You have had your child with you for 5-6 years and it is time to start Kindergarten. What can you do to help your child succeed in Kindergarten? It is time to start putting it altogether.
Before you can make any headway into reading your child has to know his/her letters and sounds. If this is a problem then it is time to start drilling at home. Make a chart, give rewards, and give hugs and kisses. This is where it all begins. Every day in Kindergarten the teacher drills the letters and sounds. At home do it again, but you can make it fun. The very best website for teaching letters and sounds and beginning reading is www.starfall.com. Kids love this website.
If your child is really struggling in learning the letters and sounds start with the letters in his/her name. Then do Mom and Dad along with siblings’ names.
After your child has learned all his/her letters and sounds, then start putting them together. Create short three letter words that can be sounded out like; cat, dog, pig, sun, pet, etc. Show your child the letters and they can blend them into words.
Do not choose sight words that cannot be sounded out. Words like; the, this, is, are, said etc. These go into another category: words that need to be memorized. Your child’s teacher will usually send home a list of words to be memorized. Learn these by sight. Take your time on these. Only do 1-3 a week unless your child shows real interest.
As your child starts to read sometimes you get your hands on books where the text repeats. For example: We can run. We can hop. We can swim. We can play. On each page with the words is a picture. In Kindergarten we teach that good readers look at the picture for clues to the words. On the page is a picture of children jumping into leaves. So the student will say, “We can jump”, but the words say, “We can hop.” Tell your child that jump is a good guess. Have them look at the word “hop”, and then ask: “What letter does the word start with?” Answer: “h”. What sound does “h” make? Answer: /h/. What sound does jump start with? Answer: /j/. So the word cannot be jump. Then sound out the word together. HOP. “We can hop.”
As your child is beginning to read memorization is OK. If they memorize the “We can…” book, that is fine. We are trying to help them feel like readers. A big part of reading is fluency. Children will mimic how you are reading, this is also important.
These are just a couple of pointers on reading. We will talk more on another blog.
With Kindergarten children a big key is to be patient. Take little steps. As you work with your child, and his/her teacher, he/she will learn to read. Be patient, reading will evolve.
:) :) :)
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