Julian is now around 20 months. I have a goal to get him started reading by 2.5 years old.
“But he’s still a baby!” some might say. And I also thought that way too with Mika!
Well, the amazing thing was Mika learned to read by the age of 3. I’m not sure though if it was memorized. By 4 years old we could read books aloud together already.
Here’s her video reading a ‘human body’ book at 3 years and 10 months.
By the time Mika was 5, she was reading books by herself during “quiet time”. And now that she’s turning 6, well you really can’t stop her from reading everything!
Why Teach Reading Early?
Reading for me was the ONLY skill I really wanted to teach Mika early. I believed that if she learned how to read early, she could learn everything else much faster, and also become an independent learner. Now I’m happy she reads by herself, but I’m also happy when she plays videogames too and is able to follow the instructions and game conversations and instructions!
And now that she’s turning 6, the benefits are just compounding already. When there’s homework at school, the teachers were surprised she could read the worksheet and instructions. Now that they’re teaching spelling, it’s much easier for her to understand the words. And the best moments for me is when I see her confident in her ability to learn and read.
Now as an additional reason why I taught it early was that I feared that if she didn’t develop the love and confidence in reading, maybe it would set her behind when it comes to school. Or she’d be bored when it was time to read books without pictures. The lack of confidence would compound and that would be a much harder thing to address.
Now these are my personal reasons as a parent, and if you’d also like to learn how to teach children how to read, well do read on, because the process is actually easier than it looks (because kids are just so amazing learners!)
The 3 Key Things To Teach Reading Well
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that kids are amazing learners. And there’s really just 3 things that need to be set-up well and order for the learning to happen.
- Don’t teach the alphabet. (Instead teach letter sounds or what they call “phonetic reading”).
- Get lots of books. (So that the play area has lots of books as there are toys).
- Schedule reading time. (For me, I just do it 2x a week for 5-7 minutes each).
I’ll explain each one in a bit, but overall this is simply creating an environment where a child will naturally learn how to read, such that even if the active “teaching time” is only 2x a week for 5-7 minutes each, they’ll naturally learn how to read!
With that said, here is an elaboration of the 3 tips:
Key #1: Don’t Teach the Alphabet
This is actually the biggest reason why kids don’t learn how to read, is because they are taught letter NAMES, instead of letter SOUNDS.
Ex. Letter A, vs. Sound of ‘a’ as in apple.
So just by making sure no one in the house (siblings, spouse, helpers, grandparents, etc) is emphasizing on the letter names, and instead they’re focused on the letter sounds, then this is already a MAJOR step forward.
Now, there is actually a recommended sequence of teaching letters, and it’s not ABCDEFG… and so on.
The best resource I found online was this one by “Children Learning Reading“, created by Jim, an Asian-American English Teacher who taught his kids (and so many other parents) to read by 2! For me it certainly removed all the guesswork necessary on how and what to teach when it was reading time.
Key #2: Get Lots and Lots of Books
Have as at least as many books as there are toys. The reason for this is that kids will soon realize that books are toys to be enjoyed.
I noticed that when I placed lots of books around Julian’s play area, he got the habit of getting a book and giving it to an adult so it could be read to him! So in terms of environment, even the child will want you to read to them as part of playtime.
Now what books to get?
I recommend only getting books YOU enjoy reading. It’s not about what THEY will enjoy, but rather YOU will enjoy). Because I really think what our kids enjoy the most is spending time with us. So whatever book topic there may be, they’ll like it!
(I’ve thrown away books that I didn’t enjoy because they didn’t rhyme, or wasn’t fun, or make sense, or it was too political, or was teaching values that weren’t aligned with mine).
With that said, here’s a list of the books I’ve really enjoyed reading with Mika & now Julian
- Dr. Suess Early Readers Board Books – for kids aged 3 and below
- Dr. Suess Collection – for when they know how to hold a book without tearing it.
- Everything by Sandra Boynton
- Gerald and Piggie Collection by Mo Willems
- Oxford Essential Reading Sound Starters – (this one is no longer being published, but can be substituted with books or pamphlets that feature all the letters and phonic sounds.)
Key #3: Schedule Reading Time
When I was teaching Mika, I first thought I needed to teach her EVERYDAY for 5 minutes. Even if was a short-time though there were lots of days when I simply forgot to do it, didn’t have motivation for it or didn’t have energy for it.
Looking back at it now though, every day for me was too much because it created pressure and too high expectations. I realized that all children will learn at their own pace, for when they are physically and mentally ready already. The best thing we can do is simply just set up an environment where they will learn a lot when they are ready too!
So with Julian’s case, I only set aside Monday and Thursday nights at 830pm to 840pm for the active teaching time.
Here’s a video of what usually happens:
- First 3 minutes, I use the letter cards I’ve printed from ‘Children Learning Reading’. (The exact lesson sequence is already taught in the program).
- Next 3 minutes, we read the letter books.
- Rest of the time we either stop or just read whatever he likes me to read. (In case of the video, it just became playtime with Mika).
And that’s it!
There are days when he seems to know the letter sounds. There are days when he’s totally disinterested. Whatever happens, I’m just following the process that every Monday and Thursday, we’ll do this activity together.
Recommendations
Overall, for parents who’d like to give their kids a headstart in reading, the first step I recommend checking out ‘Children Learning Reading‘. It’s the program that set everything up for me. From having the right mindset, expectations and all the way to exact sequence of steps.
After that, it’s setting up the home to have lots of books, and you deciding on the time when you’d like to let your kid learn to read 🙂
If you have any questions about this, feel free to send me an email (you’ll get it when you download my newest book here.)
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links which means I may earn if you end up purchasing the products or services mentioned. That said, I only recommend products that I’ve personally tried and/or really believe would help others. All proceeds go to maintaining this site and Mika and Julian’s college fund.