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How easy is it to teach your child to read?
Success in education starts with reading. Nothing else can open the door to such huge amounts of information, and the imagination. Making sure your young children see printed word and you inspire them to love reading, this is highly important. Reading is not something a child will learn on their own.
Family's with many books, magazines, and other printed material in their homes... that are used on a daily basis.... help their children become much better readers.
Our children were 6 years old (just out of Kindergarten), and 4 years old in the first year of preschool. I looked for a phonics program that would teach them without to much help from me. I can read phonics but I don't remember how it works exactly. I checked out several programs and the first thing that became apparent was price might be a problem. One program was in the hundreds of dollars range.
I did have a spark of an idea that grew and then I felt I hit on something that would really be of benefit. I wanted a dvd so they could watch it. I wanted it to be fun so I would not have to force them to watch it. I essentially wanted them to think they were watching cartoons but were actually learning.
After all my research I decided upon Leap Frogs DVD's. They have:
Letter Factory - Pre-Reading phonics
Talking Words Factory: Pre-Reading how letters build words
Talking Words Factory 2: Code Word Caper: advanced phonics
Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory: reading, punctuation, and story comprehension
Math Circus: beginning math
Yes I bought them all including the Math Circus.
Step 1: I started with the first dvd and let them watch it as much as they wanted. When they asked for the others I would put them in also. I did not try to decide if they were ready for the next one. Remember fun was the name of the game.
Step 2: Is what I call the observation stage. Catching them reading things. Signs, words in books, on your computer etc....
Step 3: Is the most interesting step of all. Some kids will believe it right away and some take more convincing. This is the step where you must now convince them they can read!
Step 4: you can check out here at Bob Books
Notes:
We did not measure how much time it took. Our then 6 year old was reading by 1st grade. Of course we were more concentrated on him first.
Our then 4 year old was reading signs, and very big words the summer before Kindergarten. Even though as a parent I would like to believe they are really smart...I am talking genius smart.... this is not the case. They are ordinary everyday boys. We as parents really hit upon the right combination of fun cartoons and learning with the Leap Frog DVD's.
What happens if you feel like its not working? You repeat the step again. Remember we did this in a relaxed manner. We knew this was the foundation to reading and it couldn't hurt if they didn't learn to read right away.
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