Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

This topic has 15 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 9 months ago by joannarammell.

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August 11, 2011 at 2:49 pm
ebcsmom
Participant
Hello,
I have 3 children and my youngest is begging for me to teach her to read. She is 4 1/2 and has been begging me for a couple months now. She will let me or her older brother/sister read to her, then her repeat the words and look at the words. She is really showing an interest and up until this point I have tryed to redirect this energy, because I like the better late than early approach. However, its not working with her, she is determined to learn to read with or without me. I need some suggestions and advice please on what I should do? I really don’t want to go ahead and start her in K because she is only 4, so what would you do?
thanks!
Joy
August 11, 2011 at 3:08 pm
suzukimom
Participant
Well, I teach kids reading when they are interested.

When my older brother was a child, he learned to read before school (which was REALLY against what schools wanted) and it caused problems and soured school for him. He had a teacher that couldn’t handle that. So my parents were determined that the rest of us would NOT know how to read before going to school…..
One day when I was 3, my sister played school/teacher with me…. and I was reading and there was nothing they could do, so they got out the Dick and Jane readers (my dad owned a set) and let me go. I fortunately had a Grade 1 teacher that COULD handle the situation and I found school easy.
I honestly don’t think we should hold back our kids. I don’t think we should push them (especially when younger) – but if they have the interest and want to learn – let them learn!
August 11, 2011 at 3:14 pm
maynegirl
Member
Teaching her to read doesn’t equal putting her in Kindergarten. My ds (5 this month) started asking me to teach him to read over a year ago. At the time our life situation was such that it wasn’t a good time for me, but in January, when he was about 4 1/2, I started working with him about 10 to 15 minutes a day at quiet time. He is doing really well and doesn’t feel pushed. If we take a few days off over the weekend or when we are on vacation, he will usually come to me after a couple of days off and ask if we can please do his reading again.
We are going to try what I have chosen to call “relaxed kindergarten” this year. He is ready to start writing his letters and doing some basic math. We’ll see how it goes. When they are ready and they have a hunger to learn, why not feed it & encourage it?
August 11, 2011 at 3:15 pm
houseofchaos
Participant
Agreed. If she wants to read, teach her gently. I was reading well at three. Some of our kids have been reading well at four, others were uninterested at six. Each child is different.
August 11, 2011 at 3:19 pm
JennNC
Participant
Several of mine have shown interest at that age. All but one of them was ready to learn to read at that point, and so we started lessons. I’m not one to push early academics either, but sometimes they can be pretty insistent. 🙂
You don’t have to call it Kindergarten, though, if you are concerned about her being a grade level ahead of where you want her to be. (I would be concerned about that too — very hard to back up later if you end up changing your mind.) You can just call it “learning to read” and save Kindergarten for next year. Then next year, instead of learning to read, she would be busy gaining reading fluency.
Just a thought.
~Jenn
August 11, 2011 at 3:20 pm
ebcsmom
Participant
What tools did you use to teach them this early? I have always used Explode the Code books and just didn’t know if she was ready for that or not. Those of you that have taught early readers what did you use? Thanks for your suggestions, we will try it then if she needs more time I will just read aloud to her more often and go from there.
thanks for your suggestions
August 11, 2011 at 3:21 pm
JennNC
Participant
Apparently maynegirl and I were typing at the same time. Sorry for the repeat! 🙂
August 11, 2011 at 3:29 pm
JennNC
Participant
I wouldn’t use ETC at that age unless her fine motor skills are advanced for her age, but maybe that is just me…
I would just teach reading only for now, and then teach writing when she’s a little older. I have used Valerie Bendt’s book with success before (Reading Made Easy), and I am getting ready to use SCM’s Delightful Reading with my current early reader.
August 11, 2011 at 3:37 pm
suzukimom
Participant
For my first 2, I used “Teach your child to read in 10 minutes a day” by Sidney Ledson, which is a phonics method. However, the kids got tired of that so when they got to reading sentences with that method, I started them on the Dick and Jane books. My son is still not reading that fluently though (almost 8) but the 5yo is reading fairly well – about the same level as the almost 8yo….
I have recently been given the “Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons” (or whatever it is called) and am giving that a try with my 3yo as she wants to read. We have only done the first 5 or 6 lessons – I do like how it is teaching the concepts of blending right off (something my son struggled with for a long time…). I imagine that at some point I will use our Dick and Jane readers as well…

I’d LOVE to use Delightful Reading (not sure how it works with the really young ones) but it isn’t in our non-existant budget.
August 11, 2011 at 3:51 pm
houseofchaos
Participant
100 Easy Lessons is very good for young learners. I haev Delightful Reading, but haven’t had a chance to try it yet with our up and coming reader.
August 11, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Tristan
Participant
I teach them when they ask, or introduce it around age 6 if they don’t. My now 3 year old is reading short vowel words and I didn’t really teach him anything but letter sounds, and did not formally set out to teach even those, but he listened in as older sister and brother were learning (they are 5 and 6). We focus on learning phonics, then rules for long vowels and vowel teams, blends, etc. We love the Now I’m Reading series by Nora Gaydos and the All About Reading/Spelling readers. They use the tiles from our All About Spelling set for hands on phonics manipulatives too.
August 11, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Monica
Participant
100 Easy Lessons is a great book, in my opinion, and the price is right (about $12 on Amazon). My 5YO started with that about 6 months ago.
August 11, 2011 at 5:30 pm
4myboys
Participant
I agree that if she’s ready, she’s ready. You can’t hold her back — but only work with her as long as she’s interested, then let it go until she comes looking for more. My younger son taught himself to read before he was five, I had very little to do with it. He wanted to so he did. He really had a hard time in primary becasue he was in a split class and while the teacher wanted to put him in the most advanced reading group he was too shy to really read to in the group. She was frustrated by his unwillingness to participate or cooperate; he was frustrated by the fact that he was even more advanced than the grade ones, he was bored with the whole thing. Your very fortunate to be homeschooling from the beginning with your child. I’ve wanted to do this since before my son started school. In grade one a learning assessment showed him reading at a grade 12 level (He doesn’t comprehend at that level, but his comprehension is still several grades ahead of what his age would suggest) He is going into grade 2 now and this is our first year learning at home. I expect that he will advance much quicker now that he is able to go at his own pace.
August 11, 2011 at 5:45 pm
art
Participant
I guess I wouldn’t even use a book for beginning reading especially at that age. I think I’d just teach letter sounds and blend them. Have you read The Three R’s by Ruth Beechick? It just goes over simple teaching of reading. I think it’s pretty fun that way. It never seemed easy or fun to me to use a book or program for it. I think especially at that age, if it feels like a chore (for you or the child) it backfires and becomes tense and regimented. You can just write things for her to read using the letters she knows. It should be really enjoyable.
Good luck!
August 11, 2011 at 6:15 pm
maynegirl
Member
I second art’s recommendation of Ruth Beechick’s The Three R’s! It is worth its weight in gold. It is short and concise, gives you the why & the how, and it’s very CM compatible.