https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:08:37 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781689 Tue, 24 Oct 2017 10:33:46 +0000 808love 2781689@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Charm54: Good article!<br /> Also yEs to rhyming, making stories and books with patterns. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781686 Tue, 24 Oct 2017 10:27:20 +0000 lawbee11 2781686@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Charm54: Loved that article! Thank you for sharing. </p> <p>@rnmcdonnell: Oh that’s a great idea! Hopefully even if they’re out of the pumpkin ones they will have more soon with a different theme. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781658 Tue, 24 Oct 2017 09:01:05 +0000 rnmcdonnell 2781658@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@charm54, thank you that was SO helpful! Will definitely try some of these out. She loves rhymes and making up songs, so some of this would be a natural fit for her anyway.</p> <p>@lawbee11 we are also in a big "book-making" phase! She likes to do hers on individual sheets and then we staple it together, and she gets a big kick out of it. Even though this takes the exciting stapling act out of it, I found this pack of 6 blank Halloween pumpkin and castle books in the dollar spot at Target, and they've been a hit. No idea if they're still there, but she got really into the theme and shape and has "written" Halloween stories for about half the books.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/TARGET-ONE-SPOT-BENDON-BLANK-BOOKS-CASTLE-SIX-16-PAGE-PROJECT-BOOKS-8-IN-x-8-IN/222346392855" rel="nofollow">https://www.ebay.com/itm/TARGET-ONE-SPOT-BENDON-BLANK-BOOKS-CASTLE-SIX-16-PAGE-PROJECT-BOOKS-8-IN-x-8-IN/222346392855</a><br /> <a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/TARGET-ONE-SPOT-BENDON-BLANK-BOOKS-PUMPKIN-ORANGE-SIX-16-PAGE-PROJECT-BOOKS-/222346392864" rel="nofollow">https://www.ebay.com/itm/TARGET-ONE-SPOT-BENDON-BLANK-BOOKS-PUMPKIN-ORANGE-SIX-16-PAGE-PROJECT-BOOKS-/222346392864</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781625 Tue, 24 Oct 2017 04:49:35 +0000 Charm54 2781625@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p><a href="https://medium.com/@heinemann/teaching-reading-before-decoding-yes-cbc965247ed" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@heinemann/teaching-reading-before-decoding-yes-cbc965247ed</a></p> <p>A great article on the very strategic and intricate work children do while reading before they are able to read the words conventionally. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781624 Tue, 24 Oct 2017 04:44:36 +0000 Charm54 2781624@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: that's incredible that she has such a natural inclination to do those things! That will go such a long way when she starts school. </p> <p>There's some research out that we have been pushing kids towards conventional reading (reading the words) too soon and basically shoving them through reading levels at the expense of fostering enjoyment and developing comprehension. I have been really inspired by the work of Matt Glover (he has a fantastic book called I Am Reading for any educators here who are interested). He encourages parents and teachers not to de-emphasize decoding, but really elevate the meaning making process and work hard towards build strong reading identities.</p> <p>I am loving having a 4 year old at home, she gets to be my guinea pig with everything I've been researching and reading😊 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781614 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 23:50:48 +0000 808love 2781614@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did weekly trips to the library for choice and interest, emphasize environmental print and its purpose, reading for pleasure family time, focusing on sounds when learning new words orally. When LO was a very young preschool age I made index cards and labeled things around her room. LO loves to read! She just said she wants to be a librarian when she grows up. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781609 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 22:10:43 +0000 lawbee11 2781609@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Charm54: @Happygal: These are all such great ideas! When we go to the library or pediatrician’s office or anywhere with books that LO hasn’t read before she loves to grab a book and make up a story based on what’s going on in the pictures on the pages. She also loves to grab blank paper and write squiggly lines and pictures across the page and tell me the story as she “writes” it. I guess I’ve been hesitant to do anything out of fear that it would cause her to lose interest in books and reading if I pushed too hard, but it sounds like it would really help and I know she would enjoy these activities. I had no idea where to even begin but this gives me a lot to work with :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781602 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 21:17:53 +0000 Charm54 2781602@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Happygal: linking the writing is such a great idea! My dd loves to make and write her own books. I staple 4-6 pages together and she goes to town. It's incredible how they can string and compose their own story at such a young age. As she becomes more aware of print she