Hey guys. I’m not sure what to do with my son. I started a full reading program with him in august and he was all into it. But now he is not focusing and not that into them anymore. But he loves EK bits, learning to tell time and stuff like that. Should I back off to doing the reading more incidental(like he still seems interested In reading flashcards if posted on the fridge or if I randomly point to them in books) and focus more on teaching other things like time, classical music and EK knowledge. And ideas would be helpful.
Thank you
My son goes through his phases when he is not so much into “reading” and we back off a little and I go back to some of his favorite books and read to him without the expectation of him reading. As long as I see that he is following along, I feel confident that he is getting and learning new vocabulary. My boy loves Thomas the Train so I try to acquire books about Thomas and they are great fill in books for us. Recently, when I see him losing some interest I read a word wrong and he loves correcting me. It seems to keep him interested in reading along with me since he’s just waiting to see what “I need help with”. It’s funny but it works with my boy. Always experiment. You never know what will work. He might enjoy reading sentences on-line- Maybe some stories on starfall.com. It would be great to know about sites that help with short read along stories. Out of curiosity what reading program are you doing?
Thank you sofic !
I’m doing YBCR and a make shift Doman program. I’m also hoping to start a Flesch program instead as it is more age appropriate. It seems he learns stuff and then loses it and it’s frustrating. I can give him 6 cards and ask him to give me a certain word and he does but if I ask him to read them sometimes he gets it an some times he forgets. I wonder if he I really retaining I or not 
You are doing the right thing following your 4 year old interests. At this age they want to read what they want to read and I think simply reading flash cards with random words won’t work. Books of his interest with short sentences are the best to teach your 4 year old to read.
If you could introduce books that might help, I guess. In the library I have see books with series A, B, C…and so on with increasingly complex sentences. ‘A’ being at a very basic level, a picture and couple words per page and not more than 5-7 pages per book. Those are good. Just some change from the flash card schedule…
My 3.5 year old is the same way. If I ask him to do something that looks like it’s reading practice, he resists. Occasionally (on easy books–well below his capabilities) he’ll willingly take turns with me reading sentences or sometimes paragraphs. He’s usually game to read one or two paragraphs from any book we’re reading. But he almost never reads a whole book to me, and if I “catch” him reading, he’s always reading silently and has kind of a sly look on his face. But his mama tells me that he reads by himself quite a bit, and he actually will read books to her though he won’t read to me. I guess I can only conclude that, though I’ve tried to avoid it, reading with me makes him feel pressured.
I still read quite a bit to him, and whenever I do, I run my finger under the words. I know he has picked up a lot that way. Basically, he follows along (I watch his eyes, and he corrects me when I make a mistake, as I do from time to time both unintentionally and intentionally). So I know he’s getting a lot of great reading practice in. I noticed he was reading all sorts of very advanced signs at the doctor’s office today (he’s got a bad bug that’s been going around, not flu). I’m sure they would have been beyond him six months ago. I’m sure he’s making good progress despite our having dropped “explicit” teaching of reading.
You could see if my “Fleschcards” are appealing to your boy (see http://www.mediafire.com/FleschCards)…maybe not. There are so many different things to try out, I don’t see any reason to impose anything on my own boy. I know he’s learning a lot.
For many months, just to take an example, he was reading some of the simplest history books (the Step into Reading series was great), but then he seemed to be tired of almost anything historical-related we tried. So we sort of cooled it with the history for a long time. Lately we’ve come back to it via the Magic Tree House books and some new presentations (I made a long two-part one that is, believe it or not, the history of the world; it is meant to put dates into perspective). So in the last few weeks we’ve had some history one way or another, but we have read very few if any history books per se. I’m sure we’ll come back to them. I think he’s getting ready for them again. His favorite question about any historical topic is: “Was that before cars?”
Anyway my point is that if your kid does not seem to be interested in one approach, it’s perfectly OK to take a break and/or try something new.
Thank-you guys! This is so helpful!
