It’s Backwards Works for Me Wednesday ~ so instead of me telling you what works for me I’m asking you to tell me what works for you on a question I have…..
My son Jayden is 6 and in kindergarten and is showing interests in learning how to read. What do you find as the best methods in helping your child learn how to read? Are there special websites that really help with this? He loves the internet, so something that’s fun and teaches how to read would be great. But I also want something that him and I can do together.
Go check out Rocks in my dryer for other people who need your help!!
Try Starfall.com – it has great games and songs so the kids don’t even realize they’re learning. Good luck!
Starfall.com is a great resource! Also, check out Mommylife.net and on the sidebar she advertises her book, “Mommy, Teach Me to Read”. This book is an excellent resource and her blog is also full of great ideas, encouragement for moms. Hope this helps!
The book that worked for my ds was “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”.
The first time I tried the book on him before he was 5 – it just didn’t seem to work and we gave up after a few lessons.
But then this summer when he was 5 we tried it again and it worked! He was catching on.
I also love “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”. The lessons are short, but thorough. I am now teaching my third son to read with this book and he’s on lesson 74 now!
I also reccomend 100 easy lessons! We used it for my oldest and she can read very well! We are now using Learning Language Arts through literature wih my son and he has had a blast! I reccomend both books 🙂
Angela
Just a few tips from a kindy teacher…
When you read together track the words with your finger and encourage him to do the same.
Help him make connections between the print and the picture.
Ask him what he thinks will happen next. (Predicting.)
Introduce him to words like, setting, characters, title page, author, illustrator.
Help him identify what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story.
Help him develop “connections” to stories. “Hey, the boy in the story has two dogs and we have two dogs!” “This book reminds me…”
Read lots and let him see you enjoying books!
And, yes, Starfall.com is a great resource.
So glad you asked! Totallyscrappy is right on. Just to add… spend time (30 min) each day reading to him AND/OR having him read to you. Going through the steps Totally gave count too. Reading is a skill and it is developed with practice and exposure. Choose material that he is interested in and find books at his level (pre-k, k, 1st). Another tip… enjoy your time reading with him. He is a lucky guy to have a mommy who is concerned about his reading ability… I am an Education Specialist and I don’t see enough of that unfortunately.
I didn’t like Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons because we found it boring. I taught my daughter to read using The Complete Book of the Alphabet followed by The Complete Book of Phonics, both workbooks, and reading lots of books together. My son’s special ed preschool teacher and I taught him to read using Teach Your Child to Read in 10 Minutes a Day. Both of my kids learned to read when they were 4 and 5. I know other kids in my son’s preschool class started kindergarten already reading so that book’s methods worked well for other children as well.
I have a 5 year old who is reading now. We used the hooked on phonics program. It has greast simple books and a chart to show the words learned. it also has an interactive cd rom so that he can practice his letters and words and it will keep uo with the words he has learned. HOpe this helps!
We like starfall. I had a lot of success with ‘the Reading Lesson’ with one of my children.
Are they doing any simple books in his Kindergarten?
My daughter was reading her easy books by the middle of the year last year. And by easy books, I mean little books made from Xeroxed copies, cut and stapled together. Mostly just pictures, but with maybe 2-3 sight word sentences to match with no more than 8-10 different sight words in the little books (the, is, in, mom, dad, stop, boy, etc). I remember one was “Dan and Dad”, another was ,”That Cat”, etc.
If you’re handy/crafty/computer graphically-inclined (thinking of some of the things you can do with MS Publisher), you can make up cute little books like those, too, and then engage him in “making the books” by helping him to cut out the pages and staple them together. A little pride can go a long way in motivation.
And if he doesn’t get there right away, just remember he will get there. Once that lightbulb goes off, he’ll never look back!
Thanks for visiting my blog!
Marianne at Writer-Mommy
I can tell you a game that I played when my oldest son was learning to read. You will need tiny candies like Skittles or M&Ms, and a collection of index cards. For each word he’s learning, make two cards. Then lay them out on the table. Play “Memory.” A match gets one candy. A match that the child also reads gets two! If you’re worried about the candy thing, just keep the number of cards to a minimum. Another candy you could use is Smarties.
Mommy Teach Me to Read (barbara curtis)
McGuffey Readers
Read a lot and let them see you reading and loving it.
What a great mom you are! I agree with Nikki and SK – Starfall is fantastic. Edi and Laura’s idea is a 10 in my book. We’ve used that Teach Your Child… book with grandkids…it’s FANTASTIC! I’d highly recommend that one!