Favorites {Learning to Read}
Nov 05, 2016
These are my favorite resources to use to prepare my children to learn to read and to teach them to learn to read:
My First Steps to Reading books - There is a book for each letter of the alphabet and most of the words in the book start with that letter. They are adorable books that both of my girls have loved.
Leap Frog Letter Factory Phonics - The link is for the fridge magnetic letters because this price for the toy we have is $90+! We used this toy extensively when learning letter names and letter sounds.
BOB Books - When my children are ready to start reading some 3-4 letter words, we first read BOB Books!
At age 2, I start letting my children watch about 20-30 minutes of TV and Leap Frog shows are a favorite! Every household should own Letter Factory! At $8 this DVD was worth every penny as it significantly helped both of my girls learn their letter sounds.
These are favorite games to help with learning the alphabet and letter sounds:
Ready-Made Preschool Level 2 is what I used with Little Bug for her pre-Kindergarten year. This was a fabulous fit for Little Bug as we read a book and did crafts and activities! A bonus was that all of the materials and activities arrived on my doorstep, ready to go! I used Ready-Made Preschool Level 1 with Sweet Pea during her PK3 year.
Confession: I have a degree in elementary education but I was scared of the task set before me to teach my own child to read! I taught 4th grade in public school and phonics was not part of the curriculum!
All About Reading took my fears completely away!!! I absolutely love this company and curriculum. I very successfully taught my daughter to read using All About Reading Level 1! AAR provides step-by-step instructions on what to say and do, which I really appreciated. The activities are multisensory, which kept Little Bug engaged in the lessons. Excellent program.
For Sweet Pea's pre-Kindergarten year, I decided to use All About Reading's Pre-Reading program and it did not disappoint! This gave Sweet Pea a solid foundation of the alphabet and letter sounds and Ziggy (the puppet) was a huge hit!
Once my children can write decently, I start them in the Explode the Code primer books. This is an excellent reinforcement of the alphabet and letter sounds as they are getting ready to learn to read. (There is also some good handwriting practice found within these pages.) Once my children complete the Primer books, they move right in to Books 1-8, working through them all for extra phonics practice, even when they are fluent readers.
- Elaine