[mommyto2guatboys]

My oldest son will be 4 in January. He has a great interest in learning and has always learned new things very quickly and asks to learn something new daily. Lately he has been surprising me, he will all of a sudden sound out a word and read a few words from a paper or book cover. He received a begginer reading book last week and he is so interested in it, he can read some of the words. It is the type of book that repeats the same words throughout the book, but it is still impressive for a 3 year old. I was wondering from some of you guys who are either teachers or have been through the reading stage, what are some things that I can get or do to help him learn to read? He is in preschool now, they are learning letter sounds but are not learning to read, he is just picking this up himself. He is my oldest so this is new to me, any good items on the market that you can help or books, etc good for learning? Any help would be appreciated.

thanks,
Magen
My family!

[mayaprincess]

Label objects in your home. Bold type (highlight) the first letter. This way, he is exposed to print all over the house. You will be suprised at how quickly he will learn to recongnize the letters in the words.
Read, read, read as much as you can to him. Point at the words when you are reading. Ask him to tell you the names of letters in certain words. The best way is to teach him the letters in his own name. He will learn to recognize these much quicker.
Again, read, read, read.

[sheababy]

It is important to read to them and with them (20 minutes a day is the recommendation). Don't just let them look at the books themselves, even when he is able to read some himself.

I second all the tips from mayaprincess above.

You may want to check out Home - Parents as Teachers.
My SIL is an administrator for this program. It has tons of learning tips on the website including recommended reading for every age. Each state has it's own program. You can actually have someone come to your home and show you different things you can do to help your child learn and it's FREE!

[JGarrick]

There's good advice above. I'll add this:

Lead by example. Turn off your TV and read a book.

[mommytoEli]

leap frog leap frog leap frog. if you have to watch tv, their dvds are awesome: Amazon.com: Leapfrog Learning DVDs 5-Pack (Talking Words Factory / Talking Words Factory II / Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory / Letter Factory /Math Circus): Leapfrog 5pak: Movies & TV
you can find most of them at target.

[JanCA]

My son was showing an interest in reading at a very young age. We may have helped it along by exposing him to Leap Frog Letter factory DVDs like PP mentioned. Also someone gave my husband the DVD collection of The Electric Company (from public television in the 7os) for a birthday gift and my son LOVED it. Both those things really got him going after he already showed interest and skill. He's now in 1st grade and reading at over the 4th grade level. Some kids just get it early!

[DPline]

Originally Posted by JanCA

Also someone gave my husband the DVD collection of The Electric Company (from public television in the 7os) for a birthday gift and my son LOVED it.

Oh my goodness! Now there is a blast from the past! I am going to look for that. What a great idea. I think my DD would love it.

[Quesita]

I have no words of wisdom for you... but I just wanted to say congratulations!!! I so look forward to sharing the world of reading with Liana, and watching her skills develop. She loves books, and I suspect she will also be an early reader.

Enjoy watching the world open up to your sweet son as he learns to read.

[SKL]

I often point out initial letters and sounds to my girls. Sometimes I do groups of [temporarily] related words, e.g., T is for t-tickle, T is for t-toes, T is for t-tummy. My girls will tell me that M is for Mama, E is for [E's name], etc. Periodically I lead them through analyzing a complete word or two, e.g., YES / NO. (I also sometimes say for emphasis during regular conversations, "n-o spells no" or "y-e-s spells yes." And more often than I'd like, "b-a-d - BAD"!)

Read, read, read, as others have commented. Not just books, but everything around - signs, instructions, mail, etc.

Let him follow along and participate in the reading as much as possible. My 2-year-olds enjoy selecting songs and stories to read, pointing out the pictures that go with the words, playing "I spy" (we do it with colors now, but you can do it with initial letter sounds, or even printed words, e.g., I spy a word that rhymes with bake), and finishing predictable sentences themselves. We have a silly game where after I read a page, I say "who wants to eat the [number 8 or whatever]" and they will find the [8] and pretend to pick it off the page and eat it.

Whenever practical, point to the words while you read. I also point out when the same word appears in different contexts, so they can notice that the word "bear" always looks pretty much the same in print.

Although it's really exciting to see your little one learn, be careful not to push and make him feel this is what "you" want rather than what "he" wants. If his interest seems to wane, that's OK, he'll come back to it on his own.

It sounds like your little one is off to a great start. Good luck!

[AngelsMama]

I'd also like to point out that a pre-reading skill is to be able to understand that symbols stand for other things. Such as the Golden Arches for Mc Donalds, the octagon for a stop sign. Learning to read signs is a great first step. Again label everything...it's amazing how fast they will pick it up in print from reading w-a-l-l on the wall. And don't just read books...anything with print is great. In our reading corner at home I keep old magazines and catalogs, cards that people have given us, boxes, newspaper like the comics.

[hopefully4]

I would recommend the website starfall.com and also the BOB books. We work on rhyming a lot too which is important for understanding how sounds work and how words are formed.
KAtie

[Momonthefarm]

As a 1st grade teacher we start the year by looking at word families which is basically rhyming words. For example if you know cat you can read hat, bat, sat, etc..
We make three columns on a paper and do at words, an words and am words. Obviously it works for all the other vowels too!

Take a favorite nursery rhyme and start all the words with the same sound like Mary had a little lamb becomes Barry bad a bittle bamb , etc..

There are also some great CD's by Dr. Jean and Friends that cover all topics like beginning letter sounds, days of the week, months of the year, etc.. Just listening to that type of thing helps to build background knowledge then when he sees a word in print like January he will connect oh yeah that is month in the year.

Since reading is so much more than just words on a page we really encourage parents to do the following comprehension things when reading...
Before reading:
look at the pictures and discuss what the story might be about
discuss what you already know about the topic like if the kid in the book is sledding what do you know about sledding

After reading:

talk about their favorite part of the story
what were the important parts
compare what really happened to your first prediction
discuss the meaning of unknown words
ask a question about what happened in the story (especially who what when where why types of questions)
draw a picture of their favorite part of the story
have the child retell the story in their own words

Okay this was probably way more than you wanted but there it is anyway!! Happy reading! Renee

[shelbydog]

We used Click N Read - website where child follows along, clicks on letters - it's cute, fun and it really jump started my son. It was around $40 I think and the child does a lesson each day (it's fun!!)

I think it's ClickN READ Phonics® - World's Most Advanced Learn To Read Program!