Should I go Hooked on Phonics or what? She is in a German school where many of the children have been in "care" since they were 18 months old. They knew their abc's by age 3, and many of them are reading. We are having to play catch up. Any suggestions? What worked for you?

My little one started reading the Dick and Jane books, when she was 3-4. She is 6 yo and now reads chapter books (she is reading at her older sister's level!). She is in 1st grade this year, but last year her teacher had her helping the other kids with their reading. Just a thought...I know I learned to read with Dick and Jane and both my girls learned that way too.

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My son turned 5 in August and he started with Dick & Jane books earlier this year. I think they're great because they're fairly simple words and repetitive. Now he loves to go to the library and pick books with the "red dot" now. LOL Those are the beginner level reader books. He's not near ready for chapter books but he's plugging along.

peapie

Don't you need to know the BASICS before you can begin reading Dick and Jane? How do you teach the BASICS?

Does your child know the letter sounds? if not I would start there and also start with site words.
Dolch Kindergarten

Sorry about that. I didn't realize you meant that. I would start out with associating the letters with their sounds. You could hang up a poster with the letters and a picture that starts with that letter that she can look at whenever she wants...some reinforcement.
I used this book with my daughter for awhile (who is 10 1/2 now). Teach Your Child to read in 100 Easy Lessons You might be able to find it at your library.

peapie

When I taught my son to read, I worked with him first on the alphabet. Then letter sounds. Then we started putting them together: like car, cat, can

I remember we would be waiting in a restaurant for our food and I would be writing words all over the placemat. He loved it. I also used flash cards when he was learning the alphabet.

I started my kids on first learning their letters, then the sounds. The stores sell flash cards w/ pics like T for truck, emphasize the "T" sound. Then teach them their short vowel sounds and you can move on to 'blends' like ta, te, ti, to, tu. After they get the hang of blends, add a final consonant to make easy words like dog, cat, etc.

There are certain sight words that need to be taught as well such as 'the', but you get the idea. Anyhow, I'm sure there are various programs you can use also but the key is to practice a little each day.

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Sorry, I didn't realize that's what you were asking about...the basics. I agree with everyone else tho. Start with the alphabet, then onto simple sounds and then on to sight words. We made up flash cards with sight words that we could quiz her on all the time (she'd walk around with the cards too, reading them outloud). We also put the sight words on the refrigerator and other places so at anytime she could read them. Once she got those down, then she started the Dick and Jane books. She started out slowly, just a few sentences at a time but soon mastered it and went on to reading chapter books.

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If you are looking to buy a program, I highly suggest Jolly Phonics. My daughter had it in her kindergarten class. They started in Sept and by Dec. she could read.

It's awesome and worth every penny! (It is pricey!)

Amy

Learn to Read at Starfall - teaching comprehension and phonics

I love the above website. My 2 year old likes the learn the abcs tab. He will be 3 in November and knows his abcs and some sounds. He can spell and read around 10 words so far. We have used this website mainly with practicing while out and about. He will spell the stop signs and "bump" signs (they are doing lots of road construction around us!) He loves for me to write out our names and simple words like cat and dog.

Model by reading as much as possible to your child. Start asking comprehension questions. Pick simple books that are repetitive so that your daughter can practice "reading" already even if it is just memorizing. I am a special education teacher.

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Try the Leap Frog movies, they are AWESOME!!! They teach the letters and sounds in the coolest ways, my 5 and 3 year old loved to watch them and now both know their alphabet letters AND the sounds... You can check it out on amazon, it has GREAT reviews. I highly recommend this!
Amazon.com: Leap Frog - Letter Factory: Leap Frog, LeapFrog: Movies & TV

I work as an aide in 1st grade and we teach reading with phonics. It is not how I learned to read, but I think its definently a good way to learn how. I have never used the hooked on phonics program, but have heard its good.

My daughter learned early because she has an older brother. She ALWAYS wanted me to write words for her or for me to dictate words so she could spell them. Right now she is 7 and in 2nd grade and reads at 4th grade level and gets a 100 on every Spelling test she takes(she is diagnosed OCD so she obsesses about the 100's on Spelling)..... They used Starfall in Kindergarden at her school. She really liked it but I actually never checked it out.

I also love Learn to Read at Starfall - teaching comprehension and phonics

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The teachers at the school I work at use Starfall with the K & 1st graders. Great website!

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We teach phonics to our students. I use the Starfall website on the student computers too.

Also teach high frequency words.

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When my daughter was in preschool, we worked with sight word flash cards. She picked those up really quickly. We then added BOB books to our "study time" in the afternoons. By end of kindergarten, she was reading chapter books.

I have a kindergartener who is reading. Out of 16 children in his class, four are reading. They have been in school for severn weeks so far.

Does your child know all the letters of the alphabet AND all of their sounds. They really need this first before they start reading. Even once they start reading, the best thing you can do is read to them every day -- they need to hear the flow of your voice as you read.

My DS started with the BOB Books. I bought them off Amazon, but a teachers store would probably also have them. Then we moved on to the Scholastic Sight Word readers, also from Amazon. This is what my older DS's preschool teacher recommended. We also worked on sight words (do a google search and you'll get the list or ask your child's teacher).

I will tell you that if your child isn't 'ready' to read, any amount of pushing on your part will only make them frustrated. My DS#1 didn't read until two months into first grade. No amount of pressure from me or his kindergarten teacher made it happen any faster.

Sarah............

i dont know anything about the starfall one, but honest to goodness i just clicked on the link above and my kindergartener just went nuts. he said starfull i want to play on that, it is my favorite, it is so fun.. and now he is driving me crazy to go back to it.. so you might want to check it out. seems that quite a few kindergarten classes do use it.

sara

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I used Teach Your Child to Read in a 100 Lessons for my 3 older kids and I added starfall.com to teach my 5 and 3.5yo.

I think the one thing that makes the biggest impact is to make reading a daily part of your lives. For example, letting your child see you read, let them make grocery lists, make labels for household items, etc. It's great to learn to read, but it's even greater to make reading a habit.

Good luck!

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