How to facilitate an interest in reading for the very young?

[SpiderMum]

My 2.5-year-old seems very interested in reading.  She loves books, we read to her a lot at her request, and earlier today after reading a book twice I asked her to read it to me (I have a bad cold and talking hurt so I thought that would give my voice a bit of a break) and she enjoyed "reading" it back to me.  When she sees letters or is writing with with tub crayons she starts saying the letters that she knows "P R T I" etc.  She seems to know that number symbols are numbers, though she doesn't know them  (she'll say 2 5 7 usually when she sees numbers).

I'm wondering what sorta things I can do/get that would help a child that's interested in reading.  Obviously I don't want to push at all...but she seems like the type that will be reading sooner rather than later.  Of course I'm sure it'll be awhile before she would actually READ books, but if there's anything I can do to feed the interest I'd love to have it here for her.  She is really young so I really didn't expect to be thinking about this for awhile...but I didn't think she'd be doing huge puzzles yet either!

Any ideas?

[lemonapple]

My son just turned 2, so we might be a bit behind you guys, but one thing he really LOVES is to type on the computer. 

My husband disables the mouse pad on his laptop, gets Microsoft Word booted up, and ds will use his pointer finger to type letters. He loves that we can make it different colors, larger, smaller etc... and he loves to hear us reading back the letters as he types them. 

Ds also loves signs...anything he sees along a walk or a shop sign must be touched, traced and read back to him by dh or I. 

And, of course, tons of books...ds loves to go off in a corner with a few favorite books and 'reads' the story to himself. He has a crazy memory, and he just recites what he remembers from our tellings of the story, but still I think that exposure to the words on his own is probably helping.

OH, and there are some nifty puzzles out there that stretch really really long...each piece is a part of the alphabet, and they make up a long train. Ds has one, and he LOVES it! He can recognize and find most of the letters as I call for them when we put it together. 

[Dar]

How about refrigerator magnets - the plastic ones that stick to the refrigerator, or a cookie sheet, or something? They might be fin...

[sapphire_chan]

If you use videos in your family, there are a number of resources available to introduce to kids so they can ask for them when they feel like it. The phonics songs done by the SuperSimpleSongs people are particularly catchy.

Otherwise, in addition to the letter magnets, and tons of books, maybe do stuff like writing her name for him on her drawings?

A local 4 year old unschooling friend has started reading! Okay, it's only two words (as her mom pointed out when I got all SQUEEE about it) but it's still utterly awesome! Her mom just treated it like ECing--watching her dd's cues, offering more when it seemed appropriate, not worrying if there wasn't an interest right then.

[SpiderMum]

Originally Posted by lemonapple 

OH, and there are some nifty puzzles out there that stretch really really long...each piece is a part of the alphabet, and they make up a long train. Ds has one, and he LOVES it! He can recognize and find most of the letters as I call for them when we put it together. 

Oh that's a wonderful idea!  She's already a puzzle fanatic so that would be right up her ally.  I've heard her try to sing the alphabet which I think she heard on TV so I think that would be fun for her.

 

Originally Posted by Dar 

How about refrigerator magnets - the plastic ones that stick to the refrigerator, or a cookie sheet, or something? They might be fin...

I need to figure out somewhere to put them, but that's a good idea.  Our fridge is out in the laundry room and the door has to stay closed.  Pretty much the only metal in the kitchen is the side of the stove, but that's not a good idea.  I would like to try to get a magnetic wipeoff board to hang at her level because I know she likes those letters from other people's houses.

 

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan 

If you use videos in your family, there are a number of resources available to introduce to kids so they can ask for them when they feel like it. The phonics songs done by the SuperSimpleSongs people are particularly catchy.

Otherwise, in addition to the letter magnets, and tons of books, maybe do stuff like writing her name for him on her drawings?

A local 4 year old unschooling friend has started reading! Okay, it's only two words (as her mom pointed out when I got all SQUEEE about it) but it's still utterly awesome! Her mom just treated it like ECing--watching her dd's cues, offering more when it seemed appropriate, not worrying if there wasn't an interest right then.

Often she will get me to write works while we're drawing together and she would then point to them and repeat what they said.  We did her name, stuff like Mommy, Daddy, family names, pet names, etc.  I definately don't want to push at all so I've been struggling to think of stuff that would feed her interest, but not be too teachy.  I was taught in the usual manner (we were traditional HSers) so I'm trying to figure this out without reverting to what I know.

[mama_daba]

someone gave my son number magnets and then i got him some alphabet ones since he enjoyed the number ones so much and just playing with them and asking us questions he has learned to reconize quiet a few and knows which are numbers and which are letters now. 

[Dar]

Originally Posted by SpiderMum 

Originally Posted by Dar 

How about refrigerator magnets - the plastic ones that stick to the refrigerator, or a cookie sheet, or something? They might be fin...

I need to figure out somewhere to put them, but that's a good idea.  Our fridge is out in the laundry room and the door has to stay closed.  Pretty much the only metal in the kitchen is the side of the stove, but that's not a good idea.
 

Cookie sheet. :)

[unruly3]

Reading of course!  If you watch tv, I am a big fan of Word World  and Electric Company, both on PBS.  My 2.5 loves Word World, my almost 5 loves Electric Company.  My almost 5 is reading, but it's really one word at a time. with reading it seems to be that they are ready, but then not. But I watched it click with him one day, and now he can sounds out all sorts of words.   I feel like the process of learning to read took a long time for my little guy. But every kid is different.