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Reading readiness: what is the next step?

AgrippaRidesAgainAgrippaRidesAgain member
in Pre-School and Daycare

DS is starting to show strong interest in reading lately.  We're churning through short chapter books, he's pretending to read them to us and making up his own stories, and walking around the house with paper and pencil pretending to write.  He asks us how we know what the book says, and wants to know how to spell various words.  The problem is that he doesn't know the alphabet yet and is kind of resistant to learning letters.

I've never been a sit and drill my kid kind of person.  If he's interested, we do things related to what he's interested in and he learns it that way.  If he's uninterested, I don't bother.  But, now we're kind of stuck.  I think he really wants to be able to read, but he doesn't want to learn letters and sounds.  Suggestions? Should we just keep going with the flow?  Even letter related crafts and games are rejected.

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Re: Reading readiness: what is the next step?

  • cmh06cmh06
    When DD was 2 we got the Leap Frog DVD's and put them on and she learned her letters and letter sounds w/in 2 weeks.  We've also used the Preschool Prep DVDs for sight words.  DD loved them and picked the words up real quick.  She then started finding the words in books.  We do a lot of environmental reading like stop signs, Target sign, cereal boxes, etc.  She is doing really good with sounding out words now when we read stories.  Maybe pick a letter a day and do things with that letter.  Make a game out of seeing how many times he can find the letter.  Talk about the sounds, etc. 
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  • Jen&LenJen&Len
    If you're okay with TV, the Leap Frog Letter Factory was amazing with DS.  We started playing it for him at 14 months because he loved the little songs (and I was preggo with DD and exhausted at the time, so he watched it a LOT!).  By 16 months, he knew all his letters and their phonetics!  I didn't teach him a single letter.  They have a few reading DVD's afterwards that DS enjoys as much.  He can sound out very simple words and he's pretty good at telling us what letter a word starts with when we ask him.
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  • ss+elss+el member

    Would he play with an alphabet toy? DS loves his Fridge Phonics toys. His single letter one has capital letters and his triple letter one has lower case letters. (apparently, though, "styles may vary") He already knew the capital letters when we bought the triple letter one and then learned the lower case ones in maybe 3 days.

    https://www.amazon.com/Fridge-Words-Magnetic-Word-Builder/dp/B0002SC7CE/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1323876928&sr=1-2

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  • howleyshellhowleyshell member

    Another vote for the Leap Frog DVD's.

    Once he knows letters and sounds I highly recommend the BOB books.

     

    Our IF journey: 1 m/c, 1 IVF with only 3 eggs retrieved yielding Dylan and a lost twin, 1 shocker unmedicated BFP resulting in Jace, 3 more unmedicated pregnancies ending in more losses.
    Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
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  • AgrippaRidesAgainAgrippaRidesAgain member
    Thanks! I did get the Leapfrog letter fridge magnet toy for Christmas, so hopefully he likes it. :-) I will check out the videos and start playing environmental letter/word finding games.
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  • Wally3Wally3 member
    Another vote for leapfrog letter factory.  Also, start talking letters.  Teach you DS the first letter in his name.  That was the first letter my ds learned.  Then write a bunch of words I did mom, dad, and his name and had him pick out his name.  He liked the sense of ownership.  A friend got him a big bag of foam letter stickers and we would talk about what stickers belong with who m sticker for mommy. You can play look and find for words in his books.  Also, let him "read" by reading to him a book he likes/knows and leaving out words; rhyming type books work great for this.

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  • Spin313Spin313 member
    If you don't mind TV, I highly recommend SuperWhy and Word World. DS knows how to spell and recognize so many words from watching these shows. Also, we have foam letters and DS loves practicing spelling words.
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  • DoughGirlDoughGirl

    I second Fridge Phonics and Super Why. DS Turned 3 in September and can read the Level 1 books of the Random House Step Into Reading series and most of the Dr. Seuss "I Can Read It All By Myself" books. He spells everything he knows and constantly asks how to spell random words.  He rarely uses the Fridge Phonics base anymore since it's only three letters and he's moved on to 4 and 5 letter words.

     We've been playing with alphabet and phonics flash cards for at least a year.  It's so awesome listening to him sound out a word he doesn't immediately recognize.

    I have to add that I get a great deal of criticism from friends, family and even strangers about him reading at this age. We never pushed it, but always encourage it. We've been told we're not letting him be "normal". I laugh. Hey, your kid likes trucks, mine likes books. Neither is wrong.

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  • Court0026Court0026 member
    Leap Frog Letter Factory!  Again! 
    O 10.08 & MJ 6.10
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