Last night my 4 year old asked when I was going to teach her how to read. She can recognize all the letters, and has almost mastered the phonics portion. Has anyone taught their child how to read? Did you just start with a simple book and break down words or did you use a program like Hooked on Phonics? I have some of the Hooked on Phonics programs for the LeapPad so I'm going to dig those out. I also really like starfall.com. Anyone have any ideas or tips?

I put labels on everything (door, oven, lamp...) all over the house so he can get used to words. We practiced the alphabet and their sounds too. I bought him leafrog and leapster stuff too. When he entered kindergarten last fall, they had learning rings for alphabet/numbers/sounds and sight words recognition. They had a card for each letter/number (in blue), letter sound (in green) and sight words (in orange). When the child recognizes the card, it is put on a ring (thus learning ring)...When all the cards are on the ring, they go to books...The kids always looked forward to adding cards to their rings. I volunteer for the learning rings and usually for words, I tell them to sound out the letters (or stretch the letters)...Of course there are some words that can't be sounded out (one...becomes oh-n-eh), so I tell them they just have to memorize it. Some kids like to spell out words. It's just takes daily practice.

At 4, my daughter did very well with the Bob Books series.

Make flash cards of sights words....you can find lists on the internet that are appropriate for her age....also I would get some books that incorporte pictures (substitiuted for a word) as part of the sentance. You can usually find some pre-readers at the library.

I'm trying to figure this out with my 4 year old right now as well. I've bought some 'easy reading' books and working with those.

We used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons to teach one of our children to read. It seems to work well with some kids and not with others. And it's very parent friendly- basically a just pick it up and use it program. For us, it worked well with the one who wanted to learn, not so well with the more reluctant learners. Also, it's not a formal phonics program. We just added phonics on our own for our son (we homeschool).

After you've finished all 100 lessons, there are lists in the back of the book of books your child should be able to read next.

thats awesome!!
try Learn to Read at Starfall - teaching comprehension and phonics. its a great site for kids learning to read

__________________
Stephanie

Lots of great ideas already! I put sticky notes on things around the house. Sight word books from Scholastic are helpful, too.

We started reading Dr Suess books last summer. The Foot Book, Dr Suess ABC, Hop on Pop and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We have a ton more but these were the ones she was able to start with.

Here is a link to the 220 Dolch sight words that will be helpful also:

http://www.dolch-words.com/dolch-wor...all-alpha.html

Have fun!

I agree with the Bob Book series it is amazing Also if you need them I can PM you the 20 sight words kids learn in Kindergarten