Anyhow, i’m going off sorry! I’ve worked as a primary school early years teacher for 10years! i was always told and to be honest believed that children shouldn’t be taught phonics until 5 or 6. now ive had my little one i think this is completely RUBBISH! Your essay hit the nail on the head! you covered most aspects and i particularly liked how you stressed on no force as well as the homeschooling. I agree totally – if your child ends up reading early or mastering anything early be prepared for ‘school’as its prob not going to be good for them. i’ve seen many children turn to bad behaviour because their needs have not been met i.e. not challenged enough – the work is too easy…bored. i’m all for homeschooling and i hope others will consider this option if they are able.
Thank you again so so much for sharing with us.
look forward to reading more and learning more.

I want to write so much more but not enough time right now.
Anyhow – i run a toddler group in KSA from my own home. its completely free and i have about 15mums who attend with their children. i’ve emailed the link to them so they can have a read too – they are all eager to get their children to ASAP too.

just remembered, sorry to go on. you mentioned that your child wasn’t writing when he learned to read other then capitals. well i really believe that children can still write very earlier on maybe not as early as reading but def. before we are TOLD they can…and esp BOYS! my son has been markmaking from about aged 7-8months. weve done lots of mark making in different mediums too e.g. flour, sand etc… chalk outside is a big one. my son can now write the m a and almost the letter t. he can write the numbers 1 and 2 and draw many shapes. I think the main reason why he has picked up so well is because i’ve role modelled with him – most times we mark made i had my own paper and pencil and did my own writing and drawing/colouring. i think this has helped in his reading too as most things that i drew i labelled. its amazing how things are so interconnected.
okay i’m going on again.
i’m soooo excited about this esp to get started with flashcards!
thanks again

I have read your essay on Baby Reading and it was very insightful. Thank you for sharing it!

To clarify about the sight words: I meant that I was teaching the 220 Dolch sight words to my 9 year old daughter. She already knew about half of them, and she has now mastered the other half the last 6 weeks. It has really helped to improve her fluency. She is in the process of learning the advanced code.

As for Reading Reflex, the program could not be any more simple, and my daughter enjoys most of the lessons. It really isn’t complicated, at all. There are a lot of different letter combinations that make the same sound, and the advanced code is made quite simple with the lessons in Reading Reflex. One area that was very helpful in Reading Reflex is topic of teaching blends (str, nk, etc). I have taught that in my own classrooms, and realize that all it does is ask children to learn too many other letter combinations. After all, all of the letter sounds are intended to “blend”. If a child can make the “/nnnnn/” and “/k/”, then they can just blend them on their own. Why make them memorize a lot of blends? Doesn’t this just make sense? It also discusses the detriment of teaching “word families” and cites many examples how teaching them can actually impair reading. It also cites the point how we have always taught children that letters make sounds. “A” says “/a/), etc. We are the ones that make the sounds. The letters are just sound pictures and they don’t make any sounds! I thought this was quite funny, and even most teachers would probably say that they have not ever thought of reading in this manner, though it seems the most common sense fact. RR focuses on teaching the sounds to the letters first, so as not to confuse the child or overload him with too much information. My daughter had already long known all of her letters, but I thought that this was an excellent point. I remember many times when she would say the letter name, rather than make the sound that the letter represents. When teaching a lesson, rather than saying any letter names, you explain to the child that letters represents sounds that we say, and that they are “sound pictures”. I used the examples they cited and my daughter also calls them “sound pictures”. I am probably making it seem more complicated than it really is…it really isn’t at all complicated. The lessons are simple, straight forward and have little to no preparation. And when you begin teaching the advanced phonetical reading code, all of the lessons follow the same format. It is an excellent resource and it is well worth reading the book. Reading Reflex is a very insightful resource, as well. I have briefly reviewed the Reading Bear website. I plan on using it with our 33 month old daughter when she is a little older. Thanks again, for evrything!

Cheers and kind regards,
Alana

Another recommendation is the BrillKids.com forums. They’re a wonderful resource–the best-informed community online on questions about how best to teach very little kids to read.

You write about “the sight word learning element that you mention in your blog,” but I am not sure what you mean. The only way we have ever learned sight words–either of my sons, ages 6 and 2–is in the context of stories. Basically, after they’ve learned their letter sounds thoroughly, and gone through the first 5-10 word sets from the Flesch lists (corresponding to the first 5-10 presentations in Reading Bear), they’re able to read the first several Starfall.com and Literactive.com stories. Except that, the first couple times through, they need to be told how to read “the,” “are,” “said,” and a few other little words (not all of which are unphonetic, actually). But once they’ve gone through enough of these basic stories, it’s pretty easy for them to remember the sight words. So, while we do learn sight words, we do so as it were “in the background,” not making any sort of special effort or planning to learn them. In my experience, if you focus on teaching phonics according to the method Reading Bear uses, kids to start learning to read phonetically at age 1-2, and the sight words take care of themselves.

