This is a video of my 4 year old reading. I started to teach him how to read when he turned 3 years old. I have been impressed at the rate he is learning to read. I use both phonics and sight words to teach him.

It really is a blessing when they can read at such a young age. He doesn’t have to wait for me to read books to him. When he feels like it, he will just grab a bunch of books to occupy his time. Of course, reading aloud to him is still important.

If you want to get your preschooler reading, there are many things you can do at home. Here are some tips for you:

Expose your babies to books

It may seem useless to read to a baby how just wants to chew or tear your book, but you will see the benefits later on. Read to your babies. Put them on your lap and let them enjoy reading time with you. Let them associate books with fun and enjoyment. My youngest baby is now 19 months old. A few months ago, all she wanted to do was to turn the pages of the book. I couldn’t finish reading the words on the page. But now, she enjoys the “lift-the-flap” books. So just keep at it. The benefits will only be more apparent later on.

Begin with pre-reading skills

Before they actually learn to read, they first need pre-reading skills. Build up their phonemic awareness which is the understanding that words are made up of sounds. Play word games that help them to listen for those sounds. For example, say ‘buh buh buh ball’ and ‘ssss sss sss snake’. This will help them learn to distinguish the initial sounds in words. You can even make up your own song.

Don’t discount nursery rhymes. Learning how to rhyme is a pre-reading skill.

Oh, one thing I have to say is that learning the ABC song is not very important. Learning to recognize alphabets and then connecting them to their corresponding sounds is important. My son loved it when I would “write” on his back or tummy. I would go from A-Z e.g. “ah” apple, “buh” ball, “kuh” cat etc….

At this stage, learning is usually through games. You can have them clap out the syllables in a word, go hunting for the first letter in their name when you go out shopping or play letter bingo.

Surround them with books.

Create a home library. You don’t have to buy new books all the time. You can save money buying 2nd hand books or closeout books. I know of a place where you can buy children’s books at a good bargain. Click here: CHEAP CHILDREN BOOKS
Apply for membership at your local library too. Take frequent trips to the library. Do this and books will naturally become part of their lives.

Learning words by sight

When I first started to teach my son to read, I taught him how to recognize some dolch words. I find at this young age, they can remember and recognize words very quickly. When we read books together, I would have him read those words that he already know such as “the’, “a’ and ‘is’. When he did that, I would praise him and plant in him the idea that he is a good reader. It really boosted his confidence and made him enjoy reading. One way I helped him learn the sight words is using a “Class Monster”. You can read what it is about here: Learning to read dolch words

Reading song lyrics

My son loves to sing. Every month in church, the kids have to memorize a church primary song. Later in the year, they will have a Primary Presentation where they will sing all these songs to the congregation. At home, I have a church Primary song book. As my son used the book to learn the songs, I notice he was learning to read too. So, if your children have some favorite songs, print out the lyrics for them and use that to teach them how to read.

Online games and phonics instruction

All kids love to use the computer, so why not use it to your advantage. One site that is really good at helping children learn phonics is Starfall.com. Your kids can use it for free. ClickN Read Phonics is not a free phonics program. However, the advantage is that you can track your child’s progress. For every lesson your child does, there is a report. So you can clearly see which areas your child needs help in.

These are just some of the things I did (and still do) to get my son reading. Tell me what are some things you do that have successfully helped your children learn to read. I would love to hear from you.

A few days ago, I was using a workbook to teach my son.  The lesson was on animals and he had to learn the animal names in Bahasa Malaysia. It seemed such a waste to throw away the book after he was done. So, I had this idea on how I could recycle his workbook.

I cut out the pictures and pasted them on a blank card. Well, I got my son to do the gluing, so I got him involved too. Then I wrote the names of the animals on another set of cards.

There are a few “games” that we can play using these cards to help him learn his vocabulary.

• Memory game:  Turn them all over. Opening 2 cards at a time, he has to find the matching cards.
• Matching game: I show him the picture, and he has to show me the matching word.
• Snap: He holds the picture cards, I hold the word cards. Together, we open one card at a time. If they match, you have to slap your hand over the cards and yell “SNAP”.

By cutting the pictures out, he gets to do this lesson over and over again until he gets it (or until he is bored of it). You won’t get this kind of repetitive learning with just the workbook.

So, if you have preschool workbooks lying in your house, be creative and find ways to recycle them and make learning more fun for your children.

I like to use phonics when it comes to teaching my children to read and write. There is one book that has helped a lot and that is READING REFLEX: THE FOOLPROOF PHONO-GRAPHIX METHOD FOR TEACHING YOUR CHILD TO READ

It is not exactly phonics. There are some differences. The correct term for it would be Phono-Graphix. For example, they don’t encourage teaching letter names, just the sounds. This is to make it less confusing on the children. They also emphasize that you do not ask “what sound does this letter make?”, instead you ask “what does the sound picture represent?” (Because letters don’t make any sounds. Cows, dogs, cats and other animals do, but not letters.)

Well, that is just one of their ideas about teaching reading to children.

The book is actually a manual. I just follow their methods and their steps. It works.

The picture above is a lesson I did with my son. It helps train his auditory processing skills. The goal is to help him understand how he can manipulate sounds to create and change words. This is how the lesson went:

• First, I wrote the different alphabets onto individual cards.
• Then I called out the word “rug”. He had to select the letters for that word and then spell it out by putting them in the right order.
• I would then call out the next word “bug”. As you can see, all it takes is to replace the first sound from /r/ to /b/.
• After “bug”, the next word is “dug”.
• And so we go through the list of words until the end. Each time, only one sound needs to be manipulated. It could be either the beginning, middle or ending sound.

I took the lesson one step further. I had my son write down the words that he spelled. We are working on his writing skills you see. He wrote them all down without complaining. He enjoyed the activity and was happy he could do it. (Oh, forgot to mention that my son is 4 years old).

Well, I hope this gives you an idea on one activity you can do to teach your child to read and write. If you are looking for a good way to teach your children to read, give Phono-Graphix a try.

p.s. Learn more on Phono-Graphix at their site: Read America!

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