Update on my 3 year year olds reading progress

Early Learning Teaching Your Child to Read
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Here is a video update of my 3 year old’s reading progress. I haven’t posted very much lately, just busy with life, but we’ve been chugging away as always. He is a very fast reader so is working on not skipping words when reading aloud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfhJ1xQv5pU

It’s interesting, we did more of a sight word approach with him (with some phonics as well of course) and more of a phonics approach with his older brother. However, both seem to be on track to have equal reading skills. I wonder if it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you are consistent or if it’s just that they have their own strengths and learning styles.

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Wow that’s very good for a 3 year old. He was reading at a really good pace and spoke clearly. I agree, I think that each child learns differently and sometimes an emphasis on sight words with some phonics will work well for one child but not another and vice versa. I experienced this with my own children. My oldest children did wonderfully with a phonics approach but my youngest (my 3 year old) did terribly. Once I switched my approach to reading and placed an emphasis on sight words she did great.

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Congratulations! You have a very good little reader! Could you talk about your steps to do it, please? My first aim was to raise a bilingual child, my aim is coming true. Now my second dream is to be able to make my LO read. She is receiving a lot of input through all kinds of resources, such as LR, ybcr, Wink to learn, jolly phonics… and so on. I know that she is learning and she likes reading, However, the more advices I find the more my LO learns.

Nuria loves Jolly Phonics and Starfall. Both are different nationalities, British and American. As far as the sounds of the letters are they so different? I find both languages have very different accents, that it is obvious, My LO is raising with different accents, it is important that she is able to encode any accent. However, I am working with BE, accent. She loves starfall. Me too. I cannot find, as far as the sound phonemes a lot of differences, except z, and r. I find that it is interesting learning different sounds of letters, What do you think? Have your child used a lot of phonics in order to have this level of reading with only three years? I repeat, I am not anxious to make my LO read tomorrow, only I want to be aware if I am taking the right direction. Although I have a lot experience with older ss and adults the teaching in babies is different, and for me more interesting, taking into account their ages.

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Bravo Mason and Linzy! He is reading very well!

I am curious, did you ever finish Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading?
Also, where do you get the Peter and Jane books? I can only find them being sold outside the USA as a series.

I know that you’ve expressed interest in teaching the boys French, what is Blaise up to these days? Isn’t he about school age now?

Would you mind sharing an update on your boys progress to-date?

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Wonderful Linzy! He is doing so well.

Both of my boys do really well with sight words, but my daughter prefers the phonics way better. She still learns with sight words but she has a preference for phonics. Either way, we are having success all the way around. From all my reading of everyone’s experience, I am learning that little ones can learn with just about any method as long as the experience is joyful and consistent. It’s all so amazing to me.

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nuria, here is a post where I briefly summarized what we have done so far to help in teaching reading:
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-to-read/reading-update-with-my-3-year-old/msg97183/#msg97183
Let me know if you have other questions though, I’d love to help. I’d also love to hear what you have done to help your child to become bilingual.

mom2bee, we haven’t finished Ordinary Parent’s Guide. We’ve mainly just been reading, but that’s only because when we do the lessons he seems to be able to just read what is on the page. We probably will continue doing lessons a few times a week, just to reinforce things, but he doesn’t seem to need it.

They are both still doing French. We took a break for a while, because the computer we had little reader on broke. However, we bought a new one for Blaise and put all of the learning stuff on it. They are doing a lesson of Little Reader french daily as well as watching French cartoons and reading books from the A to Z website. They are starting to improve but we lost quite a bit when we were forced to take that break. I know that throughout the world most people in most cultures are able to learn multiple languages, but for us this has been the most challenging part of an early education program.

I’ll post an update in a separate thread on both boys.

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For the Peter and Jane books, I get them on amazon used. For the early levels I goth them as a boxed set and the rest separately. I have found that he does not need the c books only a and b.

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Linky, Thank you for your videos!!! They are really very good to explain what you have done with your child!!!

I have seen how your child learnt the phonemes before the sounds of the letters. That was one of my first doubts taking into account the alphabet. When you began to teach the letters and you taught her their sounds, was it not difficult for her? In LR, she loves a video where the letters of the alphabet appear and disappear in the ground of a beautiful garden. I don´t know if it is good to use it at the same time that she is doing starfall and jollyphonics, because I thought that it was better the teaching of the sounds if I want Nuria learns to read.

