[lovelove2012]

thanks, any other info will be great.

[Overtherainbow]

There are two lots of words for young children, words that can be sounded and words that must be learnt.

Focus on the sounds, Ants on the apple a,a,a is a fun song to sing in the car when you go somewhere to help with this.

Immerse them in reading. Read to them regularly. Read signs around them. Let them see you reading for fun and reading for a purpose. Don't let them hear people whinge about reading.

Make some books together that are easy. Find a toy catalogue or a grocery catalogue and make an I like book. I like bananas, I like grapes, I like barbie, I like biscuits. They then add I and like to their reading vocab. and learn to use illustrations to help them read.

Try one with different names and different themes. Mummy plays tennis, Daddy plays piano, Brother (use their name) plays trucks, I play cubbies, etc.

Make lift the flap books. Where is the dog? The dog is under the rug. Where is the cat? The cat is under the chair. Where is the fish? The fish is under the plant. Where is child's name? xxxx is under the bed. This helps them learn the, is, where and question and statement.

Do colour books. The tractor is red. The grass is green. The ocean is blue. The car is yellow. Use things that interest them for the pictures.

Get them to write. I have had one learn to read through reading, one through writing. Each child is different. Let them write out the shopping list with you. Help them sound out the words and let them copy them. Smile the day you go to get the list and they've beaten you to it and added chocolate, tiny teddies and a remote control truck.

As they start to know some sight words and sounds share reading simple books. When you get to a word they know or can sound out stop and let them have a turn. Praise them for effort and getting it. Never get angry, you want it to be fun. If you share the reading then it keeps the flow going and they get the meaning of the story and can enjoy the story.

As they progress teach them ways to work out the word. Sound it out, look at the picture, does that word make sense? Make sure they can read 90% of words succesfully without your help. When they get to a word they don't know, slowly count to 3 in your head before you offer any help so they can try strategies themselves, then offer them a strategy. Praise for attempts and accuracy.

Use now as a good time to develop comprehension. Ask them questions about the story and discuss the stories you read. Your own little book club. Keep it fun.

I'm now at my last one learning to read. Each one has been different but they all love books and will usually choose a book over a toy. A love of reading is the main goal.

[Lightning_bug]

It honestly depends on the child. With DS it was a case of going for walks and pointing out words. Emphasisting the sounds.

Then, he wanted to know what was on my shopping list. At first he just memorised certain words such as milk but he was pretty quick to pick up that m sounds like mmmm. He's ask 'is chocolate on the list' and he'd have to check for himself.

What followed was pretty quick. So I got him a phonics set of books about Diego from Amazon. Because he was a huge diego fan, he was pretty hungry for them.

1/2 hour before bed every night was our time. Sometimes we read, sometimes colour and sometimes do those school activity books.

IMHO, find what he loves and use it as a means to introduce him to words, their sounds and then let him experiment with what he 'thinks' the word might be. At 5 DS is now reading chapter books and (sometimes unfortunately) correcting teachers when they try to simplify stories.

[howdo]

Sounding out is one decoding strategy. Naming letters is limited as a decoding strategy - sounding phonetically will give more success.

Whole word recognition for sight words is equally important.

Other strategies for teaching reading include rhymes, chants, direction (which way up does the book go? Which way do you turn the page? Reading left to right), predicting, illustrations/picture clues and modelled reading (you read and show them how you do it).

[sophiasmum]

I thought this was the job of school?

LOL only joking but only half joking, because I didn't do any teaching with my kids. I guess day care may have done some basic letter stuff. So when they started school, the school follows jolly phonics techniques & it works! They start to associate letters with sounds & actions & that's how they learn to read. Voila!

[BlondieUK]

I agree with Mum850.
DS1 has pretty good code breaking skills, but lacks the patience to have the 'strange' rules and exceptions listed - I htink even a neurotypical kid would get bored with this approach, lol....he certainly has some words by sight, and his reading has progressed well with the mix of phonics and 'whole word' approach.

[Kay1]

My son learned from Starfall.com.

[carolinej]

We started with some sight words using home made flashcards and the Ladybird reading program (Peter and Jane books that I learnt to read with). We also did the sounds of the letters, syllables, and are working on blend sounds and diagraphs at the moment.

[T2Mum]

Just let them play!! They will read when they are ready.

[carolinej]

Just let them play!! They will read when they are ready.

My two (3 and 5) adore reading and ask to do their reading books all the time. They get super excited when they can read signs and posters around the place. They get plenty of regular play time