Help for children 3-5 for reading readiness!

Here's some ideas I've tried with my kids and others to help them learn to read, or get ready for reading. These activities help the eyes get accustomed to seeing difference in color and shapes, like they would in learning phonics and letter or numbers.

1. Teach the child colors, use nature, or put up colored shapes on your walls.

2. Make some dot to dot pictures for the child to do, they are a lot of fun. The child can then color them in with the colors you call out! They will also learn some numbers! Also make a game by using little cars to go from number to number

3.Have the child copy a sequence of colors that you make, example : draw with a crayon three different colors on a piece of paper, next have the child pick out the right crayon colors and do the same thing. Use socks, blocks, marbles, buttons, etc.

4. Make a poster or scrap book of each color, let the child color pictures of that color or cut out pictures and place them on the poster or in the scrap book.

5. Draw the child some shapes like square, triangel, circle, rectangle etc. Let the child identify them with words or another object of the same shape.

6. Make some easy puzzles with different shapes and let the child put them together.

7. Once you've gone over different shapes with child ask him to visulize in his mind the shape and then draw it on a piece of paper, once the chilld can do this you can add color to the object your telling him to draw.

8. Put a bunch of colored objects on a tray or table and ask the child to pick out the colors you call out, this works for shapes also.

9. Hiding objects around the house while child is watching and then doing another type of lesson for 10 min. When done with that lesson ask the child to find what you have hidden. Also can have the child hide the objects. Do another type lesson and have him find the objects when done.

10. Placing 4 or 5 objects on a counter, ask child to look the other way while you take an object away. Then ask child what object is missing. You can make a game out of this and both of you can play it!.

First Steps in Reading!!

First Steps in reading

Its funny but you dont have to know the names of the letters to lean to read. To read
you just sound out the letters like in c a t. So you dont have to teach the names of
the letters when you are just starting out with reading.
Start out by teaching the child the forms of the letters and the sounds they make!
(one less burden on the child.) A good word to start with is the childs name!
So lets say you childs name is Sam, be sure to print it with the capital S (and the
other letters with the lower case.) Tell the child what the word says 'Sam' .
Let the child trace it with their fingers or a crayon or whatever you want to use.
Have the child look at it, even copy it if he/she is able. (Dont force it.)
If this is the first time you might have to guide the childs hand. Make the sound of
the 'S' as the child is tracing it. and say the name Sam.
A. while child is tracing letter
B. Say the sound of the letter(not the name remember)
C. and say the name out loud to child
when she/he starts recognizing her/his name and can also print it, you can add
more words beginning with that 'S' . After the child starts to recognize the
letter 'S' go on to other words!
Dont worry about using lined paper, just let the child form the letter freely on blank paper.

Some Free education sites!

Phonics for free

http://www.thephonicspage.org/index.html
is a free service offered . It has information about improving reading and spelling with phonics. Free phonics lessons and spelling lessons for adults and children in the 2nd grade and older

http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/reading.htm

http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/index.php/stairwaytoreading
This is a one-on-one remedial reading program for students of any age who have already re-ceived some reading instruction but who are struggling with reading. It was not originally designed for beginning readers, although it can be used for this purpose

http://www.starfall.com/
online games

http://www.phondot.com/
Phondot is a revolutionary system for teaching reading to beginning English readers. The system indicates pronunciation in English text without requiring that the text be respelled. The goal of the system is to make English as easy to learn to read as languages like Italian, Spanish, or Finnish.

http://www.catphonics.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/contents.htm
A day-by-day programmeof systematic, synthetic phonicsfor all ages
Also by same author: Myths of reading http://www.catphonics.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mythspt1.htm

http://call.canil.ca/english/index.html
In this site thousands of English words have been painstakingly grouped according to their sounds and their spellings making the patterns obvious. This is the most logical and systematic method to learn English. It doesn't rely on rules to teach reading and spelling; instead, repeated exposure to a sound/letter pattern allows your brain to recognize the pattern intuitively and internalize it.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ny0aCYqeQFcC
A Complete Manual: Synthetic Method of Reading and Spelling. This is perhaps the best phonics method ever published in the history of reading in America. It is certainly the most beautiful. The stories, poems and maxims are of the highest caliber. I highly recommend downloading the Googlebook.com PDF.
Also:
Here is Pollard's First Book for Little Folk
And Pollard's 1895 First Synthetic Reader, Second Synthetic Reader, Third Synthetic Reader Here is the 1897 Primer. Free spelling is also available.

Elizabeth Burnz' 1892 The Step-by-Step Primer in Burnz' pronouncing print. Correct pronounciation shown without new letters or change of spelling.This looks like a good way to teach phonics. Also read: Pure Phonics for Home and Kindergarten,

This is more of a hands on way to teach phonics sounds! Illustrated Phonics: A Text-book for Schools (1909).

