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I think there is a difference in teaching early reading as Stepka has mentioned with this book: http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Chi.../dp/0671631985 and what many people have mentioned - reading to your children and teaching them letters as you go. To me, the latter is what everyone I know did. Certainly my kids knew their letters, numbers and body parts in pre-school but I don't think they really learned to read until kindergarten.
What I don't get is why parents are so hung up on their children learning to read early when there is no advantage to reading early. Honestly, I really miss the days when a little one crawled up into my lap and begged for one more story.... I swear, teenagers are God's way of making us glad our kids grow up and move out. If they stayed those cute little kids who begged for one more story, we'd never want them to go.
What I don't get is why parents are so hung up on their children learning to read early when there is no advantage to reading early. Honestly, I really miss the days when a little one crawled up into my lap and begged for one more story....
That's where my kids learned to read. Snuggled up on my lap. Those who know some of my posts know NO flashcards were involved.
That's where my kids learned to read. Snuggled up on my lap. Those who know some of my posts know NO flashcards were involved.
None here either. Though I did label objects in the house. I read in some parenting book that that was supposed to help them get that words had meaning...
Picture this: Dh is in the bathroom shaving when he overhears Dd#2 in her room reading the letters on her closet door. He hears: "J-E-S-S-I-E-S" ... "Jessie's" " C-L-O-S-E-T" ... "Door"....dh nearly cut himeself shaving he was laughing so hard. So much for labeling things in the house. For the longest time, she was certain that "music" was spelled P-I-A-N-O. I really miss that little kid....She's a great teenager but she grew up too fast.
And I have to admit that those of us who are not teachers might screw it up, get the kids off to a bad start, and end up making them hate reading. What if the child has a disability that makes reading hard? Would I recognize it? I'd rather let the pros do it. I do not think I would have had the moxie to tackle the phonics the way you did. But you are one of those pros!
And the punishment thing? I meant today. If you want to punish me, take away my books. Locking me up in a prison with a library, that would be like flinging Brer Rabbit in the briar patch!
Eh, you'd find a way, even if you had to write a book so you could read it.
You sound just like me--I remember that in 6th grade I would have killed to own a full set of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. My library only had the blue and green ones.
No moxie required for teaching phonics--the entire book was scripted so all you had to do was follow the lesson plans. Interestingly, the Wilson Reading Program that we use at high school to catch kids up to speed on their reading is done by some of the same researchers. Here's the way I look at it too--your average K or 1st grade teacher has received very little training in learning disabilities so they know not much more than you do about how to spot them. This is why most kids with LD are not dx'ed until 3rd grade. The teacher is also not an expert on teaching reading, b/c that is a separate sub-specialty.
OTOH, you are the expert on your child. You've been working with her for years and reading to her and probably going over the letters with her. If there's a problem, you're probably already aware of it, or at least wondering if it's normal. Your child's teacher has a classroom of 15-30 children to teach and chances are that even if your child has a LD, she will most likely be put into a small group of other similar low readers to see if that helps her and if it doesn't then she'll get an eval to see if she belongs in a sped class.
Here's the thing though--research has shown that the very best way any child learns is with one-on-one tutoring and direct instruction. 100 Easy Lessons fits both of those criterion very nicely. So I guess that what I'm saying is that even if your child has a learning disability, you working with her is the best way for her to learn. Also, if you leave it to the school b/c they're the experts, and the school is well staffed, they'll probably have a TA working one-on-one with your child and that person is less expert than you, b/c you're the expert on your child. If the school is not well staffed, the student will be in a group. In the high school I'm at, we still have several kids who can't read at all, and I wonder where the ball got dropped, though it's quite possible that the families moved a lot and the kids fell thru the cracks. I'm talking about the ones with normal IQs of course.
I guess I started to read after I started attending kindergarten or first grade. I can't imagine how else a child would be able to learn. By the end of college I had read at least a dozen books.
Honestly, there are kids who would rather read than play. I did, hands down. I still do. Don't confuse a genuine love of reading with parental one-upmanship.
What I don't get is why parents are so hung up on their children learning to read early when there is no advantage to reading early. Honestly, I really miss the days when a little one crawled up into my lap and begged for one more story.... I swear, teenagers are God's way of making us glad our kids grow up and move out. If they stayed those cute little kids who begged for one more story, we'd never want them to go.
As mentioned earlier, this is exactly how I learned to read...being read to. And once I knew how to read, myself, it wasn't as if I abandoned story time. My dad read to us every night...all four siblings crowded onto my queen-sized bed, and dad read to us, well up into when my youngest sibling was in elementary, which would have put me in middle school...at which time I still listened along, even if I was doing my own thing. It was good bonding time.
if they can't yet read it , it should be read to them. It wouldn't do any of the parents any harm either. We have become a non-reading culture and our education has suffered because of it.
This country is lazy, they want others to teach and raise their kids. For some reason they trust the schools which are horrific as they are tied up in legal tape and stupidity ( calling the police for a kiss in kindergarten...really?) The public educational system is no longer functioning. Parents must teach their kids reading at what ever age that can understand it.
Show me the person that says otherwise and I'll show you an idiot that spends more time parked in front of a tv than with their kids.
In another forum it was brought up about teaching a child to read. He is 4 and the consensus is that he is too young and should just let the school teach him when he gets to K. One person said that learning to read early has no value. How could reading ever have no value? How old were you when you learned to read? Or taught your children?
Anyone have anything else to say about the OP? ^ I think we're kind of preaching to the choir here when we talk about reading to our children when they are small. Hopefully on this forum that's a given for all readers and posters....
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I swear, teenagers are God's way of making us glad our kids grow up and move out. If they stayed those cute little kids who begged for one more story, we'd never want them to go.
I do not think I would have had the moxie to tackle the phonics the way you did. But you are one of those pros! 
