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Reading starter pack for a 4 yr old

7 replies

Solongtoshort · 04/06/2020 20:51

Please can you share what books you have used to teach your child to read. My 4 yo dd loves books and l think we are at the stage that to get books.

I have seen Usborne books 50 for £40 and and Marlene Greenwood 8 for £16. I know the Usborne books represent good value but do l really need 50?.

Which books did you use and why?

Thanks.

OP posts:
sleepismysuperpower1 · 05/06/2020 10:50

we got the ladybird read it yourself collection, and IMO it was worth the money. The series starts in stages (red being the easiest books, purple being the hardest) and has books like the enormous turnip alongside books about kids characters, like peppa pig.

www.ebay.co.uk/p/11034757035?iid=264620781607&chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=264620781607&targetid=909953938039&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1007097&poi=&campaignid=10199634949&mkgroupid=101938390717&rlsatarget=pla-909953938039&abcId=1145987&merchantid=110332775&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIk6bS27Lq6QIVEevtCh1QSg87EAkYAyABEgJG4vD_BwE

Saracen · 07/06/2020 10:59

My eldest asked me to teach her to read when she was six. I felt the most important thing was that she found the books engaging, so she sampled various ones before choosing. Buying a whole set of books can be risky. You may feel stuck with them because you have invested money in them, and carry on too long even after discovering they aren't right for your child. I suggest trying different ones to see what she likes best.

You don't necessarily need special "reading books". Kids have different ways they like to learn to read. Some will just pick up reading spontaneously by looking over your shoulder as you read to them - does your daughter like to do that? My younger child didn't like formal instruction and just picked it up for herself through computer games, emailing relatives and friends, and looking at familiar books she had heard before.

Also, though your daughter is showing interest in learning to read now, be prepared for the possibility that this interest may come and go. My eldest initially showed some interest in reading at four and I'm sorry to say that I jumped on it too enthusiastically, which put her off altogether for several years! But without school in the picture, there is no hurry, so they can learn to read whenever they are ready.

Once they get stuck in, they tend to learn really fast. By the time they are ten you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a child who had learned to read at four and one who'd started at seven. Later readers' education isn't harmed, because they can access it in other ways: discussion, being read to, watching documentaries, or hand-on learning. (That isn't true for schoolchildren. Schools push reading hard, so a 7yo at school who isn't yet reading will feel she's a failure, which has long-term consequences. Plus, as children get older, schools increasingly deliver the curriculum via reading and assess it via written work. In the one-size-fits-all school system, kids DO miss out if they can't read. So the clock is ticking for nonreading schoolchildren.)

So my advice would be to pay attention to what your child wants and enjoy the flexibility of home education for her to learn to read whenever and however suits her best!

EducatingArti · 07/06/2020 11:02

Hairy letters phonics app ( or first hairy phonics one if she already knows all the individual letter sounds) Then the first couple of levels of both the Read Write Inc books and Songbird Phonics.

EducatingArti · 07/06/2020 11:06

As to the "why". Synthetic phonics has been shown to be the most effective way of children learning to read. Most 'bumper packs' even if they are based on phonics, don't have enough practice at each level to be enough on their own so you are better with the first stages of a few of them.

SoVeryLost · 07/06/2020 11:07

The Julia Donaldson reading scheme is really good. I would suggest teaching some sight words to begin with (the, there, their etc) they aren’t technically sight words however, they appear very early in learning to read and require complex decoding so I always taught them as sight words.

SoVeryLost · 07/06/2020 11:10

Cross posted with @EducatingArti Songbirds is the scheme I was mentioning.

We read together a lot with me pointing out words and asking him to attempt “easy” words as in simple phonics.

BMCC11 · 28/06/2020 15:50

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