Learning to Read

Ballet girl started with the Bob Books. She has been getting valuable instruction at school as well. From the summer of 2013 when we started reading more seriously (one Bob book per week) until now she has advanced considerably.

When I read with her, this is what it looks like: She reads aloud and I am sitting with her; I still run my fingers under the words and if I do not, she does; she attempts to read, phonetically, longer, less familiar words. For instance today we came across action and emotion and I told her that the combination of letters tion is read [shn]. She understood it. This is the first encounter with this combination of letters, we will have to encounter it another 5-6 times before the understanding turns into solid knowledge. Another thing I have worked on with her that the rules that she is told about at school are not exclusive rules: as exemplified by book and door; read and head; same and some. Today when reading together the If you take a mouse to school book we encountered a sentence like this: "I went to the museum, saw a picture and filmed it"-which the museum or the picture? It is not clear. Well, Ballet girl, realized that the it was ambiguous so we had a discussion about this. We will encounter this many times and eventually she will understand to look for this. What this event showed me is that when reading she thinks about the meaning of the content. This is very comforting because most of the content she attempts to read is content that she is already familiar with from our read-aloud sessions (which is another reason I find read alouds so valuable).

At home, from the Bob Books we moved to the Piggie and Elephant books (which she herself discovered). Now, we are tackling the If you take a mouse to the movies series books. The first non-series book she tackled with success is Belinda and the glass slipper.

I have learnt a lot in the last few weeks about reading. For instance, as much as parents want their kids to be geniuses, for reading and everything else, it is important to take it slow so that not to miss the basics. Short, enjoyable, picture books are not be neglected but to be used especially in the learning phase. Chapter books tend to be very shallow in content and should only be used for the reader learning to silent-read. The novels have to wait at least until the beginning of 4th grade. The early reading novels  are also fairly shallow in content which is disappointing.


UPDATE 4/24/2014: The easy P.D.Eastman books are great. Big Dog,Little Dog; My nest is best; Flap your wings; Go Dog Go.