Teaching your child to read: (Part II)

I began a series on "Teaching your child to Read". I am not a Reading Specialist, but a mom with an Elementary teaching degree who stays home. 

We have a 4 year old son, who is ready and wanting to read. So I wanted to share some tips to other mom bloggers, who feel their child is ready to begin with the next steps towards reading. My first post of this series is HERE. Please read it first, if you are new. 

As I mentioned in post one. I really use this Alphabet Book a lot with my boys. I made it in my student teaching in college, and it's been a great tool. (laminating cards make it WAY better)

After learning all of the letters with lots and lots of practice, we moved onto letter sounds. I am currently on the stages of teaching this step to Kipton (3), but Karson (4) already knows them.

I flip through my ABC book and I'll have them say the letter and I say the sound it makes. 

The letter K says kkkkkkk. (It's hard to show you how each letter sounds, but you can YouTube it if your stuck on one). The boys and I say that C is very tricky. It says the "S" sound for circle, then it says the "k" sound when you say cat. So I start with the letters that are easy and only have one sound, like M. M says mmmmm. One of the biggest things to remember when teaching letter sounds is not to add an A on the end of a sound. It's very easy to do. When you say K says k-k-k-k, don't sound it out like ka-ka-ka. Make sure you "nip it in the bud" as my college professors used to say. Make sure to cut off the sound and not add that A to the end. 

It will later be harder to get your child to stop that when reading. 

I try to keep working on letter sounds every chance I get. In the car, in the bath, the grocery store. "Hey Karson, I see pretzels, what does the letter sound P make?" 

I also make games while we drive in the car like "give me a word that starts with m-m-m-m" but I don't tell them I want a M word. I have them make that connection. Then hopefully they will say words like mom, moon, Monday, etc. 

This takes practice. It's not something they will get in 1 week, 2 weeks, or even months. It takes lots and lots of practice, but thankfully you don't have to be sitting in a chair to do this type of work. Do it ANY and EVERY where. Boys especially don't like to sit. This is one of the best things you can do to get ready for reading. 

This video below, is basically my whole post summed up but I LOVE it. I know all of you as adults, can read. However, if you haven't really thought about letter sounds, maybe you need to brush up? I sure had to in college. 

Stay tuned for post III where we will get into sight words, and chunking.