Reading ?

SportyChic24

My DD is doing very well with reading in class (she is in the top reading group), sometimes needs a push because like most gets fustrated when she cannot get a word. I am interested in your suggestions on your best/favorite items/learning tools/toys for teaching to read for an almost 5 year old. My thoughts are that her birthday is coming up and as a bonus gift it could be something for her learning to read. We point out words in books, spell them and sound them out. I would like either something we can do together as parent/child and something she might be able to do on her own.
Thanks

Angela814

Our elementary school does parent presentations from the reading specialists in kindergarten and 1st grade. From what I've learned there, the best thing you can do to teach a child to read is read to them and talk about the story. Our schools don't even start to teach reading until kindergarten, and they don't teach traditional "sounding out" of words anyway. Reading is one of those things that just seems to click with different kids at different times. DD1 was like your DD at the end of kindergarten. She could read Dr. Seuss type books but would get frustrated with them easily. Early in 1st grade, she just started reading without any complaints. She was doing some easy chapter books by mid-year, and now in 2nd grade is reading above grade level. I have to stop her from reading some nights to get her in bed on time. I guess that doesn't really answer your question though. We haven't used any reading/teaching tools. I'd just let her pick out some new books that you can read together.

barnwife

Phonics. Children who understand phonics end up better readers in my experience. I recommend The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading or Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. 

Follow that with lots of time reading. And more time reading. 

neverblushed

I'm not sure what you're looking for:

--a cool present that will reward your DD for learning to read, but that is not specifically an instructional toy or game itself.

--a cool present that will reward your DD for learning to read, but also help her continue to refine her reading skills.

--a toy or game that will help push her over the edge from sounding out words to fluent, independent reading.

If you're looking for #2, why not try books?  My kids learned to read right around the same age as your DD, and during this time I switched from reading picture books to chapter books at bedtime.  In fact, my mom got my kids a great book called "You Read To Me And I'll Read To You" which is a collection of classic American children's stories.  It alternates between an easy one that the child can read and a harder one that the parent reads to the child.  Here's the amazon url:  https://www.amazon.com/You-Read-Me-Ill-Stories/dp/0375810838/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1391786294&sr=8-7&keywords=you+read+to+me+i'll+read+to+you

 If you're looking for #3, maybe a set of the Highlights magazine stories with pictures in them.  When my kids were learning to read, and were just on the cusp of really, truly reading independently, they loved these simple stories in which some of the harder words were replaced with a picture or symbol.  Reading these helped my kids over the hump to fluent reading!

momofmanyinthemitten

barnwife said:

Phonics. Children who understand phonics end up better readers in my experience. I recommend The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading or Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. 

Follow that with lots of time reading. And more time reading. 

We're using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and a close friend is using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I taught one child (long ago) using the BOB books.