He's ready but what do I do? (reading)

[CB73]

Hi.

DS (just turned 4) has been asking for us to read street signs for a long time. He knows the alphabet and the phonetics for each letter, and is sight-reading a handful of words. Seriously, it just happened. (!)

Now is is asking me, "how do you spell pavement?" "How do you spell excavator?" "How do you spell demolish?"

So what do I do here? (Those were all asked as we were in the car today!)

Just spell them for him? Make the phonetic sounds as best I can whenever he is willing to hear it and walk him through the words? What about the words that have silent letters? Do I ignore them as he sounds out the words? :

I feel very much as if he he is on this bubble and will just READ one day; I don't want to blow it by messing with his very obvious fascination with spelling and reading.

Any help on how to provide gentle support would be very, VERY much appreciated.

[lakesuperiormom]

one thing my dd and i do is get a large piece of paper and i write a word on it that she tells me to and then she copies it and "reads" it. she will not cooperate with phonics or any reading instruction. one day she is just going to read as well! we use lots of colors when writing and she loves it!

[ABand3]

Your ds sounds just like my oldest ds - he taught himself to read at 4, just by asking questions, spending a lot of time by himself looking at books, and having us read to him - all his choice. My advice is just follow his lead, answer his questions, but don't overthink trying to teach reading - he's nearly there on his own. Some kids just figure it out, and all you need to do is give them what they ask for. If your son is asking you how to spell words, just tell him the letters, or write it down (or if you don't know, tell him that and show him how you use a dictionary). You won't hinder him or steer him wrong by answering his questions, and doing what he asks. My son went through stages of wanting only to look at books himself, to wanting only the same book read out loud over and over, to asking about street signs and product labels and every other written word in the enviroment. We just followed his lead, and he knew what he needed to know & when.

[moominmamma]

You are not going to wreck anything by answering his questions. If that's not what's going to propel him onwards, he'll just stop asking those particular sorts of questions, or he'll ask in a somewhat different way. Kids ask questions because they have an inkling that something about the answer is going to help them figure stuff out. What they learn might not be something obvious like, how to read the word "pavement", but instead something more subtle, like that words with lots of different sounds have lots of letters, or how to hear what the last letter of a word is, or how to get your parent to take an interest in your questions.

I've had four 4-year-olds over the years. If they asked me, I'd spell the word, and I might comment something like "sure is a long word, with lots of different sounds squeezed together, isn't it?" Nothing more to it than that for me. They all ended up being early readers, though I really couldn't predict, based on when they got their phonetic pre-reading skills down, when things would really take off. My current 4yo has been at the stage of your ds for over a year now, and while she's gradually gaining skills, she hasn't yet had fluency click the way I know it will.

Miranda

[mom2kbeth]

I would just be spelling everything he asks me to Holden, who i s3 1/2 and very interested lately in writing his letters, will often ask me to spell something, then he will run away, come back with a paper that has As, Bs, Cs, Hs, Ls, Ms, Xs, Os and Ys on it, saying that he spelled the word he had just asked me. I encourage it even though it is obviously not how you spell the word, because I want him to stay interested in it. But at this point, he is not able to do more than what he is doing. Your ds sounds like he is able. Does he like to write, or just to spell? If he likes writing, maybe he can make his own "dictionary" - whenever he wants to know how to spell a word you can either write it for him or spell it for him so he can write it on a paper, then illustrate it and bind it into a book. If he just likes spelling, then play spelling bee. kenna and I do this in the car a lot - outof the blue I will just yell "spelling bee" and say a word and she will have to spell it. She is 7 - if it is a word that has a silent "e" (a rule she knows about), and she spells it wrong, I will tell her that it was a great try, because it sure does sound like that, but english is a weird language and that word really has a silent e at the end. if it is a rule she just doesn't yet know and she is in a good mood I will mention it, if not or if it is a really hard to spell word, I will just let her go with the phonetic spelling. But she will pop up with "spelling bee" too now and quiz me on words, which is also fun for her, especially when I spell them wrong and she gets to "catch" me and call me out, lol.

[CB73]

Thank you!

(and honestly, I know I won't really truly 'wreck' his interest )

I enjoy showing him things and giving him new ways to look at things, even if he just says, "I see." and walks away. I am just thrilled at how fast he has developed this interest and passion for sounds and letters. I love language!

His handwriting is fairly illegible, so I am working on making a movable alphabet for him. My thought was to just leave it for him to discover and play with when he chooses.

Watching him have 'ah ha!' moments bring such joy to my heart!
(and it is super-cute to see him talking to his younger brother about sounds too)

[tallanvor]

An idea for you. Although, come to think of it, I don't know if they still have these. A few years ago the magnetic poetry things were really popular. My sister found one that was just letters and numbers. We have those on our fridge and my kids will walk by and start spelling things out on there. Or sometimes just mixing the letters up. My son (4) will sometimes just sing the alphabet song over and over and put the letters in order, although his favorite thing is to spell out his full name (still needs some help on Conrad, though). Sometimes he'll be over there and will ask me how to spell something and so we sometimes do it by phonics sounds so he has to remember the sound, letter, and then find it. He likes that.

Crystal

[Rivka5]

I second the recommendations for magnetic letters, or some other kind of moveable alphabet. You can pick out the letters and put them together as you spell words for him. Magnetic letters can also be used to "stamp" letters onto a Magnadoodle - my daughter wants me to stamp out words all the time. Like your son, she seems to be trying to work out something about reading, via spelling.

[Free Thinker]

Yes, magnetic letters!!! My DD is 4, too, and has been asking for a long time. I got the OPGTTR and the magnetic tiles that go w/ it. SHe doens't like the book since she already knew her phonic sounds, she justneeded to learn to put them together. THe tile letters have been fantastic! We also did a bunch of worksheets I found on-line and some easy readers. Starfall has some that you can print out and make a book out of!

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by CB73

Now is is asking me, "how do you spell pavement?" "How do you spell excavator?" "How do you spell demolish?"

So what do I do here? (Those were all asked as we were in the car today!)

p-a-v-e-m-e-n-t

It is that simple. Only "excavator", I'd need a pen and paper.

We have a MagnaDoodle in the car.


Pat

[CB73]

I need pen/paper in the car for some words he asks me to spell! (or even better, something with a spell check!)

We have magnetic letters, but only one single set which means too few vowels. I need to get additional common letters -maybe putting magnets on the back of Scrabble game letters? (He uses an extra set of Scrabble letters as 'lumber' in his constructions trucks, sorting by letter some times )

Thanks for the reminder! And a good idea to get ones that I can use with him on the magnadoodle board too. We have a personal sized chalk board that he loves but adding the magnetic ones is a great idea!

Oh, but today he barely asked me for any spelling, of course.