Teaching 3 year old to read

[obviouslyneedsupernanny]

Where do I even begin? He doesn't recognise numbers yet, should I try and teach these first?

[FondantNancy]

Does he need to know how to read at three? Why don't you let him come to it naturally?

[VinegarDrinker]

Is he at all interested?

If not, why bother?

[FranSanDisco]

Why do you want to teach your 3 yo to read? Start with number recognition and letter recognition and letter sounds - the letters in his/her name are usually interesting. Make it fun and if there is no interest don't stress. I teach Reception aged children and there is such a vast array of abilities because some simply aren't ready or interested in formal learning.

[obviouslyneedsupernanny]

Sorry I didn't mean to actually read I just meant the introduction of recognising letters etc

[mrsravelstein]

i'm doing a bit of letter work with dd (3) cos she wants to and keeps trying to read things. ds1 and ds2 couldn't have cared less about reading at age 3. i don't think there's any point in trying to push reading (and in fact i would expect it to put a child off), and when they start in reception they all sort of start back at square 1 anyway.

[insancerre]

Start with his name and look at the first letter, concentrating on the letter sound.

[Loveleopardprint]

Much better if he can sit and look at a book or listen to a story. Maybe sing some rhymes or the alphabet. Better to build up his concentration span so that when he is ready to read he can fully engage with it.

[VinegarDrinker]

Honestly I think it is one of those things that can't be forced. Obviously you can point out letter sounds, starting with their name or other common words, but if they aren't interested they won't take it in, and you are in danger of putting them off if you try and force the issue.

If they are interested then IME they pick it up much more quickly regardless of age.

[Morgause]

Play I Spy - he will learn the letter sounds.

[NumptyNu]

Ditto Morgause. Our 3 yo loves it, and it consolidates things for our 5 yo.

[Bakingtins]

Alphablocks is brilliant for teaching the phonics sounds, it's on Cbeebies, on iplayer and there are DVDs. We also love the Hairy Letters app, and Teach your Monster to read, which is a free website designed by the Usborne foundation. Orchard toys do a great giant alphabet jigsaw, there is also a numbers/counting one called one, two, tree.
We talked about 'special letters' e.g. This is a 'rrrr' for 'Robert' and then see if you can spot them on packaging or out and about.
It fits in better with what they learn in reception if you teach phonic sounds not letter names first. 'rrrr' not 'ruh' or 'ar' The Alphablocks make their phonic sounds if you are not sure.
I agree with the others that if he is not interested he's not ready, but if you have a few of these things around he'll pick it up v quickly once he is.

[Sirzy]

Just make it part of day to day life, point out letters and numbers as you see them. Don't make it a big thing and certainly don't push him.

DS is 3.8 and knows numbers and letters but only because he wants to!

[Scruffey]

Get some Jolly Phonics stuff from Amazon. You need to teach the sound of each letter carefully.

Eg teaching "m". It's not "muh" it's "mmm" (and certainly not "em").

Jolly phonics will teach the42 letter sounds. So not just single ones like a,b,c etc, but also "ai" "ee" etc

[cornflakegirl]

I second Bakingtins recommendation of Alphablocks and TeachYourMonsterToRead - both very good. But agree with the others - don't do it because you feel you should, there's no rush. Keep reading books to your DS and just go at his pace.

[Nagoo]

I had to teach DD the phonics sounds as she taught herself the ABC and that would do her no good at all. Get the Jolly Phonics books, they are ace, we've had loads of use out of them. I also have the flashcards from Read Write Inc, she loves to grab the right card and slap it up on the fireplace with bluetack, we go running round the room for the right letter :)

Also there are lots of phonics apps, Hairy Letters is a good one IMO.

DS was not bothered in the slightest, just not interested in reading past the flash card stage, so he didn't learn to read until school made him :o

DD is 2.5 and she loves to 'play' with letters ('reads' street signs etc) but she can't blend the letters to save her life. I have to wait until her ability catches up with her enthusiasm.

[ChazDingle]

my DS knew the letter names from 2 and the phonics from about 2.5 but i never really taught him as such. He had a little toy computer someone got him for his 2nd birthday and picked them up from there. He's really into that sort of thing though and has just started reading simple books (3.3 now). Theres alot of other stuff he can't do though, he's very impractical and we're only just potty training. I think its one of those things that when they are ready they will just pick up.

[KatieHews]

Been reading to my children since they were like a 1y old. In three they started to recognize letters and slowly reading themselves . We've used picture dictionaries to make it more fun and easy to teach them new words! Now they can read even books like Alice in Wonderland, To be a dragonet is terrific! and so on!

I think it's great start of their future life, when you bring them to reading!

[Ponders]

Eg teaching "m". It's not "muh" it's "mmm" (and certainly not "em").

really? that it's not muh, I mean. good lord. my youngest DC is 20 so we last did phonics 15 years ago but at our school it was definitely muh then

what sound does k make? or b? or t?

[lljkk]

k!, Buh, t! The k & t are very pure, just a quick sharp whispy sound, no "uh" in it. B is longer, so gets a whole uh to it.

starfall does all the sounds in right way, other videos on line, too.

[cornflakegirl]

Ponders - it makes the same sound that it makes when you actually say it.

m is a nasal consonant, and when you use it in a word like mat, you don't stop making the mmmm sound until you start making the vowel sound. So you do the same thing when sounding it out.

k, t and b are plosives. The sound is kind of stopped up in your mouth until your tongue (k and t) or lips (p) move out the way and the sound "explodes" out. k and t are voiceless, which means you don't use your vocal chords when you say them (like whispering). b is voiced, so you do use your vocal chords. (k, t and p are the voiceless equivalents of g, d and b). Because b is voiced, it has a bit more of a sound. But it's still a really short sound - basically, you stop once you've got the "explosion" out the way, rather than going on to put an "uh" vowel sound on the end.