Basically we slowing down on the word flashcards and working more on these EK like cards I got from the local teacher shop. We flash through them and then pick a couple to read the backs of. Right now we are doing sea creatures, which he loves. I’m going to take him to the library and get some books on Sea Creatures. Maybe after I can get him into doing some matching words to pictures. He loves that game. And were also going music instruments.
I also have Tweedlewinks coming in, he has a new found interest in YBCR so maybe this will help him too.
Hopefully he is retaining this and just hiding it from me like DadDudes son.
If he were my son, I’d let it all go. No conditions. Let him pick, and then offer more of the same and see how it is received. I never appreciated being forced to read anything. Not as a kid, not now. And I’m a ‘reading addict’. Still, being told to read anything was a guarantee for losing interest.
One excellent source of building reading skills I know is video games. they have instructions, and scores, and stuff, which involve language, maths, etc not to mention building skills for multitasking, reflexes, speed in operating a computer… and they are addictive fun. Most kids love them. Change games to change vocabulary.
And for heaven’s sake, don’t MAKE him play 
Just tell him you’ve got a new game. That should be all it takes.
Thank you for your advice. Just know I don’t force my son to do reading. I was just asking for a practical way to make it enjoyable. Really we’ve backed off only doing a few words here and there and his new love is learning to tell time.
My son has a disability so he needs to be shown things in a more flashcard way to learn.
Hey! I just thought I’d update this topic. My son is still anti-word flashcards. But by using Hooked on Phonics, he seems to be showing an interest again. Plus this last week Reading Eggs has become almost an addiction for him. Now that he is able to use online games to help his learning I’m also going to introduce starfall.com to him. Plus these games have him asking me the question “How do you spell…?” Plus he still loves LR and Tweedlewinks, so I hoping all these things will give him the head start he needs 
Dad Dude, reading your comment I question if there are history books for toddlers. I am posting a topic and will appreciate your comments.
I realize that this is an old post, but…
Six months ago, my 4 year old was doing the same thing. Then, I found Headsprout and reading eggs and now he loves our time.
My daughter is almost 3.5 and she is suddenly resisting everything. She can do some basic reading. She learned about 100 YBCR words in the last year. We did pre-k HOP and started the K. In the last few weeks, she is shutting herself off. She is on the verge of really reading here, but she no longer wants our learning time together. Instead, when I suggest something, she starts crying. Some of it may be my fault because I have insisted too often since we only have one time a day for it.
Last night, we were doing Headsprout when she said that she was thirsty. I had her sitting on my lap so I told her to finish this one thing and then I would get her some juice. She put her head on the desk and said, “No” and then shut down. Perhaps I should have just gotten the juice, but it then became a power struggle. I waited until she decided to put her head up and finish a little bit more. Then I got the juice. Tonight, she did not want to do Headsprout. She also doesn’t want reading eggs, HOP, I See Sam book 1, YBCR, or the sight word cards. She did agree to do a scissor activity and then wanted to pretend to write words. She basically scribbled on some paper. I gave her a choice between several different things and she finally chose to write one line of letters on a tracer page and then I told her we could go to bed.
When she did not want to do Headsprout, she said it was too hard. My daughter is a perfectionist and she hates being wrong. So, I sat her on my lap and purposely missed a number of my responses and showed her what the computer did. Then, she went and got her teddy bear and had the teddy bear point to the correct answer and I clicked on it. We did a brief clip, but it took quite bit longer because she was playing around. I feel like I screwed up by engagin in the power struggle last night.
I don’t want to stop our learning time, but I don’t want tears either. Suggestions? Should I ust go with the scissors stuff right now? The crazy thing is that she could not get enough of all of this six months ago.
How about some games with the words she already knows for a little bit?
Though my daughter hasn’t shut down on me (yet) I decided to nip it in the bud before it did happen. I had this happen with my oldest daughter when she was 4.5. I was also a new mom , new to homeschooling , new to teaching. Had I knew the things I know know I would of definitely done things MUCH differently.