is starting to add in squiggly lines, random strings of letters for the words. And she loves to read her books to anyone who will listen ... each time the story stays (mostly) the same which makes my little literacy heart so happy 🤗 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781594 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 20:54:33 +0000 Happygal 2781594@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: follow the child, my friend. Your girl sounds like fun and ready to start learning to read! Out of curiosity, I would casually ask her to read me a story one day just to see what she might do. </p> <p>Since night time stories are a frustrating time and she sounds like she could benefit from immediate gratification, I'd pick out a book you read that has a word used repeatedly and doesn't have a lot of text on each page. We have a book called "Babies and Dogs," so I'd pick the word "dogs." I'd write "dogs" on an index card and then act all excited about teaching her how to read. I'd sound out the word, pausing with my finger under each letter. Have her do the same. Then read the book and tell her she can watch for the word and read it herself! You can model this, prompt her by giving her a playful poke, etc. Then you have opened the door for phonics. You could go back to the card, trace the letter "d" and talk about other words that start with the sound we make when we see this letter. </p> <p>I love all of the ideas @Charm54: recommended. I have a lot of other ideas, but don't want to overwhelm. Something that is also fun for a child eager to read is to have them tell you a simple story and for you to write it all down. Then you can read their story back to them. Maybe even fold pages over and write it like a book. Kids captivated by the idea of print really love this. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781497 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 15:41:09 +0000 Charm54 2781497@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm a K-2 literacy coach... my advice would be to not stress and let it unfold naturally. </p> <p>Continue to read her lots and lots of books. Expose her to books of all kinds - fiction, non fiction, poetry, fairy tales, etc.</p> <p>Read stories over and over again, then teach your LO to retell the book in a familiar way. My dd (4) wants to read to us, so she loves to pick books at bedtime that she already knows and retell it. So much meaning making and comprehension happens when they do this.</p> <p>Teach her how to pick up an unfamiliar book and make meaning out of it, bridging the pages together by looking at the pictures and stringing a story together. Don't worry if it doesn't match the actual story. Look at character facial expressions, common repeating objects, etc. Make a story out of it. Again - the level of comprehension work this requires is quite impressive.</p> <p>You can also work on building phonological awareness skills. These are a precursor to conventional reading. Skills like identifying rhymes, (Does hat and carpet rhyme? Hat and cat?)</p> <p>generating rhymes (can you think of a word that rhymes with mop?)</p> <p>Word Awareness (tap for every word you hear in this sentence... ex: I like to play would be 4 taps). </p> <p>Syllable counting (can you clap the syllables in Dinosaur?)</p> <p>Those would all be good early skills to work on.</p> <p>At this young age the most important thing is to develop a healthy, robust reading identity so that they truly believe they are a reader (even if they can't yet read the words).</p> <p>In my opinion :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781493 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 15:26:13 +0000 2littlepumpkins 2781493@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I may be in the minority here but I think that where she is is totally developmentally appropriate and what I would do is continue to read to her and wait it out a bit. Just because she can recognize some sight words doesn't mean she is ready to start sounding out words and doing that sort of thing. I think the important thing at that age is preparing the foundation, and she will pick up phonics quickly when she enters more structured education. For reference my newly five year old is in TK (missed bday cutoff for regular K) and they are working on letter sounds on their own and in the context of words, as well as expanding sight words, and next year in regular K they will be able to sound out words. Now given she has a little extra time than most, she is well able to keep up with that curriculum and when we discussed further skills at parent teacher conference her teacher just recommended staying the course, and that if she wasn't picking up what I was telling her, she was telling me she wasn't quite ready, and that's no problem.</p> <p>Sorry for the rambling answer! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781471 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 14:45:44 +0000 misolee 2781471@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My daughter just turned 5 and she had expressed desire in wanting to read but couldn't figure out how to sound out the words (she knew all the sounds of the letters).