Starting Down the Reading Road

M has been asking to learn to read.  Oh my.  I’m not sure how I feel about this. 

I know I can teach him, and I know he can learn… but I’m in no hurry to have him reading on his own.  There is so much out there that he is just not ready to comprehend in a healthy way.  I honestly don’t believe that reading at such an early age gives a child any sort of a real advantage in the big scheme of things. 

But, but, but I also want to encourage his love of learning and since this is what he’s interested in right now, we are slowly, slooooowly starting down that road. 

He already knows a handful of words and can pick them out when he sees them – dog, cat, Mommy, Daddy, on, off, of, no, go, pizza (haha). 

One thing we’ve been doing, and it’s a lot of fun, is carefully listening to the separate sounds in words.  For example, I’ll tell M to r—u—n to the w—i—n—d—ow (speaking very, very slowly, and clearly making each distinct sound), and he has to put the sounds all together and do what I say.  He loves this; at first it was a challenge, but he’s enjoyed it so much as he’s gotten better at it!  It’s a game to him, and something we can do just about anywhere, anytime… t—ou—ch  your n—o—se, and that sort of thing.

We did the same thing with the group of objects below:Find the b—oy, s—u—n, t—ur—t—le, etc.  When he’s done a few of these then it’s his turn to sound something out for me and see if I can pick the right thing.  This is harder than it sounds – he has a, let’s say, interesting way of sounding some things out, haha.  But it’s a great way to get him thinking about how individual sounds make up words!  He already knows which letters make many of the sounds.

I also picked up the first set of Bob Books at our library.  I think M will really like these.  I like how simple they are, and while I have heard that the line drawings don’t appeal to some children, I think they will to M.

There are a couple of online programs that I looked into… 

Progressive phonics is a free program, and gets a lot of good reviews, but I was irritated that in the earliest books the names are not capitalized.  This is probably a minor pet peeve, but M already knows that beginnings of sentences and names use “mama” letters.  I don’t understand the idea of not using proper grammar right from the start.  I also didn’t like the idea of having to print out all the books. 

Reading lessons is another free program, created by the same person who created the Kididdles website, which we love.  However, as the program progress, it uses printable books from the Reading A to Z website, which requires a paid membership.  It does offer options to this, but nothing that I found very realistic for us.

And, like I said, I’m in no hurry to have M fluently reading everything he sees!  So for now this is enough for us.

If you know of something we might enjoy down the road, I’d love to hear about it in the comments – thank you!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Books of the Week – May 7, 2011

 

I recently came across, and bought, a collection of Little Golden Books, many of which are apparently pretty hard to find these days (according to Amazon, which is charging an arm and a leg for some!).  Look for these in your libraries – they are absolute gems of books, and some are downright hilarious.  I can’t imagine why some of them are no longer published.  We are loving them!

Noises and Mr. Flibberty-Jib, by Gertrude Crampton:

Mr. Flibberty-Jib would like a little peace and quiet, and goes to great lengths to find it.  M wanted to read this one over and over, and it is pretty funny.  Mr. Flibberty-Jib and his wife are both a little eccentric, let’s say. :)

 

Little PeeWee, by Dorothy Kunhardt:   This is the story of a teeny-tiny dog who does tricks at a circus.   But PeeWee begins to grow and is no longer such a great attraction.  M asks for this one a lot also, wanting to read it again as soon as it’s finished.  It has a great, but subtle, moral about being loved for one’s self, not for what one can do or not do.

 

The New House in the Forest, by Lucy Sprague Mitchell:This is one of my favorites!  It tells the story of a family building a house in the forest, and goes into fantastic detail about plumbing, electricity, digging the basement, and all those fascinating details - perfect for a child who is interested in that kind of thing.  And it gives the thoughts and opinions of the little forest animals as the house progresses.  The children, of course, know what the animals are saying and help explain everything to them. :) 

 

Little Yip-Yip and His Bark, by Kathryn and Byron Jackson:

Little Yip-Yip is a puppy whose little bark makes him the laughingstock of the farm, although you get the idea that the other animals are not being mean, they just sort of think he’s cute (which he is!).  He’s just not much of a guard dog.  He learns, however, how neat it sounds to bark into various empty containers – a pail, a garbage can, a hollow log, etc., and how BIG this makes his bark sound.  This story would be a fun springboard for trying this kind of noise-making at home!

For more suggestions of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns and Feed Me Books Friday.

Have a beautiful day! :)