I was reading at 3. Teacher mom, I was her guinea pig.

My kid started reading at 3.5 but he picked it up naturally. We read to him, did preschool prep and leap frog videos and other learning apps but some kids can just decode that easily. I'd teach him.

I'm shocked that so many are belittling the OP for "putting" this on her child. I don't see it as any different than a toddler crying because they want to drive a car. It's something everybody else does and it looks like fun...but it's just not time yet.

I can relate. My 2.5 year old climbed up on Santas lap that year and told him that she wanted Hooked on Phonics so she could learn to read (thank you infomercials).

She used to cry because she couldn't read. It was a little ridiculous. But I told her that the best way for kid tolearn to read was to listen to books. So we read and we read and we read. And she did start deciding early. She was barely 4 when she could sound out a word and ask me what it meant. But reading is not something to formally teach a preschooler. Just read, and talk about words in daily life and they will pick it up just as soon as they would have if you crammed it down their throat.

Yes, the only reason a 3.5 year old is sad about not knowing how to read is because he is being made to feel that way. Just read to him and give him a break from drilling. The posts above about it not being developmentally appropriate are spot on.

Good - it will motivate him. Get out a lot of books on his level from the library regularly. Encourage him to try to figure out words. Have him be in charge of your grocery list and tell you what you need to find at the store. Write out your dinner "menu" every night so he sees the words.

Did all these with my DCs and they both read well and early. Did not sit and "work" on reading and phonics - just made it a part of everyday life.

The only reason a 3.5 year old would be sad about this is if someone was making them feel that way. Whoever it is needs to knock it off.

Two good things to work on at this age are letter sounds and rhyming. Easy to do when you are walking or driving together -- "I see a ball, ball starts with b, what else starts with b? Ball rhymes with tall, what else rhymes with ball?" And just repeat the letter and rhyming sounds a lot.

Anonymous wrote:I would instead focus on not making hm feel sad that he can't do what he isn't old enough to do. I mean, if he was sad he couldn't drive, you would tech him to drive yet, right? You would talk to him about what people can do at certain ages.

Make sure he can recognize hs name and maybe a few sight words, and let him think he is reading. Memorizing short books works for this too.

Yeah the feeling is bc of an older sibling who is an avid reader so I did talk to him about how none of us read at his age and pointed out the sight words he already recognizes. But he wants to learn. It doesn't feel right to ignore the request

Anonymous wrote:It's not age appropriate for a 3.5 year old to know how to read.

I figured since he's interested I could start working on it. I don't think it's good to discourage someone who wants to learn.

I would instead focus on not making hm feel sad that he can't do what he isn't old enough to do. I mean, if he was sad he couldn't drive, you would tech him to drive yet, right? You would talk to him about what people can do at certain ages.

Make sure he can recognize hs name and maybe a few sight words, and let him think he is reading. Memorizing short books works for this too.

It's not age appropriate for a 3.5 year old to know how to read.

Thanks. We do that regularly. Just feel kind of out of my element about actually teaching him to decipher sounds and words.

Read to him.

So I'd like to work with him over the summer to help build his listeracy skills, but I want to make sure it's age appropriate. He can recognize a few words already, like stop and ball and family members' names. Does anyone have tips for how to encourage literacy in ways that are appropriate for 3-4yo?