Another question. I am interested in learning more about phonetics.I have seen that there are many parents whose children have learnt only with LR, LR is fantastic!! However, I would like to know how children learn to read English. I studied phonetics and phonology at university, but nobody showed me how to read taking into account the sounds. It is something interesting for me. I am learning now. Did you use only the free material of Backpack Bear, or did you buy the programme? In the video you are working a very interesting section, that I have never seen before in the free section.I am considering the option of homeschool… with 35 dollars, essential material… I think that it was.

Well, with respect to what I am doing in order to raise a possible bilingual child, is: speaking English as much as possible; sometimes it is difficult because being a non-native parent who doesn´t use the English language except on the web…I have an advanced level, of course, it was essential in my job, Sometimes I have doubts with respect to expressions for babies. But every day is much better. It is not the same speaking to adults for three or four hours a day, than speaking to your baby all day… I am using all kinds of resources:videos, skype, flashcards, tw, ybcr, LR, starfall… I have useful sentences that I learn here and there. For instance, something that I use a lot now is what you say when babies cannot touch something on the floor.Yucky, don´t touch that, There is a wonderful person here how has shared this sentence.

Your videos are very good, and the videos of the rest of parents. They help me!! Now, that I can see that my baby is able to speak in the English language, it is high time that I work with my baby´s reading, I will do it now with consistency. It is an amazing experience for me. If I can do it, perhaps, in the future I will do it with another language.

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Nuria- The way that I taught the letters and letter sounds was primarily with the Leap Frog “Meet the Letters” DVD. Within 2 weeks he knew them all, it was VERY easy. We then just practiced at mealtimes with the flash cards. After your child knows the letter sounds they can move straight into Reading Bear, The Ordinary parent’s guide to Teaching Reading (the second part of the book after the letter sounds) or Reading Eggs(this is probably best for children that are 2+, and a parent woudl need to do the mousing).

We did use the Starfall program, but more as a fun supplement than the main program.

I appreciate the advice for teaching a second language, I think we need ot work at speaking it more every day. I can read French pretty easily, but as I am not accustomed to speaking it, it feels ackward for me and I just don’t do it very often.

Thanks again!

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Hi, Lincy, thank you for your answer! Immediately after that I read your message, I looked Leap Frog on the web again. Nuria had seen the programme, perhaps about four months and two months ago. I had tried twice or three times before. She didn´t show a lot interest. However, tonight, it was different. It was late and Nuria was watching Dora the explorer, she was beginning to sleep with the TV. Suddenly, I put the computer with Leap Frog, and she stood up in her cot. Now, she likes it. I have realised that I have to do this with the different resorces that I have found at home. I have found videos in youtube . I am not completely sure that they are yours. I have to look at them. Yesterday I was having a look at amazon where I found the Handbook of Jolly phonics. I want to learn how children learn to read English. It is something that interests me, and I want to learn as well. It has very good reviews and the more I learn the more my LO takes advantage of it.You say that in two weeks your LO learnt all the letters. It is amazing!! How old was your child then? You name the second part of the book of teaching Reading,you make reference to Reading Bear,where is that guide? She doesn´t like Reading bear very much :blush: , perhaps she changes her attitude in two weeks, that I cannot say to you. But I would like to find it. I don´t know Reading bear very much.

Starfall is a great programme from my point of view and the important thing, Nuria loves it. It is very interactive and Backpack Bear is cute and adorable!! She knows his name lol Then, did you use only the free part of Starfall programme?

With respect to teach a second language, if you are not accustomed to speaking it, I can comment something that I am reading in THE BILINGUAL EDGE, at this very moment. I am going to copy a sentence that summarises a chapter: Reading to children in a second language is one the best ways to boost their vocabulary. Ok, you feel perhaps a bit uncomfortable because you cannot speak French fluently, but you say that you can read French pretty easily. In accordance with this book, it would be very good if your LO could
listen your voice in that second language that you master, at least reading. As in my community the immersion linguistic in the English language is impossible, here little people where I live can speak English fluently, I speak to her in English all the time. Sometimes, I wonder if I should read in Spanish, my native language or in German, a language that speaks and write with a medium level… I have my doubts… I know that she at nursery school has the possibility to listen stories in Spanish. According to the book, it is very important to read in order to educate a child with a broad vocabulary in that language.