</p> <p>A fellow mom recommended the book, "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" and we started on it. I started without reading the instructions but it clearly got confusing so I had to go back and re read the directions. The concept was a little different on how to sound out the words but the approach worked and has definitely got her figuring out how to sound out the words </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781457 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:51:39 +0000 rnmcdonnell 2781457@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>and @happygal, thank you! Educator perspective is crucial and so helpful!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781455 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:45:08 +0000 rnmcdonnell 2781455@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thank you everyone, such good answers!! So so appreciated. </p> <p>@pawprints, thanks for that link! I was worried people were going to think I was trying to make sure she's reading before K, but I'm nonplussed about it for sure and totally agree with that Lansbury post. I mostly wanted to make sure I wasn't totally missing the ball on things to do to help support her skill level, especially based on how long she's been doing sight words (vs. specifically try to make sure she's reading by K). And/or getting validation that my passivity is still okay!! :)</p> <p>It sounds like the vote is that she'll figure it out in school, though maybe I'll pull out some early reader books we haven't read in a while, and/or buy some BOB books just to explore. Most of what we read are either young chapter books or picture books that aren't geared towards readers, so maybe that could be a mellow step to incorporate options that are more approachable to following along. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781436 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 12:35:38 +0000 kiddosc 2781436@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think this blog post has some good tips for teaching a kiddo how to read and steps to progress through. <a href="http://marriageconfessions.com/2016/09/07/teaching-your-preschooler-to-read/" rel="nofollow">http://marriageconfessions.com/2016/09/07/teaching-your-preschooler-to-read/</a></p> <p>I'll say that my kindergartener learned most of his letter sounds in 4k and is just now starting to be able to sound out simple words. He do it in the car as a game sometimes and focus on groups of words. (what does C-A-T spell? What does B-A-T spell...) But he doesn't have a huge attention span for it and I don't push it. At school they are learning site words and memorizing short, repetitive books. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781434 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 12:20:29 +0000 lawbee11 2781434@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Happygal: What would your answer be if she seemed frustrated and showed signs of wanting to read more? My daughter often tells me that she wants me to teach her how to read, that she wants to read to me before bedtime (not the other way around), etc. But she just turned 4 in August so I'm not sure how realistic that is. Would love any tips/advice! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781428 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 12:07:45 +0000 PawPrints 2781428@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I also vote let it go. I take a Janet Lansbury approach to thinking about these things: <a href="http://www.janetlansbury.com/2010/03/a-baby-ready-for-kindergarten-college-and-life/" rel="nofollow">http://www.janetlansbury.com/2010/03/a-baby-ready-for-kindergarten-college-and-life/</a> -- that blog post is more geared toward infants/toddlers but I think the advice holds very well for kindergarten.</p> <p>There have been articles written about the huge shift in recent years towards pushing "kindergarten-readiness" for kids, which is a coded way of saying that kids should know how to read before entering kindergarten. I'm on board with the argument Lansbury makes, which is that kindergarten is for learning socialization skills and that learning to read will come in its own time. There's no need for parents to feel this pressure to send their kids to school already knowing how to read. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781421 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 11:50:36 +0000 Happygal 2781421@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>"But I'm having trouble figuring out how to approach reading in that way, and not sure if I should just let it go and trust that she will learn it in school, or if I should get more involved."</p> <p>Educator here voting "Let it go." :happy: </p> <p>I say that because from what you've described, she's happy with where she is right now and is going to do just fine in school. If she seemed frustrated and showing signs of wanting to read more, or there was a concern, I'd give you a different answer. Just keep reading books at home and exposing her to lots of different types of text. