Reading

[Anonymous]

How did you teach your child/children to read?

[Anonymous]

By reading to him A LOT and pointing out words at a very young age. When I taught him the alphabet we also did the sounds the letters made. By three and a half, he was reading on his own.

[Anonymous]

I didn't, he learned in K, and it didn't really get going until the beginning of first grade (now he's about two grade levels ahead).

We have read to both of our kids before bed every night since they were born. Our older son, the first grader, gets three books or three chapters depending on what we're reading. They learned through sight words/word wall words and reading those little books in reading groups.

[Anonymous]

I read to them every night before bed starting at birth and still going (oldest is in 5th grade).
I didn’t really do anything to teach them to read aside from some organic comments on what sounds letters make, what words rhyme etc. which is a pre-reading skill.

I don’t believe in teaching them to read before K, & so far that approach has been fine / good (with my oldest 2).

[Anonymous]

I didn't. The preschool my son goes to started with sight words like "the", "and", "a" etc, and then little "readers" that had a lot of words with the same sound: ran, van, dan, man

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By reading to him A LOT and pointing out words at a very young age. When I taught him the alphabet we also did the sounds the letters made. By three and a half, he was reading on his own.

This, although I also taught him how to blend letters and eventually taught him the long vowels (magic E, etc.) once he was reading words with short vowels.

[Anonymous]

Montessori preschool taught them. I cam describe the general flow, although I'm surely omitting some things.

They start with phonemic awareness, teaching kids to break words into sounds orally. Like "cat" into "Kuh aah tuh." This can start way before any introduction to letters.

They use big sandpaper letters to learn the individual letter sounds.

Moveable alphabet to form simple phonetic CVC, CVCC, CCVC words. This is really writing, not reading. It's not handwriting though because the letters are premade and the kids only arrange them.

Phonetic readers, like Bob Books.

Introduce letter combinations into moveable alphabet work ("sh" "th").

More complex phonetic readers.

Sight words.

More complex moveable alphabet and more complex readers, including sight words, sentences, punctuation.

Kids read to a teacher, to a friend, or to themselves.

Handwriting is introduced pretty late in the sequence, although they do a lot of pre-handwriting things to build fine motor skills and grip for handwriting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read to them every night before bed starting at birth and still going (oldest is in 5th grade).
I didn’t really do anything to teach them to read aside from some organic comments on what sounds letters make, what words rhyme etc. which is a pre-reading skill.

I don’t believe in teaching them to read before K, & so far that approach has been fine / good (with my oldest 2).

Same here. Older DC is now in fourth grade, great reader, reads a lot for pleasure.

Younger DC is now in K and learning to read. I just read to him a lot, whatever he wants. I think it's more important that he finds reading enjoyable, because most kids learn how to read (decode words) but a smaller set of them actually like reading and read for pleasure. That's what helps reading comprehension and learning in the long run.

[Anonymous]

We read to DS all the time. We pointed out words and read lots of fun alphabet books. Eventually we worked on the Bob Books. We only read them when he wanted to read them. He knew his sounds and could read most of the Bob books by the time he started Kindergarten. He is in second now and reading above grade level. But we did not do much to formally teach him

[Anonymous]

I had one very early reader (3) and one totally on time reader (5). We read every day to them, took them to the library a ton, and did not pressure them. They went to play based preschools that enforced letters and numbers, but did not have formal reading instruction. Both still love to read and choose to do it often (one boy, one girl) and I attribute that to never forcing them to read and limiting screens in our homes during the school week. It’s also nature—we got lucky that it did click for them quickly so we didn’t have to force practice for school. I worry that the system of education ad it’s structured these days means that kids are forced to learn too early and it’s fine for the kids like mine who it came easily for, but it’s detrimental for those kids who it clicks later on in 1st or even 2nd grade, but by then their self esteem has been affected, even though they are just as bright and capable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't, he learned in K, and it didn't really get going until the beginning of first grade (now he's about two grade levels ahead).

We have read to both of our kids before bed every night since they were born. Our older son, the first grader, gets three books or three chapters depending on what we're reading. They learned through sight words/word wall words and reading those little books in reading groups.

Pretty much the same here. We read with/to our kid, but we didn't try to actually "teach" anything...that was pretty much done at school.

[Anonymous]

I used to write little words on the place mat when we were at a restaurant waiting for food.

Oldest read *really well before age 4. The younger is reading at a about a first grade level at 4.5 but goes to an academic preschool and that is on target for that school. They teach reading. I just listen to her read the books she brings home. I do not read very much to them.

*When I say really well I mean like reading Ramona and Matilda. She read 3 or 4 of those magic treehouse books a day.

[Anonymous]

My oldest taught herself and I taught my younger one using phonics books

[Anonymous]

I didn't. The nanny did. No clue how.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t. He just picked it up somewhere. It’s my job to love him, not drill sight words (unless and until a teacher tells me there is a problem I can help with).