Aiden was like that, and he had learnt all the letter names and sounds on his own. He recognised names of shops already and was reading a few words here and there on signs etc.
I had no idea how to teach a child so young how to read - he was not yet 3 (any child actually) and so I printed out words and we played games with them. Words for household objects like door, wall, window, tap, cupboard etc. He would choose a word, I would read it to him and let him repeat it. Then he would stick it to that object and choose another word. This way he could match words easily.
At the same time he started knowing random words in books and seeing the repetition of common sight words (and, it, as, is, was etc). He loved bigger words more than smaller words so we used themes that he chose and we made word walls. I would write the word in black marker and we would both draw little pictures of the words before sticking them on his bedroom wall.
So we just played games. I found a puzzle set with words spelled out and other easy to use games.
In hindsight it was lucky I did it this way - he is actually a whole word reader so it worked out so well for us. Phonetic anything confused him until just this year when suddenly the blends started making sense.
Nathan was different. He just woke up reading also very very young.
Now Dylan is the frustrated one and is doing as Aiden did, but seems to enjoy phonics and whole word, so we are doing a combo of bob books, games, and the word wall. (well we will once my current exams finish)
Last edited by Madoosa; 05/23/14 10:20 AM.
