How do you actually start teaching a child to read?!

[mummynoseynora]

I know this sounds like a stupid question, and I am jumping the gun a bit posting in this area (dd 3.9) but thought it the most appropriate place..

DD recognises most letters - but not all, and some sounds ie M for mummy.... she is recognising / noticing other letters in words too eg she will look at 'mummy' and say there are 3 M in there and a Y like in my name iyswim

I think with some guidance that she could be starting to read within 6 months or so but I want to go about it the right way and not just set her up for confusion when she starts school!

We read a lot of stories together and she likes trying to write, she can do her name and tries her brothers too with help on the spellings....

where would you start? Any teachers out there care to share how they do it at school

Don't need to do on a daily basis as a matter of course, but it sounds like she will be keen and if so, do it as often as you can/she wants to. Also, try and slot it in with everything else, don't make a big deal out of it, it's just another thing to play - shall we do play dough? or would you like to make some words? or play ball? Never let this become any kind of chore or expectation, otherwise she may lose the joy of it and it is that joy which will make her a keen schoolgirl and learner when she's older.

thanks for the tips again to the toni's :)

We did another jolly phonics story this morning and she knew all but one of the sounds and loved doing the actions etc

The next story has the vowel sounds ai etc.... not sure she is ready for that yet!

There are lots of phonic games and activiteis here:
www.phonicsplay.co.uk/InteractiveResources.htm
and it is a UK site.

you can also try:
www.northwood.org.uk/phonics.htm
www.sumsphonics.co.uk/ this one is subscription but allows you to trial the site;
www.letters-and-sounds.com/
There are loads here too www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/content/games/literacy_menu.html and this site also allows you to download the games and activities to play off line!
If you are wondering, I think phase 1 and 2 would be the best places to start with your daughter. Phase 1 introduces listening and sound awareness and phase 2 is where they start learning sounds.
Hope you have fun - enough here for the most active 3 year old!

Thanks to all those that posted here... since this time we have been looking at phonics in short bursts every day - sometimes a story from her jolly phonics book... sometimes just outbursts as we are getting in the car like I will suddenly say 'DD... whats the action for F?' and making it like a fun quiz iyswim

I have also been randomly flipping to pages in the phonics book and she gets them right 90% of the time - including some of the two letter vowel sounds etc... her fave is IE because she gets to say 'aye aye' and cracks up

Tonight I just seemed to feel like she's 'getting' it.... so looked at one of the words on the page 'yes' and asked if she could sound it out - which she did 'Y-E-S' and then we said the sounds a couple of times, and I asked her what word she thought it might say if she squished those sounds together....

she sounded it out a couple more times then her face lit up and she goes 'YES!' she was almost as proud as me!

Sorry for the waffle there, but she is getting the hang of it! Thanks for the help and advice all :)

I didn't attempt to teach my son to read as he just wasn't interested, so I waited until he got to school. Once he did I just followed there lead DS1 is now in Yr1 and one of the top readers in his year. :)

Bek x

at my last (& first parents evening for dd) parents evening the teacher said there is a significant minority of children who learn to read without obvious effort very quickly and that teaching them is hardly needed as they do it all by themselves. I hope my dd will come into this category!

Have recently discovered sparklebox which has loads of great downloadable resources.

Please don't visit the sparklebox site!

The owner is a twice convicted paedophile and even visiting the site generates income for him.

"she sounded it out a couple more times then her face lit up and she goes 'YES!' she was almost as proud as me!"

I loved hearing about this!. It is an amazing moment when they "get it" for the first time.

Wishing you many more proud and happy reading moments!

Mrz - really?!

BBC news report

BLoody hell. Thanks for the link. I have been recommended this site twice by teachers!

Please tell them!

Thanks everyone - and thanks for the info about the sparklebox site - will be avoiding that like the plague!

Evenings before bed seem to be her best time for being interested - she likes doing the phonics any time but working on a new one or something where she might need to concentrate is definitely a bedtime thing :)

Thanks mrz for warning.
Actually I wanted to look at this website but my Firefox add-on has blocked it. I have installed it so my DS would not be able to open such sites. Here it is addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456/

bintofbohemia Thu 28-Oct-10 17:33:49

BLoody hell. Thanks for the link. I have been recommended this site twice by teachers!

I am almost sure that most of the schools get information which websites are safe and not safe to visit. Obviously the schools must have a black list. Paedofiles often choose jobs to be next to children (library, schools, fun grounds...). I allso believe that there are paedofiles among the court judges as that is how I can explain why some paedos get very short prison sentences. The punishment should be one of the highest as you cannot associate children and sex. Yet, they are allowed to run children's websites and we do not even know where they live. They do inhuman acts thus there should not be human rights for them. Sorry, for my emotions but I just feel so angry that there are such people in this world who can abuse children. In some countries the paedofilia is a kind of a tradition where an old man get married to a child bride.

I'm taking that news report in to give to DS's teacher tomorrow. A friend of mine says that their network blocks the site so a bit that they're recommending it!

My son is a late August birthday.
I have his "Reading" record from year R and year 1 : the exasperation of the teachers is abundantly clear in their comments.
He would not read, not could not.
About half way through year 2 he decided to start reading. Writing started late in year 2 (just in time for SATs!!) Times tables late in year 4
Now, in year 6 the little toad is classed at G&T in chuffing everything.
I love him to bits and will just have to live with the stubbornness
and have learned that kids will learn when they want.
He read till 11pm the other night because I was watching Sleepy Hollow and forgot to tell him to turn his light off!!
BUT
OH and I are utter bookworms. Every wall in our house has a book case on it. Magazines, radio, limited TV and computers, no electronics in rooms. Books are good for all of us.

to sparklebox I really like twinkl at the moment,

Should say alternatives to sparklebox!

Imagine the owner of the sparklebox is also a member of the mumsnet. He could have designed a few websites knowing that the sparklebox is blacklisted. Feel disgusted he is allowed to keep in touch with children.

Do you think I should tell the head as well as DS's teacher?