2.5 year old showing interest in reading

[mrsfrenchy]

I know that from my post title that some of you will want to come in and make sure I'm not pushing my kid into reading or placing an emphasis on academics at (way) too early of an age.  I swear--I'm not.

DD (32 months) knows most of her letter sounds and names (she loves starfall) and has started trying to read CVC words that we come across.  She can't do it completely independently, but if i point to each letter one at a time (I think she gets ahead of herself if i'm not pointing), she can sound it out.  Most of this she has picked up from starfall, with me occasionally pointing out that these ideas and concepts are still the same away from the computer.

Lately, she's been asking things like "whats that word?"  or "show me how to read that."  I'm not sure what approach I should be taking.  I don't want to do too much too soon, for fear her beginning to dislike reading.  I don't know if there are some simple games or books or something we could be using that might nudge her along.  Or maybe I should just continue what we're doing, providing a print-heavy environment, and answer her questions when asked.

What do you think?

[sapphire_chan]

If you follow her lead, you'll know you aren't dragging her into anything.

My dd knows all her letters and sounds, but is sooo not ready to read. She'll do stuff like "I'm going to make 'Mommy'!" and get her letter blocks "/n/ /g/ e /c/ /j/ /z/ p....Mommy!" If she sees a CVC she'll sound it out "/d/ /o/ /g/....Lina!" *

Anyway, I think you're doing fine, just answer her questions as they come. If she asks how to read something, go ahead and point to the individual letters and say them slowly.

A game you could try out and see if she's interested, is to say words very slowly and have her try to get an object "can you bring me a /c/.../u/..../p/?" 

(*Honestly, both dh and I get a bit frustrated that dd doesn't have the ability to make that final leap into reading, but then we remind ourselves that 1. she's 2.5 and 2. it's okay if she doesn't read until much older and 3. if she didn't know her letters and their sounds already we'd be thrilled every time she discovered a new one. Which we were, it was just awhile ago and older kids who finally learn their letter sounds start reading right away so it feels, in a small, easily dismissed way, that any kid who knows letters should be able to read. (sorry to shove a vent about myself into your thread) (also, we don't need advice on this, dh and I just give ourselves the "it's fine if she reads much later" lecture before we show her frustration.)

Edited by sapphire_chan - 3/10/11 at 10:01pm

[no5no5]

Originally Posted by mrsfrenchy 

Or maybe I should just continue what we're doing, providing a print-heavy environment, and answer her questions when asked.

Bingo.  This is what we did with our very early reader, and it's worked out beautifully.    It sounds like she doesn't need more than that to learn, and IMO there is a risk that she'll resent it if you start to be the one leading.  Why would you want to, at this stage?  She's doing great and taking charge of her own learning, and that's wonderful!

[onyxravnos]

agreed if you really want to you could get hooked on phonics preschool level 1. it will mostly introduce her to letter sounds she already knows but in a new fun way and wont at all be too hard for her or push her more then she's ready.

[KimPM]

DS was at the same place at that age.  He really got into the Leap Frog Talking Letter Factory, then the Talking Words Factory DVDs.  After that, he was pretty much reading.  Before and during that time I was reading to him a lot, with him on my lap.  I think between the DVDs and my reading to him, he just picked it up.  Some of the reading skills aren't covered by the DVDs, but somehow he picked it up without us having any formal materials.  He's now 5 and he still loves to read.  The other day somebody asked me what grade level he reads at and to tell you the truth, I can't put a grade level on it because he pretty much reads whatever is in front of him.  I just followed his lead and it worked.  My DS also really likes goofy words and funny poetry, so maybe reading some funny things with your DD might spark her interest. 

ETA: I think it was somewhere between ages 2 and 3 that we started playing scrabble jr with him...just the letter-matching game.  We didn't keep score or anything, but he really enjoyed matching the letters and making the words that were already on the board.  After awhile I made a couple new boards with the same letter set...one with an animal theme and one with a vehicle theme.  That kept his interest in the game even longer.  We also had some letter magnets on the fridge for him to play with, and a box of foam letters (I'm not a fan of foam, but they were a gift) that he both plays with and spells words with.  You could make the letters yourself out of something more environmentally friendly.