Well, sorry, I should be sleeping and I have written too much. Perhaps, it bores you. Sorry, I would like that you answer my questions above written. Your experience is useful for me . Thanks in advance.

Are these oarts of your videos of Leapfrog?? In the video the letter and the sound are worked together. Didn´t it create confusion in your LO? Generally she says to me the sound of the phoneme. I have used videos where both options appear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsPbIjENEWs&list=PL046E0BC3A30480DF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ID9ucqKtsE&list=PL046E0BC3A30480DF

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Yes, that is the LeapFrog video my kids have used. Do you have the whole movie? If you play it once a day I’m sure your daughter will learn it quickly. My son was probably about 12 months when he mastered them. http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Letter-Factory-Ginny-Westcott/dp/B0000INU6S/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1376113108&sr=1-3&keywords=letter+factory. There is a newer veriosn of some of the videos that is not as good you want the 2003 version.

I have not done Jolly phonics, but I did like http://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Parents-Guide-Teaching-Reading/dp/0972860312/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376112369&sr=1-1&keywords=ordinary+parents+guide+to+teaching+reading. It is a scripted program, and very easy for a 2 year old to understand.

We did purchase the Starfall monthly subscription for a few months, but it was more of a fun extra than his main learning program. Readingeggs.com was very helpful and is usually available for a discount on www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/‎.

http://www.readingbear.org/ is also good. One benefit is that it is free. Also it teaches English at the same time it teaches reading. It shows the picture and also a video and explains the word in a sentence. We watched each section initially with the sound out slow option and then sped up to fast and then did it as the flashcards to test him. Once he knew how to blend we only did fast sounding out. Once he got them all right we gave him the star and moved on.

Our favorite sight word reading program is http://www.amazon.com/Boxset-Key-Words-William-Murray/dp/1409302830/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376112857&sr=1-1&keywords=peter+and+jane. This is a link to the first 6 books. 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c. I personally don’t think you need the c books, they are more writing type work. They go up to level 12 and build very slowly. One nice thing about them is they teach each word individually and cover over 1000 of the most common English words. They also only use words that they have taught.

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:laugh: lol :wink: :blush: :yes: :nowink: Thank you, how many links and information you have written! THANK YOU. It is very good help other people and be helped.
My LO adores LEAPFROG. Today she was very unquiet in my mother ´s house. I used my mobile phone to find leapfrog, and she stopped crying. The song is very good to remember the letters and their sounds. My LO was trying to sing it in the car when coming back home this evening.

I have to have a look all of your links. They must be very interesting. Thank you again. It is amazing tthat your LO was only 12 months when she mastered the letters and their sounds. I am more interested in this aspect now than before, when my first aim was only to teach my LO a second language.

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A free substitute to Ordinary Parents Guide to Teach Reading, if you know some basic phonics, is the Ultimate Phonics Word and Sentence List.

Its completely free and there is no need to pay shipping and handling, you can download it and read off of anything that has a PDF viewing capabilities.

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Linzy, thank you very much for naming Leapfrog. My LO is crazy with this fantastic programme to learn the letters and sounds of the alphabet. It is very funny see how she goes from side to side of my house saying SSSSSSSSSSSSSS, TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT, PPPPP. She identified letters such as A and B, a long time ago, but with this video is something amazing. She often imitates the sounds. Last year I was looking for some material in amazon, Leapfrog was in my list for the large number of positive customer reviews that I read. However, my LO, after seeing two minutes in youtube began to cry and cry. It was in the past, now it is another think, she adores it.

Mon2bee, thank you for your link. It is another source to take into account. By the way, what´s your baby´s name?

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How old was your little one when you started the program?

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Jenny, he was just a couple of months old when we started, but we really were very low key until age 2.

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Linzy, I am doing the free trial of readingeggs, it is very good as well.

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Here is a more recent video of my 3 year trying to tackle “The Wizard of Oz”. My older son had left it sitting out had left it sitting out, and we decided to let him take a shot at it.
http://youtu.be/NzK7ScCYYek

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He is too cute! Is he wearing a cape again?!!! It looks like he’s switched from Batman to Superman, lol.

His reading is progressing very nicely. Thank you so much for sharing and updating us on your boys progress. It is very, very, very helpful to many of us. Are you guys still doing formal reading/phonics instruction with him or are you now mostly just reading?

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Well done Mason.