Which reading books for 2 year old (if any!)?

[ElusiveMoose]

(I'm reposting this from 'Pre-school Education' because I only got one reply (albeit helpful), and I wondered if I'd get more response here. Just wanted to make it clear that I'm not posting here because I already think DS should be labelled G&T at age 2!!)

DS is 2.7 and he absolutely loves letters (and numbers). Left to his own devices it's what he always wants to play, and even when we're playing other things, he manages to bring letters and numbers into it (e.g. if we're doing painting he'll ask me to paint letters for him to copy, or if we're in the garden he'll want to spell the things he sees etc).

I'm now wondering whether I should start getting him some simple reading books, as I'm sure he'd love them. He's progressed beyond the 'cat' 'mum' 'dog' stage, and is now able to recognise more difficult words with little or no help, like 'sing' 'green' 'sunny'. When we read story books together, he picks out any words in bold/caps and wants to read them, and he likes to find words on the page (e.g. if we're reading The Gruffalo he wants to find the word 'Gruffalo').

At the same time, I'm worried about him going too fast - particularly as he's a September baby, so he'll be effectively 5 before he starts school.

So, the question is - should I feed his interest and get him some reading books? And if so, which ones are the best (all I remember is Peter and Jane)? Or, should I be trying to divert his interest more into other things and slow down his pace a little?

Just go to the library v regularly. Get lots of books. Sit and read them.

Carry on as you are. He sounds lovely.

He sounds like my DS was at that age and, if he is the same, then you wont be able to divert him!

School have adapted DS' learning to suit him thankfully - even though MIL told me they wouldn't do anything about it and that I should stop him reading immediately

As for books, if you want him to have books at home as well as from the library the Superphonics collection from either the Book People or Red House are brilliant IMO

Read lots of picture books. The ones with only a few words per page are a great start.
I also bought some wooden letter (From Yellow Moon, they are an art accessory) and we would make words with them. Its much easier than writing.
But do make sure he does lots of drawing and painting. Big motor skills to become fine ones later.

if he's doing this at 2 I reckon you'd have a hard time stopping him reading before school (which is what some schools seem to want ), so you might as well go with the flow.

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. The local school he's going to be going to has an excellent reputation, so I'm hoping they'll be supportive of a child who can already read (I think you're right, SethStarkAddersMum, the chances of him not being able to read by the time he gets to school are pretty remote), and good at differential learning.

We already do loads of picture books, but I might try some of the phonics ones and see how we get on. It interests me that when we go to the library, he tends to head for the baby one-word-one-page type board books, because he likes being able to spell out all the words in them. That's not to say that he doesn't also love listening to books being read (he'll sit for hours listening to poems or longer stories). At the moment, I think spelling and reading are two separate activities in his mind IYKWIM - he hasn't yet appreciated that being able to read words himself will eventually allow him to read stories.

Mummytime, we've got the ELC foam bath letters and they're fantastic - we always do the alphabet in the bath, and finish off with a bit of spelling (us spelling some words, then him doing some). I do worry a bit about motor skills, though - I try to encourage him to do drawing etc, and although he enjoys it, it doesn't hold his attention for more than a couple of minutes. I suspect it's because he can't yet 'achieve' anything by doing it (ie he can't form letters or numbers or pictures yet, so he doesn't find it that interesting) - a drawing session always ends up with him asking us to draw things for him and then label them. But obviously if he doesn't practise, he'll never get better! I've just got some letter stencils, which still practise motor skills but give him a bit more satisfaction.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Thanks again for your replies.

We're in the same position with ds. I would be of the opinion that they should develop these skills themselves and slowly and so we don't do any spelling. But to be honest he does it himself. In playschool they do phonetics with 4/5 yearolds and he just picks it up. The teacher says she finds it difficult to hold him back (I said that I wanted him to play).

This causes issues around bedtime because according to him "of" should be spelt with a 'v'. Goodnight should only have one g and so on.

I personally think that it's all too much for them at this age and so I'm looking for picture books for bedtime with no words.

ElusiveMoose - I wouldn't worry about the motor skills - just make sure the stuff is available for him so when his brain says 'Right, time for you to work on the motor skills!' it'll be there.
I say that because my dd (nearly 5, just completing her first year in reception) used to be absolutely rubbish at drawing etc compared to her friends and wasn't really interested then it was as if a switch was suddenly turned on and she wanted to do it all the time and now is great at it.
At this age they can make no progress in an area for months and months and then suddenly they get interested and seem to grasp things overnight.

