independent reading - tips on how to teach your preschooler

Preschool is a great time to spark curiosity about reading in your young child. With Rynus finally started reading relatively long stories independently at the age of 4 years 4 months, we can proudly say that we've taught the Chan brothers to read before they enter K1.

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.

his progress in academics, is pretty much like his brother..

This morning, as usual I was chit chatting with my sister about academics and we somehow touched on the topic that academics is not everything, though it's definitely important. I had to confess, I always claim that I am not a tiger mummy and I don't like to force my kids to study, looking at the kids' blogs, it's not hard to find there are many posts and photos about their academics for sure. So yes, I cannot simply relax and let them enjoy a childhood without grilling them a bit on their studies.

But, for Rynus, let's just say we did cut him some slack from day one, just look at how often we talk about his academics here as compared to on Renzo's blog. It could be due to 2nd child syndrome, but also, it could be the fact that Renzo was rather fast in learning and Rynus didn't show much interest till he's about 2.5 years old.

Recently, I start to notice more and more frequently about Rynus' hunger and curiosity for knowledge. He's been repeating the songs he learned at childcare center everyday, though 70% of the time I couldn't understand him as his articulation is still not too clear yet. He tries to speak in full sentences and get extremely excited when we could understand him. He enjoys watching Renzo doing his homework though sometimes he might mark his presence by messing up with Renzo's worksheet. He mumbles and recites and sings along with Dora, Thomas and Tad (from Leapfrog) countless times a day. He gets involved with our conversation with every possible means and seems to enjoy that a lot. He grabs books and reads with us, asks for puzzles and number games during bedtime.


And starting from about 2 weeks ago, he suddenly gripped on his pencil and started to scribble, from numbers to letters to shapes and fruits, I had to dig out the old posts on Renzo's blog about his first writing exercise at home, to confirm that Rynus indeed started writing proper letters/numbers earlier than his brother. That, is quite a surprise to me, because so far besides walking, he's been slower in achieving all his development milestones as compared to Renzo. But that, also serves as a great reminder that every single child is unique in their own way, even for our own kids, we shall never compare them.

Well not to compare the boys, they do have very distinctive characteristics of their own. But interestingly, when comes to academics, they share so much in common!! They both love numbers and alphabets to the extend that they can watch Leapfrog DVDs till they could recite the scripts. They don't even fancy the usual cartoons or movies. They both mastered all alphabets and their phonics sounds, as well as counting from 1-100 before their childcare starts teaching them. They both enjoy reading bus numbers and could easily spend 30 minutes at the bus stop watching buses come and go,  making small cheers after getting their bus number right each time, including the "Off Service" bus!! There's one time Rynus made his favorite bus number "518"with number blocks, my mother saw that and immediately recalled when Renzo was 2, he did the exact same thing but he made "34" instead as that's the bus brings him to his childcare daily back then.

Here's a video of Rynus chanting his alphabets and he memorized that after reading them from an alphabet chart for less than 2 weeks.

So believe it or not, I think at least for academics, our children's learning behavior and learning habit, could be a direct result of our parenting style. Because we are using the exact same way to coach and influence the 2 boys at home and so far the results are pretty much similar despite them having pretty opposite personalities. So for almost 6 years we've been investing time and efforts to learn to be better parents, and help our kids build strong foundation, cultivate their interest and great habit in learning. So far the result is still quite promising based on our experience with Renzo, and I definitely hope what worked for Renzo, will work for Rynus too!

life has been all good with little Rynus...

Rynus just turned 2.5 years old! Yes time really flies and he has grown so much in the past half a year, though he still pretty much behaves like a baby.

The decision to send him to full day childcare since July, was brilliant, except for the financial burdens of course, as pre-school education is extremely expensive in Singapore. On top of the extra S$680 school fee we need to fork out every month after S$300 government subsidy for working mothers, we are still keeping our helper though her main duty has shifted from caring for Rynus, to purely household chores. Also, I've mentioned before, we are spending almost S$8 dollars daily on cab fare, as neither my mother in law, nor my helper could manage 2 of them with 2 large school bags for almost an hour of bus journey home. Not to forget this little Rynus could put up a stunt of rolling on the ground anytime, anywhere, yes that includes in the middle of the road! I definitely could, yes trust me that's called mummy power! But after a tired day at work, and with the erratic weather here, taxi is the best(fastest) option though not the most economical.

But other than all these, life has been great! We are greeted with cozy house and warm food daily, and after dinner, I get extra 1 hour (saved from the bus journey, or rather from cooking dinner after work) to spend with the kids.

