Monday, June 23, 2008

How NOT to teach your child to read

In my defense, the "H" is sort of close to the "K" on the sticker maker.

My daughter has been doing really well with this technique. She spent today pointing out letters that she recognizes (D and R). Tomorrow I'll try a different one. She's 4 and showing a good desire to actually read words, so we're starting small and making little games. Any thoughts, techniques or success stories?

love, etc...

jeri

6 comments:

The Browers said...

Leapfrog: Letter Factory, LeapFrog: Learn To Read At The Storybook Factory and LeapFrog: Talking Words Factory. We just got the abc one. It shows you each letter in its own scene and tells you what that letter sounds like. I really like it and Mathias is picking up the sounds that the letters make. bonus is that they are only $9 each.

AMS said...

i'm using alphabet flashcards and sounds with Brielle. she's getting pretty good at recognizing all the letters and can pinpoint the sounds in some words. and this summer were working on writing them, too.

Kelsey said...

I've heard this technique is pretty effective. My "source" labeled all the drawers in the kitchen. Darcy knows where the silverware drawer is, and if the drawer says "forks, knives, spoons," she'll learn what those words look like. After all, reading is mostly memorization, and the more kids see words that they can associate with familiar things, the faster they'll learn and memorize. Way to go!

The Mathews Family said...

THAT is a great idea! And the deepest desires of my little Type-A heart have been to own a label maker. That looks like fun!

If you have an area in your house that has pretty big windows (like the ones in my back living room) then the kids always go nuts when I pull out the dry erase markers and let them color with me. Of course, it's only a supervised activity and if you have a kid that has the tendency to draw on everything else then it's not the best idea.

Also Annebel has been loving loving loving playing around on the Starfall website. It's age appropriate so you can start out with the little ones and focus on letters and then move on to reading words later. Of course, that also requires having to share the computer with your child. Maybe my ideas aren't so great after all?!

By the way, I've been loving catching up on your old and new blogs. I've been computer deprived for a bit.
-Jessica

Here's the starfall link.
http://www.starfall.com/

Tina said...

I have a cute story about labeling things . . . . I'll introduce myself first . . . I am Chrissy's Aunt, just blog surfing . . . I'm not a nut or anything, just killing time, hope you don't mind.

One of my children was struggling with spanish, and so we labeled almost everything in our house with their spanish equivalent. We kept it that way for months. One day, someone, not me, mixed up all the signs. I surpised myself! Even though I wasn't trying to learn the spanish words, I was able to put the words back into their proper places. It was a testimony to me of how this technic really does work . . . Love your blog! Blogging is such a blessing.

jeri said...

Kelsey - thanks! I need to get some more labels made, she is really liking them.

Jessica - You can imagine what Bart would do if allowed to draw on the windows. Your girls are just better-behaved than my two!

Tina - welcome! I'll have to try labeling things in Spanish next - my husband speaks Spanish and could probably spell things the right way. We'll see!