Tonight, TWO of the girls - Kristin and Emma - read their first words. They sounded it out on their own and said "That spells cat/dog."

Ummmm... what do I do???? lol. I know that's probably a really stupid question, but I've heard that pushing them too hard too soon can cause problems later on with reading. Then with all the expectations I've been hearing about in 4-year-old preschool, I'm thinking maybe I should run with this!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why can't this be easier???

BTW, they LOVE the Starfall site (www.starfall.com) that MSTAR was talking about. That's what sparked this whole thing.

Loren
GGG Jan.2005 @ 28wks

Sweetened Taters - http://sweetenedtaters.blogspot.com

Loren,

If she is interested just go with it. You can play games by having her find things in the house that start with a certain letter. Or in conversation asking things like 'what color is that car? White? very good...lets see - what letter do you think the word White starts with?...' that kind of stuff.

One of my boys started reading when he was 2. That was his thing. We didn't drill him on it, but did encourage it. I would ask him questions when we were reading and if he didn't want to or couldn't answer I didn't make a big deal of it. My other son didn't start reading simple words until last year in 4yo preschool. He just wasn't interested before that. Now he can sound out most words and that has helped him become more excited and want to read more.

If she is interested and wants to learn - go with it. They learn so easy at this age. If she gets stressed about it or its not fun for her anymore then stop.

I just try to incorporate reading and spelling in day to day life. I have them read the numbers and words (if they can) off of recipes, they love to read nutrition facts on the boxes (get letters and numbers with that one!). We try to read the names of the colors on the crayons. The like to help me write the grocery list, etc.

I would say definitely go with it as long as it is fun for her.

http://www.brianandcharlie.com/blog
^Alexandra^, Brian, Charlie 07/28/2003
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I say go with it too. They won't do it if they aren't ready. Do you have any of the simple phonics books? That's what we use.

That's really cool! Let them play around on that website. Unlike me, you probably won't have to do anything. They'll teach themselves to read like Gregory taught himself to ride a bike.

Michele
Sarah, Gregory, Amanda
born 1/22/04 at 35w1d

Our surprise baby Austin born 06/15/2005

www.fourtimesthefun.blogspot.com

I found this online and thought it was interesting:

Reading Milestones

Toddlers (1-3)
BEGIN to...
- scribble
- know names of books and request favorites
- answer questions like "Where's the cow?"
- pretend to read books

Early Preschool (3)
BEGIN to...
- explore books independently
- listen to longer books
- recite the alphabet
- retell a familiar story
- make continuous symbols that resemble writing

Late Preschool (4)
BEGIN to...
- recognize and write some letters of the alphabet
- read and write their names* (There, Michele... BEGIN to read and write their names!)
- match some letters to their sounds
- name letters that begin words

Kindergarten (5)
BEGIN to...
- write some letters and numbers
- recognize some familiar words
- show comprehension of a story
- use some common punctuation
- sound out unfamiliar words

There's more here: http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/all_reading/milestones.html

Loren
GGG Jan.2005 @ 28wks

Sweetened Taters - http://sweetenedtaters.blogspot.com