Teaching 5 Yr Old to Read

If she can write, work on teaching letter sounds. This may help her create her own stories that she can read to the family.

The most important thing (from a teacher and mom perspective) is to read to her everyday. Whatever she will listen to - reading to them at this age will be a big help. And if she chimes in to tell "her" story that's great too!

Try the first set of BOB books, most libraries have them. My daughter feels accomplished by them and is willing to sound them out because they are easier words. They were created by a teacher, and they have several sets.

when my daughter turned 5 we went to the library and got hooked on phonics. she liked it but was frustrated by me trying to teach her. so i let it go and just keeped reading to her. she is almost done with kindergarten now and is in a very high reading level compared to most of the kids in her class.

My daughter was born 4/19/04 so I know the situation you are in. My little one, Lia doesn't read or spell either on her own. She likes to write her letters when she makes cards, but that's about it. I'm going to continue to read her stories when I can and then work with her K teacher to develop a plan. One suggestion is to have sticky notes spelling out "door" or "window" on things around the house so she will learn word recognition. Also on PBS at 1 p.m. there is a cartoon "Word World" that is wonderful on teaching how to make words and sounds.

I would take her often to the library. Enroll her in their summer reading program. Use the books on CD that have a book she can look at while it plays. Let her enjoy books and let her see your reading your own books. Don't push her. She'll do it, either before she starts K or during it. No one used to expect kids to read until 1st grade. Some kids don't care much about it until then. Affirm any efforts she makes. Her imaginary play is wonderful! She sounds like a very smart girl who wants to find her own way. She will! Enjoy her- she'll grow up soon enough!

You should not be worried about your daughter not being able to read upon entering kindergarten. I was worried as well about my daughter being behind or not "up to par", so imagine my surprise when my daughter and about 5 other kids were the only ones who even knew how to write their full names!! I help out in my daughter's classroom about once a month and even in April there were still kids who had no clue how to write very easy sight words such as "it", "the" and "me." Your daughter should be fine!!!!

You must read to your children everyday! It is so important and the earlier you start the better. Remember "reading" doesn't have to be a big formal production. You can read the cereal box at breakfast or read a recipe for dinner or signs during an evening walk or words in a coloring book - it doesn't matter what, just teach children that reading is a fun important part of everyday life. Most importantly keep it fun. If you can make a quick game of it or make sure it's a reward instead of a chore, you can grow a life-long reader. Schools will certainly teach the basic skills that children need to know for curriculum standards, but you also need to make it a priority at home. Make a library date once a week and utilize the resources available at your local library (music, story times, play groups, activities, etc., etc.). I would encourage her pretend reading time as well. "Reading" isn't just about looking at a word and pronouncing it, so if her love of books comes from creating stories I think that's your "in". She doesn't need to be reading before kindergarten, just be aware and excited about it. Have fun and enjoy. They're only young once and it goes so fast!

Hi A.!

WE used the book, "Teaching your child to read in 100 easy lessons". Both of my boys were reading at 4 years old. The lessons are totally spelled out for you. It works great!

Good luck and have fun!
:o) G.

Hi,
I agree with the moms encouraging you to relax about teaching her to read and to spend time reading out loud to her. I highly recommend "The Read Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. You can get it off amazon or at your library. It will make you feel great about spending time together reading.

You can even try the Little House on the Prairie chapter books reading a chapter a day or half chapter. My daughters loved them.

A.,

My kid is in kindergarten this year. He absolutely loves books and I can sit and read to him for an hour right after school and he hangs on to my every word. He does not read yet. He is just starting to sound out words. That's what they teach in Kindergarten so I wouldn't worry about teaching her to read. I would spend more time getting her interested in books. Otherwise, if sitting still through books is hard for her now, it will be hard for her in class. If you want to get a head start with her, start introducing "sight words": the, it, is, an, and, she, he, see, if, in...These are words that they will need to know by looking, not by sounding out. If you go to google and type in kindergarten sight words, you'll get a bunch of helpful sites.

good luck,

L.

My daughter was beginning to show signs that she was ready to learn to read. I had no idea how to teach her. I did the research and settled on Hooked on Phonics, Kindergarten, as she already knew her letters (although if your daughter doesn't have her letters down, the kindergarten has a section for that...we skipped it). I am very pleased with it. It comes with a couple of videos that help reinforce letter recognition and the workbooks are very easy to follow. I could probably sit her down and let her do it herself (it's that easy) but my involvement reinforces the process. I bought it for her in February, and she is over halfway done. I ask her if she wants to do it, and go at her pace. She is loving to read! It has been a GREAT tool for us. I highly recommend it.

