How do I teach DS to read?

[BirdFromDaNorf]

I know this sounds a bit, well, daft, but I don't know what to do. DS1 is 3.5 years and likes us reading to, and with him - in that he knows the words to lots of our Apple Tree Farm books and phonics books. But when we try to do letters on the write on wipe off board he's really not interested at all. He doesn't like the phonics cards either.

I want to feel like we're contributing and facilitating his learning, but not pressuring him or trying too hard! I don't want to be a pushy mummy, but I also sense he could pick up a lot more than he does at the moment, if we could get him to engage a little more.... He's got a 4/5 min attention span.

Any suggestions please? Thank you.

PS Same goes for if I should be starting to teach him french at the moment, as I know that they pick it up so well at this point...

BirdFromDaNorf does he know the words to a random book you pick out from the library?

My DD1 is 4.10 and has SN. She knows lots of the words to Apple Tree Farm books - because we read them lots and she can remember. She can't recognise more than a single letter - the initial letter of her name.

Let him enjoy hearing you read to him, and leave teaching him to school.

If he's not interested yet, he's almost certainly not ready yet - they seem to reach a stage in their development where the "idea" of letters starts to make sense to them, and you might as well be talking to a wall until they are ready for it!

Just read to him for now, if he enjoys that.

Try the BBC Phonics DVD (little show with fun cartoon letters) - has worked as a first step with mine. Only about £5 from amazon. There are some fun apps on iPhone/iPad if you have anything like that - the technology makes it novel and the learning is sort of incidental.
Almost everyone on here will tell you not to bother and leave it to school, but I'm really glad I made the effort as DD has a real love for reading already and is only 4.

If he learns to read well, before school, he may well be bored and ignored in the first two years of school. It's a damn shame. All that enthusiasm and joy can be just thrown away.

i think you should wait too. My ds1 knew all his letter sounds by 3.5 and loved being read to but it wasn't til 4.5 that he had any interest in learning to read - then it came pretty quickly.

I disagree that having a child reading when they start school automatically means they will be bored and ignored in reception - any halfway decent teacher can differentiate work but I would be very wary of putting such a young child off.

"If he learns to read well, before school, he may well be bored and ignored in the first two years of school. It's a damn shame. All that enthusiasm and joy can be just thrown away."

No he won't. DD could read fluently within weeks of starting school and was never bored. School is so much more than learning to read and do sums, there are always something for DCs who love learning to interest them.

If he isn't interested in formally learning the sounds yet don't push it. There are some Orchard games and puzzles for literacy and numeracy for this age group which are fun in themselves. Also you could do sticker books with him and just enjoy the activity. Unless you are a native French speaker I'd leave that too.

Maybe there's been a change. All schools are different. Certainly was the case ten years ago with two children I knew, not mine.

Kid I tutored over the summer (just helping him keep his phonics in mind) had an absolutely fantastic fridge magnet phonics game - you put the three letters in and it sounded out the word you'd made if you pressed the button. While the kid in question wasn't AS impressed... his 3 year old little brother absolutely loved it.

Can't remember the manufacturer - but they had two of them - a single letter one and a three letter one and they looked really really good.

Peter and Jane books (Ladybird). Worked for me in 1976, they're working for my two now. Just do two or three pages a day, it only takes a few minutes.

Fridge magnets / magnetic words are also great, just do an amazon search for fridge magnet word games.

If he has a love of books and stories, I think this is enough. If he's interested in learning letters, fine - he shouldn't be ignored or bored at school. But if he's not, that's fine too.

My DS started school at 4.3 with a love of books but only knowing about 15 letters. He's still an amazing reader, because he's always wanted to read.

If he isn;t interested then leave it. You will be amazed how quickly hey start picking it up once they have become interested - DS was firmly resistant to reading but after 4/5 weeks in school he's started picking it up really quickly.

Our (excellent) mursery suggested I didn;t push reading with him but instead practiced the other skills he needed to read and write - short term memory - matching pairs games and trays of tems for him to remember then take one away and he has to try and work out what is missing. Practse shaoes - circles and line particularly. And make letter of the week - a tray of things beginning with a letter (start using letters form his name) and find object together that begin with that letter.

