In detail, please explain how you taught your 2 or 3 year old to read. Thanks!?

Question

Please, no naysayers.

From this Yahoo Answers site and from my kid's 7th grade teacher (who taught her 18 month old to read), I have learned that children can learn to read between the ages of 2 and 5 AND THESE YOUNGSTERS IMMENSELY ENJOY THE PROCESS OF LEARNING TO READ.

I am only interested in responses from people who have taught their young children to read. I know there is lots of disbelief--think as you wish. People have done this, and I just want to know how they approached the task, what worked to get their young ones reading.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Get the book "Teaching your Baby to Read" by Glen Doman.  It outlines a great method for the VERY young....

Montessori method uses primarily phonics, which is great, but not the easiest way to learn how to read.  

I have taught my 3 year-old to read using a combination of sight words & phonics instruction.  I have both elementary education and Montessori education background.  Reading can be fun for your child, as long as your child WANTS to do it.  I would research Glen Doman's books and phonics instruction.  You can find a ton of info. about phonics on the web.

Answer 2

Get a picture book, one with many nursery rhymes which are illustrated nicely. The bookstores have these, they are an investment, about $20.  Don't get the thick books. The thin, large books have at least 16 to 20 good readable stories.

Sit down with your child and read the rhyme.  Does he/she understand this? (you ask)  How does he/she know this, can they point it out to you?  There should be graphically well illustrated version of the verses you've just completed.  In good books these are colorful,entertaining and loads of fun to look at for both the parent and child.  Once you begin a conversation about the rhyme, say we'll go back to it later.  The child will ask you to read again, and find your few favorites, the ones he/she shows interest in and can answer the most questions sensibly.

Move on to magazines, like People.  At some point here, learn to identify the letters of the alphabet, the smaller articles such as a, an, the, and some predicate verbs was, is, these are common in these stories. Go, run, went, she, he, all these words appear repetitively throughout their books. Ask the child if they recognize any of the letters and words, and they will ask what are these.  You then explain letters make up the words, which make up these rhymes.  Ask if they like any of them, and could they read some of it. Some of it is memory, and some of it is learning.  Isn't this natural?

You can use other books, although the nursery book makes it the child's own, usually with the best illustrations, and really good stories they appreciate, and will sing and say.

My son also learned softball  very well at age 3.  I am amazed at how well he can play.  He could be Cal Ripken.

Answer 3

I remember learning to read in kindergarten, and my first book was "one fish two fish red fish blue fish " :D

my teacher told me to sound out the words and what i think it says, and i had to learn the alphabet and what sound each letter made before moving to words.

Answer 4

i suppose i did teach 2 of my 3 children to read before they were 3 but it did not start out that way....

i read to them (all three) everyday often several times a day, and allowed them to see me read and reading to my husband, and made sure that there were lots of reading materials avail to them, and encouraged them to look at all the items(books, magazines, newspapers, advertisments, mail) and educated them on how to treat the items( in other words if they tore them then i removed the item and the rest of the similar ones temporaryily)

i encouraged them to "read" picture books to me or my husband, and to each other

when out and about in the neighborhood and when we did watch tv(not very often when they were young) i pointed out different symbols(signs, logos) to them like the pictures of the title pages of their favorite shows and commercials, read signs to them and had them read the signs to me(my son and youngest daughter were regularly pointing them out by the time they were 15 mo old) my youngest daughter began asking at about 15 mo old (and pointing out individual letters) "whats that?" and i told her and after a short period of time she was telling me the letters and numbers

they then began reading individual words(did use some flash cards as my oldest daughter was having problems with language skills as she could not hear us due to repeated ear infections)

and actually "caught" both my son and youngest daughter reading to their stuffed animals (by the time they were 2.5 to 3 yrs old) of course they were not perfect and no it was not parroting the words as they were not reading just one or two books and i never read the same book over and over on a daily basis (although i may have read them over the course of time) and i could give them a differnt book or be at the library and they could even read a book they had never seen before too.

Answer 5

Picture flash cards with the words on them.  Simple ones, like Cat, Dog, etc.

Answer 6

I used the john and jane books, from my childhood.  Also reading to them, anything. and showing them pictures with words.

From 6 months onwards or even earlier, you can be showing them pictures and saying the words.  Repetition is important.  

Teach them the alphabet letters. Show the letters and say them.  Pronounce them as used in basic phonetic form - ahh be k di ee fff etc

When you start trying to get your kid to read the first primer -   Spot.  Go Spot..  Go Spot Go.   ....

You will need to point to the words and run your finger along the sentence and each word as you pronounce them, other wise they will not see the concept of following the line of letters and making the sounds.  It took about a week for my daughter to get through the first chapter ~ 10 words.  but the concept starts to form quickly and accelerates as you move through the chapters.  Each chapter reintroduces the previous words and ads new words.  All words are short and simple.

Basically it just happens from there.  Just pronounce each letter, then the word as you run through the lines.