And the best part, Rynus has been doing well in school, and he has learned so much!!

School life:
We had a nice conversation with his teachers during the "meet parents session" last week. Rynus has fully adapted to school environment. Although he doesn't follow instructions all the time, has short attention span, is rather picky on food and often throws tantrums when things don't go his way (sounds like his korkor? Quite!), he still managed to "survive" well for the past 4 months. And his teacher was rather impressed with his enthusiasm with learning alphabets and numbers (sounds like his korkor? Absolutely!).  

Here's one of the observations from his teacher, the "suddenly, Rynus stood up..." part really cracked me up because that's SO OUR Rynus!!!

As expected, he started falling sick more often after he entered full day childcare. Luckily most of the time he takes medicine well, indeed he enjoys feeding himself through the syringe. But he hasn't been eating well at all, he rejects almost all type of food at home, and has been surviving on formula milk, fresh milk, fruit/vege juice and soup most of the time. This is probably the biggest concern I have currently though Renzo had experienced the same phase around this age too. 


And here are more pictures of his wonderful daily life in school..

Home life:
Did I mention Rynus is still having his Terrible Twos? Yes but a rather mild one, especially at home, he's quite an angel. He spends most of his time playing toys and watching TV. Yes I have not imposed any house rule on TV time. I do let them watch daily, especially during weekends. As they spend full 5 days in school every week learning, and playing of course, so time at home is purely fun time! And Rynus has learned such a great deal from TV! He's not interested in cartoons so Disney Junior channel is more for Renzo. Rynus watches Dora the Explorer, Thomas and Friends and whole Leapfrog series.

This is what he did last night while daddy was reading with Renzo, totally out of the blue. He was trying to sing the Leapfrog A-Z alphabet song that sounds like "A says [a], A says [a], every letter makes a sound the A says [a]...", and when he sang "T says [t], Tic Tac, I was rather surprised.

Dora won his heart totally during the past few months and sometimes he shouts Spanish words, such as Azul (blue), Amarillo (yellow), Rojo (red). Renzo loves Dora too when he was at such age, but he wasn't this interactive like Rynus. Even for a brand new Dora disc, it probably takes 15-20 minutes the most, for Rynus to warm up and be able to answer Dora's questions. He learns animals like "Zebra", "Kangaroo", "Jaguar", "Snake", "Iguana", "Rhinoceros", etc all from Dora discs.

I am sure I've mentioned many times that Rynus couldn't really talk much. But for the past one month, he's been mimicking what Renzo says very often. And interestingly, Rynus has quite good sense of humorous like Renzo. When he accidentally stepped on daddy's leg, he said, "sorry Daddy", and when he did it again, he said, "sorry again!". When he instructed me to build his train track, instead of saying, "Thank you, Mummy!", he said, "Well done, Mummy!". He is also as sensible as Renzo to certain extend. On our daily cab ride home, he waves byebye and says "Thank you uncle, see you tomorrow taxi!" each time, but when he notices my conversation with the taxi driver is in Chinese (I do that if the driver is listening to Chinese radio station), Rynus says "谢谢 uncle!" before he gets off the car. And once when I was frowning at Renzo for taking too long to shower, Rynus walked over to me, held my face with his hands, looked into my eyes, then pat my head and said "Don't worry mummy, don't worry!".

Outdoor:
Rynus gets extremely upset when we have to leave him at home with our helper. The last time we had to do that, he refused to talk to us after we returned home. Instead he leaned on my chest and zoned out for a long period of time, I felt that he was angry with me. So recently we've been trying our best to bring him along whenever we go out. He can soon prove to us, it's not the wisest decision because the moment he gets out of the house, he starts running about and it's impossible for him to sit still for a meal even.

We brought him for his little cousin's full month celebration recently, throughout the 3 hours, we had to take turns to run, climb, jump up and down with him outside the restaurant, while Renzo sat by the table enjoying the food. So nowadays bringing Rynus out for grocery or food, is basically a challenge, instead, bringing them for outdoor activities seems to be a much better choice for Rynus. He's not afraid of trying new things and I am sure soon we will need to send him for some swimming lessons as he simply loves water.


So in a nutshell, Rynus has been doing extremely well, except for those occasional rolling on the floor episodes, he's been bringing us so much joy and fun everyday! I shall end this post with the a recent video of him reading his favorite Dora book together with daddy, he finished the story with "The! End!" when he noticed they are at the last page of the book. Little cute cute is a big boy now, and, still just as cute especially his voice!!