Reading books for 4 year olds

[Ifyoubuildit]

Hi, my DS is at preschool. He starts school in September and as he was born in sept he is early in the school year. As such, he has just started to read. Just phonics and other very simple words but he loves it! I've bought some oxford tree books levels 1 and 2 and he's read them all. Can anyone recommend any others?

I asked his preschool teacher but she says they don't encourage reading until reception as they don't want the children to be put off. He's so keen though, I really can't see why we shouldn't read at home?

I would suggest going to the library and finding some simple phonics-based books. If he's keen, no reason why not, but aim for phonics based, and encourage sounding out rather than guessing or remembering whole words.

DD is off to school in September too and has started reading (not at all pushed, she's been speaking in very clear, full sentences since before she was 2 - she's a very wordy bean!).

We watch Alphablocks and follow phonics based learning so that we don't contradict or confuse how she'll learn at school. We borrow the Usborne Very First Reading series from the library. Details here.

We just have one or two at a time. She likes them as we read them together, there are adult bits to read, then a bit for the child. She'd do more but I'm still pretty insistent on having lots of picture books in our library ticket allocation - the stories are richer, there's the exposure to broader vocab, they fire the imagination a bit more than 'school' books - and I think that's very valuable.

Also, as Teen notes, I focus on sounding out rather than guessing - DD has an amazing memory and sometimes I think she's reciting rather than reading. So I do get her to break the words down.

The Usborne series then progress on and on so quite nice.