Value Bookshop's Reading Notes

I came across this screening tool that helps you to know your children’s reading readiness. It is recommended for 4 year old children but I did it with my 3 year old. There is a list of 20 questions. You sit with your child in front of the computer and read them the questions. They then select their answer from 4 choices.

My son’s score was in this range:

13-16 Correct
This child has mastered many of the necessary skills and is almost ready to learn how to read and write. Continue playful activities to help the child prepare to learn to read and write.

Not bad. Using this screening tool gave me a better idea of what kind of skills he needs to know. It also gave me an indication of what kind of activities I should do more with him.

If you have a child that is going to kindergarten soon (or already in kindergarten), take a few minutes to do this screening test. Click here for more information: Reading Readiness Screening Tool

How about a free e-course on How To Teach Your Children To Read and Spell?
Just sign up below.

Do you have a child just learning how to read? You’ve already heard that children learn best when learning is fun. So, here is one way to make reading fun for your kids. The next time you go to the store to do your grocery shopping, turn it into a reading adventure for your kids. Here are some ideas:

• Share your shopping list with them and have them cross out the items as you put them in your shopping cart
• Have a word hunt. Give them a list of words and see if they can find those words as you shop. It could be on the signboards, posters, labels or products.
• Write down the alphabets from A-Z. If they see something that starts with that alphabet, they can cross it out.
• Instead of a list of words, you could create a bingo card.

Reading doesn’t just have to be confined to books. Make use of your print-rich environment.

Click here for a FREE e-course: How To Teach You Children To Read and Spell

Children learn quickly when learning is enjoyable. Using games is a way to make learning fun. Here is an idea on how to make it fun for your children to learn to read high frequency words: Use the memory game.  Some people call it the concentration game or matching game.

How to do it?
Select the words that you want your children to learn by sight. Write them on individual index cards. Make sure each word is written on 2 different cards. So if you have a list of 10 words, you should have 20 cards. Shuffle them around and lay them out face down on a table or floor. Have your child open one card and read the word.  Then open another card and read that word. If the word is the same, your child keeps the matching pair of words. If not, the two cards must be flipped back facing down again.

It’s more fun to play when there are 2 players or more. So if your child has no other children to play with, why don’t you join in the game. Each person takes a turn. The one who finds a match gets to go again.

Tips

• If your children are very young or don’t have a very long attention span, don’t use too many words. Maybe start with 8-10 cards and then slowly increase when they get better.
• If you sign up for my free e-course “Teaching Your Children To Read and Spell”, you will receive a teaching toolkit which includes a list of  Dolch words (high frequency words).  You don’t have to go to the internet to do anymore searching. I’ve got it ready for you to print out.

Just fill in the form below to receive the free e-course that will run for 8 days.

You don’t need to be a genius to teach your kids to read and spell. You also don’t need to spend tons of money to get certified to teach. The first step in teaching your kids to read and spell is to decide that you  are going to put in that effort. The next step is to learn what your kids need to know and have to become good readers and spellers.

If you read aloud to your children everyday (even babies), you are already preparing them to learn how to read. Nursery rhymes also plays a part in your child’s literacy. Building a home library and surrounding them with reading materials helps to build their desire to read, especially if the books, magazines or comics are about things that interest them.

They are many things you can do informally and formally to teach your children to read and spell.

If you desire to teach your children to read and spell, but don’t know where to start, click this link and sign up for my e-course:
How To Teach Your Children To Read and Spell

I’ve even put together some charts and a checklist to make your work easier. Click the link to find out more.

Almost all parents take their children’s education seriously. However, different parents have different ideas on how to educate their children. For example, some parents believe that children should be taught to read even when they are babies. Others believe that children will learn to read when they enter preschool or kindergarten. There are also parents that believe there is no rush in teaching children to read. They will read when they are ready.

Here is a very interesting article, titled “Can a child be too young to learn to read?” It was published on Times Online. You know how different schools or governments have different school curriculums for children? Well, in Wales, children get to play until they are 7 years old. Yup, they are following a play-based curriculum. Now some of you probably think, “WHAT? No studying? Just play? How are they going to learn to read?” However, a mother whose 5 year old daughter is going through the system has only good things to say about it. She says her daughter is stimulated and enjoys school. Apart from outdoor play, there are also opportunities to read. I like that idea. I believe before you can teach a child to read, you must first instill the love for learning and then surround them with books.

I also want to point out in that article, a quote by Prof. Pamela Sammons. She’s with Department of Education at the University of Oxford. She says that you can make reading fun, for example you can play with letter sounds, nursery rhymes and songs. It’s funny how we parents always think that fun and learning cannot co-exist. In actual fact, children learn best when they are having fun, not sitting down quietly on a table doing rote learning.

As for me, I try to read a lot to my kids, starting when the are babies. When I go to church, I bring books to keep the occupied instead of toys. I also sing a lot of nursery rhymes. Instead of teaching them A-B-C, I teach them the sounds first: /a/ /b/ /c/. I guess you can say I work on building their phonemic awareness. This makes things easier when I start teaching them phonics when they are about 3-5 years old. I find that my kids’ ability to blend sounds only begin about 4-5 years old. Before that the focus is on learning beginning sounds.

So far, my kids don’t “rebel” or show disinterest when I teach them to read. Of course I follow their lead too. If I’m teaching and they show disinterest, I stop. If you ask me what is the best age to start teaching your child to read, I would say that depends on your child. My approach is to surround them with opportunities to learn to read and when they are interested, teach them. My 3 year old son right now would take books and ask me “what is this word?”. Obviously, it’s a sign that he wants to read. So, I am now teaching him some phonics and also recognizing high frequency words. Even though he has shown interest in learning to read, play is still his #1 learning tool. At his age, teaching sessions are about 10-15 minutes. Since I’m not the most highly organized person, these teaching sessions are quite impromptu.

So what is your idea of the best way and age a child should start learning to read? What are some things you have done to get your child reading? Should children start learning to read early? If you start too late, will that have negative consequences later on? Do you think playing too much is detrimental to their learning? Do share your thoughts.

If you like what you read in this blog, you can follow me using NetworkedBlogs. Scroll down the sidebar on your right and hit that “Follow This Blog” button. You can also join me on Facebook.

Whether your kids are being homeschooled or not, you should sit down to educate your children. My children go to school but I know what they are learning there do not fuel their love for learning. The problem is I sometimes wonder “What should I teach them?” Are you like me? There are so many things that we can teach our children, it is difficult to know where to start or what to choose.
Well, as you know, the internet is a great resource. I found a site that has lesson plan ideas from grades K-12. The site is by Scholastic. Go to their homepage and you’ll find a button for teaching resources. Great stuff there. I also like the “top news” section they have. For example, currently there is the Icelandic volcanic ash issue. Did you tell your children about it? you can actually branch off to learning about volcanoes.

I’m going to browse through that site some more. Hopefully my children will be as excited to learn about these stuff as I am. Here is the website’s link: Scholastic’s Teaching Resource

If you want to stay updated on teaching and children’s educational resources that I share here, you can follow me using NetworkedBlogs. Scroll down the sidebar your right and hit that “Follow This Blog” button. You can also join me on Facebook.