My son is 3 1/2. He has been OBSESSED with letters for over a year now. Probably closer to a year and a half. He only knows capital letters, but he picks them off of everything, cereal boxes, stop signs, store signs, books, you name it. I'm wondering if I should start teaching him how to read real words or if he's too young. In my opinion, he's a smart little boy, but I'm sure every parent thinks that about their children. I don't know if he's too young to even try or if it's possible. I don't want to force him to do something if he's just not ready for it. And if I do start teaching him how to read, how in the world do I go about doing that? Maybe work on lower case letters? Then what? Is there some kind of program or learning method. I've heard people talk about phonics, but what exactly is that and how do you teach that? Also, is it ok to be teaching him writing? He already knows how to write most of them in upper case, but is this something that we should be working on? I'm just really worried that he's too young and maybe we shouldn't bother and maybe I just think he's a genius but he's not really. But again, he is so obsessed with them and has no problems writing them. We are working on his fine motor skills with things like puzzles, lacing, dominoes, etc to help with the writing. Thanks for any help.
at his age I would just start with letter sounds. So when he points to a letter "A" on a box you can teach him that "A" says ah and "A" says ay, teach him to recognize both the capital and lower case letters, and then when he gets the sounds you can ask questions like "There's a letter "C" like Cat what other words start with "C"?
From talking to lots of parents, it seems there is a tendency for the firstborns to be early readers--there are exceptions, of course. Since my daughter already knew her letters and was always dragging out a stack of books as if she could read them and she wanted to learn how, I began teaching my daughter at three years old to read using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This is not to say that I think every child should learn to read that young or that every child should use this particular book. Although it worked for us, some really love it and some really hate it. We took several months to go through the book because there were times she stalled out--I think that is just typical for the age she was, but she still learned and retained well--and we would back up a bit and review. If she went through it and past the place she stalled out, we continued until the next stall. If she stalled twice in the same place, I would put it away for a few weeks and then back up a bit and go again. My daughter was reading 2nd grade level books on her own when she turned four. As to writing, I began when my daughter could hold a pencil, as her fine motor skills took a bit to catch up to mental abilities. If your child can manipulate a pencil well enough then I don't see why he could not start that young, but I would limit it to just a few minutes a day or every other day.
When my older daughter started noticing letters (also at age 3), we bought some large magnetic ones and put them on the fridge. She would play with them, and then bring me one. I would say "B! buh buh buh... bottle!" She would laugh and repeat it, and then toddle off to find another letter. (A word of warning here... Stepping on letters in the dark hurts!! Don't put out too many at one time!) I'm sure you're already reading books to your son, but keep going, and point out the letters he knows in them. We also let our daughters play on www.starfall.com They had fun, and learned a LOT about letters and sounds. My little one knew how to read a LOT of words before I started sitting down with her to "teach" her, and I think she learned a lot of what she knew on Starfall.
If he is showing interest then I don't think he is too young. My oldest also was learning her letters at three, and so I started teaching her some basic phonics. I made sure she knew all her upper and lower case letters and the sounds that each made. We did this mainly through normal reading time...while reading stories I would stop every so often and ask her what a certain letter was and what sound it made. We continued on with this, and by four she was beginning to read independently. Her writing has lagged behind, although she has been doing more and more lately. Writing is often a matter of waiting on their fine motor skills to develop, and if you push it before then they will only end up frustrated.
My daughter started expressing a desire to read at about that age. We never did a formal sit-down reading program, we just talked about the sounds, sang that Old-McDonald-tune song that someone told me about online ("the a says ah, the a says ah, every letter makes a sound the a says ah"), and I would help her sound out whatever words she wanted. I decided at that age I would let her lead, and looking back now I think I could probably have been more encouraging but I did want her to want it and stay enthused, rather than forcing it on her. So I say, go with encouraging but no need to go formal. As for writing, she just started picking up the writing on her own. I would do some printouts to color, she would trace the big letters with her finger, and we would talk about them, but I am very unsystematic so I doubt we even covered all 26 of them. But it was a natural progression for her from reading to writing. I also didn't stress about the "how" so much; my 5 yo still flips some of his letters, and I point it out to him. I don't make him rewrite it, but he usually wants to. I figure that will eventually get worked out as long we keep doing a lot of reading and writing, so I don't stress over it. All of that said, I essentially unschool my kids to age 8, and then get a (very) little more formal, so take my advice with that in mind.
I used the 100 ez lessons as well. I would suggest you read that, or some other free phonics programs (I think progressive phonics, starfall, etc) so that you can learn how to teach phonics. That was the hardest for me to figure out. After that use what you find to help teach him to read, without using the program. If he still hasn't started reading at around 5 or later then I would start with the program. I used the 100 with my boy when he was that young, and he did fine, but I wish I would have waited, because he would have caught on quicker just a few months later. But like someone said earlier we would work through it then back off and work on something else. I think with my other kids, since I now know how to teach phonics, I am going to do it without using the book until they are much older, just to fine tune things I have missed in the end. YOu might get the leap frogs fridge phonics, or the other one that has 3 letters and spells words. That is how my daughter who is 3 learned her letter sounds. I didn't do anything other then put up with the songs for a few weeks. The letters are great to use for spelling words and reading latter on.