Unless you are fluent in French personally I really wouldn;t bother.

it seems early to be doing this unless he is showing a keen interest. if not not puch it and enjoy reading to him as he clearly is not ready. my dd was able to write her name at this age for a while but lost interst and also lost the ability to do it, she has just started school this year and i have been worried about her ability to write name read and recognise letters etc as she seemed to be ver uninterested. but only today out of the blue she got a note pad out and wrote a list of 10 to 12 cvc words with her name at the bottom off her own back. i was pretty surprised as only 2 days ago she could not even attemp to write her name. it will come when he is ready. I think the emphasis is for children to explore and develope a good sence of the environment and world before starting school these days and this has been very benificial for dd as she is very sociably aware and uses alot of scientific and mathematical language already, which will give her a good head start and this has been developed through huerstic play.

dd is also doing doing french at french and has learen only hello my name is in half a term.

i can recomend the v tech laptop to help introduce games etc with words. dd could not do this on her own untill quite recently but loved sitting whilst i played the games with her.

sorry should read if not dont push it

I typed out a very short piece for my son to read to encourage him. Did it on computer in easy to read font (Comic Sans) in big size print 20.

It was all about him. Put his own name in it and something funny. He will love to read a little bit about himself. e.g.

"DS (name) was a good boy. DS liked to play with his bear. Mummy loved DS. Mummy loved to play with DS and his bear.

The End"

I used to do one per night (in bed) and it had the added bonus of him wanting to get to bed! Everybody likes to hear about themselves.

He's away at Uni now....(sighs) but he still loves to read.

When DS was your son's age, he and I played endless games with words and sounds. Though I didn't realise it at the time, I was priming him for rapid literacy acquisition in a fairly hardcore way.

We read a lot of poetry. We did enormous amounts of rhyming, sound substitution at the beginnings of words, etc. We giggled greatly. One game that's still a crowd pleaser in the house is our 'bowl of...' rhyming game, which - by law - is accompanied by comedy retching and shrieking: 'Would you like a bowl of rice/ice/lice? A bowl of fleas/cheese/knees?' Sound substitution leads to equal hilarity along the lines of 'What do you get if you put a /p/ at the beginning of /sh/oe?' And - our most geeky game - the 'An e at the end makes a X say X' silliness. 'An e at the end makes a cat say KATE!/makes a plait say PLATE!/makes a hug say HUGE!/makes a hop say HOPE!'

Learning to hear the sounds in words and at the beginnings and ends of words are all vital pre-literacy skills. Ditto learning to shift and transform words and sounds. FWIW, DS began reading fluently shortly before he was 4. It all came together for him at once, he picked up Hop on Pop and launched himself into reading.

Lovely post Devexity - great ideas for listening/sound manipulation games.

"manipulation games" - you can get manipulation games?! Do tell, I need some to manage DS through guilt and manipulation I feel it is the key to a trouble free adolescence

We used to play games such as name a Pokemon beginning with A, B etc Sadly I knew all the names as well.

at Kew.

No, no, no - "sound manipulation games". I fear the other sort are the sort that our dcs are going to put us through time and time again

Please don't try to teach him. If he is really bright and ready he will teach himself if not he isn't ready and you could really put him off. Just go with his stage at the moment.If he asks questions respond, repeat the books that he enjoys again and again if he wants that and so on a. Go to the library regularly to share books and maybe point out words in the environment: the destination of your bus, the exit sign and so on, but NO formal teaching. Trying to teach reading at home puts so much pressure on little ones and frankly it diverts energy from other learning.

Don't bother. Neither of my Dcs were ready to read until at least five and if I had just waited (not possible with our educational system) it would have been a far less painful experience. Read to them as much as possible and show him road signs but don't try and teach. He does not need to learn yet so you are forcing him to do something that is unnessary.

Provided that you go at your child's pace, I see no harm in teaching your child to read. I did the same with my son at the age of four. I used the Jolly phonics DVD, Jolly phonics songs in the car, finger phonics books and I played blending games and read poetry and stories to him. I think that singing is a great way of developing listening skills and concentration.

I used to say the letter sounds on sign posts to model the skill of blending. This sounds very pressurised but it was only about 10 minutes a day.

Children's general language skills need to be boosted as reading is more than the art of barking at print. Children need life experiences as well like running about the park, going for walks, playing with leaves.

My son loved every minute of it. I don't think he wa harmed in anyway by an early start to reading. At the age of almost nine his reading age is more than two years ahead of his chronological age.

I think its important to teach the letter sounds and leave the teaching of letter names until your child is confidently blending.

He was not bored in reception as he had good teaching. His teacher developed his fine motor skills, and a million other skills.

At this age, formal teaching isn't necessary...children just lap up learning.

My dd2 is about the same age and we can see that she is picking up all sorts of things. (She knows all the letters, numbers, understands what a word is) but to sit down with her formally would spoil all the enjoyment (for me) of watching preschoolers learn.

Just read lots of bedtime stories and enjoy playing with him.

My older dd (now 6) started school at just over 4 and by the end of reception was reading very well. However, I observed that her reading came from her - reading isn't really taught - it's just that parents and teachers provide the right building blocks.

Just read lots of bedtime stories and enjoy playing with him. Play games, follow your child's interests, sing songs, talk a lot - it's these things that make children readers.