How move on from knowing letters to reading?

[dohdohdoh]

Hello,

How do you get a child who loves letters, and being read to, to eventually read themselves.

My 3 year old loves letters, but is constantly asking me to read to him and it's starting to become a pain as I have a baby to look after too.

He gets plenty of outdoor play, tv, and has just started nursery 3 days a week. But the constant badgering and then inevitable tantrum is becoming too much and I dread the words "mummy read a book". On average I would say he gets read to about about 30-50 times a day (3-10 books per sitting)

He does seem to go through books and "read" by himself, but I think if I could get him to actually do it himself I will get a break. It's a great that's he's so into but I am so sick of it.

Personally I wouldn't push him to read. I could read at 3 and just switched off at school. It's a common phenomenon apparently.

Could you just read to him when you feed the baby?

Read to the baby too! There's really no such thing as too much. It's fantastic that he's so into reading. I wouldn't push the actual reading words part I would just focus on enjoying the stories. If you do want to take him the next step then I'd just start gently introducing the idea of words blending together from letters by sounding simple words out eg 'look at that C-A-T' and see if he can guess what you're saying. My own 3YO clicked onto this pretty fast and can tell me what most words are now if I do that and can do it with the actual word but has limited interest in actually doing it much yet lol. You could introduce thinking about sounds that words start with. My 3YO is actually having speech therapy due to some pronounciation errors and we were actually playing a game earlier in it where you give them pictures then get them to sort which letter it begins with starting with just a couple of letters then building up. As pp has said above though I wouldn't push it. Not just because they will be too ahead by school but also coz they need to also learn to appreciate the actual story and comprehension side of reading as well as the 'decoding' element if that makes sense. Could he just simply be craving attention and exposure to language? Could you try just putting a few nursery rhymes on Alexa and having a singalong with him and the baby? I really wouldn't discourage him being a bookworm though I WISH my kid wanted to read that much lol. I get a few books in a day but really have to pick my moments. It'll really stand him in good stead ITO school

How amazing that he wants you to read to him! Enjoy that while it lasts and enjoy talking about the stories.

To move from letters to reading he should be saying the letters as sounds - phonetically and then you would have to show him how to blend the sounds.

Thanks for the responses.

@theresaplaceforus we do that sometimes but that is definitely something we could be more consistent with it. His speech is a bit delayed and that may help with that too (still waiting on our second appointment with speech therapist).

Yes I do wonder if it's more a "when I read I get time with mummy" thing, but we do play and have cuddles etc. at other times.

On the face of it it's not a bad problem to have but it's just the reality is exhausting, and guilt inducing when I say no, because I know it's good for him. But it's just too much.

I started teaching my then 3 year old to read for similar reasons. It was mostly a question of showing her to blend v simple words e.g. i would sound out 'cat' then show her 'dog' and we would sound it out together. When we were reading a book I would read it the title and then see if she could point to one word in the title. Basically lots of that, little and often, then teaching her some common vowel combos like ai, ow, ee, oo, etc and some common words like the, she, there, who, what (you can get flashcards for this). Playing I-Spy is good too. I also really like the Meg and Mog books, which have very clear, easy text. DD loved 'reading' these to herself because she memorised them. Repeatedly saying the words out loud to herself while looking at the letters on the page helped her learn to recognise lots of words. She is now quite a competent reader at 4. Possibly we could have got there faster but I thought it would be better not to push it, as she's quite headstrong, like most kids this age.

I'm sure a teacher would deplore my method, but it worked for us and now DD can easily read instructions on a worksheet, simple books etc on her own. Makes life a little easier and hopefully will give her some confidence at school.

You need a Yoto player! Best thing I ever bought my 3 yr old. Then he can listen to audiobooks all by himself. My son listens to it all day long.