Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments reading with a 3 year old

Colinsmom, this perfectly describes why I resisted with a passion those "reading incentive" programs at my kids' school. (OK, really it was because I resented all the extra paperwork it created for me.) But, also, the idea that one would read 20 books in order to receive a free kid's meal or something just drove me nuts. I ultimately had to cave though in first grade because ds was very aware that other kids were getting prizes and he wasn't. And they were higher level prizes (baseball tickets, Six Flags tickets, etc.) that he started really being interested in. It still irks me, though, as it is at such odds with what I am trying to encourage at home.

I am not into rewarding as a practice at all. Really against bribery etc. But all truth be known I sure have used it at times with my older DD. She learned to downhill ski through lots of bribes, mostly candy. She ended up loving skiing and the bribes stopped once she got good enough to enjoy it. So I think everything can work at times and sometimes it backfires and sometimes it makes it fly. Knowing how and what to do with it seems more important than a hard and fast rule around any of it. At least it helps me with my own perfectionistic parenting:-)

I am actually not opposed to rewards at all, although I have found that rewards that would work with other kids don't necessarily work with mine and vice versa. lol Just regarding reading, though, I try to maintain the reading being the reward itself so that's why I don't like the school incentive programs at school.

And please know that my last comment was a digression, not at all a criticism of what you are doing with your daughter. Also, I totally understand getting into the reward and then not being able to get out of it! Maybe you could change the reward until slowly it is something different. The one thing I absolutely reward my kids' reading with is more books! lol So maybe encourage her to read a certain amount and reward her by letting her choose a new book at the bookstore or something like that?

As for early readers, my kids went through a whole series of "sound" books from the library with titles like (-ot as in pot, -at as in cat). I'm sorry I don't remember the author though (there may have been multiple authors actually). Also there is an older set of books by Margaret Hillert that might be a little too hard right now but were great for that simple, repetitive sentence stage. And they were often actually well illustrated and some were slightly more interesting (retelling of fables and things like that if I remember correctly).

Our public library has a brochure with lists of books at different levels. You might try finding books at the Guided reading level A for her. Check out www.scholastic.com/bookwizard to search books by level.

DS loved books like Pamela Allen's Mr McGee books when learning to read (rhyming, repetitive). He would read the words he knew and we would read the rest. Even at 2 he was not interested in the early reader type books. We read books near his level, above his level, way above... He reads because he loves it, no rewards needed. He still loves to be read to, even though he reads fluently but I know he is reading along when we do. He taught himself though by reading whole words. Rather than getting your daughter to sound out words I would just tell her the word so she can keep reading and doesn't lose the sense of the phrase/sentence. DS is a perfectionist also and would skim read the line/page to check he knew all the words before reading aloud. We got him just to point to the words he didn't know as he got to them and we would read them. Enjoy the journey

So there are some great ideas here. One thing I do remember even from my own reading and my oldest is the beginning reading is kind of a chore because you want to zoom and be able to do read the stories that are more interesting... a few stars to get over that hump maybe not bad. I remember being frustrated with the slowness of it. I had not thought of reading books she has memorized like Brown Bear Brown Bear. So last night she "read" it to me. We joked around and she teased me about having it memorized versus using the words, but she used the words and had a lot of fun. NO STARS needed and she had a sense of accomplishment because she read the whole book, which is what I was looking for that started the whole star thing. She has been dx with hypotonia as some of you know, and if you are a bit weaker you get a lot of negative feedback. Even flushing the toilet is hard. So... I will look into some of the books suggested. We do quite a bit of reading together. She likes a variety of books including the Magic Tree House Series, The Giving Tree and anything else as long as it has pictures. Likes the comics from the Sunday papers. She has quite the sense of humor. She wants paper comics like we get from the newspaper, so I made her one as I have not been able to find one to buy. I just cut comics out that seemed she might grasp. She loves it and reads it every night right now. Thanks everyone and glad this board is here!

My kids loved these books

http://www.webothread.com/server/TreasureBay/website/main/scripts/default.asp

The parent reads the left and the kids read the right hand page. The easiest books that might be a sentence or two for the parent with the last word (often rhyming) for the child. As the books get harder more is on the child's page, but all new vocabulary first appears on the parent side.

Sweetie, these look interesting. I think we may have fun with them. I showed her an example on the internet and she is excited. Unfortunately there are none in town so we have ordered a couple and will have to wait.

Bobbie- I tried to do the phonics thing with her because I was a whole language reader and not very fluent with the phonics ever...They never did it in school with me. I have found myself wishing I could sound out words on more than one occasion and did not want that for her. I no longer do it with her because she is definitely just memorizing the words as they are. I guess she will get phonics in school and really I have no reason to worry.

My son loved "Between the Lions" on PBS, a humorous show that includes a lot of phonics principles. Check your local PS listing to see if it airs where you live, and if it doesn't, check your library to see if they have the DVDs. Playing "word families" games with magnetic refrigerator letters (changing initial, final, and middle letters to make new words) was also a big hit that did not seem like "phonics instruction" to him.

Hi thanks everyone. Tonight she read a book to her dad and I could hear her clear little voice reading the words... It is so cute... I do not know if she asked or got a sticker... The one book that we have stickers all over she read today all the way through without wanting a sticker until the very end. Then she did want one.. She keeps asking to read them to us... I am so glad I can type this here, because there are very few places that I can talk about it and it is soooo thrilling. She gets into things and so currently its chutes and ladders with dice, the ice cream game and her little books!

My three-year-old is on the other end of the phonics-sight word spectrum. She also knew her letters and letter sounds before turning two, but she did not sound out a word until she turned 2.5. At that time she was sounding out more words than she was committing to her sight word memory. Actually, she had like zero sight words before learning how to sound out words regularly. Even now I am surprised by how many words she still has to sound out. And, I can echo that it is tiring for her. A whole book, even one of those easy books is a marathon for her.

I have noticed that my DD does not yet have much desire to read. She wanted to know how. She cracked the code, but actual reading is not enjoyable to her yet. It is work. I have to remind myself she is only three. So, we do not push her at all, and we hope that a lot of it will come with age and maturity, (maybe even just eye maturity). I do not want to make her resent reading. But, I do want to give her the opportunity and teach her about working hard without her feeling like a failure. It is a balance. I know it is hard.

FWIW, we read tons. I think we are averaging about 2-3 hours a day. Lately, I have been making a conscious effort to split the time between reading complex chapter books, beautiful picture books, non-fiction, and allowing her to read simple books. She probably only reads 10-20 sentences a day. But, she still loves books. We also visit the bookstore almost every other day. Oh, and we spell and play word games all the time. She is a very aural girl.