Renzo first started reading simple books independently when he was 2 years 11 months (refer to the video below), and moved on to rather long stories like what Rynus is reading now, when he was 3 years 8 months old.
Honestly, we didn't put in a lot of efforts in coaching Renzo to read. It seemed all natural, after reading to him daily for 2 years, one day he suddenly started reading all by himself. Till we had Rynus, we realized his independent reading journey doesn't seem to be as smooth. We questioned ourselves, will the method we used on Renzo work on him too??The answer is, YES, despite that the two brothers have quite different learning patterns, they both learned to read without the need of attending any enrichment classes. The only thing is, it seems to take Rynus a little longer, nonetheless, slowly but steadily, he's there...
So I feel that there are certain tips we can share here with fellow parents. We jolly well understand that every kid is different, but what we are sharing here, are probably going to work for every child, sooner or later..
First of all, before explaining more about our method, here are a list of blog posts on Renzo's blog, where I shared quite a lot of tips on reading:
Foundation - phonics
Simple 3 letter words reading
Crucial Skill - Blending
Cultivate habit - Reading with kids
Cultivate habit - 5-a-day-books
Reading involves much more than just decoding a few clumps of letters. What's more important is that the reader is able to understand the story and enjoy while reading it. So I am not trying to pressurize fellow parents to expect a 3 years old to start reading (by the way, they don't). My purpose is just to share some tips which we found useful with our preschoolers, with those parents who believe their children (at all ages) are ready to read, so that they could enjoy the process together and have more fun!
Tip 1: Create the environment for reading
Some friends ask me for advice on how to encourage their kids to read, usually my first question to them is, "As parents, do you both love reading? Do you read often in front of your kids?"
And when I say to read in front of kids, I am not referring to reading paparazzi news on your iphone or ipad, in fact, not even e-books on kindle, you can search on scientific proofs about why printed paper books might be better than e-books. Frankly I am not an avid reader, luckily Daddy Chan loves books so the whole family has been more or less influenced by him. Our most important piece of furniture in the house, is indeed our bookshelf. Just 2 years ago it was extremely hard to get Rynus to sit through one story, but after replacing a comfy sofa with this huge bookshelf in the living room a few months back, he slowly started this habit to grab a book and flip at times.
So don't wait till your child grows up, start building your "home library" once you have /or even before you have a new born, they need different types of books at different stage of life.Make it a habit to bring a book along whenever you are out with your child. Have a trip to library and bookstore on a weekly basis.
Tip 2: Read to your child everyday (from age 0)
Have a fixed time to read to your child every single day. As we both are working parents, we have one hour from 8pm to 9pm every night, to bond with our kids. And reading is probably the one and only one compulsory activity we've been doing with them.
Pick those books that are relevant to their favorite toys, or TV programs so to keep them interested. Or read books that preschoolers can participate in by joining in on repetitive phrases or familiar rhymes. There are books that encourage "read aloud with parents", where the words appear in the sentence which parents need to read first, repeat in the next line which the child needs to read.
With Renzo
entering Primary One at the beginning of 2016, we often have
to guide him on his spelling or term test during this one hour, while
Rynus has his free time to play. Daddy Chan pointed out a few times that he feels, the very reason why Rynus couldn't pick up reading as early as Renzo, is because we didn't spend enough time reading
to him. Whereas for Renzo, he could remember how devoted he was, reading to him every single night without a fail since he was born. Hence we quickly made some
arrangement to ensure we could spare at least 15 to 20 minutes before bedtime
to read to Rynus. Reading to young children who don't seem to show much interest in books can be quite demoralizing. Do not give up just because they don't understand you, or because they couldn't recognize even a single word. And even after your child picks up the skill of independent reading, it doesn't mean you have to leave the reading all to your child. You still can read to him/her daily, or read whenever you are asked to do so. Children enjoy the bonding and interaction from listening to parents, even though they've mastered the skill.
Getting the elder sibling to read to the younger one is another great option. Recently I've noticed that whenever Renzo is reading, Rynus wants to join in too and he's proud and confident about himself when he's able to read. He even told us, "I am able to read by myself, just like Renzo korkor right?!"
