when did your little one first learn to read?

[FirstTimeMomIn2009]

just curious when kids start to read. my LO is in SK and still unable to read. we have quite a bit to work on. I know she can pick it up soon, but we really need to work on sight words and sounding out words, identifying the first letter of each word and saying it out loud (along with the rest of the letters in the word). just getting a little worried if she should be able to read by grade 1?

just curious when everyones kids started to read, and any advice on how they got there, any practice techniques, special books? special routine? any advice would help.

thanks

[Ingalls]

Can she not read at all? Like if you asked her to sound out BAT or DIG she couldn't do it at all?
If that's the case, I'd probably work on letter sounds -- the basics. Leap Frog Letter FActory is a great dvd for helping with that : )
And I'm sure youtube has fun videos you could search.
Stuff like the Leapfrog letter toy with the magnets, that makes it fun.

Make sure when you're reading to her, you follow along with your finger.

Is the teacher concerned at all?
I think with the two year jk/sk program they do expect kids to be at least recognizing a lot of sight words and able to sound out small words, by grade one.
As for when mine read, ds was reading by sounding out before he was in sk (didn't go to jk). But he wasn't reading actual stories until about age five.
DD had much less interest so she was not erading before school and I think she caught on quite quickly to reading, probably reading solo faster than he was
and that was very early in sk (didn't do jk) but she was a bit older going into school, spring vs fall birthdays.

My youngest is 3.5 and she can't read yet at all. She's still on letter sounds. She's really more into numbers and basic addition and counting.

A LOT of the 'early readers' I found were hard to read. I actually like Hop on Pop, or Go Dog Go, or ones like that. The little cute boxed sets of phonics books
from scholastic often tie into characters, and characters have a lot of hard to read names and lingo! So I'd stick with ones like I said or Hand, Hand, Finger, thumb
or even books where it is based on a song, so they gain a bit of confidence as they go and realise they can predict what the next words will say.
There is a good series at the library that they can probably point you towards, where the books have one page for beginning readers, then one page for mom or dad
to read, and the whole book is that way We liked those a lot.

[luckymama]

I taught all of my children to read with BOB books. It is 5 boxed sets that build on each other. The first book is pretty easy. Mat. Next page. Mat sat. Next pg. Sam. Sam sat. It goes from there. My son got stuck on letters and their sounds and couldn't retain all of it so I started in with the first book and he got it. The first ones are easy enough that it boosts their confidence level because they read a whole book!

Bob Books for Beginning Readers - "I read the WHOLE book!" - Early Reader Success Got a link for them.

[Ingalls]

We had those Only they were just random ones we found at yard sales. I didn't realise they came in sets.

[momx2]

I taught all of my children to read with BOB books. It is 5 boxed sets that build on each other. The first book is pretty easy. Mat. Next page. Mat sat. Next pg. Sam. Sam sat. It goes from there. My son got stuck on letters and their sounds and couldn't retain all of it so I started in with the first book and he got it. The first ones are easy enough that it boosts their confidence level because they read a whole book!

Bob Books for Beginning Readers - "I read the WHOLE book!" - Early Reader Success Got a link for them.

These books are available at the library

[Findabhair]

DD is 5, 6 in December. She's in SK and was in JK last year. At this point she sounds out a lot of stuff and also knows some sight words. She enjoys playing Hooked on Phonics on DH's iphone and various games on Starfall.com. We've also recently started reading books with her on curiousgeorge.com. There aren't many books on the website but they highlight the words as it reads out loud to you. I know some of her friends are ahead of her in reading at this point, and some are behind at this point. I'm not really sure where she's "supposed" to be but she's in level B readers (from Learning A to Z - the school series).

[Carol]

We did BOB books as well. Starfall.com is also great. I would keep working on it and it will click.

[gogomom]

My kids were in preschool, at this preschool they did a lot of reading - one of the things was these cute little books + site word flash cards - each book built on the book before and added sight words to the flash cards.

By grade 1 - all my kids were reading quite well - each had a couple of hundred sight words and could sound out anything under 2 syllables easily. To be perfectly honest - they lost a lot of this in grade 1 and 2, and by the end of grade 3 all of their peers had caught up to their reading level.

[Pomegranate]

In grade 1 & 2 the reading levels vary a lot. I wouldn't stress too much over it at this point. Keep reading to your LO, and find some books where she can read one page (or attempt to), you can read the next page. Try reading a favourite book to her that she knows really well and changing the words, she will correct you and you can take it from there, and have some fun with it. This strategy worked really well for both of my girls. We started with the Biscuit the dog level 1 books and we also liked Dr. Seuss and Mo Willems. Knock knock joke books were very helpful for us as well. Pull out some board books, my girls went back to some Sandra Boynton books when they started to read.

Are there any books she has memorized? If there are have her 'read' those to you. It will help with her confidence. My DD2 'read' Red is Best, Mortimer, and a few Sandra Boynton books before she could read and I think it gave her some confidence.

[BabyLove]

We have a hooked on phonics set. I found it has helped to build on the sounds that they are taught in school. Pictures are important because a lot of kids study those first and piece together the words from the pictures they see on each page. Our school does a guided reading program. It has done wonders for my kids. They are taken in small groups to read with a teacher. They do this 8 out of 10 days (whatever the cycle number is). Frequency is key.

[a_bun_in_the_oven]

My oldest could read zippo at the end of JK, SK, she made it up to the B levelled books. Grade one there was some improvement (from B-F). Grade 2 (where she is now) has been the most improvement. She has gone from F to M levelled books.

My middle is in JK right now and already recognizing sight words, and has started to read some level A books on her own.

[sardam]

Reading at the kindergarten level doesn't concern me. It did when my oldest was at that point though. My oldest is a Nov. 25th birthday and went into JK recognizing every letter and know what sound they made even out of 'order' (thank you leap frog letter factory). He left SK knowing the same as he went into JK with. I was scared! His grade one teacher wasn't concerned and said usually clicks at some point in grade one. It clicked in October and he went from level B in September to J by Christmas! My second was also B entering grade one and left a level J and it finally clicked early grade two and he is fine now almost done grade 2. My third is almost done SK and is a level C although I'm not concerned either way.
We talk about letters and my JKer and SKer enjoyed writing me notes and helping with the grocery list. They ask what signs say when we are out and we will sound them out together. I'm sure my sons and your little one will be fine if they aren't noticeably struggling.

[Tutumom]

My daughter is in JK and her teachers are amazing. She is already reading E books. I just said tonight to dh that she is reading more fluidly instead of sounding it out and then saying it. Her teacher gave us a list of 100 sight words that they should know and she can do them all minus a couple that she can sound out but doesn't know just to look at them. We found reading with her every night helped and we do a new snuggle up and read book a night. Her teachers hosted a reading night and they showed us the cues they use to help them read. It is amazing how far the whole class has come. Saying that though, I don't think I would worry though. Maybe ask the teacher if she is where she is supposed to be.

[my2babies]

Learning to Read for Kids ? Reading Eggs I just signed my 4 year up for the year. It's a GREAT site. They do a reading test and gauge their levels and start them there. You can do a free two week trial too.

[melissawilliam]

Is the teacher concerned? What is her reading level? When she brings home book are they A or B? If so, this is within normal but is low at the end of SK (these are JK level). In this case I would choose 5 common words each week this summer and post them around the house. You could ask her teacher if you could borrow 10 books at her level and the level above for the summer. When reading other books you can read the big words and pause/point for her to read the 1-3 letter words with short vowels.
If she is reading level C, then this is very common.
Level D and E are great. Anything above that would be WOW!

You can google Dolch for the site words she should be reading.