I find that my 4yr old does like reading the words she already knows. Just tonight she was looking through The Reading Lessons book I have and she found the word “Hi”. She joyfully showed me the word and said " Mommy, look this says ‘hi’." I told her absolutely, yes!
We read a book this morning called " Pigs Can’t Fly". There are several words that she has learned from YBCR in it. I read the words she didn’t know and pointed my finger while I read them, and she read the words she did know. She absolutely loved it. We only got to do part of the book before she went to preschool but I had it sitting on my couch opened to the spot we left off with and we read away! She was so proud of herself when we finished it.
I also got out our YBCR sliding word cards. I have hear line them up on the floor in a line. Then she stands at one end and I’ll say, " Jump to the word, mouth." and she’ll jump and find it. " Crawl to the word, tongue." " Tippy toe to the word giraffe". We play this a few times or until she is done. I have to pick and chose as she goes to preschool all day so I know she is tired. I let her tell me when she’d like to do it. Today after school she let me know that she wanted to do her words. She even told me that she is bored with school now. So Hmmm, makes me want to pull her out like today.But she has 4 more months left and after that I will keep her home.
Hope some of those ideas are helpful. Sometimes you just have to do something different for a little while then go back to what it was your doing later on.
If its any help, that same four year the thread was originally about is now five and was just tested and he is reading at between grade 1-1.5. The teacher suspects he can read at a higher level but since he is speech delayed he cannot answer the comprehension questions properly past the 1.5 level and so she stopped the test.
lol Didn’t realize this was a 2010 thread. 
Great to hear he is doing so well.
Natalie did better last night. I just let her guide what we did and helped to feel that she was in control. She asked to do the computer so we went on Headsprout. She got her teddy bear and had the teddy bear point to the answers while I clicked on them. After a while, she clicked on a few and then asked me to do it again. I think that the issue is that she’s scared to make a mistake so I put her back on the prevous episode. It did take about 20 minutes to get through 5 minutes of material, but I justed waited for her to be okay with responding. Afterward, I did a quick assessmen with her on sight words using the Dolsch preprimer words. She handled that fine and knew 13 of the 40. Then, we did a scissor activity and that was it. I got through a lot less than I would have like to, but I think that she is telling me that I need to slow down.
Up until October, I was really doing the YBCR cards, but she got resistent so I switched to a phonics based approach. Now, she has forgotten about half of the words. In the end, many of the YBCR words are not the most common words that she will need to know so I am not that worried about it, but it does mean that going back to that won’t guarantee that she knows what I show her.
I think that this may just be a phase. She has also been crying more at dropoff for daycare and is having separation anxiety in places where she didn’t used to (gymnastics and swimming).
I see that I never answered this. Well, here goes.
Of course, most toddlers could not possibly understand any history book. The difficulty with history books is that they require a rich stock of concepts that do not appear in most books for toddlers or preschoolers. Basically, to care about what is going on in history books, I think children first have to have some basic idea of what the time period was like–otherwise it seems just puzzling and extremely foreign (which it is).
I don’t know when I read my first history book to H., but I think it was probably when he was two, approaching three.
The simplest and most plentiful truly introductory history books that I know of are in the Random House “Step into Reading” series." The history books are surprisingly well-written, despite being mixed in with a LOT of Disney and cartoon-based dreck. For example, on Level 2 is “The Statue of Liberty” and then on Level 3 there is a much bigger selection of history, such as “Abe Lincoln’s Hat” and “Christopher Columbus.” As you can see, though, these are American-oriented.
I have some history presentations that provide some basic introduction, but without a lot more of the same (I’m working on the platform for it right now, just be patient!), I don’t think these will be enough to prepare kids to get the Usborne stuff.
When he was three, we plowed through a few dozen history-oriented Magic Tree House books. These are extremely accessible and I am very sure they eased H.'s way into history. They were possibly the best introduction to world history we could have gotten for that age, because they really don’t require much in the way of prerequisite. They ease the little reader into history by way of fiction, which is a great way to do it.