I think it's a little early to start any type of book, even an oral lessons primer like 100 EZ Lessons. I'd suggest doing like Birbitt said and just begin tagging the sounds to the letters on whenever he ID's one. Phonics is just what sounds letters make, and there are a couple of different approaches, but at his age I'd just stick with the standard where you teach a says /a/ like apple, b says /b/ like ball, etc. Teach the hard sounds of consonants - c says /c/ like cat (not the soft /s/ sound), and g says /g/ like gift (not the soft /j/ sound). I'd also recommend teaching the short vowel sounds; there is a method that teaches all the sounds of the vowels, but I think it might be a little early to try and introduce that. LeapFrog DVDs are fantastic, and they have some refrigerator toys out that help with attaching sounds to letters. Reading is one of those things that eventually, at some point indeterminable by the teacher, a light goes off in the child's brain and they just "get it" one day. Can't really rush that, but knowing the sounds is certainly a precursor to reading.
I would make it 100% about them and not a calendar. My now 7 yr old was reading small small books by the time he turned 3. I am talking BOB books. I never taught him, I just read to him all the time. I have no clue how he learned. He was reading small chapter books by 5. My others, who are 14, 13, and 5, they did not even know their alphabets when they turned 5. My now 14 yr old is an avid reader and advanced enough to be in the gifted program at the public schools and always tests 99th percentile in reading. Yet, he learned his alphabet around 6 yrs old and only started to read around 7. My now 13 yr old is reading at 90th percentile according to tests. She does not like to read and was hearing impaired and has auditory processing disorder. I had to work with her a lot, but used computer games and had her read aloud to me. I also used phonics based spelling with her. But she did not homeschool until after 2nd grade. My 5 yr old just learned the alphabet in the last couple weeks. He is suddenly very interested. He is not asking about sounds but I am trying to slowly start them through games. Like lets look for things that start with a B type games. Not getting anywhere, but I don't push it.
Phillip wanted to read at three. I started teaching him his letters, and after a while he kind of petered out. So we backed off. My oldest one, on the other hand, wanted to learn. I taught her short vowel sounds (she already knew consonant sounds), and she taught herself from then on. The big thing is to let them lead. As long as they want to work on it, fine. But don't push it. Give them your grocery list and have them check things off. "OK, Mommy has bananas. That's the word that starts with a 'B'...." Get books with a repeating line..."Not me, said the dog. Not me, said the cat...." And I'll bet after doing that a few times, they'll recognize "Not me"! Just make it FUN!
Yes if this is your "first" they do seem to learn to read early. But anywhere from 3 1/2 or 4 yo to even 8 is normal to learn to read. Don't do any formal lessons, let him sit in your lap and read with him. Even though he seems willing now, you could have an acadmic flunky by grade 2 if you push too hard.. Reading can be achieved at this age and they are perfectly fine as long as they are not pushed and they "lead" as was mentioned before. Writing on the other hand is ANOTHER whole different skill.:shock: Their fine motor skills have to catch up. Trying to teach him to write is like you trying to write with your big toe. Their fine motor skills are developed halfway through first grade and trying to write any early can be VERY frustrating. A lot of ps teachers try to push the writing so early because they say that reading and writing are connected. They are---but not necessarily at the same time. Right now your focus should be on 'readiness skills" for fine motor devlopment. Arts and playing that will fine tune his motor skills like playdoh, writing with a Q tip, the mechanics of scissors, push pin activities, coloring if he likes it, lacing, beading, painting and other pinscher grasping skills. Finger painting with chocolate and sweet koolaid. Cathing a ball so that he uses his WHOLE arm to strengthen and ready those muscles for writing and also helps his eye and hand coordination to close his arms around the ball. Some good things to do are have him lay on his stomach on the floor and color or do an activity with his arms..(good body strengthening for writing). You will see that a lot of problems with writers later on in the upper grades is that they have "loosey goosey" muscles. Stand at the refrigerator, write on the glass sliding doors (of course with washable material) Lay on his back and write UNDER the table on paper. So very hard to do and so very good to strengthen those muscles.
I haven't read the other posts, so I hope I'm not repeating anything. I would start working on recognition of the lower case letters. Keep it fun by making games out of it. Play matching games where he has to match the capital letter to the lower case letter. If he's very active, you could place letter cards on the floor. Then, when you say a letter, he has to hop (or skip, crawl, etc.) to that letter. After he can recognize both capital & lower case letters, start working on letter sounds. Remember to keep it fun for him & back off if he starts getting frustrated with it. Starfall.com is a fun, free site that helps them learn to read. Also, I really like Explode the Code for phonics instruction. Ds started Explode the Code with the 2nd book, so I'm not sure what the 1st book teaches. It's really helped ds with sounding words out, spelling, and writing. Also, there's nothing wrong with teaching him to write at this age. Just remember to keep it fun & don't push it if his hand gets tired or he gets frustrated. He may enjoy writing the letters on a chalkboard or dry erase board, many kids find that to be fun. The main thing is to go at his pace & try to keep it light & fun. As you read to him, ask him to point out certain letters or point to a letter & ask him what it is. You can do the same thing when he starts learning words. Once he's reading words, have him help you read - he can read every other sentence or every other page, or you could focus on one word for the book & he reads that word every time it comes up.
My DD started putting together words right before her fourth birthday this past June. We started verbally when she started asking how things were spelled. I started to ask her what C-A-T spelled, and she would sound it out and tell me! She watched the letter factory and word factory dvd's by Leap Frog many times over the past year while I was doing school work with her older sibs. She truely learned all her letter sounds from those videos. So this year I am going to start her on Explode the code I and we will work on reading little phonics readers. I'm not worried about how fast we progress since she's four, but I want to work with her as long as she is interested in reading! For your son I would recommend introducing lower case letters (magnetic letters are great) and letter sounds. When he has most of those down, see if he can blend letters together into words. That skill took my daughter awhile to pick up even after she knew all her letter sounds. But when she started doing that, she just took off! Have fun!
