teaching kids to read

[rainbabies]

anyone have a book or method you would like to share?

[planet]

Have you seen the Leapfrog videos? They have a series of letter and reading cartoons that really speak to kids.

[Stella]

I remember Hooked on Phonics. I think my parents started me on it REALLY young. I was reading before Kindergarten, so I guess it works alright. Is it even around anymore??

I've seen the commercials for the Leapfrog "video games" and they look cute, but I haven't heard anything on their results.

The leapfrog series has been a big hit here, but my stepmonster (the immoral woman who dated her student's father, but excellent educator) just contstantly said "Read to them. That is what will encourage their love of books, their comprehension of HOW books work (R to L, front to back), and the development of their language skills. Just read to them."

[planet]

"Read to them. That is what will encourage their love of books, their comprehension of HOW books work (R to L, front to back), and the development of their language skills. Just read to them."

Yeah, absolutely the best starting point. You could say I assumed that that was a foundation among the folks here. Still, mine did start reading only after being stuck in front of the leapfrog videos for hours while we did the floors.

Yeah, absolutely the best starting point. You could say I assumed that that was a foundation among the folks here. Still, mine did start reading only after being stuck in front of the leapfrog videos for hours while we did the floors.

Not slamming leapfrog at ALL! Notice I said we have them, too!! Just sharing what step-monster the father-stealing-educator said.

[PrincessFiona]

but my stepmonster (the immoral woman who dated her student's father, but excellent educator) just contstantly said "Read to them.

Any issues we need to discuss, Jenn?



kris

you never knew parent/teacher conferences could be so hot, did you??

I agree with Tara and our experience has been similar. DD started reading in kindergarten and we tried to maintain it over the summer but since starting first grade, wow, has she taken off.

She has received some sort of LeapFrog letter desk deal as a gift and had lots of fun with it. I think that helped with letter and sound recognition.

[ellie]

It drove my DD *crazy* that she couldn't read the words in her stories by herself, so I taught her to read last year. I don't think there is one particularly good book or method...even when I taught kindergarten I supplemented the district curriculum with other ideas and materials.

Some ideas for early literacy: notice environmental print, i.e signs for the grocery store / restaurants, words on cereal boxes/snacks, newspaper advertisements (toy store ones are always a big hit) -- you can make a game out of finding the letters/sounds in those words, i.e. count the number of letters in the word...which one is the longest?shortest? Or make a book out of the words and pictures cut out of a children's magazine...Have a letter hunt to see how many times a certain letter can be found...

Off the top of my head, some good books are "Meaningful Print," "A Sound Way," and a program called "The Reading Lesson." The last one is a phonics program that is geared towards young children, but a friend of mine has also used it with great success with older children who have had difficulty learning to read.

And as everyone else has already said -- read, read, read to your child.

I could probably go on all day about this topic....so Sylvia, if you want more ideas, let me know.

[alison]

Dh's mother read to dh and his brothers. Story after story. Dh doesn't TOUCH books (other than medical books) these days and his mom often complains that dh doesn't read enough. Dh told her that it was because of her incessant reading alound when he was a kid that he doesn't like books.

Of course I was secretly doing this: :>

It's also because of her incessant reading that he's a doctor and can read the damn medical texts. He had to pick up the love of learning, the comprehension and the interest from somewhere -- he just chooses to do other things w/it now.

[alison]

Exactly! That's what I told him!

Now, he's taken to programming his TiVo and reading digital camera magazines. That's my guy!