When I went to college for elementary education, I never dreamed that what I learned would be used mostly under my own roof. All my kids have learned to read at different ages, one as early as 3.5 and as late as 6. No matter what age they started, they were all on equal playing field by 3rd grade. If your child is struggling, it will come. Be patient. Here are some of my favorite aids to help with new readers:
First: Leap Frog’s Letter Factory DVD. This DVD has taught most of my kids their letters and sounds. I think the twins were around 15 months when they knew their letters and sound thanks to this DVD. They also have a great one for numbers.
Second: Abeka’s basic phonics flash cards. These cards are perfect for the beginning reader. They help them learn the blends and digraphs easily. They also help when learning to spell. When sounding out a word, I can say, “It’s the er sound like er in verse.” Then they know it’s er and not ir or ur.
Third: Beginning sight word books. I prefer the Abeka books because they’re colorful and go along with the sight words I’m teaching the kids, but the Bob books are good as well.
Fourth: Sight word flash cards. The ones I have are from school zone, but a 3×5 spiral works great too! Work those sight words. They will make reading so much easier.
Fifth: Once your child has taken off in their reading (usually around 1st-2nd grade), it’s important to get them reading books on subjects that they enjoy. There are great early reader chapter books. My girls’ favorites were Princess Posey and Amelia Bedelia. So far my boys like the Hardy Boys and Flat Stanley.
Reading is one of those things that just takes time. If your little one isn’t reading solo yet, read to them. Read, Read, Read. Develop a love of reading early. It’s so fun to watch them transform from learning to read to reading to learn.
We all loved Amelia Bedelia. And I remember Elizabeth reading the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books to the family on driving vacations. They are oldies, but goodies. My kids also had a lot of read-along recorded books. They followed along as the stories were read to them. Some were on RECORDS. (Talk about a blast from the past!)