Reading at 2.5

Answer 7

my mom taught me how to read and write, it started out as a 15 min game everyday then it became more structured and we went to about 3hrs with 30 min breaks every hour.

i was the only on in my class that could write legibly at the age of 5. reading was actually a lot easier than learning to write. i guess its because i was trying to learn how to write the letters that i was trying to read.

Answer 8

They do enjoy it.  But be careful...that doesn't mean teach and expect them to read.  Or they won't enjoy it and it won't work.

There is a natural process at that age where language - both speaking and written language - becomes important and natural for them to learn.  Let me ramble as I kind of run through everything.  I won't say much about verbal language since you asked about written language.

--A younger child (age 2) is young to be teaching letter sounds to.  The concept is very abstract.  However, language activities at this age can include things like bigger and smaller, matching games, trying to find out what is different in a group of things.  The first step is to get them to distinguish differences in things.  Many older children I have seen (age 3 and sometimes even 4) have trouble matching up letters (p with p, r with r) because they have difficulty distinguishing the differences in certain letters.  

--At the Montessori Schools I have worked at, I noticed children start to develop an interest in learning how to read towards the end of their 3 year old year.  They often have an interest in looking at books, but they make a serious attempt at reading towards the end of the year.  I have them take the sandpaper letters (see my sources page) and match them up under letters that are on the wall.  They love this process for some reason (I personally find it boring...but they love it).  It also helps them to reinforce their alphabet (since the letters on the wall are in alphabetical order)  When they are done, they bring them up to me (as well as a list that shows what ones we have done)  I review the ones they did by using the sounds.  The child traces the letter and tells me the sound if they know it.  If not, I set it aside to review again.  

The sounds are VERY important.  Do not say "buh" for b.  The "uh" sound at the end is a hard thing to get rid of.  But do it.  Otherwise, when they're reading later, they will say "buh-oy-uh" for "boy."  I can't type out every letter sound and explain it well.  I just want to caution you to say it precisely and have them say it precisely.  They'll be able to do it more easily than you usually ;-)

At age 3, they generally learn a few letter sounds and that's it.  But many learn more.  Some don't really remember any and that's ok too.  

Age 4 - They start learning a lot more letter sounds now.  If they know a good amount, I will often put 3 of the sandpaper letters together that form a word (m, a, and p) as they are reviewing. I will have them sound out each sound then help them "melt" them together.  If they hear what they are saying, great.  If not, I just keep reviewing and teaching them new sounds.

Once they have a good grasp on the letter sounds, they can move into two different areas.  They can either do activities that help them isolate sounds more.  Start with beginning sounds then move to ending sounds then to middle sounds.  They can also take up the moveable alphabet (see sources page) and make their own words.  In Montessori education, the writing and spelling of words usually comes before reading them.  This process happens in the later year of age 4 through age 6.  It's different for each child.

I could write more.  I could write a book.  But as long as this was, it was still a brief overview.

I apologize for any mistakes in grammar and/or spelling.  I did not re-read this after typing all that :)

Matt

Answer 9

First, I read to them before the could even understand the words. At about one year, we read the same two or three books every day and I followed along with my finger on the words. One book was an alphabet book that sort of rhymed to teach the sounds of each letter.  We played word games all the time.  Before they went to school they could read, count, knew their addresses, phone numbers, parents' names and their own names and birthdate.  

I don't remember it being hard, they just seemed to learn naturally.  I am an avid reader myself, so they saw me with books often.  At around 3 years, I started reading classic childrens chapter books.  We kept these so that they can now read them whenever they want, but the kids have an affection for these books even though they may not remember all the stories.

Answer 10

My son is 3 and he knows his ABC and we are working on the sounds that letters make. I am using the website letteroftheweek.com It helps kids recognize the sounds that letters make and my son is starting to sound out words. Hope this helps.

Answer 11

Are you saying I have kids when i'm only 9,LOL. You might be wondering why im answering this.TO GET POINTS THINK

Answer 12

Children at a very young age that read on their own it has nothing to do with teaching them. This is rare and not many children this age can read unless they are extremely bright or advanced.

Now older children say 4 and 5 yes it is possible to help them on their way to reading. They have some great reading programs out there along with games and flashcards that help them to learn the sight words that can't be sounded out and most used words in the English language.

Children have to be ready in their brain to learn how to read. It is something that has to click. You don't teach a child to read. You give them the tools and they learn how to read on their own.

What works with one child may not work with another so asking people's advice is like asking how to learn anything else. You learn the learning style of that child and go that route.

A lot of times perents would say their child is reading at a young age, but most of the time it is memorization. They think they are avid readers, but really if you put any word in front of them that is not in the book they read they will not know it. This happens quite a bit.

Most people that say they read at the age of 2 or so are going on what their parents perception of reading was and what their parents told them. Like I said before only extremely bright children read this early. There have been many many studies done on this though most people refuse to listen to it.

If you are teaching your child how to do anything including reading before they are mentally ready you are only setting them up for failure in school and later on in life. I think it is a real shame.

I am a former Teacher K-3rd.

Answer 13

I taught my granddaughter to read when she was 4 by using books with a lot of repitition. When I found out  that you can still get d**k and Jane books, I gave her one and she picked it up and read the whole thing on her  first time!