Do you actively try to teach your 3.5 yo to read?

0 votes

So our oldest is 3.5 yo. She has, via osmosis (e.g. ABC song, being read to etc), learned her letters. She likes to 'read' sometimes by repeating back a book she has memorized page by page and 'write' letters (e.g. scribbles or a few letters). To date, we have avoided actively trying to teach her to read and write because we generally felt it was something you learned when you were ready and didn't want any pressure she might feel about trying to sit down and learn it to negatively effect her (hopefully) ultimate joy in reading and learning.

That said, as I mentioned, she seems actively interested in learning to read and write and I want to support that. So do we keep doing what we are doing (read to her, answer questions about reading but no more), do a bit more (helping with sounds, trying to encourage her to write actual words etc), or do a lot more (start following some kind of reading program that we work on every day).

Topics:
Preston

Los Altos, CA

Nov 28, 2009, edited Nov 28, 2009

3 Answers

  • 2 votes

    Short answer -- sure! Yes! Offer it and keep going as far as she is interested.

    Our first two children started reading in earnest a little before they turned 4 (they are precocious children all around, so don't hold that as a standard but rather as an example that it is possible). I will admit that we "taught" them. I won't pretend that they did it on their own. But it certainly didn't hamper their interest in reading!

    Our youngest is now 3, and doesn't seem to be quite where they were with certain skills, but when I took her to the 1st grader's classroom with me a few weeks ago, I was helping the students with their sight words and she asked me to teach them to her. I didn't, quite, but we started talking to her a lot about phonics and such because she is suddenly interested.

    If you are going to teach your kids to read, I encourage you to learn a little about the basic approach and arm yourself with appropriate books, games, or whatever, so the child isn't overwhelmed or frustrated. (I knew a preschooler who was starting to read and her father got upset that she was "lazy" and was reading words like "the" from memory rather than sounding them out. He didn't realize that "the" is considered a sight word and is not usually sounded out.)

    A good approach is to first teach letter sounds, then discuss phonics breakdowns of simple words like "cat". Also, let them memorize words that occur often in favorite books, and stop and point to the word when you get to it. The child gets to "read" that word -- just nice for confidence.

    Then what I did when they showed they could recognize and memorize some whole words, is I made a little book with pictures of the child at the amusement park: "The red ride goes up and down." etc. It had 21 distinct words in it. Then I made a game of teaching them the 21 words from a list or flash cards, and when they had learned them passably, I gave them the book. WOW! The child could now read a whole book -- about themselves at a favorite place -- by themselves! WOW!

    Ultimately you don't want them to memorize every word they read (this is called the "whole word" approach and was popular for a while but is out of vogue again in favor of phonics). But some words are sight words and are memorized, and in the beginning the memorization of a few words can be a confidence booster.

    When we had learned to sound out some words and memorize some words, we shifted to the Clifford phonics book sets which we highly recommend.

    But while I think it's great to encourage her, it is too young to require her to follow a formal daily program at this age. (Nothing wrong with some stickers or incentives, maybe, but back off when she resists.)

    Oh, and writing is often a lot harder from a physical standpoint, so don't expect too much too soon.

    Great answer! Thanks for the link to Clifford. I'm saving it for when mine is ready. 

    - Brian, Jul 12, 2010
    Ajrallen

    Fairport, NY

    Nov 28, 2009

  • 2 votes

    Our oldest, now 5, learned to read by osmosis when he was a young 2. He wrote his first word at 29 months. We read to him about an hour a day from the time he was maybe a month old (since I didn't know what else to do with him) and somehow he just picked it up from that. We gave him some help in figuring out the sounds different letters made and sometimes we pointed out words on the page and that was about it. At his 3-year appointment he could read all the signs on the wall at the doctor's office (like "good night, sleep right" which clearly had to be read, not sounded out). It was very impressive and a great party trick.

    However, he couldn't follow the plots of stories and couldn't tell you what they were about. So even though at 4 he was reading, alone, books for 3rd and 4th graders, we took those all away and substituted storybooks for 2-4 year olds which we read to him. Then after each story, we would have him tell us the plot. At the beginning he couldn't even tell us who the story was about. Now he can tell us the main characters and what they did. So he's about age-appropriate in understanding.

    We have a 3-year old who, like your daughter, seems somewhat interested in learning to read. He likes drawing the letter "H" (the first letter in his name) and can also do a "T" and an "I". He can tell us the sounds most of the letters make (if you believe in tv, check out the Brainy Baby letters and numbers DVDs). He reads the letters on a stop sign but can't spell "stop" without looking. But he can tell us great stories and knows what the stories we're reading are about. It seems like what he can do is more important than reading words.

    For your daughter, I certainly wouldn't push any sort of reading program. She's 3! I would just keep reading her stories, maybe once she knows a word point it out on the page or have her do so, ask things like "what letter does 'pig' start with? what letter does 'wig' start with? what letter does 'zig' start with?" but I wouldn't do anything formal. Just make it fun.

    Anonymous

    Nov 27, 2009

  • 0 votes

    You ARE teaching them to read. Or, maybe more accurately, you're teaching them to enjoy reading. By being mindful of when they are interested in their books and letters, and encouraging that interest with activities, you're getting them to think positively of all that, and personally I think that's the most important part of it.

    Anyone who is involved enough as a parent to be on this site doesn't have to worry about whether their child will grow up with the skills to read, so just try to keep it enjoyable for you and your child, and it will happen.
    thisislarry

    dad to a 10yo and a 8yo
    Palo Alto, CA

    Dec 2, 2009



Log in to answer this question.