Again - my school talks about 'tricky words' which are the ones that get the phonics wrong IYSWIM. I find that if I tell ds1 (aged 3) something is a tricky word he just accepts it.

That's reassuring about 'tricky' words, because that's exactly what I do with DS at the moment. In fact, he loves looking at a word and telling me it's a 'funny one'. Trouble with English is that so many of them are 'funny ones'!

by the way, my dd is now on the Oxford Reading Tree phonics ones which are written by Julia Donaldson (eg Bob Bug, Dr Duck) and these are very good indeed - it's amazing how she manages to make coherent and funny stories out of the simplest words in the English language.
Might be good for your ds?

they do flashcards with the tricky words - that might be the way to go if he finds it frustrating that he gets held up by these.

I'd forgotten the ORT Phonics books. Do look at Book People for them, as I got a nice set pretty cheap from them, in a nice plastic case too.

Tricky is an oft used word in our house, unfortunately he still bawls his eyes out and says it doesn't make sense! How I wish it was Spanish we spoke instead of English.

THere's an interesting post on the dyslexia thread, saying that calling them tricky words can confuse some children, and actually they are just different rules. For example "one" is one of the "tricky ones", but you could argue that it is simply using an alternative sound for "one" which also appears in "done" and similarly in "come" and "some". Your son's problem with "goodnight" will be resolved when he learns the "ight" rule covering "light", "flight" "might" etc. This may be a bit much for a 2 yo, but it sounds like he is lapping it up so why not strike while the iron is hot.

Interesting. We did have a go with 'dg' words the other day. We were spelling 'Hodge' (his other obsession apart from spelling is Chuggington) and I pointed out that in that word, 'd' and 'g' together made a 'j' sound. I then said it was like 'hedge' or 'badger' or 'badge'. He immediately piped up, 'or bridge'. I nearly fell off my chair .

I would recommend Read Write Inc phonics books - you can get a set on thebookpeople website with a box of flashcards. The cards are great as they have lovely picture prompts which makes the letters easier to remember (not that your DS seems to need help with that!) and generally more fun.
The stories are also really short - just three pages for each one in the level 1 books - so you get the point of the story without having to read for ages, important for preschoolers as they have lots of playing to fit into their day!
The other thing my ds loves is starfall.com - it's American so they do say the names of the letters as well as the sounds which schools here don't to begin with, and they introduce capital and lower case together which we don't, but this didn't seem to confuse my DS at all and he LOVES the fact that if you click on the pictures they do funny things.

interesting Choccy.
Calling them 'tricky' is really just a way to defer teaching them the rule, so yes, if they can absorb the extra rules without getting confused, why not?
I think the theory is that by the time they meet the harder rules they will have already encountered a few words with those rules in so they will have concrete examples which make it easier to learn the rule, but it sounds like he can grasp the extra rule easily and find the examples for himself.

I'll definitely check out that website Baronconker, sounds like fun. He already knows all the names of the letters as well as their sounds, plus the upper and lower cases, and it doesn't confuse him at all, so that aspect shouldn't be a problem.

If you are interested in not calling words "tricky" you should look at Phonographix and the book "The Reading Reflex" as that is basically how she says reading should be taught.

btw I was brought Goodnight moon again to read last night. Ds's voice was just starting to break into tears looking at the front cover, so I decided Choccy to say that night is a special word just like 'light' and 'right' and spelt those. Well he started laughing instead....Unfortunately I explained that 'bight' was also one of those words until hubby started shaking his head nervously!!! So when we see 'bite' I think there are going to be a few issues!!

Our DS sounds so similar and it is so nice to hear about everyone else. DS loves to create sentences on the fridge using whole words. He has a great sense of humour with subject matter. I wrote out words for him on cards as he is so eager. He was 2 when he really got going. I asked at nursery for books and he now reads complex sentences of,say, eight words long. He's now three and sounds out words all the time plus likes to read signs etc when we are out. He too loves numbers and calculators! He can manage numbers up to 1000 and loves a challenge. He has just started with, say, 299+1=300. He drives us along with his needs and I have to keep up with him. He has older siblings who have not shown such an interest and we have found it a real surprise.

bob books are fab, m,y early reading DD loved them and my 3yo ds2 reads them easily now

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