What is the best tool to help your child learn to to read?

Question

Hi I have a 4.5 year old and he really wants to learn to read. What are some of the tried and tested tools (software, books, games, etc) that have worked for people? What is most recommended?

We tried hooked for phonics system, but, he never caught on to that.. and gets bored very fast of that.. please advice. thanks

I am looking for specific product recommendations that we can try. We read him a ton of books and he loves them.. he even knows the letters and stuff very well. He now wants to read the books by himself..

Answer 1

http://www.abeka.com/

My daughter learned to read in about 2 weeks with this method. Look in the pre-K section. It's expensive stuff, but it really works.

Oh, this is a christian- based curriculum

Answer 2

If he learns to read before he starts kindergarten he will become bored. Learning phonics and reading are part of the kindergarten curriculum. It's like learning German before you take a German class. Since he gets bored very fast, I suggest you don't teach him reading yet. Here's a list of kindergarten readiness skills http://www.srvusd.k12.ca.us/schools/REGISTRATION_INFORMATION/KINDERGARTEN/Kindergarten_Readiness_Skills/

You do want him to have letter recognition and phonic skills before school. You can play "I spy" with him. Get some objects around the house and have some letter symbols matching the first letter of each object. Say "I spy something that starts with the sound aaaaa. He can then take the symbol and place it next to the correct object that begins with "a." Teach him only lower case letters. He will be expected to know some of these in kindergarten.

I'm a preschool teacher and have had many children learn letter sound and some learn to read with a LeapFrog phonics game. You can find them in most toy stores.

You can also look into some easy readers. I like the "Let's Read Together Series," "First Start Easy Reader," and "Bob Books." Children love these because they're repetitive and they can easily figure out what the words will be by using the picture. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Of course you are his best teacher. So he wants to read, as do most kids. My children's teachers had recommended to have them read rhyming books. Also they always got these little short story books from school. And they pull them up on the internet and all the little books they got were on that sight.
Also Dr. Seuss is real good for teaching to read. Even though it doesn't make sense at times, they are good tools. You can always use a leapster and/or leapad. My kids enjoy those. But they easily get bored with them. They will rather have me help them read a book. Another thing my kids will have during the school year is a list of easy everyday words to memorize. They are called sight words. My youngest daughter was in Kindergarten and she had to know around 40 sight words such as are, you, me, too, dad, mom, like, the, and so on as well as colors and numbers up to ten. But just work on the sounds of the vowels and the sounds of the consonants as well as the prefixes and suffixes. You should do fine. Make it into a game, use your creative mind to help his creative mind. Try to remember what you liked to do in school.

Answer 4

Sometimes store bought products don't work because kids don't always have the same needs. With your child I wouldn't recommend any kind of store bought products, instead make some flashcards with words on them, start with easy common words [the,that,first,as,a,i] things like that.The first couple times put a picture with the word, but have your child be focused on the word. Then after he gets us to seeing the word take away the picture. After he can read a few words by sight turn it into a memory game, [match the picture with the word] After he gets the easy word pick words from his books so when he goes to read the book he will know the words. It won't teach him the sounds of the letters, but after he learns some words then you can teach him how to sound out the words because he will have prenounciations of the other words down. GOOD LUCK

Answer 5

YOU are the best "tool" to help your child learn to read. :-)

Read lots of books to him. Take him to the library regularly for story time and to check out lots of books. Let him see you reading.

Talk to him about words you encounter in your day. Signs, instructions when you make dinner, etc.

Let him watch the show "Between the Lions" on PBS. It's got a lot of great reading skills in it.

Buy the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD and their other stuff. They make some great toys and movies to help teach phonics and reading.

When you read to him, point to the words so he'll recognize that when you read you start at the front of the book and the text goes from left to right. (This is considered a standard that KG kids have to master!)

Read books together. You read a sentence and then let him read one.

"Hop on Pop" from the Dr. Seuss library is a GREAT early reader. Lots of words with the same sounds that are easy to sound out.

There are also books called "Bob Books" that come in packages of 8-12 books. If you buy these, you work through starting at the beginning and with each book he learns new sounds. They start out really short and simple and the sounds and skills build on each other as you move through all the books.

Take him online to the Starfall website and let him play games there. (See link below.)

I had my son reading at 4 years old, reading at a first grade level before KG started and reading chapter books withing a couple of months of starting KG. (He got glasses the same week he started KG and I think that is why his reading level jumped so high then!)

Answer 6

I taught my daughter to read using a book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It teaches with phonics, it has a writing part to each lesson wich I didn't use. What I realy liked is that the lessons teach reading comprehenson, using short stories that the child is able read. You can find the book on amazon for about $20.

Answer 7

We taught all three boys to read before they started school and that was before there were all these products on the market so we were pretty much on our own. You are on the right track with reading to him. The one thing that helped the most was flash cards, I kept them in my purse and we used them while in the car or while waiting in line, etc... There are lots of great flash cards on the market now we had to make our own at the time. This works really well for math skills as well. My boys loved them. Good Luck and thank you for being a responsible parent not relying on others to teach you children the basics you are giving them the best start they can get.

Answer 8

It's possible to invest lots of time and income searching for methods to teach your kids how to learn and boost their reading skills. Is difficult to teach a tiny child how to read, and even tempting them to see is challenging in itself. Nonetheless it doesn't need to be that way since you got the help of this program https://tr.im/1r84J , Children Learning Reading program.
With Children Learning Reading you will train your child how to separate your lives looks and separate words in to phonemes, an important issue as soon as your child is simply learning how to spell.
The examining program from Children Learning Reading program makes it easy for children to see quickly and precisely, from simple phrases to sentences till they learn to read stories.

Answer 9

I just discovered a series of books called "Brand New Readers" at the library but they are also online at www.brandnewreaders.com and I saw some for sale on ebay too. My 5 year old daughter really likes them.

Answer 10

I have had many friends rely on the leap pad series. They have several functions. On one of them, the child can point to a word and the leap pad will repeat it back. There are also exercises to help your child learn to read.

Good Luck and make sure your library card is up to date--you will need it as soon as your munchkin gets over this hump!

Answer 11

You..... you are the most important thing to your child. taking time to read to him and pointing out letters and words is the best! Besides that think of all the special memories you'll be making with him instead of wasting them to a gadget! Good Luck!