Help needed teaching 6 year olds to read.

[allegretto]

Hello. I have 6 year old twins who will be starting school in September when they will be almost 7 (we live in Italy). They are both keen to start reading before then (they are at nursery but they don't read there) and I want to teach them - mainly because I want them to get a headstart in learning to read English before learning Italian at school which I think will take precedence. The trouble is I don't know where to start! I have tried Reading Eggs and I read to them every night but they don't seem to be making any headway. My daughter can read random words but she has memorized them - she doesn't know any letter sounds. My elder son (now 11) taught himself so I didn't realise what a rubbish teacher I am! Any help, suggestions for books to read, gratefully received!

Take a look at the MN resources on phonics and reading, there's some helpful stuff there. First step is learning some letter sounds, also being able to hear what sounds are in a word. For example can they play i-spy? Can they name things beginning with 'b'? Tell you the sounds in cat? Or if you say c-a-t slowly, can they put it together to get cat?
Reading eggs is okay, we found a programme called 'teach your monster to read' was more in tune with school phonics teaching. Free online. Alphablocks videos (BBC or YouTube) are also very popular here if that's not too young for them. My 6 year old still likes them :). You could also try the jolly phonics songs on YouTube, if only for showing you how to say the sounds to make blending as easy as possible.

Your twins will teach themselves too, given the opportunity, just like your older child did. They all do things at different ages!

There is a book called teach your child to read in 20 easy lessons in Amazon; it is very good

'Man' and 'too' are not 'tricky in some way'.

Neither is 'big' or 'wind'. To mention just a few.

And you are listing again, Masha.

If buying something isn't an issue, then the annual license for Phonics International is £25 for the Early Years pack or £33 for the full programme.

Hi there
I have put together a leaflet of games and fun activities you can do with children to help them with phonics. If you want to pm me an email, I'll happily mail you a copy. There might be some things in there that you can use. (Also, if anyone else wants to pm me, feel free!)

Pocket Phonics app is quite good.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I am looking into them!

If you can get UK TV, there are plenty of suitable programmes:

www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks

And this book could be useful:

An inexpensive and easy to use book, that can encourage children with reading, spelling and writing, and really help them to understand Phonics, is reviewed in the MN Book Reviews section. Just search ‘Phonics’ and my name.