Whole-word reading programmes?

[aliceemma]

Can anyone recommend any whole-word reading programmes that would be fun & interesting for an under-4 who has just started to recognise whole words and is very keen to learn more than the few "flash cards" she has had scribbled by me in the middle of doing something else.

What else is there out there apart from Peter and Jane - which I remember from childhood as just being too dull for words!!

Your method is fine! Whole word reading is quite different from actual reading in a way. Primary school teacher alert...
Whole word stuff is good and v useful. Eg she needs to know 'the' is 'the' without sounding it out every time. But then whena child sees a word like crocodile, they need some strategies to read it. But you are mum and doing perfectly fine mum stuff. Whatever you do is good ( except teaching her her name in capitals only. Do not do that.) in some cases you will be better than school, in which case try not to be too cross with them through Reception.
So... Keep going with what you are doing. I used the 45 high frequency reception words with dd at nursery age as she has a great visual memory.

Play games with a few words at a time to keep it fun. Lay a few words out. Dd reads them. Close her eyes, you hide one. What's gone? Label items round the house. Post its make everything fun at that age. Use cooked spaghetti to form words on paper ( it sticks). play pairs with 2sets of the words. Hide post its with words on round the house ' who can find 'cat' first?' etc...
Apologies for long post!

I played games with flash cards. Snap, lotto etc. I made them on the computer and covered them with sticky back plastic to keep them fresh. I also used to play games like find the word beginning with/ending with the letter "c" and such like.

However don't dismiss the Jane and Peter books. Dd1 loved learning to read, and read them because she liked the challenge. Dd2 really enjoyed them, she started reading them when she was just over 2yo and they really encouraged her to read more because she was always keen to get onto the next book.

However the one who really surprised me was ds. He was interested in reading if it involved planes, and didn't really like sitting still. One time I found 1a and showed him the words "Jane" "Peter" and he then realised he could read the next page to himself-and insisted on reading the entire (they're very long-50pages) book straight off, and learnt all the words he needed in that evening. But I think the story line is more interesting for a 2 year old, than a reception form, which is probably why you remember them as boring.

Thanks @Catrin & @De We - very helpful.

Think mummy might have to get organised and make some of her own flash card properly on the computer - will be good as DD loves reading real names of people in the family!

And will have to look at Peter & Jane again - my elder sister loved them and learnt to read with them at home when she was 3 but mum claims I "pretended" not to be able to read at all until I went to school to get out of looking at Peter and Jane and that she only discovered I could read fairly fluently on my first day at school - - but maybe Grandma is camping this up a a bit!

DD is 2 and just so excited at being able to recognise words that I want something that without any pressure at all will allow her to explore this - sounds like your DS @Dewe