I love to read.
Love love LOVE to read.
Hot Hubby… not so much.
So I vowed to make my kiddos lovers of books so someday I can have some reading buddies.
After my kiddos learned all their letter sounds I thought reading was the next step. I.e. “OK you know the D, O & G sounds so read this word…DOG.” Apparently it doesn’t work like that. Because if it did they would be reading before 2 when they learned their letter sounds. Here are some great resources I have come across to get to that next level.
Leapfrog’s Letter Factory and Word Factory
Both Eli and Cora Jane learned all their letter sounds before they were 2 with Letter Factory. Just for the record, I’m not delusional about their level of intelligence. ANY kiddo will learn their letters from this show. And the songs are guaranteed to be stuck in your head for days.
One of my friends recommended StarFall. LOVE it!! They have a fun computer activity for each letter of the alphabet (which taught Eli the difference between lower case and uppercase letters) as well as beginning reading lessons. There is a $.99 iPhone app for the letter activities!
We were given the Level 1 series of 5 books, a comprehension book and a read-along CD. So much fun!! I played the CD during errands one day and Eli has had the books memorized since then. I wasn’t sure if memorizing the books would be beneficial but it has really helped with sight words. The books use repetition, rhyming and have fun pictures so Eli loves them.
They also have all sorts of workbooks, games and they even have apps for your iPhone (search School Zone Publishing).
I saw a random tweet one day for Free Reading and it is such a great site. They have loads of activities and lesson plans! Here is a whole lesson plan for the short “a” sound!! Here is a whole free reading program broken down by week. It is extensive so spend some time clicking around before you start. I haven’t done it yet so if you do it you HAVE to let me know how it goes!
Now that I have shared all the fun stuff I’ve found, let me know what you’ve got!
Happy Monday!!
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Jodie says
We are just starting to teach reading to Porter. I didn’t even realize he could be ready at 2.5 but he was. I blogged about it here: http://fasullos.blogspot.com/2011/06/reading-readiness-and-other-really.html
We were also told about the BOB books and I just saw in the Costco Connection Magazine that they are offering them this August. I ordered mine online but I’m sure Costco has a better deal. I’ll have to check out Start to Read and Starfall. Thanks for the info.
Eli's Lids says
Awesome!! Another rec for the BOB books. Gotta get them 🙂
Amy Hoogstad says
Thanks for these awesome suggestions and resources, Kara Noel! We love Starfall here, but I hadn’t heard of Start to Read. I will be checking this out!
Eli's Lids says
You HAVE to do the Starfall app if you have an iPhone.
friends in south carolina says
Great post! Starfall is awesome. I haven’t heard of Start to Read, so we’ll have to check that out. Have you heard of BOB Books? Shan was the one who told me about them and one day I found them at Costco. They are great starter books, each page/book building on each other for comprehension and sight word retention.
Eli's Lids says
I’ll have to do a search for the BOB books!
cendy says
I taught my daughter to read. It was the greatest feeling! I started with reading to her ALOT and having her “read” to me, even when it was just describing pictures becuase she didn’t really know how to read yet. I made it super fun by talking a lot about the pictures and such. Then we started using a Hooked on Phonics program I found for about $20 at Costco. She is now going in to the 4th grade, loves reading AND she was just tested and her reading tested at a 7th grade level!
Eli's Lids says
That is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO encouraging!
One of my other friends mentioned something at Costco! I’ll have to check it out! I’ve seen some workbooks at Sam’s Club but I don’t know if they are specific to reading or just general learning activities.