She is in the exact place she needs to be to learn to read with "pretending" to read. You could mess things up by "teaching" her. There's no need to. She'll learn and I'd guess in K. Most kids learn in 1st. Google "Stages of learning to Read" and you'll find there is a lot of info for you.

Have fun, and good luck! My first was reading at about 3, my second is 6, and just learning, and my 4 year old is beginning to learn, too, just the one and 2 letter words with an occasional 3 letter word now and then. My 1 year old likes to take over the book and have the control of the situation. It's all good, they all learn at their own pace, and a little help from others makes a difference too. For us, reading some every day seems to be the biggest factor. I read to them, they see me reading, and I encourage them to read, too. When they play like they are reading, whether to themselves or to their toys, or even to you, it is a good thing. Just enjoy, and good luck! Just keep reading with her and to her, and she will soon start reading on her own, too.

Another thing would be to haver her read all the one letter words you come across as you read together. When those are going well, add the 2 letter words. If she doesn't recognize the words, have her name the letters, give their sounds, and then blend them together and see if she recognizes the word. If not, do it all again, or just blend the sounds again, and see if she recognizes it. You could then do it for her if she hasn't got it yet and see if she recognizes it when you do it. If she still doesn't get it yet and you are getting really impatient (don't I know?) just give it to her and move on with the story, and try again when you get to the next word for her to read. Point out to her that she is reading and doing a great job! When she gets pretty good with the 2 letter words, add in the 3 letter words, and you will naturally explain things like the dipthongs and when you get to 4 letter words, you can explain the vowel constructions and when vowels sound like themselves, and when they are soft, etc. It all comes naturally and easily and they children catch on pretty fast as you read every day. Have fun!

My kids 2 1/2 and 5 in June LOVE the LeapFrog DVD's too! The Letter Factory even has my youngest knowing his letter sounds!! I buy it for gifts all the time. If she doesn't know her letter sounds this is the most easy and fun way to learn them. My other advice is just read or let her "read" she will get it and pushing as we all know doesn't work :).

Best of luck with the stay at home mom job, the hours are long and there is no money BUT the rewards are GREAT when you see your child learn just a piece of the life puzzle. Don't worry about too much of a schedule either, being flexable is one of the advantages of staying home.

Shared reading is a stage that happens before guided reading at school. Enjoy books together. Don't push her into a place where books are aversive.

Get Ruth Beechick's book, "The Three R's" and read about how reading grows, developmentally. Trust development.

My parents would read to my brother and I every night, and eventually, I started to learn the words on my own. In fact, when I was in first grade, at one of the parent teacher conferences, my teacher told my mom that I was the best reader in the class and she about fell out of the chair. Just keep reading with her; find some stories that might appeal to her, Chris Van Allsburg has some great stories and his illustrations are amazing. (He wrote The Polar Express and Jumanji) He always includes a drawing of his dog in every picture, so it could be fun after you read the words on one page, to have your little look for the dog (I think he's in sock puppet form) that might help her be interested in reading more. Good luck!

I wish I had advice! I have the same EXACT situation with my 5 year old son. He does all the same things. I am worried about kindergarten but my mom and his teachers in preschool now don't think there is a concern.

A.,

I'm the mom of a current 1st grader and another child will be starting kindergarten this fall. Some of the things I learned last year was to teach them where the title is on the front of the book, where the title page is located and the authors name. Then, as another mom said make sure she understands that you read left to right.

I'm still working with my son to prepare him. Our 1st grade teacher recommended the Leap Frog Videos...they're wonderful! You can purchase them online or at Target for $9.99 per video. I'll list below the ones we have:

Letter Factory - teaches phonics
Talking Words Factory - learn how to build words
Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory
Math Circus - Learn beginning math

We just purchased the Storybook Factory and the Math Circus videos so I'm not sure how much they are helping yet. But, the Letter Factory and Talking Words Factory are fabulous! My son, who just turned five years old, is now spelling three letter words. They love the watch the videos and request them often. The Letter Factory also has a "test" game to improve confidence. Now, we play it in the morning just before school.

I don't think your daughter has to be reading when she starts (K) - my 1st grader wasn't. By March of the (K) year our school (Utica) wanted the kids to know the following sight words - I, see, my, like, a, to, and, go, you, is, here, for & have. Some other things they focused on was sorting/classifying (sort objects by shape and color), patterns (red, green, red, green & red, red, green, etc), Counting 1-100 & in 10's, number sets, number recognition and properly sequencing numbers.