I’ve never seen ChildrenLearningReading.com. I’ve heard of Reading Reflex and looked at the book on Amazon; I can’t help but think that it makes it all much more complicated-sounding than it has to be.

Good luck with your little ones!

I was searching for information and videos on how to teach our 32 month old daughter to read, and came upon your youtube video. I applaud you for your success with teaching your son to read! Bravo! All of your efforts have paid off! It is even more of a blessing that you are sharing your experience with the world, and for free, I might add! Thank you. I plan to read your extended essay, starting today, and I wanted to thank you in advance.

You are correct in saying that there is very little information available on teaching young children to read. I began searching for information on this very topic just several days ago, and happened upon a website that addresses that very topic. It offered an early reading program, for a VERY inexpensive price, that teaches young children to read. The website is http://www.childrenlearningreading.com. After viewing several videos, and conversing with the creator of the program via several emails (another parent who taught his 2 year old boy and 3 year old girl to read phonetically after approximately just 3 months and in just minutes a day) and reading a lot of testimony, I decided to purchase the program. His method is a self-created method that focuses on phonetically decoding to read-which is very important because they learn to decode words, as opposed to just whole language learning, which focuses more on memorizing the shapes of words. I’ve viewed much of the program already (which also includes videos of all the few minute, 50 lessons he taught his children-you can really see the honesty and brevity in the lessons). I am very excited to begin the “learning to read” process with our 2.5 year old daughter. The Children Learning Reading program is done with 3-5 minute lessons and is wonderfuI for young children, some of whom don’t always have the longest attention spans, including my own daughter. Although his children’s reading levels aren’t quite as advanced as your son’s level, they have had great successes and their now 4 year old daughter is reading at a grade 4/5 level!

I am an Elementary teacher and I homeschool our eldest daughter, who is 9 years old and learning disabled. After years of struggling to read with proficiency and fluency, this year I decided to homeschool her, as she learns very well with one on one teaching. She is a very intelligent child with a very high vocabulary and an inquisitive mind, but was really struggling to learn to read well. This was very difficult for us, as we have always been a family who loves to read, and we read to her daily day since she was just 4 months old. Many people think that reading comes to children very naturally, and that if you foster an environment rich in literature, then they will just “catch on”. This may be true for a few, select children, but is untrue for most of them. Early intervention can be key to their future success in reading. Also, from my experience, an intensive phonics program, with elements of a whole reading program (especially the sight word learning element that you mention in your blog) has created an environment of reading success, for our 9 year old daughter these past couple of months. Extensive research confirms that intensive phonetical learning, including learning the advanced code, in combination with sight word learning, and other whole language reading strategies, creates the most successes in children learning to read with fluency and comprehension.

This is our daughter’s first year of homeschooling, and I am teaching her the advanced phonetical code in an easy, but intensive Reading program called “Reading Reflex”t is excellent, by the way) Her reading has already improved by 4 levels since the beginning of this school year, and her comprehension is excellent.

Because of our her LD and the many challenges she and our family have faced because of it, I have ventured to dedicate myself to creating an early reading learning environment for our three youngest children, ages 2.5 years old and our twin are 9 months old. We are hoping that our 2.5 year old will be ready to begin to learn to read within the next year. I am planning to begin some very easy, informal lessons within the next few weeks, assuming that she is ready to begin to read.

Sorry for the “long-winded” comment. I certainly didn’t expect to get into this much detail. You are probably asking, “Why is she telling me all of this?” Well, the reason is simple. I wanted to let you know that I thought your dedication to teaching your son to read, and then sharing your efforts and successes with the world, is much appreciated, especially since you are making your knowledge a free gift! There are many parents who are struggling to support their families and make ends meet, who really want the best for their children’s education, but who often cannot afford more expensive tools and programs, including my own family. It may take me awhile to read your essay, as our family life is very hectic with 3 young children and homeschooling, but I will certainly “drop you a line” to let you know when I have completed the reading. Thanks again and God bless!

Take care, Larry!
Cheers and Kind Regards,

By the way, the use of pictures and videos isn’t “entertainment” in Reading Bear’s case, but essential to the teaching of vocabulary/concepts. It’s just a nice side-effect that children enjoy learning vocabulary this way.