Interest in Reading - helpful resources?

LilyB2521 · January 2014

Hi - my DD, who is 4 1/2, has shown a lot of interest in reading lately. She's able to recognize several words on sight, and knows her alphabet very well. She's starting to learn how to sound out basic words that she isn't familiar with. I'm looking for resources that I can get her to help her along, as she's told me she wants to learn how to read. I'm not sure what to buy, or where to turn? Suggestions?

funchicken · January 2014

I would just keep reading to her. Check out some early readers at the library and see if she can sound out some words. Keep it fun. DD1 learned how to read last year in pre-k, and we didn't really do anything special.

ss+el · January 2014

DS learned sight reading mostly from using the e-reader function of his Innotab. My mom also has apps on her iPad that read to him and highlights the words as it goes along. Other than that, he has a TON of the stepped readers. Our favorites are the "I Can Read" ones, which our Barnes & Noble stores have an awesome selection of. Start with the yellow circle ones, though I found he could quickly handle most of the words in Level 1s and has handled a couple of Level 2s so far. (he was 5 in Oct.) I don't care for the Step Into Reading series, because it uses some pictures instead of words.

We just have him read to us and when he has trouble with a new or big word, I first try to help him sound it out by covering up syllables and having him piece the word together and will end up reading it to him if necessary. We started out having to feed him at least half the words, but now he reads about 80-95% of the words himself, depending on the subject.

(ETA - we don't push him, he only reads when it's his idea)

MarieS1212 · January 2014

groovygrl · January 2014

DD is the same age & same way & I was feeling rather inadequate at showing her how to sound out anything but the most basic words or talking about letter combinations like ch/ph/th/etc. ... I bought 'teach your child to read in 100 lessons' or something like that on amazon... we skipped some of the beginning lessons b/c she knows all the sounds of the letters but I like the approach they take- say words and letters slowly then the child repeats them quickly (to help w/ the concept of putting the sounds together), then they work on different rhyming words, then letter combos, different letter sounds (hard vowels vs soft etc). We do not do a 'lesson' each night or anything like that & I generally don't bring it up unless she says something about sounding out words, etc. Sometimes she'll want to sit & do it for 15-20 min and sometimes just a page.
The book is boring as all get out to look at, and most of the text is for the adult to read so it is definitely something that you have to try to make 'fun'. The other problem is she flips through & wants to practice "reading" full sentences that are further into the book & she can't do it so I have to try to explain to her how we need to go through the book in order.

74dragonfly · January 2014

Check out BOB books

neverblushed · January 2014

Both of my kids learned to read before K. It sounds like your daughter is ready for the next step! How exciting!

I didn't really know how to teach my kids, but I just sort of remembered how I learned, and used basic easy reader books. Here are some things that my kids particularly liked:

The Leap Frog "Talking Letter Factory" video helped them learn the sound for each letter. The "Talking Words Factory" helped them learn how letters smoosh together to make words.

I started them on easy, easy texts that used simple words and rhymes. I taught them how to sound out simple, consonant-vowel-consonant words: cat, but, cup, top. Then we moved on to slightly more challenging easy reader books until they had a combination of enough sight words and enough practice sounding out unfamiliar words (or guessing based on context) that they could read fluently. The whole process took about 4 months for my DD (who was a little more eager) and about 8 months for my son, who is less of a risk-taker.

meldoo2002 · January 2014

We really like the BOB books too.

kimber926 · January 2014

For sight words, we play the game Zingo. She loves it!

groovygrl · January 2014

kimber926 said:

For sight words, we play the game Zingo. She loves it!

That reminds me we also have the sight word spot it game and also a game called Pop sight words.

cpmich · January 2014

Ooka Island is also nice for kids who have passed leapfrog.

kristennd · February 2014

We used Bob Books too. And a lot of public libraries carry them, so you can try them out first for free.

WhitePicketFence · February 2014

DD1 has recently become very interested in learning to read, too. She knows all of her letters and is very good at sounding out words/letters thanks to her lessons in Pre-K. For now, we've just been working our way through some easy reader books and have focused on short words (cat, the, dog, hat, ball, etc).

LSU628 · February 2014

In addition to the BOB books, DD also loves the Biscuit books. We used to read to her every night, then we started letting her read the sight words that she knew in the books. Now she pretty much reads her bedtime story to us every night. To be fair, my mom works with her a lot (she was a K teacher) so in the time span between when DD gets out of school and I am finished up at my school she gets a lot of one on one reading time.

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