Calling All Preschool Teachers and Parents of Pre-schoolers

Well, first of all I see in your "little about me" that you "work" with your son. How about just relax and play? =) It is hard to gear down from work (especially if it is intense) and just be "mom". Kids learn best using play and imitation. Does he see you reading for fun? Do you read to him? Does he have access to books every day?
All of my kids are avid readers. From the time they could sit up in my lap I have sat with them and read to them. Get them age appropriate books. When they are under 3 that means the cardboard books. Give him his own book shelf where he can sit on the floor, pull them off the shelf and just look at them. As he gets older trade them out for something more age appropriate. Read to him EVERY night. When you read run your fingers over the words and even spell them out (if you have his attention). When you are in the car and you come to a stop sign get excited and say, "Look Billy! That sign says STOP! S T O P." The more games you play with words the easier is for him to learn. Get him a "word wammer" it is great for ABC basics.
We make a trip to Half Priced Books in Freemont (we live in Pleasanton) every 2 to 3 weeks. The kids know they can pick out books to read...and they are excited about it! At 6 and 11 my girls have two bookshelves stuffed full of books. The older one now passes along her "favorite" books to her sister and critiques them for her. =) We sit at the dinner table and talk about what we are reading. They see US read (I have a stack of books next to my chair)
I am sure you will have people tell you to do flash cards and get this program and that but I personally believe that the best way to teach your child how to have a life long love of books is what I described above. Kids get enough instruction when they reach school, what they won't get in school is learning to read for the love of reading.

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Hi T.,
Your son is not ready to learn how to read. His brain will be developed enough around age 6. In the meantime, the best way to prepare him for reading to to model at home. Read during your free time so he sees that reading is an enjoyable and important activity. Make sure to read to him everyday. When you read to him, you can play games by asking him if he sees letters on the page that are in his name. Letter recognition games as a part of everyday activities also work. Just make sure that you don't go overboard and turn everything into a learning activity.
I highly recommend that you read "Your Child's Growing Mind" by Jane Healy. It is a great guide to your child's brain development and will help guide you in how to support your child.
FYI- I was a Pre-Kindergarten teacher for 5 years and Kindergarten readiness (including pre-reading skills)is my specialty. Best of luck!

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Hi T. B.,

There are word cards and books that can help. Hooked on Phonics is also great.

Good luck.

Have a great day.

N. Marie

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The best way to teach your child to read is to read to him. A good time for reading is just before bedtime. Once he is ready for bed, choose (or have him choose) a couple of books and sit down together and read them. This is good not only to get him ready for reading skills, but will enhance other academic skills as well. Also be sure you talk with him a lot. As you go places together keep a conversation going about what you are seeing, where you are going, and anything else you can think of.

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We had great success using Headsprout.com- it is internet based reading instruction. The website is very detailed, but easy to navigate. It does cost money, but in my opinion was well worth it. It uses animated characters, fun sounds, and a game like format to introduce basic sounds and then puts those sounds together to form words. It starts out very simple and then builds from there. Each child can move at his own pace- the program is designed to track their answers and repeat parts of the lesson that need more work. I could go on and on, but the website has all the info and plenty of testimonials.
Also, starfall.com is a free website with reading games, but not near as complete as headsprout.

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As a mom of two avid readers, my advice is to help your child learn to *love* reading, which is not always the same as teaching a child *to* read. Like others have said, read with him and help him see that reading is an enjoyable activity. Go to your local library for preschooler story times - Children's librarians are whizzes at sharing engaging picture books, songs with motions, and other interactive story activities that give children a taste of the fun things that are within the cover of a book. If there's something he's particularly interested in (e.g., boats, animals, outer space, biographies of famous scientists or athletes, etc.) find some children's non-fiction books about the subject at your library so he can see the cool pictures and find out that books are a great way to find out more about things he's interested in. IMHO, when a child realizes that reading enables him/her to do such cool stuff, that child will be much more interested in the *how* of reading than a child who is doing flash cards and drills b/c a well-intentioned parent is focusing on trying to teach them *how* to read without showing the "fun" side of reading

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Hi T.,
There are some really great moms here on mamasource!!! They've offered some wonderful advice about just reading together, having conversations with your child and playing with/enjoying your time together.

