the sounds about half of them make. She can also write most of them. She recognizes many words as well. All of this is her own doing, with very little input from me. DD just LOVES books and words.

Ideas?

[yllek]

Starfall.com was a very low pressure, engaging, self-directed way for my kids to pick up the basics of phonics-based reading. I wasn't crazy about the screen-time, but I was happy that they loved doing starfall instead of... say, Barney or something.

My ds (now 6) just did regular starfall. Now I subscribe to more.starfall for my 3yo dd, and she loves it. There is far more content. She just does a few minutes at a time, just when she wants. It's pretty amazing how much she is picking up.

Another suggestion (again electronic) is the Letter Factory and Talking Words Factory dvds.

Then there's just reading, reading, reading. Point out simple environmental print: stop, go, on, off, pull, etc. Point out the first letter sound of longer words. Play very simple phonemic awareness activities in the car (think of rhymes together, thinks of words that start with the same sound, etc.). Play with magnetic letters on the fridge, emphasizing the sounds (not the letter names). Put two together to make nonsense sounds (ma, st, zb), and ask does she know any words with those sounds.

And of course, just be very, very low-key.

[PiePie]

DD started by spelling with my old magnetic letters for the fridge. I didn't give her any instruction.

[koru]

My 3 year old son is the same (even though I wouldn't say he's desperate to read). He already knows all his letter sounds (thanks Fridge Phonics ) & will randomly read 3-4 letter words. I agree with PP who suggests just reading, reading, reading! And while you read, follow the words with your fingers so if your DD is really interested, she'll watch the words & listen to you pronounce them as you go. And I would just start by making sure she knows all her letter sounds. Trying to read without this foundation will be frustrating.

[St. Margaret]

Ah yes, I know that frustration. DD would be so ticked that she didn't know certain words! Starfall is the best, IMO! All the letter sounds and lots of basic common combos and sight words. We also just read a lot of Dr. Seuss Run your finger along as you read. DD has been able to read (sounding out new words) for some time, and it's alieviated a lot of that yearning and frustration for her; now she's happy to read a bit on her own, chime in as we read together, or just sit back and soak it up as I read.

[jenfl]

An important part of reading is building an awareness of the sounds that make up a word. "I Spy" with sounds is great for this.

Start with beginning sounds in a limited area (like the car): "I spy something that starts with a Ssss" -- "seat!"

Move to wider areas, then thinking of any word with that sound.

Then move to ending sounds, then middle sounds.

[lach]

I signed up for a 5 week free trial of Reading Eggs, and my 3yo loves it. She doesn't get it at all, lol, but she loves it. On their website they offer a 2 week free trial, but if you google around you should be able to find codes for the 5 week.

They also have a really cute "playroom" section for preschoolers.

[kristin0713]

I just wanted to share a different approach that might help to quench her thirst for reading before she is reading independently. I read to my DD all the time. She loves it, and will sit with me for over an hour, handing me book after book. She will also sit alone and "read" for a long time on her own, probably up to 30 minutes. She can't decode yet, but she sits and turns the pages and re-tells the story. She only does this with the books that we have read over and over so she feels like she knows the story enough to "read" it herself. She is 4.5 now, and I think she started doing this about a year ago. My point is, if you read to her constantly, and allow her to bring you the same books to read again and again (which can get annoying, I know) it will allow her to experience this in-between stage of reading on her own without being able to read. It is good for her to do this before she feels like she has to know exactly what the words are in order to sit down and "read." Because, when she does start reading, it will still be a long time before she will be able to read longer, more complex stories without tiring quickly, and you want her to feel satisfied with browsing through picture books that she knows.

[Love_My_Babies]

My oldest was that way, too. I requested all of the reading instruction and phonics books through the library. I read through them until I found one that fit his learning style. I put the lesson book, some easy readers and wooden letter blocks in a basket. I told him to bring me the basket whenever he wanted a "lesson". He brought me the basket nearly every day for a year.

[Youngfrankenstein]

My dd learned with starfall.com but my boys learned while we taught them with a book. It was Teach your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons. It's an older book but obviously has short, easy lessons. They were reading well on their own well before we finished the book.

[pigpokey]

DS started Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons at age ... about 3y8m.

It went fine. I did not do the book following the scripts religiously, I did not do the reading comprehension questions and we just repeated anything that did not get locked down. Just straight decoding instruction and practice. We spent about 8 months on the book.

[SparklingGemini]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I MDC Mamas!!!

The thing about my DD is that we DO read constantly. I read to hear at least two hours a day. I'm a total bibliophile and bookworm and she seems to have inherited that trait.

She has books she's memorized and can read to herself. It's amazing really because I don't even have to read a book more than two or three times and she's got it down. And DD is also very content to sit in her room and look at books for good solid hour, hour and a half. She's the attention span to peruse books for long periods of time since before she was two.

We even recently started checking out "talking books" from the library. Now, DD sits at her table and listens to stories, following along with the books, while I am working in the kitchen or doing laundry etc. and can't read to her at that moment.

We've done Starfall periodically. DD is pretty much TV/screen-free, so I tend to shy away from the electronic methods. But Starfall IS pretty fabulous. Maybe I'll give her some time to play with it a few times a week.

And we love love love our alphabet magnets.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've give her lots of opportunity for building her pre-reading skills. And there are lots of things she's picked up on her own.
I really think she's just ready to read.

[dantesmama]

We're using The Reading Lesson. It's very simple and gentle and perfect for younger kids.