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.

[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!