How and What to Teach First Regarding Reading.

one tool that really helped my kids was the LeapFrog movies - the letter factory is great for teaching the sounds - which comes BEFORE reading. Then it goes on to compound words (using sh, th, ch) and many others. After that my son would just go around trying to spell words or read signs or books he found - he was VERY determined to read! But also, writing the letters is important too, something to work on before they get too far with reading, or they can get frustrated when learning to write because they can't go fast enough. they can learn to write their name and family members names...

Oh for heavens sakes. Phonics is not difficult at all. I'm saying this because of what Krista said...I'm just scratching my head with that one.

Just take your time and be patient with yourself and her. If you can get the book, Teach your child to read in 100 lessons; it's a great book.

Other than that, www.starfall.com is an awesome site for ideas and for working with her.

Start with making sure she knows each letter and the sound it makes. That is half the battle. Once you are confident she knows those things then you can start with basic things like "at" if you put an H in front it becomes "Hat". You can make little flip books with at, it, ot, etc. I would not push too far, let the teachers help you, but good for you for being involved. :)

**My point with the phonics reference is that depending on how old this child is, she may not be ready for someone stumbling through a phonics lesson. Reading is so much more than that. My main point here is to start with what is developmentally appropriate. In her profile picture, her daughter looks to be about 3 or 4. Phonics instruction at that age (out-of-context) is not appropriate.

How old is your daughter? If you don't know what you are doing.. please don't do this. Seriously. Before she starts school, the BEST thing a parent can do is read to their child for at least 20 minutes a day. You can incorrectly teach a child to read. Phonics are a difficult concept to approach. Just read to her. Teach her letter names and letter sounds. Have her tell you stories using the pictures in the books. Identify the title, author and illustrator on the cover page. Go through the pictures of a book before reading and see if she can figure out what it's about (called a text walk). These are all early literacy skills and the building-blocks for reading.

Let the teachers teach her to read. If you're home schooling, please consider purchasing a highly structured literacy curriculum (like Fountas & Pinnell or ReadWell) that will guide you through this process.

I taught my then 4 yo daughter how to read using the book "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". By day 60 she could read any easy reader and the story books on Starfall.com. It was amazing to see her progress and it only took about 15 minutes a day.
My daughter was reading chapter books in kindergarten and I give full credit to this $15 book.

Read a lot LOT to her! She will want to mimic you. One book that comes to mind that helps them start recognizing letters and sounds is Dr. Suess's ABC book. I remember reciting it over and over to my daughter (it's very rythmic...."big A little a what begins with A, Aunt Annies Alligator A A A") and her hanging on to the couch dancing as she couldn't walk yet. Make it fun as I described but also sit with her next to her sometimes and point to the words as you read.

our south jordan school does, in order:
Passing off (completely) knowlege of the letters, upper case then lower.. then you pass off the sounds (including SH, TH, CH)... once that is down solid, you should blend three letters (not necessarily words, but to make sure the child understands how to sound letters into words; min pez fiz num sof gif tul fip wun etc.) Let them know they aren't words, but you can be sure they're doing it correctly by sounding piece by piece and not just recognizing the look of "cat" = So larger words won't be so intimidating :) Libraries have GREAT little books, they're fun!

I think it would be great to do a combination - phonics and sight words. Just like in school, spend x amount of time reading the I am Sam books using phonics and then change up and you read her a story from another series, maybe a bit more difficult, that she can follow along so she will become familiar on sight with some of the most common words like the, he, she, is, was, etc. As you do the reading, move your finger under the words so she knows what word you are reading when you say it. Then occasionally stop at one of the common words and let her read it. I truly believe a combination of both techniques will be a winner!

You need to teach FOUR things, sight words, phonics, comprehension and enjoying reading. Read to her and model discussing each book. what was your favorite part? who was in the book? What happned first, second .... Where did the story take place? Until she can answer these questions she is not ready to move on to harder books. A big problem with parents teaching their kids to read before kindergarten is the kids come in decoding (saying all the words) but are unable to answer questions about the book, discuss the book. This is part of how teachers evaluate students and decide what reading level they are on and what books they will read. So the kid (and parents) are so proud of how well they are reading but the teacher will assign them very easy books which frustrates the child and parents.

I've been teaching my daughter to read with a terrific book called Phonics Pathways. Before we started, she knew the sounds for all her letters, including short and long vowels sounds. (The Leap Frog videos are GREAT for teaching beginning sounds!) If she hadn't known those sounds first, we'd be having more trouble. The book begins with the short vowel sounds, moves up to blending one consonant with a short vowel, then adds an ending letter, etc.. She was showing no interest in reading a few months ago, but in a couple of months, she's already able to sound out several words and recognize on sight many that she's become familiar with.

Reading to your daughter IS important, but there's nothing inappropriate about teaching her beginning phonics, either. It won't ruin her reading skills; if anything, it will strengthen her ability to decipher words rather than simply memorizing words and guessing at those that aren't familiar. And if you find the right book/program, you are perfectly capable of teaching your daughter phonics; you don't have to leave it to the teachers OR be determined to home school in order to teach her yourself. However, you also should be prepared to work at her pace and readiness level. No matter how sharp she is, she may take time to develop some of the skills needed to read. It's important not to become frustrated or to try to push her to the point where she becomes frustrated. Keep it fun; stop when she becomes too easily distracted or frustrated; and most importantly, enjoy it! It's really a neat thing to watch them catch on.

Have tons of books, simple sight word books to big books (going up a level kindergarten, level 1, 2, 3 and so on).

Sounds of letters. My daughter loved this Leap Frog fridge magnetic alphabet toy, it had all the letters, you put one in and the thing would sing a little song about the sounds and repeat the sounds that the letter makes.

You read a lot.

Have child start to read, first a few simple sight words but also teach the child how to sound out a word.

Remember that each child is different and will learn at their own pace. I hardly had to teach my daughter how to read, while I myself struggled with reading and took till thrid grade till I finally was reading at a first grade level (I am all caught up now, still read slowly but I can read).

full letter recognition before anything else!

then you can move on to sight words....& actually I use the child's name to start the letter process. Once that's established, we branch out to other family members. By using this method, we are scaffolding the learning process & it works wonderfully well!

I know this probably doesn't really answer your question, but there are plenty of mamas who've attempted to teach reading without the full ABC foundation. :)