Teaching a 3 year old to read

[vanillacinamon]

This topic has probably been done many times before so if no replies I accept probably due to boredom in discussing this topic!
But if anyone has any recommendations on flash cards/books for very early word recognition, other resources to start to teach a bright 3 year old to read I would be very very grateful for any suggestions
She knows her alphabet - she is bright in terms of reptition, not sure about her general level of IQ but she is intelligent in terms of parrot fashion repeat/memory (if that is intelligence)
Anyway any ideas about starting to teach reading but which is fun and not too serious - thank you very much in anticipation

Have you had a look at the Leapfrog Tag reading systems ??

Have you tried Starfall.com? It's really good, only downside is it's American.

I would avoid flashcards and anything that relies on memorises whole words.

Focus on phonics if you are going to do anything.

You say she knows her alphabet. Does she know the sounds the letters make rather than ABC? If she knows these then move onto the next phase of sounds such as sh, ch, th.

The main sounds are listed here and there is also a link to hear what the sounds should sound like when said.

Once she knows some of these sounds you can then move onto blending sounds together. Start with two letter words such as at, in, it and then 3 letter CVC words such as cat dog sat tin etc.

Choose phonics based books.

brilliant thank you all for taking the time to reply this has given me lots to think about

As Hulababy says, focus on phonics and avoid flashcards and memorising whole words.

This free, Teeny Reading Seeds resource is very suitable for a 3yr.old:
www.phonicsinternational.com/trs.html

My now 4.5 year old asked to learn to read at 3 years old. After some trial and error we found this system www.progressivephonics.com/ which he seems to be getting on really well with. It's a phonics based system that introduces a sound and 1 or 2 new words with each chapter. We like it because ds doesn't need to read the whole story, just a few words, so he doesn't get frustrated. Unfortunately it's not a complete system yet but enough of it has been done to give a good grounding in phonics and let you decode the rest.

We found he got on much better with it printed out so I get DH to print it at the office :P

I have 3 children and all have been different in learning to read.
DS1 was always very interested in letters and words - at age 2 he COULDN'T walk past a sign without having to know what it said, he couldn't eat a yogurt without having to know what all the writing on the pot said etc etc. He would also throw a massive tantrum if you told him to 'go and read a book' as he knew he couldn't read - he was quite happy to 'go and look at the pictures in a book'

By 2 he knew all his simple phonic sounds a, buh, cuh for want of a better way of writing them, rather than aaa, beee, cee.
Just before his third birthday his 'phonic awareness' suddenly clicked. If I said to him what does "C...A...T" spell he could hear and blend the sounds to make cat. As soon as he realised that was how reading worked he was away. He needed very little extra formal teaching - he learnt very quickly all the other phonics that he needed and probably had a reading age of about 7-8 years when he joined reception aged 4, and has since always had a reading age about 4 years ahead. He also happens to have high functioning autism which probably explains his very good ability to decode!

DS2 was way more into numbers, but around his 4th birthday he started getting more into letters (no interest at all before). He couldn't hear to blend letters until he was about 4 1/2 and therefore would not have been able to learn to read as a toddler.

If your DD can blend sounds when you say them out loud to make a word, or reliably play I spy then you might be able to teach her to read (if she wants to).