How to start your child on reading?

Mothers to Mothers » Bringing Up Children

How to start your child on reading?

(21 posts)

kimmy
Friend

Merryn has provided a guide on how to teach baby to enjoy reading at her blog. Mummy Julie has been getting Jonathan prep up to learn some words too. It is hard to get him to focus on reading. He likes to experience things, something which involves hands and legs movements. With Jonathan, we will have to try some other methods. He is able to speak a few words now, but not reading yet.

How about you? Have your baby started to read? How did your children begin reading? Share your experiences with us.

Posted 11 months ago #
Ariana
Member

I have 3 children, all 3 of them love to read. I started to read to them when they were still babies.The aim of reading to them is not so much of academic reason but to cultivate interest.So, if they could not sit still or learn thing that you expect, is perfectly ok!For young children, you may want to find books with lots of picture but few words due to their short attention, as they grow older,lesser picture more words, and so on.you can even repeat the book until they get bored. The key is:to cultivate interest, rather than learn the words within short period of time.
by Ariana

Posted 11 months ago #
kimmy
Friend

Thanks Ariana. Does all children goes through the same process of learning? Is there such thing as artistic children, technical children, or bookworm children? I grew up with very little interests in reading but I love to watch documentaries, such as National Geography, Beyond 2000 and even MacGyver. I learn from watching more than reading. Is this a later stage for young children?

I notice that Jonathan learns faster by looking at what we do.

Posted 11 months ago #
submerryn
Member

kimmy, what i did with ethan at a very young age was to read to him [b]one pic one word a page book. i dunno if u remember, i did mms u a video of him reading that book? apple, bear n so on. dat in fact introduces wat is reading to him n from there onwards then i use the method posted to proceed. if u think jonathan learns more by observation, good, u n julie have to be a very good role models then. just like ethan, he does not know wat is reading initially, but after lots of reading sessions and everyday looking at me reading the papers, he soon joins me at the papers, observing pictures first. now, he starts sporting words by words.
go slow, start correctly, jonathan will bug u for more in future!

Posted 11 months ago #
kylie
Member

My boy's able to pointed to some object in the book and pronounce it correctly, Yet, he can't concentrate for long.. ha!

Posted 11 months ago #
doreen
Member

Mine loves to flip books over and over again and yes, he seldom spends longer period of time on one book as he'll keep changing books after finishing flipping one unless, that book/page is his favourite one... especially about vehicles, he'll spend longer time on that book and keep flipping pages by pages few times.

I think this is a phase kids will go thru...it takes time to teach them read and kids to learn. Somehow, for a start just try to encourage kids flipping the books though it's just glance on them My Ryan would join in when he sees his daddy reading magazines/newspaper. Hehe... I'm not a book fan myself

Posted 11 months ago #
submerryn
Member

toddlers have the attention span of a goldfish. rotation is the vital key here. they wont sit down n do the same thing for long...

Posted 11 months ago #
Ariana
Member

Dear Kimmy:
I agree that different child have different personality and ways of learning. my 3 children agree that too. My 1 one is a book worm, wherelse 2 one is totally opposite, he is more "hand on"type, refuse to sit down and read. I try all sort of way til I read a book "raising up boys" by James Dobson, founder of FOcus on Family, I learnt that my 2 boys is rally a typical BOY and I need to cultivate his interest different from traditional way. Then I pick up some book talk about animal, sport (lots of picture and few lines of simple words), then when he grew older, pick some books of his interest, such as farmer (which he wanted to be, he like farm animals :-).now he is eight years old, i stil do the same, and finally, this two years, he started to pick up his book to read, sometime can read for hours, of course the books stil got some picture .Throughout these eight years, I have try all sorts of way, so, the key is "DONT GIVE UP" and remember, just to cultivate interest not force them to remeber what you read.

Posted 11 months ago #
julie
Member

Agree with Ariana. I know my boy won't sit quietly and pay attention to me reading to him. Nevertheless, I still make an effort to read to him eventhough he is turning away.

Recently I found a good time to read to him...that is the bottle time. While he lies down on the bed drinking milk from his bottle, I raise the book up to his eye level and read. Not sure if this is a good tips to some of you.

Posted 10 months ago #
Ariana
Member

Good idea, but make sure you dont cultivate him a habit of lying down while reading.

Posted 10 months ago #
exceltiong
Member

Hi Kimmy, try books that have the "touch and feel" or pop-ups pictures for Jon boy. Since Julie is reading to him every night, you both can also use voices to read the "touch and feel" and pop-up books ... soon, your boy will insist you read to him all the time !

