My 2 year old has started reading the Ladybird Keywords Reading Scheme. Because she has started much earlier than her older sister I am dealing with some issues that I didn’t have with my older - she is still working on reading left to right and top to bottom and her vocabulary is not as clear as her sister’s was at this age, but she is reading well and has a good sight word vocabulary. She knows almost all the letters of the alphabet and is starting to recognise numerals. She does not yet count to 10 correctly though is getting better. She knows most of her colours and shapes, is playing games on the computer, building 35 piece puzzles and listens to advanced chapter books simply because that is what I am reading to my eldest - she will pull out advanced chapter books and tell us what they are about.
My 5.5 year old is homeschooling - she is doing Horizons 1 and Singapore 1b for Math, reading Sonlight’s grade 3 readers at the moment - we will move on to their grade 4 readers in a few months but we are working more on stamina and some vocabulary than on the actual reading. I am using BFSU1 with her and SOTW1 and doing our own thing for geography (at the moment she is doing an Usborne Sticker book on Famous Explorers and following their journeys on our World Map). I also get her to read easier books silently and then draw a picture and write something about the book - sometimes I let her copy a good sentence out of the book and other times she must write her own summary of it. We have been doing quite a lot with spelling mostly working with what she wants to write herself and dictation to reinforce certain rules I have taught her already. We are still working on handwriting and basic grammar. I still read to her a lot - trying to cover stories of our own country, various interesting history stories and then she always listens in on her younger sister’s picture books. On the American system she would only have been starting Kindergarten later this year.
Hello…I am amazed at the development of your child at just age 2. I have a 2.5 year old but I am not sure how to improve her vocabulary or how to make her read. How did you do it with yours? I am not sure I can afford LR yet.
Many Thanks,
Thanks. Lja I did use LR a lot when my DD2 was a baby and then moved to flashcards I had used with my older child to teach the words in the Keywords books. I find the best thing to improve my child’s vocabulary is to speak to her all the time about absolutely everything she and I are doing and also to read books to her - she is a second child and listens to more advanced books than my elder did at this age, though I still find she needs some younger easier books and she also needs to follow a series of books that gradually increase in length to develop her stamina. At the moment her reading is still an experiment (what young child’s isn’t) and I must now see where to move ahead and where I will need to slow down. She is already blending letters so the next step is to start proper phonics with her, but I think I may need more games than I used with my elder as she is younger.
Thanks for sharing the updates, Tanikit! Can your share your opinion on Sonlight readers. Do you buy only the books after looking at their list in the website? Or do you buy even the IGs? How helpful are these readers? Do you use any other readers from Heart of Dakota or any other curriculum?
I probably have too many readers in my house. With the Sonlight Readers I read their list and then buy the ones I think my DD will enjoy - no IG. I have found it fairly easy just paging through the books to work out what order they are meant to be read in and because I do not buy them all I do sometimes supplement with other books at the same level that I have bought elsewhere if she needs more before moving on. The reason I have found them helpful is that the stories are interesting to my child - I know when I buy them that they will be good quality. I have also used HOD’s reading lists - there is much overlap between Sonlight and HOD so often if the book appears in both then I will get it. Again though I choose the ones I think will appeal to my DD.
I think the helpfulness of the readers from the programmes depends on you getting them at the right time for your child at their reading level as well as their maturity level - the readers I have bought have all been suitable for a 5 year old although some do need discussing to prevent fear - the latest one I read addressed tornados which can be scary for a 5 year old - I had to explain we don’t get them where we are living and that there are ways of protecting oneself from them. My DD is fairly hardy usually when reading scary things however.
At the moment I am finding the grade 3 books a very good link to chapter books and for stamina boosting.
I have had to order them online - while it may be possible to get a few of them in bookshops, the bookshops in South Africa are generally not doing to well and I have had to move to online ordering for most books - even South African ones. I use South African online bookstores however to order my books as it works out cheaper for me because of the heavy import duties on overseas parcels. Sometimes I will order with a bulk order that our homeschool web of people organises as this decreases postal fees. We have a very large group of homeschoolers in this country who look after each other so that helps.
Glad everything is going well!