How old was your child when they started to read?
I have started to notice that my 4 year old is starting to put together phonics and say 2 or 3 letter words on her own.What else can I do to help her further?What did you do?Any techniques or tips?
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I had 4 yr olds in my class who started blending sounds and making 3 letter words. I will post some activities in a little bit.
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Bob books? Apparently they help with reading.
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Sight word reading boxes sets? Early readers? Scholastic sells tons of those.
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My eldest was a late speaker so he started speaking his first words at age 4. He didn’t attend any nursery or reception and directly started school from grade 1 at the age of 5. (We were following German system in the beginning but switched to British school in the middle for multiple reasons and they won’t admit him in nursery/reception). However within that year he really made a giant leap and got a good grasp on reading by the end of year…I’ll give full credit to his teachers at that time, though!
Rest of three kids, 2 of them started at age 4 and one at age 5. In our case, white board helped us a great deal, with those magnetic letters… We would select a letter for the week and practice it’s sound on and off. We always looked for those sounds on different packagings and traffic sign boards etc. once they knew their cvc words and a bit of sight words, they were reading really well in no time.
I’m also very happy to note that both if my girls are equally great at Urdu reading as they are at English, which isn’t the case with boys 
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did your kids learn Urdu in Pakistan?UOTE=Afia;10079070]My eldest was a late speaker so he started speaking his first words at age 4. He didn’t attend any nursery or reception and directly started school from grade 1 at the age of 5. (We were following German system in the beginning but switched to British school in the middle for multiple reasons and they won’t admit him in nursery/reception). However within that year he really made a giant leap and got a good grasp on reading by the end of year…I’ll give full credit to his teachers at that time, though!
Rest of three kids, 2 of them started at age 4 and one at age 5. In our case, white board helped us a great deal, with those magnetic letters… We would select a letter for the week and practice it’s sound on and off. We always looked for those sounds on different packagings and traffic sign boards etc. once they knew their cvc words and a bit of sight words, they were reading really well in no time.
I’m also very happy to note that both if my girls are equally great at Urdu reading as they are at English, which isn’t the case with boys
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My son learnt to read by the mid - end of Kindergarten while my daughter entered kindergarten already reading.
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Before you jump into serious blending and decoding, make sure your daughter has secured initial skills required.
- She knows all her letter names
- She knows at least 20 letter sounds
- she can associate letter sounds with appropriate letters, for example when you ask her what sound p makes, she replies /p/ “peh”. When you show her letter p and ask her what sound “this” letter makes, she replies /p/ “peh”
- She can identify the beginning sounds of thing, for example Ask her what is the first sound for cat, her reply should be /c/, potatoe /p/, etc.
-Once she can successfully identify the beginning sounds, move on to ending sounds. Use simple 3 letter words like cat, man, fan, mat, etc. Stretch the sounds and help her listen the last sound e.g /c/ /a/ /t/. Stress on /t/ to help her identify that sound.
Once you feel she is pretty confident with beginning and ending sounds, work on the vowel. Again stick with short a till she can fluently make and decode 3 letters words with a vowel.
-Along with the above introduce rhyming, stress on the rhyming sounds to help her recognize rhyme. Read books with rhyming words, identify rhyming words when reading. Make rhyming words when playing or during other activities, for example hey silly billy, come here…look E, silly billy rhymes. - Introduce bob books and sight words when you feel she has a good grasp of decoding sounds and blending sounds.
Activities
Letter Sound Association:
- Say the letter name and ask her to give you the sound
- Show her a letter and ask her to say the sound
- Have her put 3-5 letters in different places, give her a sound to fetch and bring it to you.
- Put letters in a bag, have her take a letter out of the bag and say the sound.
Beginning Sounds:
- Show her an object or picture and ask her the beginning soundn
- When she draws a picture, help her label the picture, ask her beginning sounds, for example what is the 1st sound of a flower.
- Put some letters in a row and have her sort pictures based on the beginning sounds.
I will add more later…
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Thanks so much Lusi.That was really helpful!!
Do add more if you can think of anything else..
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Beginning sounds (Cont.)
- Beginning sound bingo
- Beginning sound goldfish
- Encourage the child to figure out beginning sounds various things at home. Make it a game, take turns.
Ending Sounds
- Ending sounds are tricky, many children need help hearing the ending sound which means when you break the word, stress on the last sound.
- Initially work on three letter words
- Work with rhymes
- Play rhyming games…bingo, goldfish, matching rhymes (try using picture cards in the beginning or make rhymes orally).
- Continue labeling pictures, however now let the child figure out as many sounds as they can in a word. Again, stress on the last sound to help the child figure the ending sound of the word.
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My daughter started learning sight words from 2.5 years , very few sight words were taught at that stage. In Nursery (age 3-4) they had a whole curriculum of ORT (Oxford Reading Tree) books to follow. These books developed her reading skills immensely. I can say she knows over 100 sight words now and can read simple books on her own. I also do Lady Bird’s read it yourself series at home with her on daily basis along with other books. Atleast a book a day is what we are following now at home.
Her school start the decoding books from grade 1 i.e. when children are 51/2 to 6 years.
I would recommend ORT (oxford reading tree) Biff, Kipper and Chip stories. Make flash cards of the sight words , practice them daily and you’ll see a difference.