I share all of this information with you because I had no idea how much they would be learning in kindergarten. :) Lets just say things have changed a great deal since I went to school. I now feel better prepared to help my son this coming year.

I hope this helps. But remember, every child is different and learns at a different pace - my two included. :)

C.

A.,

Your daughter will not be the only child in kindergarten who does not read. This is typical, infact you might find some of her classmates don't know their numbers, letters or colors at the beginning of kindergarten. The best things you can do to help your daughter are as follows:

1 - Read to her every day. At bedtime at minimum, but also throughout the day. This is great cuddle time, but let her decide when she is ready to get up and play. At first you may only be reading to her a few minutes at a time, but as she enjoys the cuddle time this may expand to 30 minutes.

Also, childrens audio books are fun to listen to while playing with play dough or another quiet activity.

2 - ask her if she wants you to write down her stories. Seeing her stories on the computer and then printed on a page can help to stimulate her interest in reading words.

3 - make sure she knows all of her letters outside of the alphabet song. I used alphabet flash cards, shuffled them, and then had my son place them in alphabetical order on the floor. Learning the alphabet outside of the song will help her with reading and spelling later on because she won't be dependent on the song to find out where a letter is positioned in the alphabet.

4 - work on color and number songs to help her remember how words are spelled. These songs can be changed for any color word. Here is the first one my son learned in preschool:
R-E-D, Red
R-E-D, Red
I can spell red
I can spell red
Roses are Red
Fire engines are too.
R-E-D, Red
R-E-D, Red.

5 - don't worry. Your daughter is in the right place she needs to be. I was worried too when my son went into K last year because he showed absolutely no interest in reading or coloring or anything, but he loved K. This past fall he started 1st grade where they really begin learning reading, spelling, and some grammar - by Christmas my son was addicted to reading. He reads in the car, in the grocery store, at night, for breakfast and lunch, etc. He is not above or below average, but is instead right in the middle.

Have fun with your daughter and her imaginary play. Before you know it she will be off to school, making new friends, and learning new skills. Have a great summer!

-C..

I think they almost expect kids to know their letters before Kindergarten - in Ann Arbor, they have an "interview" a few weeks before school to assess the child's level so the teachers can better prepare.
I had Reader Rabbit and other software fairly early on so my son could learn to read - since he was interested in working on the computer like Mommy and Daddy, it kept him busy. Also, because he was a Thomas the Train fan, I taught him how to recognize all the names in catalogs and on the toys. Anything that is written can be use as a teaching tool.

Hi A.
The fact that she makes up stories from her books is good but you can do more to advance her is you want to, don't feel pressured.
The best way to help her is get some books from your local library. They have books that are for beginning readers, they are short and repeat just a few words a lot. Read them with her a few times and point to the words as you are reading, then let her try. Studies show that if a book is read to a child just three times over a day or the child will know the book.
So much of getting them interested in reading is about giving them the confidence to try.
If you try the same few books over and over She will start to recognise the words, she will also guess some of the words (and that's ok). If she just knows that you read from the top of the page and go from left to right down the page, that will help her in kindergarten.
Also to really know how to read she would need to know how to sound out words, so try helping her learn what sounds the different letters make, make it a game.
I know how much pressure we put on ourselves but my son couldn't read when he started kindergarten and didn't know all his letter sounds and he is doing great, just 8 months later reading on his own or with little help (beginner readers). Teachers know that all kids are at very different levels when entering kindergarten and work with each child accordingly.
Whatever you decide to do with your daughter make it fun, no pressure. Any steps you take will make kindergarten easier for her but don't worry too much. She will get it. Good luck and have fun. :-)

You could try the Reader Rabbit series. I am not sure where you live but most librarys have computers set up with this program and have designated computers for kids. Maybe your local library offers the same thing. Maybe that will interest her, or you could get something from a homeschooling store.

That being said, she will probably get really interested once she starts school and you will have plenty of opportunities to help her practice and support what they are doing. I wouldn't stress about it. Just talk about letters and what sounds they make when you see them and think of it. Pick one letter at a time and focus on that one for a while. She will pick them up real fast.

go out to a book store and find some easy to read books that have pictures in place of some of the words. It helps a lot and they feel like they are actually reading. Usually getting them excited and wanting to read more.