Teaching My 4 Yr Old to Read

Updated on January 27, 2011
E.G. asks from San Francisco, CA
18 answers

My 4 year old is very eager to learn to read. I was actually amazed at her memorization skills. So now I am wondering how to begin. Do I need to teach her phonics first? Or just start reading stage 1 books and let her memorize words? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

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P.D.

answers from Fresno on

Headsprout.com is an online reading program. The website is easy to navigate and explains their methods. It costs a bit of money, but it worked well for us.

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E.C.

answers from San Francisco on

Just my two cents - kids all learn differently and what works well for one child may not be the best method for another. For my kids, I didn't really use any system or program - we just went to the public library a lot and read a lot of books together :-). When my girls decided they wanted to do more reading on their own, they liked the "Wonder" books series, which are short books with simple narrative text accompanying photos, focusing on a specific sound, (e.g. "Slip and Slide, the sound of 'sl'".

http://catalog.ccclib.org/#section=search&term=Wonder...

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S.L.

answers from New York on

Kids really need to learn both but I think it makes it easier to learn phonics after they've memorized some sight words, also memorization is easier than figuring out phonics which has so many rules that are so often broken. but in the end they need to understand phonics. Dont forget how important it is to talk to your kids and get them to talk to you about the books, they will not do well in school if they cannot discuss books, why do you like this book? does it remind you of something we did at home or our trip to the zoo or another book? My son (5) loves stuff on the computer like starfall, wordworld, youtube hooked on phonics youtube sightwords etc and is learning a lot on the computer as well as reading little books. I look forward to read what other parents will share

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S.Y.

answers from New York on

I'm starting to teach my three and a half year old to read. Our pre-school teacher said they use "sight words" which means they memorize words. Hence, I've bought a series of easy to read books (one sentence per paget with lots of repetition throughout) to help Josh get started. I also try to teach phonics when I read to him at night or if we're walking in the street and encounter more challenging words. Would love to hear from other moms to see what you've done!

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J.S.

answers from Dallas on

Once they know all their letters and their sounds, you can begin with sight words. I got a list of sight words from my son's school. I read at least 5 books a day to him, throughout the day, not just at night. Plus, I point out words everywhere we go.

It's so awesome that your 4 y/o is taking such an interest in reading! My daughter was 3 1/2 when she was reading independently (she loved Dr. Suess books), but my son, who is 5 1/2 and is just starting to read on his own.

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C.R.

answers from Dallas on

Hi E.,
I home school and I really would suggest that she really learn words through phonics and not just memorize words. Phonics helps to teach them the skill of sounding out words.
There are different ways of approaching teaching this skill. One of which is finding a simple phonics workbook. And/Or do a letter a week. Have something tangle able for her to touch, like foam letters. I would suggest using/teaching lower case letters first since most words use them opposed to upper case. Find and talk about things that start with the sound to help teach her the difference between sounds. Have her pick some pictures of things that start with that sound.
I also used Hooked on phonics and let both of my boys at this age play with the CD. Helped alot and was fun for them too.
C.

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A.S.

answers from Spokane on

Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is really good. If you allow her computer time, take her to starfall.com. It's a free site that begins with letter recognition and goes all the way up into beginning reading. You can also buy some materials that go along with the computer stuff, but it's not necessary. If I remember correctly, they also have beginning reading books too but I haven't been in the store section in a long time. Check out your local thrift stores. At mine, I can always find at least one early reader in the books and I've got quite a collection going now for my kids to work on. They're all at various levels.

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J.C.

answers from Philadelphia on

I taught my daughter to read using the book "Teach your child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". It only takes about 15 minutes a day and in about 60 days my daughter could read any "easy reader" from Barnes and Noble. She was reading the Junie B Jones chapter books in kindergarten and has been reading American Girl books (which I believe are about a 4.5 grade level according to accelerated reader levels) since 1 st grade.

The book cost about $15 and teaches the reading principles from the phonics reading systems that cost hundreds of dollars.

It is actually so amazing when you see how quickly a four year old can learn to read!

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D.G.

answers from San Francisco on

I would definately teach phonics, there are a few programs out there that worked great with my daughter. Zoo Phonics and The Leap Letter Factory were great in helping. I then moved onto Blend Ladders, confessions of a homeschooler has many great downloads and ideas.