The New Beacon Primer 1921. This was a very famous and successful phonics method. Here is the 1912 edition which has the phonics charts in the front of the book, they were moved to the back in the 1921 edition. Here is the Second Beacon Reader: Folk Tales. Hazel Loring's Reading Made Easy with Blend Phonics for First Grade was influenced heavily by the Beacon method.

Readers for free

15. First Steps to Reading by J. S. Lauria (1862).

http://www.bartleby.com/
great site for free book classics Online

http://www.mainlesson.com/main/displayarticle.php?article=feature
Old Children's books

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/
e-books


http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/text-idx?idno=00acy5488m;view=toc;c=nietz
McGuffey primer

New National First Readerby Charles J. Barnes and Various

Verse and Prose for Beginners in Readingby Horace Elisha Scudder

http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/reading.htm
scroll down till it says readers!
.
spelling for free

http://www.dwcummings.com/
is an inductive spelling program for elementary and middle school students, consisting of eight books of 48 short lessons each

Here is the 1896 edition of Rebecca Pollard Pollard's Synthetic Speller. Here is the 1887 edition of Pollard's Advanced Speller

The National Pronouncing Speller by Richard G. Parker and J. Madison Watson. A masterpiece! I have not seen their National First Reader: Primer of Word-Building

And Ear and Eye Spelling Book: A Book on Word Study for the Primary Grades by Albert R. Sabin (1904). This is for 1st-4th grade. Here is The Progressive Speller (1994) by F. P Sever. Very good speller!

http://www.resourceroom.net/readspell/guidespell.asp
help learning how to spell! Very good idea!

Other ways to teach phonics!
(Some free and some not free!)

whole-word dyslexia- Phonics Pathways by Dolores Hiskes
http://www.dorbooks.com/readingpathways.html

dyslexia- http://www.toe-by-toe.co.uk/
A Highly Structured Multi-Sensory Reading Manual for Teachers & Parents

Edu-Steps by Pat Doran
. The program was developed by professor Pat Doran of Gilbert, Arizona. Her program is called Phonics Steps to Reading Success. It is a fast-paced word attack system for developing and improving reading skills. Pat has over 30 years experience working with students with reading problems. Dramatic results have also been reported by other teachers using the program. It is appropriate for ages 10 to 100. Here is a short essay by Pat: Steps to Reading Success. The Teacher's Manual is included right on the transparancies!

http://donpotter.net/PDF/How%20to%20Cure%20Dyslexia.pdf
Samuel Blumenfield article!

Dyslexia competency test-
http://www.dyslexia.com/library/symptoms.htm
http://www.dyslexia.com/dyslexiatest.htm
http://www.dys-add.com/testing.html


Misc. phonics ideas and helps for free!

http://donpotter.net/PDF/Mary%20Johnson%27s%202%20Sentence%20Test.pdf
Mary Johnson’s Two Sentence Reading Test is a cleverly devised assessment for determining if
students can read by the analogy from memorized sight-words (phony-phonics).

http://www.nrrf.org/readtest.html - Reading Competency Test
How well is your child reading? Print out The National Right to Read Foundation's Reading Competency Test and find out today- here it is in pdf form http://donpotter.net/PDF/Reading%20Competency%20Test%20-%20Groff.pdf

http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/phonics.html - Practice Quiz on Phonics
a list of phonics rules to print- http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/phonics.rules.html

http://www.illinoisloop.org/anon_thankyouwl.html
a funny article on whole language learning , not the best way to teach children to read!

http://www.resourceroom.net/homeschool/index.asp
Good resource for spelling, phonics and a few other subjects!

http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/readinglab.htm
information articles with self-grading comprehension tests. Great for reading practice!


http://www.flashcardexchange.com/
phonics flashcards to print plus many more flashcards for other things!

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/historyofreading.html
History of reading, very interesting! Makes you consider how you teach your children to read!

Handwriting Learning for Free!!

http://www.peterson-handwriting.com/Publications/ReviewAccess.html
Handwriting, A Complete Guide To Instruction

http://www.iampeth.com/lessons.php#ornamental
Here you will find a wealth of material for learning calligraphy and penmanship. Cursive handwriting, Ornamental Penmanship, Copperplate, Spencerian script - we have lessons on these and much more.

http://donpotter.net/PDF/Cursive%20First.pdf
How Should We Teach Our Children to Write?
Cursive First, Print Later!
By Samuel L, Blumenfeld

Manual of Free-hand Penmanship

Where I found lots of this stuff!!
http://donpotter.net/ed.htm
http://oldfashionededucation.com/

debbie

How to Tell if Your Child is Ready to Read!

If you are in tune to your child you will be able to tell when he/she is ready to learn how to read. They have different ways of letting us know when the time comes.
1. Some of the kids learn the favorite books we read to them by heart and like to sit pretending to read them.
2.Some children ask us about words or letters. Whats that word say or whats that letter or how do you make that letter.
3.To see if the child is ready teach him/her to write or pronounce one or more sounds. Does he/she want to learn , seem interested in learning them? or does the child resist?