More recently we discovered the absolutely top-drawer Usborne Young Reading series, which is absolutely full of fantasic books. And I guess their Series 1 and 2 do include some stuff that isn’t much more advanced than the “Step into Reading” Level 2. But we didn’t start reading those until H. was 3.5. He could have understood some of them a little earlier, but not much earlier.
Just in the last couple months we started another series, the “You Wouldn’t Want to Be a…” series. Right now it’s “You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Roman Gladiator,” which he likes quite a bit.
We did a number of other history books, but nothing really stands out. “Where’s Waldo” has a history-themed book or two that we liked.
Now he’s able to follow and appreciate some (not all) of the Young Reading Series 3 history books. (The fiction is considerably easier than the history, at least for H.) Having read a lot of the history from the above series, he is now fairly well able take on board stuff that is actually history–not just stories from history or historical fiction. But we’re still definitely in the hand-holding stage, and I still don’t think he’d be interested in Susan Wise Bauer’s “History of the World” series yet, but…soonish, maybe.
DadDude-Very informative post about introducing history, karma to you!
Re: introducing history- This isn’t exactly what you were looking for, but I have been eying this homeschool groups’ materials for a while. I just ordered their $10 Cycle 3 (Ancients) memory work CD with powerpoint presentations to try it out. If I like it, I will buy the rest of the set. It’s clearanced because it’s last years version, my DD is too young to care. :biggrin: Dr. Jones speaks highly of CC in general and that’s how I learned about their group, but the classes don’t start until 4 or 5 I think.
Anyway, they also have the audio CD’s which I am very interested in getting. I really like to hear a sample but I have looked everywhere online with no luck. We’ll see how I like the resource CD first and if the quality is good, I am going to get the audio cd’s next. History set to songs & music…while it’s not reading from a book, it seems like it might be a gentle introduction.
DadDude, thanks for your answer, your comments are most apprecciated. I think that if kids are interested in books we have to try exposing them to differente topics and not just fiction.
Some months ago we came into a colection in spanish named ‘Encyclopedia of knowledge’ by Julia Bruce Editorial LIBSA. It has a few books that deall with certain topics as animals, nature and two that give an insight into history.
The ones I like the most are:
- Ancient Civilizations
- Our ancestors, every day
My husband enjoys reading it and showing our grandson images of:
Vikings
the crusades
Medieval castle
Middle Ages
China,
America before Columbus,
pirates
Captain Cook
Indians
the Wild West and others.
The interesting thing is that he realizes his grandfather enjoys these topics very much and when we see a pirate like Pablo from Backyardigan he says to me ‘pirates… papapa likes them’.
I recomend this books for kids.
I also used YBCR in combination with the Doman materials. When my son (2.5) started to lose interest I went back to something that had worked before: Making the books myself, a la the Doman method. The difference was like night and day!
Use your own photos-- of family members, places you have been, etc. etc., and make simple sentences for each photo. Keep the type fairly large-- an inch and a half high, and not too many words on a page. Typically the photo goes on one page and the sentence goes on the page facing it. How you make the book is up to you. I know people who do them on MyPublisher, where you electronically create the book and they print it and send it to you (and its not that expensive). Or you can make the book by hand-- print the photos and paste them onto pages (actually clear packing tape is best- prevents the edtes from peeling). For pages I used the blank 12’x12" cards that you can get from the Doman website. The advantage of making the book by hand is that you can use photos from anywhere-- last year’s calendars, second hand books, old posters, etc.
I’m not sure why this made such a big difference. The obvious explanation - using images that are a part of his own environment-- may be part of it, but not all of it. My son vastly prefers the books I’ve made regardless of subject. Doman focuses a lot on type size and so forth, so that may be part of it as well.
Another thing that helped – making my own DVDs. VERY simple, just little 5-minute setments- set up the camera and go through the flashcards as if your child were in front of you, (Doman method/made my own flashcards). I guess it may sound a little silly, but I work full time and doing this also served as a way to connect with my son.
Hope this helps!