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S.K.

answers from Chicago on

I think phonics makes for a more well-rounded and independent reader. I used a book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, by Englemann. You can get it on Amazon for under $15. It was easy to do and my kids learned so quickly. We started when they were about 3.5-4 and they were reading very well in about 3-4 months. They were reading chapter books by kindergarten and they both still love reading now (ages 8 and 6).

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J.H.

answers from Columbia on

I started teaching my daughter to read at 4. We started off with the "Dick and Jane" books. They are really repetitive so they are easy to memorize the words. Then on the side we started playing the "what sound does this letter make?" game. Then we would go back to Dick and Jane and I was ask her:
"What word is this?"
"Baby"
"What letters are in baby?"
Then we would pronounce the word.
She is five now and the next step we are doing is her spelling words. I try to use rhyming words, bat, cat, hat, sat. She will pronounce and spell them.
I talked to a first grade teacher about it and she said that all kids learn different. Since you said your daughter has memorization skills, this might work for you.

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A.H.

answers from San Francisco on

You should start with phoenics first because if she know her letter sounds she will be able to read any word although she has not ever seen it before. With memorization if she has never seen the word before she will not know what it is. I taught my daughter to read before kindergarten and made sure to read to her every day especially after I I realized (and the teacher told me) that reading wasn't taught at that grade. I hope things have changed.

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Z.M.

answers from San Francisco on

My daughter was VERY motivated to learn to read and had great memorization skills as well. As a toddler she would bring books over to visitors and try to get them to read to her. We caught her memorizing books at age 3.
We had great success with a mix of both schools of thought with reading. While much of English can be deciphered with phonics (the Hooked on Phonics computer games were fantastic) most of the 100 most common words in English don't follow those rules. I picked up the first 300 flash cards by "Dolce and Fry" (or something like that) at LakeshoreLearning. I started with 10 cards (and nothing like 5 times a day, perhaps twice at best) and added about a card a day after that and started pulling the super fast ones after a couple of days (that way the current deck is never stale, goes by fast, and mostly fosters a sense of "I can do this!").

While I agree the Latin roots of English benefit with phonics, half the planet learns languages like Chinese via "whole word" (as each character is a word, not a sound system) and does just fine. So much English has nutty Anglo-Saxon/Germanic roots that shred the phonics rules, I felt better telling my student that our words came from two different systems, and some you can sound out, some you just have to memorize.

By having the 300 most common words in English memorized, it really accelerated her fluency. She has read like an adult since first grade in fluency tests. Phonics gave her the tools to be able to slow down and sound out new words. Her public school did have a list of 100 simple words to memorize in kindergarten (pretty close to the flash cards) but it was expected to be worked on at home. I couldn't help but wonder if phonics was easier to teach in a 20 to 1 setting.

We also had a friend who was unschooled, then in public school and had to get her reading up to grade level FAST. She thought it was fun and not torture even in 2nd grade. (The kids like seeing cards move out of the deck.)

Just keep the decks small so you can do it in the bath or at meals in less than 5 minutes, and it stays fun in "lightening rounds".

I would suggest you look up the reading levels of books at ARbookfind.com and keep the stuff she is working on with you at kindergarten (on the Advanced Search Tab below 1 which is first grade. Search .1 to .9; interest level of lower grade). I thought this Eric Carle book (Dream Snow) was kindergarten when it turned out to be 2.5! I felt bad for having her work on that book! (yet when she came across it last week she was all cute and sentimental about it, so she didn't hate it.) Books like "Are you my mother" (level 1.6) worked for us as well. I still read her stacks of books, but she wanted to know there was a book she could read "by herself".

My daughter wasn't really into the "Hooked on Phonics" set I picked up at Costco until they were doing Phonics stuff in kindergarten (I can still hear her chanting "Annie Apple says A_ah_ah" over and over) and needed a little help with the computer games at one point, then played them over and over.

So mixing tactics didn't break our kid, and she still has a passion for reading. She reads so far above grade level now we have to deal with a massive issue at school (the teacher is trying to find a way to support someone who reads like an 8th grader in 3rd grade).
I do want to mention.... she wasn't always given credit by her teachers. We finally had to take her to an educational psychologist in 3rd grade to find out she is "simply" above average with learning things like alphabets or codes, but extraordinarily gifted with verbal comprehension. Some people had tried to tell us a stupid generality like "all gifted kids teach themselves to read" but she is the exception to that "rule". She learned the basics much like an average kid, then her gifts could take off.
It made me glad I had stuck to my instincts about the learning style of my kid. I knew she had a talent for memorizing, so we played to her strengths. While I have a general interest in teaching theory, I just need to be a mom to my child.