Edited by KimPM - 3/12/11 at 6:37am

[ellemenope]

Provide that print-rich environment, answer her questions, and KEEP HER CONFIDENT.

If she doesn't know all her letter sounds work on that in a fun way.  If she does know her letter sounds down pat, she might be ready for playing around with initial sounds.  If she doesn't get that, keep working on letter sounds. Or work on rhyming if she responds to that.  My point is, I really feel that for this age, we should stay one step BEHIND them, not ahead.  Don't push them.  Have fun working on things they already know pretty well.  This is just my take on it.

As far as the leap between letter sounds and sounding out whole words, it happened a little over a month ago and I cannot remember how or what sparked it.  Nothing I did.  I do know that she had initial sounds down pat since a little after 2. (She is 2.5 now, so a little under 6 months ago)  

DD can sound out just about any CVC word.  She cannot do this yet in the context of a sentence or book.  Sure, she can read each word individually, but it seems too overwhelming for her to look at a bunch of words on a page.  Because of her age her eyes very well might not be developed enough to do that.  Knowing this I would never PUSH her to read a sentence.  What we do do is give her CVC words on their own to build her confidence.  She came up with an idea to make a "baby book" (her name for it.)  It is a tiny notepad filled with CVC and some other sight words that she knows.  It must have a hundred pages.  On each page is one word.  She loves this book.  We also went around together and taped up CVC words around the house.  For example on the oven door is "hot," "pan," and "pot."  These little things just make her so proud.  These things are so much fun.

As far as providing her the opportunity to progress.  I just read to her.  I run my finger under the words (just started doing this.)  Every now and then I mention a "silent e" in the word or how "ea" says /ee/ in that word.  she responds really well to this, to the point of having memorized many of the rules.  But I am not confident enough to start asking her to commit these lessons yet.  I do know that I can ask her to find any word on a given page, and she does really well with this.

Keep your expectations low.  I could expect my DD to read an early reader book sometime soon.  But, that is just stress on me, and then I would be putting that stress on her.  No.  I remind myself that anything she is doing with letters and phonics is pretty advanced for her age right now, and I just enjoy what she is doing with very little effort or stress.

When she asks about a bigger word I spell it out for her but then tell her it is just too big to go in her teeny tiney "baby book."  She doesn't seem to have any problems with this.

Starfall is great.  DD loves that too.  I was surprised by how much stuff is on that site.  There was also a BOB app I downloaded for my iPhone that DD devoured in a couple of weeks and now thinks is boring.  I have yet to find another app that seems appropriate for her.  Still looking.  I will gladly take reccomendations.

[tankgirl73]

Check out progressivephonics.com -- it's free and the little books are so cute.  We've used these with DD who was also an 'early reader'.

Don't be shocked or disappointed if she plateaus along the way.  DD has gone through stages where something suddenly clicks, but then she doesn't "progress" beyond that level for months and months and months... it's just how it goes, it's not necessarily a regularly-paced level increase in pace with the phonics books levels.  She could read simple CVC words when she was 3... she's now 4, and still mostly just reads simple CVC words though she does a few more complex words as well.  It's not the same progress over the course of a year that you'd expect to see from a 5 to a 6yo.  

I was reading pretty fluently when I was 3, so I'm constantly struggling against the feeling of 'hurry up hurry up, you're LATE sweetie!" lol... but it's more important that she keeps having fun with it, which she is!  

Oh, they will also go through phases of interest and disinterest.  Don't let the disinterest phases get you down.  DD got fed up with any kinds of reading 'practice' or 'lessons' for awhile, so we dropped it.  Recently she's getting back into an interest, trying to read everything she sees.  We expect her next 'leap' is heading down the pipe... :)