Those that taught your preschoolers to read

TamponMary · November 2010

Did you use any books or other educational tools? I want to work on reading w/ my daughter. She just turned 5 and knows her letters and sounds. I think she is ready to start learning how to read, but I have no idea where to start. I have no clue how to teach someone to read. Thanks!

howleyshell · November 2010

Stalking your post for help.

Dylan sounds out words well but I have zero clue how to teach him all the exceptions to the regular letter sounds (ie: when EY makes the "E" sound instead of the short e and short y sounds)

He'd be fully reading by now if it weren't for a Mom who doesn't know how to explain this to him!

I hope there's some tool that someone will share with you/us!

TamponMary · November 2010

howleyshell:

Stalking your post for help.

Dylan sounds out words well but I have zero clue how to teach him all the exceptions to the regular letter sounds (ie: when EY makes the "E" sound instead of the short e and short y sounds)

Exactly!

JMay · November 2010

I don't know if its appropriate that I answer this post, because while my DD is reading, it's not as if she picks up anything and reads like a pro. But, she does read many words in books - she recognizes "sight" words and sounds out others. All we've done is read like crazy, often selecting books from the library for beginning readers.

We love the "Biscuit" series. Also my DD goes nuts for beginner reader books by John Bianchi and Frank Edwards - "Is the Spaghetti Ready", "New at the Zoo", and "Snug as a Big Red Bug"

She has a few workbooks (from Walmart for about $5) with letter exercises - we do those a few times each week. BUT - so far, she sees them as "fun projects", not "work. =-)

When running errands, I'll ask her to spell various words - for instance, if we are next to a sign at a stop light, we'll talk about the letters we see. If we're shopping, she'll hold a cereal box and spell off words so I can tell her what they say. If I have time, I'll write my shopping list in block letters, so she can help me by crossing off items as we go.

Lastly, we let her go to 2 websites, both which help foster reading. The first is Starfall (www.starfall.com) Do the activities in order - first "ABC's", then "Learn to Read", etc.

The second website, Poisson Rouge, has fewer words, but click on the castles for words in a variety of languages (english, greek, mandarin, french) https://www.poissonrouge.com/poissonrouge.php

GL - Can't wait to see what others say!

bim38106 · November 2010

I don't have much time to respond, but I just wanted to say a good place to start is with sight words and Dolch words (if you google, you'll find the lists by age).

Another good thing to start is games with letter combinations and digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh...).

Also, rhyming games with simple words: cat, hat, bat, where you're just switching out the first letter.

When you read, point to each word so that she understands that each word makes up an individual word. She'll start to pick up on it.

Then there's story sequencing, which is a prereading skill. In my class, I used to print out pictures of familiar stories and have the kids put them in order.

ABCteach has some good free games and activity ideas, and booklets to print out and such.

KellyMichelle · November 2010

I taught DS his letter sounds and, like the previous poster, we used Starfall.com. We also read the BOB books, but i'm not sure how much they helped. Really he just taught himself. He loves words and LOVES reading.

Blair11884 · November 2010

We did the Dolch sight words as well last year. Also, you can google pre-k sound blends. Like the pp said, blends like ma, me, mi, mo, mu all with the short vowel sound. Then you can do the consonant blends such as bl, th, wh, ch. etc. DS1 goes to a private Christian school for pre-k and they follow the ABEKA curriculum and we started with ABEKA summer readers last year. HTH! and Good luck!

Halo79RN · November 2010

love the leapfrog reading dvds (word factory, storybook factory). www.starfall.com .. great site! dc love it. and just read a lot. I point at the words as I read sometimes stopping and asking what word dd thinks it is. as far as the hard words/sounds th,sh,ch... I've explained when those letters stand close to each other, they make a new sound. we just review it as we come to a word. dd is 4 1/2 and reading many words but not a whole book... she's recognizing some sight words. we also love the early reader books like biscut and there are some fancy nancy early reader books... love scholastic for these books!

CubbyMama · November 2010

Ditto starfall, BOB books, sight words, and the other ideas the PP's mentioned. I teach kinder, and once kids know their sounds, the next step is getting them to blend them into words--orally first. We play "Guess My Word" and I make the sounds, with a slight pause in between: /c/ /a/ /t/ and they guess the word: cat! At first, they totally don't get it and yell out random answers, but if you slow it down for them and drag out each sound, faster and faster, until the word is obvious, they start getting it...and before long, you can just play the regular way and they get it. Then they can read simple words by doing the same thing: pointing at each letter, making its sound, and putting them together to make the word.

There are other links and ideas in the 2nd blog in my sig, under "Early Reading Skills."

CubbyMama · November 2010

howleyshell:

Dylan sounds out words well but I have zero clue how to teach him all the exceptions to the regular letter sounds (ie: when EY makes the "E" sound instead of the short e and short y sounds)

He'd be fully reading by now if it weren't for a Mom who doesn't know how to explain this to him!

I hope there's some tool that someone will share with you/us!

You just teach those things as they come up, and you'll be surprised at how much they remember! If you're reading together, or he's trying to write a word and asks how to spell "car," for example, you can say, "AR are called the pirate letters, because when they get together they make a different sound: ARRRRR!" Maybe list a few other words that use that spelling pattern, if he seems interested. Maybe it sticks, maybe it doesn't, but all of those odd spelling rules are actually 1st/2nd grade skills and beyond--just reading sight words (the, and, my...) and basic CVC words (rat, pig, dot) are already things they'd learn in kindergarten and would be way ahead of the game to know before then.

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