learning to read and telling the time

[Olive]

what age do you generally start to teach these?? and silly question but how??
DD1 tries to tell the time, makes up stuff when looking at the clock so figured we should start that and reading but im not sure how you teach an almost 3 yr old how to read, or is it far too early??

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I am not 100% sure but maybe you could start with like an ABC chart, and go through the letters first until she can recognise letters, then start on basic words like CAT etc on those big learning charts, maybe you could even make your own?

With the time my stepmum got us to learn all the numbers, then she slowly taught us like they do on Play School, when the big hand faces xxxx and the little hand faces xxxx what does this mean? etc etc

Prob doesn't help, i'm sure you will get some wonderful answers though.

[Mak]

I think if she is the one interested and leading things and it is all about fun then that is perfect. She sounds an inquisitive little poppet. You are doing a great job! Enjoy.
ETA - DD1 loved her chalk board and copying the magnetic letters, she also loves reading us stories - much to DH's frustration. The trick here has been to go with her lead, rather than trying to correct her!

[MrsFabuloso]

It's not necessarily too early, but teaching her to 'read' may not be the way people think. Children first learn about literacy and 'reading' just through play. They see you read and learn that print has meaning. She learns stories by rote, and pretends to read. She learns about sounds, phonetics and letters. She'll learn to recognise letters in her name, your name, other simple words. She'll learn to model it from you and other adults in her life. If she's exposed to it she will learn it. 3ish is a good time to start, but not to really focus on it. Make it fun. Show her numbers, clocks, letters and print. If she's interested go with her ques. Have fun with it.
HTH

[MantaRay]

For my boys, especially DS1, they have shown me that they were ready. Both of them started pointing to letters and asking "what's that". The same with the time - they would start asking what the time is and doing what your miss S is doing.

For the time, I started DS1 with a clock jigsaw puzzle and we put the big hand on the 12 and the little hand on various numbers to talk about "it's x o'clock". Then we moved to half past.

With reading, DS1 taught himself. DS2 is learning a bit from DS1, and also from asking "what's this letter" etc. Also, lots of time spent with books - they both love them!!

[Astrolady]

I was lazy. The kids knew the alphabet, but didn't know how to write their name till they went to Kindy, and didn't learn to read until they hit school and started doing Jolly Phonics and Magic 100 words. Kameron is learning the time now at school, and he is in Grade 1

[MantaRay]

I was going to add (had to run off to a 3yo!) that the age will be different for every child. I would say most kids start being interested in reading letters and basic words around 3 1/2 to 4, but some are earlier and some later.

[Astrolady]

Also I felt bad with Kameron cause we teach the kids Ayy Bee Cee Dee but at school they learn phonetically, so they can sound out the letters to make words.

[*star*]

We do a bit of lietracy teaching with DD now (she's 2). It's all just a game and we give up when she's bored. She has been learning the clock off of playschool (!!) - we didn't think she'd be ready yet, but now she's interested we get her to tell us which number the big hand points to.

For reading we have some great tips from gymbaroo. Definitely show them letters and give them the phonetic sound they make. You can start putting simple words together on a chalk board - cat dog, etc. as well as their name - they should be able to start recognising that.

The other really good one is printing out two A5 size bits of paper - one with a word, typed in a large easy to read font and one with the corresponding picture. Put the word on the back of the picture and show them the picture and ask what it is. Then flash them the word and show it to them and explain that the word says "train" or whatever. They can learn words in this "whole" form, as well as spelling it out phonetically. Another one you can do with these cards is to get one picture and two different words and ask them to tell you which word goes with the picture. You can also show them how to sound out the words phonetically.

Other things you can teach are colours (if not already done), numbers and shapes. DD knows the names of some very odd shapes (trapezium!!), but only because she's interested and they suck up so much knowledge at this age.

We only do this while it's fun for her, once she's lost interest, we don't push it.

[tenar]

My mum, who was a primary teacher, started teaching me to read just before I turned two, because she needed something to keep me quietly occupied while she fed my baby sister.

My sister didn't learn to read until she was in primary school. so nearly 5.

As adults, we are both very literate, well educated, and love reading.

