My currently straight A, book worn teenager was reading at 3. She was in a play based preschool and we didn’t push phonics. We just read all the time. Library all the time. Book stores all the time. I read all the time in front of my kids. There doesn’t need to be a systematic program for every kid.

Does Leapfrog still make Fridge Phonics?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s an age appropriate way to begin teaching phonics to a preschooler? She is starting to understand that “L is for Larla, etc.” there are so many resources out there for teaching the alphabet and phonics, the choices are overwhelming. Kindly share your suggestions for this age group.

I saw the lovevery set, but have sticker shock at the price tag.

You should watch Spencer Russell's videos ("toddlers can read"). He's the guy who designed the lovevery set, but the youtube videos are free and I learned tons of techniques that have worked great with both my kids.

+1. He's fantastic.

Leap Frog. My child knew every letter and every sound they make by the time they were 4.

Schools use decoder book sets to teach reading based on phonics. Each book builds on the next

Anonymous wrote:Why not the Lucy Calkins curriculum ?

It's the worst? It's not phonics. Or at least the one my kid's school used wasn't. The book showed a picture of a cat and then the word cat. You were supposed to guess at the word based on the picture.

When she turns 4 or 5, get the "teach your child to read in 100 days" book. It's been incredibly helpful for my kids learning phonics.

My kids got so good at phonics they frequently asked me questions like "why isn't "Done" pronounced with a long O?" When there's an E at the end of a word it's supposed to make the vowel in the middle long. Like ton turning into tone.

Anonymous wrote:What’s an age appropriate way to begin teaching phonics to a preschooler? She is starting to understand that “L is for Larla, etc.” there are so many resources out there for teaching the alphabet and phonics, the choices are overwhelming. Kindly share your suggestions for this age group.

I saw the lovevery set, but have sticker shock at the price tag.

You should watch Spencer Russell's videos ("toddlers can read"). He's the guy who designed the lovevery set, but the youtube videos are free and I learned tons of techniques that have worked great with both my kids.

*readingbear.org

Readingvear.org

Logic of English

Why not the Lucy Calkins curriculum ?

Zoophonics

I've used "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" with all my kids, but 3.5 is pretty young for it unless she really enjoys it. Blending can be hard at that age. I'd just keep playing silly games. Our favorite was this incredibly stupid one I made up in a traffic jam one day where we pick a letter, say it's G.

"Does 'car' start with G?"
"No!"
"Can we make it start with G?"
"Gar!"
"Is that a real word?"
"No!"
"Okay, does curl start with G?"
"No!"
"Can we make it start with g?"
"Girl!"
"Is that a real word?"
"Yes!"

etc etc etc. mind-numbing but somehow enthralling to a preschooler.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope she’s in preschool

She is! It’s very play based though. My older child went to the same preschool and while I feel it’s a good school and is developmentally appropriate, it’s completely different than structured learning in kindergarten so I think working on literacy in a low key way at home would be beneficial for her.

Just an FYI at some point you will want to invest in a structured phonics program. Something like all about reading / all about spelling. For now start simple, once you get her reading on a K-1 level then focus on structured phonics. Phonics rules are the basis for the English language and knowing them will help her with spelling, writing, learning new word meanings, etc. I would not depend on school to teach these well.