And here's an old video of Renzo at 4 years 4 months (Rynus' current age) reading to Rynus when Rynus was a baby.
Tip 3: Get the foundation right (age 0 - 2)
I know there are a lot of debate around when should children start watching TV. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.
Let me be honest, I made the decision to expose the 2 boys to TV when they were about 10 months old. I don't want to justify my reasons, but the truth is, they've been watching no more than 3 different educational programs on DVD and they've learned a ton!
Our family's favorite educational program is none other than Leapfrog!!I've recommended this set of DVD to many friends, and some told me it's not effective for their toddler, so I still have this feeling that it's better to expose kid during their infant stage. Because the older your child is, the more distractions he or she will get. Imagine if your child has been watching different cartoon programs, learning series like Leapfrog might appear rather dry and boring. But I've read countless successful stories about how this series worked on younger kids below 2.5 years so I just think that it really works like magic.
Leapfrog is so far the most effective, interactive and structured educational material we've tried, to teach children the basics of phonics. Start your little one with this set of DVD in the correct order:
- Letter Factory
- Let's go to school
- Talking words factory
We've bought probably the entire collection of the Leapfrog series, the above 3 are the classic. If you start your child with Leapfrog early enough like us, by the age of 1.5 - 2.5 years old, your child will definitely be able to recognize 26 letters and know all their phonics sounds. That, is the 1st step to independent reading.
Tip 4: Start with 3 letter words (age 2 - 4)
Once your child has mastered all alphabets and their phonics sounds, move on to 3 letter words. Leapfrog's words factory introduces basic word building, rhyming, vocabulary which helps your child to read and spell easy words like CAT, BAT, PAT, BEG, BED, etc.Or, if you notice your child likes to tell stories based on the books he/she reads, then it's a sign that your child is ready to learn how to read independently.
As I mentioned in my post about our experience with "I CAN READ" school when Renzo was young, majority of kids at the tender young age of 3, are better at identifying first sound, some can recognize last sound, and a few advanced ones can even recognize middle sound. Renzo was able to identify middle sound, which is the reason why he could read early, in my personal opinion. Because with such skill, he could easily decode the 3 letter words, sound out the 3 individual phonics sounds and blend them together again to form the word independently. Rynus was only good at first sound, sometimes he could identify the last sound but most of the time, he's pretty lost with the middle sound. So we knew we need to give him longer time, while at the same time, explore other methods to inspire him.
Rynus enjoyed playing with his Leapfrog cards to form different 3 letter words, before he started to show more interest in books.
Tip 5: Focus on high frequency / sight words (age 2 - 4)
True enough, the two brothers have different learning patterns.
Renzo:
Verbal (Linguistic) – These individuals learn best through words, verbal and/or written
Rynus:
Aural (Auditory) – These individuals learn best through sound and music
We realized it's pretty difficult to teach Rynus how to read by showing him the word, and expect him to decode it like what Renzo used to do. But interestingly, he is much stronger at recognizing sight words, those words appear frequently such as YOU, ME, HERE, AROUND, WHO, TODAY, MUST, WITH, etc. And because he learns really fast with sound and music, and such kind of words appear very often in nursery songs, he was able to read them before he turned 3, although he couldn't really read a story. So we tried to look for books with more sight words, or read together with him, pause at sight words, and encourage him to read it. It's important to boost their confidence level and keep them interested in reading.
Tip 6: Decode words (age 3 - 4)Once you notice your child is able to read simple sight words and some of the three letter words, you can try to help them "decode' the word, by sounding out phonic sound of each letter, and blend them together.
There's also a tip here, if your child can make the phonics sound of "H", "U', "G" individually, but cannot sound out the word HUG, then try "H", "U", "G" first, then "H", "UG" because some kids might find it much easier to blend the middle and last sound together first, then sound out the first letter, and add on the "middle+last" sound as one sound.
And from the video below, you can see how Rynus "decode" his words by covering part of the word with his finger, and sound out the letters one by one and blend them together again.
"An early walker isn't destined to be a great athlete, and an early reader isn't destined to be more intelligent." But as parents, reading with our children is one of our greatest passion. They boys are having so much fun reading and learning at their own pace. These experiences are treasures that hold the key to becoming successful learners for years to come.
