Learning to Read ... When and How?

[ilovemygirl]

What was your preferred method, how long did it take and what age was your child when you started seriously working on it? 

My dd has known letters and the sounds they make for a long time. She can do a lot of things verbally like play a rhyming game where I ask her what rhymes with rat or sit and she will come up with the right answers and she'll even spell some words like tree or cat out loud correctly BUT she is soooooooo resistant to even looking at the words in a book much less trying to sound them out.

I try to be light and fun about it. I read picture books to her a lot and I thought she might be frustrated by not looking at the pictures so I made a point of giving her a moment to enjoy the pictures before asking her to follow my finger and look at the words but she is just not having it.

[4evermom]

Just read to her as much as she wants.  She'll take note of the words on the page when she's ready/interested.  And if she isn't resistant to the concept of learning to read and trusts that you won't turn her questions into lessons, she'll ask you what something says and remember what you tell her.  

[frugalmama]

I have to recommend Leap Frog DVDs - the entire set. It taught my daughter to read just after she turned four when we used then instead of doing formal school for reading since she was getting frustrated.

[revolting]

This has been on my mind. My young four year old really wants to learn how to read. And she can, a little bit. Just CVC words. It's just difficult for her. I keep going back and forth between trying to discourage the reading for when she's older and it'd probably be easier for her, and wanting to capitalize on her desire to learn to read while she has it (since she might not when she's older).