I used to teach kindergarden. I've taught many, many children to read. Now I stay at home with my own children: 6, 4 and 10 months. My first child started reading 2-3 letter words on his own just before 4 y.o. That is very, very early! I'm not encouraging early readers. He just wanted to read since he was a baby. My 4 y.o. only knows a few letters and is even having trouble remembering all of the color names. She loves to "read" to herself (She's really great at telling herself a story based on the pictures of a book.). It just shows that even in the same family some kids will learn to read much sooner or later than others.

I saw from a previous question of yours that your son will be 3 in October. He's still so young! After you've been pointing out how "that letter is the same as his special letter that starts his name" or how this letter is Mama or Daddy's letter or Grandma's letter (and I emphasize, not expecting anything on his part!) eventually, he'll start asking about letters. Then, the Zoophonics company has a really successful program that teaches the letter sounds (auditory/listening) by using animals with visual cards and a different movement to go with each one. My kids both love the cards and in the beginning we just look at them and do the movements with the letter sounds. Don't talk about the letter names at all because the letter names don't help kids learn to sound out words (phonics.) My 2nd child knew which animal said which (letter) sound before she turned 4 y.o. after only a handful of times playing with the cards. I also used Zoophonics in my kindergarten classroom with great success.

Read and sing nursery rhymes and play Rhyme Time (when I happen to say something that rhymes or make up nonsense words that rhyme, I emphasize the rhyming words and say something like, "Mouse, house. That rhymes. Isn't that silly? Mouse, house.") When you think that's funny and laugh, kids love it.

All that playing with words out loud is called "phonemic awareness" and down the road it makes for good readers.

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I used the book, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" to teach both my boys. I would recommend it to anyone.

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We always talk about letter sounds and have my son "guess" what letter a word starts with as a little game we play. We also point out letters and words. At least one book a day that I read to him, I track with my finger to show which word we are reading, and I have taken to asking him what the letters are in the title of the story as well. I found a website called starfall.com that has a phonics-based alphabet interactive page that my three year and five year old both like to play with (the five year old more so). I started looking for tips and websites because I am homeschooling my 5 year old until we can move (hopefully within the next month or so)... and he can start kindergarten. You didn't say how old your preschooler is, but the previous advice was great, too. If your son is going to go to kindergarten, there is no reason he needs to read yet... just encourage his love of words and books.

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Hi, I was a preschool teacher at a Montessori preschool and I love the Montessori way of teaching. We had amazing results with the children learning their sounds and starting to read by 3 and 4 years old. We would teach 2 letters a week, but we referrred to them by there sound not the name of the letter. We would do activities including the 2 sounds for a week such as tracing the letters, having a box full of objects starting with the sounds, and feeling the shape of the sound ( Montessori has letter plates with the letter raised with texture so the children can trace it with their fingers and feel the shape of the sound). After the child knows all the sounds pretty well then it's time to move on to reading words and begining reading books. Montessori has a collection of books that match the sounds and levels of reading. Hopefully this helps. Good luck:)

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Looks like you received plenty of responses. My two cents as a mother of 4? Don't worry about teaching a preschooler to "read". That will come. As said numerous times here - read to them, and they will love to read. If you really want to start some teaching, work on letter recoginition and sound - but make it a game, and have fun with it...don't make it "schooly". He has his whole life to go to school...let him be a preschooler and play and have fun!!

Hi T.,
If you're okay with your son watching videos, my son loved Leapfrog's Letter Factory (just for learning letters and sounds) and Word Factory (putting 3 or 4 letters together). It certainly doesn't take place of reading with your child, but it's a fun extra. The videos are only 30 minutes.
A.

All you have to do is read to them every day. 3 books a night. Point to the words and they will catch on and start reading themselves. There is no special trick or sounding out words slowly or anything like that. Just READ< READ< READ<!!!!

