Want to teach my 3.4yr old to read and write - how to start?

[choceyes]

My DS is 3.4yrs and he loves books and being read do. I'd say it is his favourite pasttime, so he really does love it. He is constantly asking me to read him the books so now I'd like to encourage him to start learning to recognise letters (he does recognise some of them), sounds etc, so that he can start building up to reading himself.

I don't have a clue where to start. I have heard that phonics is the way to teach, but I don't know anything about it. I have looked on Amazon and noted some Jolly Phonics books and a CD - will this be enough for me to understand what the learning system is and how to help DS?

I don't want to push him, and he does already go to nursery 3 full days a week and they ofcourse follow the EY system. However he doesn't seem to be making much progress there and I haven't noticed any new developments in letter recognition or writing letters or numbers (he doesn't really like to do much drawing or writing actually) since he went up to pre-school a few months ago - is this normal?
He has a very good vocabulary and a very good imagination for making up stories though.

Should I be encouraging to write and read at his age, or should I leave that till he starts reception (in Sep 2013)?

is is still young, I would wait until he starts reception. pre-school is for playing and developing social skills.

I would teach him if he is interested and you want to.

We have this DVD. My DS loves it and more importantly you would be able to check each of the phonemes (sounds) so you can point them out to him in his story books.

i was recommended a book called "how to teach your child to read in 100 lessons" the lessons are 20 minutes long and dd really got into it! it encourages writing as well as reading, and before this book dd would just refuse to write or give up in frustration. we are 30 lessons in and she can read 3 and 4 letter words fairly well. i am certainly very impressed with her ability.

It is a bit american with words like "mom" but not overly so.

The main thing at this age is to follow their lead, so if he doesn't like drawing/writing, then don't push it. He has plenty of time to learn and enthusiasm for learning is much more valuable than skills that can be learned later.

My DD1 is 3.7, and she's just starting to read a little. We have lots of resources- magnetic letters, foam letters for the bath etc. It happened fairly naturally, I think we started talking about the sounds in people's names, especially the initial sounds. We spot letters when we're out and about- shop signs, number plates, manhole covers etc. I tried to only introduce a few at a time, so first we just looked for 'her' letter, then 'm' and 'd' for 'Mummy' and 'Daddy' and so on.

We were given this set which she quite likes, and I've also bought some Biff and Chip and Songbirds books. I made a fuss about them being special books to read together rather than me reading them to her, and at the moment she helps me with one or two words on each page.

Alphablocks on CBeebies is also good, and helps to get the phonic sounds right- e.g you say 'mmmm' rather than 'muh', 'errrrrrr' rather than 'ruh' and so on.

Yes, mine loves books and reading, she now recognises her name by the first letter and she likes that game - e is for egg, m is for mama ... I sometimes follow the writing in the books with my finger a bit.

We have magnetic and bath letters and we play her game looking at the letters, but that's it. Just play any silly fun games and read and talk.

Its not important to read before school, really, and it doesn't mean much if she does - the others will soon catch up. Just encourage what she is interested in.

DP's nice didn't read before school and still, she was on the gifted and talented register.

niece - sorry!

I used this reading program to teach my 3 yr old son to read and it was very effective for us. Best of all , i didnt have to spend anything, the video lessons are free to watch:)
Check out:

www.firststepreading.com

As others have said letting your DS set the pace is the way to go Dd loved the Cerberus alpha people that iPhone won't let me write. However, she could only write her own name when she went to school and couldn't read. Now as an eight year old she is a really good reader.

Hi there Choceyes!

If your DS is interested in books, then by all means encourage his enthusiasm.

My DS enjoys books also and was reading very early (2.5); now on gold final level at age 5 and he ABSOLUTELY LOVES reading and writing (he keeps a diary) usually to rant about how 'horrible mummy is being'.

Encourage your child's love of words and books. Phonics is great it helps with syllables, vowel sounds, deciphering words, understanding diphthongs, and helps with spelling in later learning.

Find out what they are doing at school first, so that you can parallel what they are teaching him at school - both working on the same page, so to speak.

If DS does not enjoy writing at the moment, then talk talk and talk (we are talkers in our family so not difficult) and lots of games:

• I spy with my little eye something ....
• What letter does that word begin with?
• What letter does that word end with?
• What sound does that letter make?
• Letter fridge magnets ? What is in the fridge? B for bread, or C for cake (yep mummy?s)
• Read even if it is just 10 minutes an evening, point to the words when you are reading or allow DS to point and talk about the story.

There is so much you can do to encourage without writing, which usually takes more time to master than reading.

More importantly, let your son lead you, and always be there to encourage.

Good luck and I hope this little helps!

hi ive got a website which i go on with my 3 yr old, and my 6 yr olds which lets them play games and has songs with the words on as well. www.britishcouncil.org

Have you got fridge letter magnets - I used to play a game with my DD when I was cooking where she had to go and get me a letter that says 'h' or whatever. She loved it and you can build up to get a 'h' then an 'a' then a 't' and blend them to make hat. The Alphablocks games on the CBeebies website are also excellent for the correct phonics sounds and for starting to build words and she used to feel really grown up playing them.