Different kids are different, and there probably isn't a real "too early" or "too late".

[AliBaby]

Jols, whatever you want to do is fine.

Just reading to your child will help them to read. At DD1's age it is about exposing them to print (letters, words) and talking about books (meaning). Asking her to recall in her own words what just happened in a story, who was her favourite character and why? When you start looking at a new book, ask her what she thinks the book might be about? All these things are just as important as the letters in the book.

In kindergarten children will learn the phonetic sounds of each letter and also sight words. Some words you simply can not sound out (as they are not spelt the way they sound so we teach them by rote). Sight words are high frequency words that they will come across quite often, ie. boy, girl, home, mum, dad, can, I, see, like, etc.

As for time, in kindergarten they just learn o'clock and at the very end half past. What they do on playschool pretty much. I think the best thing to do is keep it simple. If she asks, tell her what the time is but at her age it is quite a difficult concept.

I agree with Lilias that its not about sitting down to learn a new concept, it is all done quite incidently at this age. Its just best to have fun with it.

If you really want to start teaching her to read, start with some flash cards. Maybe just 3 words (boy, girl, Sophie). Show them to her each night or any time she wants to, say them to her and get her to say them back to you, she will jsut pick it up in time. Then when she knows those 3 words, add two more to the pile (mum, dad), keep the process going. There is a program called Letterland (google it) you can get dvds, books, flashcards, etc to help her learn the phonics. Its up to you though when you would think DD1 is ready for this. Its best not to push to much to early.

Let me know if you want any more info. I have so many kindy things I can send you.

[Nai]

DD1 demonstrated interest by asking what the letters were and we also did the alphabet with her. I did the Ayy, Bee, Cee etc but also the phonetic sounds so Ayyy also sounds like A for apple. She can recognise most letters now - especially the ones that are in her name (her favourite word!)

I'm not sure how but she can recognise most letters and all numbers now and she looked at the clock one day and said "it's 8 o'clock mummy" and it was. She just seemed to pick it up by asking me what the time was and me telling her

[mrsmac]

In kindergarten at school we teach them that the letter name is "Ayy" but the sound is makes is a as in apple.

[mrsmac]

I was lazy. The kids knew the alphabet, but didn't know how to write their name till they went to Kindy, and didn't learn to read until they hit school and started doing Jolly Phonics and Magic 100 words. Kameron is learning the time now at school, and he is in Grade 1

You are not lazy hun just letting them be kids until they go to school, that's what teachers are there for, children learn about life from you.

[Emma1979]

i don't think its too early at all, my 2.5 year old can "read" basic words, she also recognises Kmart, Target, BIG W etc and the logos.... she can spell her name and write it, knows all her alphabet and numbers (up to maybe 20, maybe more?) and tries to read the clock (learnt this from playschool).... she has shown interest in all this since she was about 2.... you just start with the letters of the alphabet and when you are out ask her to find letters etc in street signs, shop signs - anywhere - they are everywhere, in no time she learnt cat, dog, mum, dad etc etc.... also learning the letters of their name is a good place to start......

also when she was 2 she got this little "computer" thingi, its a barbie one, that has games where she has to find letters of the alphabet and find the letter that comes next in a word etc, it has been fantastic, she plays it in the car and sometimes in bed if she isn't ready to sleep.... it asks her to do certain things with letters/numbers and she follows the instructions... i think she has learnt quite a bit from it, or at least gotten really fast at finding letters on the keyboard.

good luck, they soak up everything at this age so it makes it fairly natural for them to learn nearly anything!

[tiggerandpooh]

jols, lots of learning through play. and I say if she is wanting to go with it.aston is the same, wanting to know what this says, and this and this. and wanting to write letters. i'm pm you. x

[Olive]

awesome posts ladies thanks everyone for their help!!
DD loves to read and knows the alphabet pretty well and what letters stand for, can almost count to twenty. will keep just doing things through general play.
thanks again!!
got it vicky!!

[Olive]

another time question, DD is constantly and i mean every 5 minutes what the time is on the clock, do i teach her that its say 2.50 or 10 to 3?? i think 10 to 3 would be easier to understand but still unsure