Beginning Readers
With our DVDs,you are going to get the thrill of teaching a complete reading program to your child!While you and your child are sharing pleasant moments together, your child will be learning correct reading skills, and associating reading with fun!!!
When a child is learning how to write their name and address, they can start to learn to read! In our reading program, we visually and vocally teach the letters of the alphabet with cute hand-drawn pictures in the form of animals and recognizable objects. You want your child to be able to distinguish between the 'names' and the 'sounds' of the alphabet.
We teach the short vowel sounds first using small case letters.
Play Games with the vowels!
Once your child can identify the five vowels, you can start playing games! Use short vowel sounds. Say the sound of a short vowel, and ask your child what is the 'name' of the vowel. You say the name of a vowel, and let them give you the short sound. Connect your child's new knowledge of vowels to the storybooks that you are reading to them! Take a simple word with a short vowel sound in their storybook, and ask them what vowel is in the word. See if they can give you another word with that same vowel. If they can not, give them a choice of two words, and ask them which of the words has the same vowel sound as the word in their story. We teach the 'sounds' of the consonants by attaching them to the short vowels.
Example: ( ba, be, bi and ab, eb, ib )
Too often the consonant b sound is taught as 'bu'. Once your child thinks the b is pronounced as a 'bu', they have just started a bad reading habit that for dyslexic and slower learners is very hard to unlearn! Teach the 'bu' as the first two letters of the word bug. Please click on the elephant and print out this picture of a bug as reference for your child.
If you need help, the first section of our DVD teaches preschoolers their short vowel sounds in an easy quick manner.
When your child has learned the letters of their name, capitalize only the first letter. Emphasize small case letters. Explain to them that the first letter of every sentence begins with a capital letter.
Play games with the consonants and a vowel!
Pointing to Words in your child's storybook, when you come to a word that begins with a single consonant and a single short vowel, give your child the name of the two letters and the sound of the two letters. Example: This is a BA and it sounds like 'ba'. Have your child repeat the sound. Teach the c and g with only the vowels 'a, o, u'. Teach w with the 'wa' with the word wag. This helps to not confuse them early! When you feel your child is ready, have them read the first two letters of simple words in their stories. Let your child know that they are actually reading these two letters! Give your child two letters and see if they can think of a word that begins with these letters. Without seeing the words, have your child spell the first two letters of words in their storybook. You put two letters on a piece of paper, and have your child read it to you. Have your child put on a piece of paper as many consonant vowel combinations of letters in a 'make-up word' as long as they want...... and you have to read the word.
They get a Prize if you Can't Read it!
These games can be played during the day without a book. Give each other a sound to spell, or the spelling of a sound that the other one has to pronounce. Say the name of something in the room, and count to see how many letters your child can distinguish in the word. Your child can also have you spell the hardest word that they can think of! Write the word on a piece of paper. Look the word up in the dictionary.... if you are not sure! They will love it when you are wrong!!!
There are no wrong answers ... just correct ones! Our DVDs contain a complete reading program whenever your child is Ready!
Have Fun Reading