Posted 10 months ago #
kimmy
Friend

Jonathan has started to show progress in identifying pictures now. He recognise and at certain times say the correct words. I'm glad to have learn from all the sifu here.

His vocabularies are increasing and at least now he seems more interested in picking up the book.

Posted 10 months ago #
liewcheenyee
Member

I'm not sure any of you heard about Glenn Doman Method or Shichida Methods? Both are stimulating babies right brain.

Glenn Doman -
http://www.gentlerevolution.com/index.html
Shichida - http://www.shichidamethod.com/index.html

I believe we can start cultivate the habit of reading when the baby is young... even an infant. Abigail enjoys her flash card time. To her it's not learning time... it's a game time. If you read the 2 websites above... then you'll find out how powerfuli is a baby brain!

I just finished reading How to teach your baby read by Glenn Doman. and I plan to apply this to my coming baby.
Abigail i started doing flash card with her when she's 8 months (but not very consistent)... and now she's 18mths and able to speak more than 70 words and she can recognise many things (picture form). She know most of the body parts... from head to toe... except the calf & thigh she may mixed up once a while. She started to speak in phrases now...

I think that's the power of flash card.

Posted 10 months ago #
julie
Member

I have the complete set of Glenn Dorman's flash cards. The problem with Jonathan is he couldn't sit still and he tends to snatch them away from me. Any suggestions on how to overcome this?

Posted 10 months ago #
liewcheenyee
Member

when do you start the program with Jon?
I remember a friend told me to start it with rules.
Rule no. 1 - never let the child hold the card or touch the card... if not they will always want to take the card.
I think it's ok that he didnt sit still... they will still learn by hearing.

e.g. you have flash card with him in a room/at a corner... he cant run too far from you... while you flash, he's listening.

Tweedle Wink said while the child is moving around, their absorbtion is more than a child who is sitting down. Because they're using their right braing... I'm not sure as Glenn Doman didnt said that!

Posted 10 months ago #
julie
Member

I started since he was a baby not on a regular basis. I never let him hold the cards but it just came up to be like that. It's in a our bedroom but his attention span is very short.

I don't have patience with him so whenever he's not listening, I'll stop and give up. I think next time, I'll just flash and read out eventhough he's not sitting down.

Posted 10 months ago #
submerryn
Member

flash card is called flash card bcoz all u need to do is flash it to them, in just an instant. that's all. they dun need to have long attention span. even that few seconds that u flashed the card to jonathan, he shud be able to see it and eventhough it's not obvious to u, he is actually digesting it. so keep on doing it, dun give up! (flash n read the word out at the same time)

Posted 10 months ago #
liewcheenyee
Member

hmm... I believe every child has their way of learning... may be girl is easier? I'm not sure as for Abigail, she just love flash card. Flash card is my magic word. Whenever she's cranky... I'll just said "want to see flash card?" then she will be "guai guai".

I totally agree with what merryn said. just keep doing it

Posted 10 months ago #
KittyCat
Member

Hi there - great to hear that parents here are interested to start their babies/toddlers (esp boys) on reading.

I'm an English teacher and did my master's research on reading and writing. Guess what? In general, boys tend to do poorly at school due to their hyperactivity and low attention span. You can bet I read up on this when I knew I was expecting a baby boy (and he WAS very active from the womb).

Hubby and I started reading to him when he was a baby...we've continued until now he's in preschool. He's now 3.5 and what's really cool is that he's started to want to 'read' by himself (by memorylah LOL). Here's my post: - He reads his first book!

If you read my blog, you'll know that I'm *always* complaining how active and bouncy he is. Good news is that reading is one of his favourite activities.

Now that we're still reading to him, I believe that my baby in my tummy is also benefitting from it. Fingers crossed, she'll be a bookworm too!

Anyway, here are some guides I've posted about reading to babies, toddlers and also setting up a home library. Hope they help

Do ask if you have any questions. This English teacher loves a discussion!!!

- Setting Up a Home Library
- Getting An Early Start to Reading
- How to read to your Toddler

Posted 8 months ago #
KittyCat
Member

ANNOUNCEMENT:
I am now selling USED books imported from the US at SecondhandChildrensBooks.blogspot.com

Do check them out

Posted 6 months ago #
julie
Member

KittyCat, thanks for sharing. I totally forgotten your website on this. What would you recommend for a 2 years old toddle of mine who likes to flip the pages only.

Posted 6 months ago #