Hello T.: As the mother of 5, and having a Day Care Center for years; I have several ideas that come to mind.
Read every day with your child. Show them words,pictures that go withthe words and say them carefully. We while driving will say words , colors, and I keep things that represent those items in the car, so we are taking teaching moments when we can have them. I read every day to my children and have even started calling my grandchildren that areold enough to follow along and I have them a copy of a book and I read it to them over the phone. Thank Goodness for speaker phones!!!
I have seen parents that will spend hours on the phone or doing other things yet not read to their more than 5 minuets. If you are having your child in day care have you considered spending the extra money to have a pre-school situation so they are teaching not just doing care. I don't believe inthe "Television as a teacher" method, but there are great shows that will show letters then make sounds and then even act the words out that can help you. I bought a great set of books for my youngest child that has learning disabilities and it was amazing how he learned fromthem. They have words and they also have pictures that represent the words example a BIRD and then he could push a button that matched the picture to the word. Hope you get great ideas that help. Nana G

I would start with alphabet recognizing first. Then move on to 2 letter word, then 3 letter words and so on. Also, they have books for that at the library or in a book store.

I have just been spending time talking with my son about the sounds letters make. Once they know the sounds of the alphabet they can almost read. We don't do this as a formal teaching session. Most of it is done while standing in line, looking at signs, or whatever. On our last long car trip he started asking me to help spell certain words so we take one letter at a time, figure out which letter makes that sound and work our way through the word. Yesterday he spelled "Bob" all by himself.
As a teacher though, I wouldn't be pushing your son to read much yet, if he is still Pre-K. I have seen too many discipline problems in school that were bored because they already knew what the teacher was trying to teach the rest of the class. It is great that you are willing to spend time teaching your child, but don't push it. Save that energy for when he is struggling with long division or something.

I wouldn't worry about forcing it. Just enjoy the activity of reading. Each night we read 2 books to the kids before they go to sleep. Additionally, I keep magnetized alphabet letter on the fridge, and sometimes my 4.5 year old and I sit in front and work on naming the letters, singing the song, and putting them in order. He really feels a sense of accomplishment when we do this, and my daughter--now in 1st grade--has definitely developed a love for reading, and is thrilled that we are now reading chapter books to her, and she is able to read the simpler books to us.

They usually learn during kindergarten. My first went into K knowing all her letters and some really simple words that she'd learned by repetition, but other than that, she wasn't reading. Over the year, they assimilated simple words and by the end of the year and now, starting first grade, she's reading simple books. Some kids pick it up easily and some struggle a bit, my daughter struggled a bit and the thing that helped the mostmostmost was reading faithfully to her, every night for at least 10-20 minutes... even if you can have someone read during the day as well... they pick up the syntax (the flow of words) and actually start to recognize simple words when you read. And don't limit yourself to simple word books, use a good variety. Go to the library often. Let your child see you and Dad reading and don't worry about it, it will happen when your child is ready. Some of our family's favorite books are the Biscuit books, the Clifford Books, anything by David Kellog (and he illustrates for other authors as well), we love Thomas the Tank Engine stories, throwbacks to my childhood like Madeline and Barbar the Elephant... Have fun reading and going to the library and picking out books at this stage! Make it a special time with Mom and Dad that is looked forward to every night! Good luck!

hi,

I like what Amanda K. suggested. Teach them the sound and print out letter activity online. I also bought a set of Bob books that you can purchase at the book store. Read to them and also borrow audio books at the library. You have to teach your children early, because kindergarten is more academic than arts. My cousin, her son had to repeat kinder this year because parents go to school, they don't read and goes to a sitter and just watch t.v..
Good luck and don't forget to have fun with your children.

M. C.

Read to them! We also played audio books during playtime (our kids are older, so we recorded a bunch on tapes ourselves). It'll help if they see YOU reading too. I would read [almost] anything out loud to them.

Don't! Current research is demonstrating that early learning had no effect on later educational success or failure...
There is an awesome book called the read-aloud-handbook, that talks about what reading is, and the benefits of reading aloud to your child. You will feel like a super parent after reading this book, just from reading bedtime stories!
Have fun with your preschooler! You deserve the playtime, too, busy mom!

Read to him, and let him experience a lot of different things -- the beach, the mountains, musuems, parks, farms, zoos, train rides, car shows, etc. The more he expereinces, the more interested he will be in learning.

I love the Leap Frog products, especially the Letter Factory series of dvds. Starfall.com is fabulous. And talk about words you come in contact with during everyday life. My kids both voluntarily told me about the "No" on the NO U TURN sign.
C.

You wait till he's ready....