I have a 5-year-old son who is about to turn 6, who has been reading for more than a year, being the first in the class to do so. Many people ask us how we have done it, even the teacher when one day she approached us and said “she knows how to read!”. We did not know what to answer because we thought that all the children in the class read more or less like him, but by telling us this we realized that he was not the only one and she was also impressed.
The answer is very simple: my son learned to read because he wanted to learn to read. He looked at the letters, watched how we read, asked about them and asked "what does he put here" and similar things. Seeing your interest we decided to help you learn and, between today and tomorrow, I will give you Ten tips to help your child learn to read, if it is one of those who asks you to learn.
There were people who saw him read with 4 years (he was close to turning five) reproached us for having taught him so soon because there are those who say that "it is so bad that they learn late as they learn soon." The phrase is not bad, because it is not good to force children to learn to read if they are not motivated for it, but if the children ask, if they are curious and ask you to lend them a hand, the counterproductive thing is not to respect their curiosity and not answering your concerns (unless we want them to stop being curious and stop asking to learn).
By this I mean that if my second son, Aran, who is now 3 years old yesterday, does not ask us for the letters or tell us “what he puts here”, he will learn to read when he is taught in class and with the stories we read at home, because dad and mom are not going to force anything (although we will follow some of the advice I offer you, because they are inherent in our way of seeing the reading).
The importance of knowing how to read
Knowing how to read is one of the most pleasant things that exist, because thanks to our ability to read, we understand most of our environment (there are letters, labels, phrases, instructions and words everywhere), because that way we can read books and in doing so acquire vocabulary and knowledge, discover new worlds, characters and stories that we can taste little by little and whose magnitude is much greater than that of a movie, which in less than two hours concludes.
See if reading is important than in Finland, the country that has shown the best academic results in recent years in the PISA report, Children do not start reading until age 7. That said it sounds a contradiction, because it seems logical that the sooner they learn to read better for children, because sooner they will discover the pleasure of reading, however they do it for an obvious reason: they want children to learn to read when they really want to read and not when older people want them to read, at the risk that they do it too soon, they are not motivated to do so, they seem bored and end up detesting letters, words and ultimately the magical world of reading.
It has been observed that the children who spend more time in reading are the children who have better reading comprehension and also those who end up capturing concepts more quickly, a fact that ends up being reflected in the academic results. That is to say, the children who read the most are the children who on average end up getting better grades.
I repeat, my intention with this entry is not to make parents get their children to read with 3 years, or 4 or 5, but to offer advice and guidelines for those parents with children who ask them and are curious to learn to read, seeing themselves in the doubt of what to do, because what is taught in class does not satisfy their curiosity.
1. The best example is at home
It is clear that the first advice has to be this: the example. We, the parents, are your maximum referents and the people you look for the most. If we do not take a book, if we barely have it at home and if they do not see us reading, it is more difficult for them to want to read, because it will sound strange for us to insist that they read when we do not. Moreover, children often conclude that if we insist too much on something, it’s really funny (nobody insists that they watch television, for example).
2. Have books, of course
I will always remember the mother of a two-year-old girl who once asked me if it was a good time to buy stories for her daughter. I was surprised, out of place, bewildered… “Two years and still have no stories or books? Nobody has sat with her to read a story? ”I thought. Obviously I answered yes, that of course it was a good time to tell stories and that, in fact, it was one of the best things I could do to entertain, have fun, stimulate and instruct your daughter.
That's why children have to have stories and books as soon as possible. The clothes are small, for the bathroom there are raincoats, then the thick pages arrive, with the letters, numbers and colors to go later being more complete, more extensive and with less thick pages.
I don't know how you will do it, but in my house whenever there have been gifts, stories and books have fallen. Always. Irreplaceable Books have never been missing.
3. Have them in an accessible place
That they have is not indicative of being touched. I know people who barely read that they have (various) books at home (surprisingly), probably as ornaments or as dust accumulators. Children can also have a lot of books, but if they are stored in a box, or on a raised shelf, we win nothing.
They must be accessible, at your height, on a shelf where you stand (if they are lying down they will take the first and at most the second, but not the ones below) and can pick them up and leave as they are interested.
4. Choose the books they want
Not all the books they have should arrive through gifts, because that way they will all be chosen by others (and adults usually read before those who buy us than those who give us and do not know).
From time to time, for no apparent reason (without birthdays, without it being Christmas or there is no reason to give as a gift), it is fine to approach the bookstore with your child and spend some time with him. Children's books are colorful, fun, makes you want to look at them all and being there for them is like entering a small cultural amusement park. They look at books, open them, leave them (we always controlling to respect them, of course), and in the end they choose whomever they want.
We at home have a couple of books by Geronimo Stilton because we went to see the work, they know the character and the books are very cool, although they are extensive and are intended for children from 7 years. Jon chose them with just 5 years old and from time to time he reads a part, then we continue with another paragraph, without hurry, to savor it and so that he does not get frustrated seeing that it goes slower, and he continues with a new paragraph until that he decides that for today he has read enough.
Obviously they also have to have books appropriate to their age (In fact, practically everyone should be), with less text, shorter and more dynamic and allowing them to finish the story in one day and not in several.
5. Know the alphabet
The ideal thing to start with is to know the alphabet a little, that is, to recognize the letters. Let them know what letter each one is, because after they know them they can then combine them phonetically by reading syllables: "The B with the A is not said BE-A, but BA." To learn them, we must tell them what letter each one is and then add the phoneme (precisely to favor that when reading “PAPA” they do not remain saying “PE-A-PE-A”, but “Pppp-A-Ppp-A ”, Which when gaining speed becomes“ PA-PA ”). That is, when they learn the "B", say, "BE, Bbbbb", when they learn the "S" say, "ESE, Ssssss", when they learn the "M" say, "EME, Mmmmmm".
So that they know the letters without learning boring, it can be good to play directly with physical letters. A good resource (a great resource, I would say) is the magnetized letters, for the fridge, for example, or for blackboards that admit magnet. With them they can play to place the pieces and it can even be interesting to make them a “snap-in” on a Din-A3 card so that they can be placed there.
This is nothing more than picking up a white card and reviewing letter by letter drawing the outline (if you want in the same color as the letter), then attaching it to the board with magnets (or as we want) so that they will then put the letters in its place.
If you do not want to buy magnet letters you can always print some letters, cut them out and play with them (painting them, putting them glue, making crafts with them, etc.). In BabybibobúAndrea offered us a few months ago some sets of letters to print, with covers to keep them and everything (so you don't say that I don't make it easy for you).
It is advisable, whether you print them at home or if you buy them, that you do with at least two complete alphabet games, to be able to make words with the letters.
When they already know the alphabet we can play to create words in the same way, drawing the silhouette “PAPA”, “MAMA”, “BOB”, “PATRICIO”, “DORA”, so that they place the letters and realize that they are Building words
We'll continue tomorrow
We remain in the advice number five so that the entrance does not become excessively extensive and tomorrow we continue with the rest of tips for our children to become familiar with letters and reading and enjoy an exciting world in a fun way.
Before finishing I leave you with an extra tip: no hurries. If we have decided to teach them because they are curious, let's not kill their curiosity by overwhelming or exhausting them. We must offer resources so that they can satisfy their desire to know, but it is they (the desire) that control when and how much.
Photos | ThomasLife, Eyeliam on Flickr (CC)