She had a passion for books, and I supported it.

(sorry if this is a bit long, I just didn't get a lot of support.... I got a lot of "pushing" and "hot housing" comments from family. It would have been nice to have a friend who had understood.)

hope this helps!

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A.C.

answers from Sacramento on

I'm a former reading teacher.
I've heard good things about the BOB series. (available at learning express)I would start with simple text--you can even make your own books....(I like ice cream. I like cars. etc.) She should pick up on the patterning. Have her point under the words when she reads. When she comes to an unknown word, say, "What does the beginning say? " Have her make the sound of the inital letter and use that sound and the picture to solve an unknown word.

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M.P.

answers from Pittsburgh on

No-don't do memorization. I taught my kids through phonics and they learned at four. By the time they hit school and the other kids were doing "site" words (which are pure memorization) my kids were reading the site words off of the sixth grade list. Because they know how to SOUND OUT. Its a shame that we have gotten away from that.

Go to target and get some bathtub letters. They stick on the wall and are a ton of fun to play with. Start by just playing with the letters and saying the sounds they make. You will then progress onto putting 3 letter words together. You will do it for a while and all of the sudden it "clicks" and they get how to do it. Very cool when this happens. then get into blends like th and sh.

Also-get the Leapfrog dvds of the Talking Letter Factory and then the Talking Word Factory. These do an AMAZING job of teaching them how to read. I really cannot say enough about them. Esp the Letter Factory one. REally emphasizes letter sounds in a fun way. Also-get her a Leapster-many great games for this as well.

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C.B.

answers from San Francisco on

that is really a good question. when I went to school, we learned to read using phonics and sounding all the words out. Now they want the kids to memorize words as opposed to having to sound them out. so, my suggestion would be a combination of both. Teach her to recognize common words and teach her phonics so she can sound out the less common words. That seems to be how they are doing it in school now. You can help her to learn to recognize the words by pointing to the words as you read.

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L.H.

answers from San Francisco on

I preferred READING REFLEX by Carmen McGuinness to TEACH YOUR CHILD TO READ IN 100 LESSONS. It has information about phonics and how it works, a test so you can see what your child already knows, and then games to play to teach phonics. It also has a nice chart showing all of the phonemes English uses (so it shows both "got" and "gentle" for "g" since it makes two sounds, and shows sounds for "oa", "ow", "igh", etc.)
If you don't want to buy them, check them out at the library first--I know Santa Clara County Library system has them, and am sure that other libraries do too.
To become a successful reader, she will need to learn phonics at some point. She may be able to work out the rules from the sight words she learns (which is what my son did), but she may also need to have them explicitly stated (which is what my daughter needed).
Most importantly, continue to read aloud to your daughter.

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L.R.

answers from Washington DC on

Of course, give her early reader books. If she's in preschool, ask the teacher for good starting books or ask your local librarian -- they are terrific sources! Most libraries with a kids' section have a specialist children's librarian who can help you. Take her to the library often, several times a week if you can.

Read TO her. A lot. In the morning when you get up, during the day, not just at bedtime. Do without the TV or videos (yep, even "reading" or phonics videos) except as a special and rare treat, not a daily thing. Find out what kinds of stories she really loves -- animals? Adventures? Kids as the heroes, or adults? Rhyming stories? More plot-driven stories?

Do be sure to read some things to her that are beyond her own reading level. Kids need to hear good stories even when they're too young to read them. That's how you keep them hooked on wanting to read so they can read those longer and longer stories for themselves. Encourage her to act out stories she likes and to retell the stories to you, to dad, to grandparents, etc. If she can retell, she is comprehending well. Stop a story part-way through and ask her, "What do you think will happen next? What will X say to Y? Where would you like them to go after they leave Z?" etc. This exercises her own imagination, and makes her feel she's participating in the story.

I don't know about the whole phonics versus memorization thing. We never touched phonics and my daughter was reading early. I think reading to them, reading with them looking on at the page, providing books that interest them (not just books that are "good for them") and challenging them with great stories are all key. Oh -- and turning off the TV!

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