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781420 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 11:41:30 +0000 Shantuck 2781420@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I didn't really know where to start with my son (who is in kindergarten). We signed up for a weekend class thing over the summer that we got a flyer for from my son's preschool that lasted about 6 weeks and the parents actually stayed on site for the lessons. I think it was more helpful to me than him because it gave me a better sense of how to approach reading lessons. My program was offered through this organization and it looks like they have programs all over: <a href="http://readingprograms.org/FIND-A-PROGRAM" rel="nofollow">http://readingprograms.org/FIND-A-PROGRAM</a>. Also, we bought a large pack of sight words from Amazon that come with card rings and we add a new word every few days to the ring and do them during dinner. If he does a good job with the words, he gets to have a dessert. He loves it and asks to do his sight words every night. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781418 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 11:28:40 +0000 dolphin 2781418@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DD will be 5 soon and we do the BOB books. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781373 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 09:00:30 +0000 looch 2781373@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The summer before my son went to kindergarten, I attempted to introduce a sight word game via flashcards that I found on the internet. My son refused to even participate and I was convinced he would not learn how to read. He's intelligent, there is no doubt about that, but I was sure he had a learning disability....I think the statistics are that 1 in 4 kids is dyslexic.</p> <p>So off he went to kindergarten. I held my breath, preparing for a call from the literacy coordinator and it never came. It simply took a proper literacy program and dedicated teachers. It began with the sight words and introduction of rules, like the bossy r and e placed at the end of a word making the vowels say their name. Those kinds of formal rules made it click for my son. He can sound out words (including made up words) which is a marker that I was concerned about. I check his comprehension by asking questions as he is reading. The fact is, though, while I know how to read, I do not know how to teach a child to read, so I had to back off to let the professionals do their jobs.</p> <p>The school supplemented his reading with books of the appropriate level and I just continued reading aloud to him at night. The biggest challenge now is finding appropriate material, so we've enlisted the help of the librarians in town plus an online reading program for content. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781371 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 08:47:46 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2781371@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think there are two things that my daughter worked on to actually start reading. However, i would make sure she really knows all her letter sounds first. </p> <p>1. Sight words. These are basic like "The" etc.<br /> 2. Letter sounds and blending certain sounds. Work on sound blends in groups/patterns (Cat, Bat, Mat, Sat). Books like the Bob books are good for this. </p> <p>From there it kinda just took off but in its own time. Her preK when she was 4 did a lot of letter sounds and just started on sight words. So she went into Kindergarten not really reading and just starting to sound out and blend words together but not really well. I didn't push it before K because she was really young. In Kindergarten she really progressed with sight words, letter sounds, and blending. But again, still couldn't really read a book without getting frustrated. We didn't push it. Now that she's 6 and in 1st grade, her reading is JUST fine and totally took off on its own time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-to-approach-learning-to-read#post-2781369 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 08:43:38 +0000 rnmcdonnell 2781369@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hi everyone,<br /> I have an almost 5-year-old who is a bright kid and has always been in good daycare/preschool/pre-k program(s). I thought she'd be an early reader when she could recognize all her classmates' names by sight before she was 3. However, her reading skills haven't progressed in the trajectory that I would have expected since then. She knows her letters, and is capable of trying to sound out some words to spell with help. But if you ask her to read a word, she's lost unless she happens to recognize it (names or some sight words).</p> <p>I'm pretty laid back and usually don't do much "active" teaching, outside of the typical playtime activities (singing songs, counting toys, etc), since she's been in great programs and has always been ahead of the curve and I want her to learn in her own way at her own pace. But I'm having trouble figuring out how to approach reading in that way, and not sure if I should just let it go and trust that she will learn it in school, or if I should get more involved. </p> <p>If the latter, what do people recommend for tactics for getting their kids beyond the hump of seeing words to actually trying to read? If the former, is it pretty common that kids would be recognizing some sight words by 3 and 2 years later not have progressed on to phonics/other reading skills?</p> <p>I'm definitely not a mom who is obsessed with my kid reading WSJ by the time she's in kindergarten, just not really sure if this is an area where I should continue to be passive, and tactics to try (whether I should be more active or not).</p> <p>Sorry that was so long, but thanks for any advice!! </p>