My son (will turn 5 mid August) is about to start kintergarden in the fall. I have been working with him to learn his letters and he knows most of them but he confuses the sounds that they make still. But what worries me is that I have trouble stimulating his interest in this. He does not seem to have attention span issues, as he can focus on blocks and other creative games, plus his preschool teacher does not think so either. He was a bit late to talk, but we are bilingual and he is fine now.
Thanks for the wisdom mamas!
Thanks for the input and the reassurance! To answer some of the questions, he did get evaluated at the school, I was told it was more for classroom placement. That day I think he was upset I did not join him in with the evaluator. I did not get any feedback but I saw him come out looking pale and I doubt it went well. After that we were told we had to come back for an evaluation of English as a second language. That day went better, and the teacher said he participated, showed comprehension, recognized letters and wrote his name. When I commented on the previous experience, she said he was better this time and that he has grown a bit already and she said "he is ready for kindergarten". I have to admit I have considered holding him back a year, but my concern is that he is so tall and strong that he would look extremely out of place if held back. (At the age of 4 he looks like a 6 or 7 year old).
Read to him. I tried to teach my dd to read in kindergarten, the schools did a little too. After spring break, it was really weird, she almost became fluent overnight. I was very frustrated before that. I guess their brain needs to get to a point where the connections are formed. There's no rush. It will happen when the time is right.
He is already ahead of the game in most schools. Leave him be and let him play. He will be in school for the next 12-16 years of his LIFE.....there's plenty of time.
The best thing to do is read, read, read, and read some more to him. As a reading specialist I would say, don't worry if he can't read yet or even if he still gets some of the sounds turned around. That is what kindergarten is for. Don't go out and buy books or programs to teach him with. Just read to him. Make up funny rhymes as you get dressed, take a bath, ride in the car, get ready for bed. Have him "read" signs and food packages in the grocery store (McDonalds, Target, Cheerios, M&Ms, etc.). Go to story times at the library or book store. Find books that have his favorite super heroes or cartoon characters in them. Find books about animals or trucks that he has an interest in. Let him find books that look like fun. Use goofy voices when you read to him. Or act out the stories together. One of the best story times we used to go to the guy who read to the kids never read all the words on the page. He would more just tell the story. It used to drive me crazy! But he had the attention of every single kid. Get books into his hands.
My son wasn't big into books when he was little. He wouldn't sit for very long and listen to a book. But, I kept reading to him when he was building with blocks, in the bathtub, tossing and turning in bed, riding in the car (when I wasn't driving). Even when it seemed like he wasn't listening and I felt like it was a waste of time I kept reading to him. I read lots of books that had catchy rhymes, books that had repeated phrases, or were books that were versions of kids' songs. I read the same books over and over. We have probably thousands of books around our Ouse (because I am a reading teacher and a book buying addict. He was constantly surrounded by books and always saw me reading. He started quoting books along with me when I was reading to him. When I thought he wasn't paying any attention, he actually was. He has a late August birthday and started kindergarten at 5. He is (I think) the youngest in his entire grade level. Born a week later and he would have had to wait a year. He finished kindergarten reading above expectations. That continued through 1st grade. It still isn't his favorite thing to do for long periods of time, but he still reads every day. And if you ask him he will say he loves to read. He's become a book collector just like me.
The important thing is to just make reading accessible and fun. Don't make it work. That will just make it even less appealing. Kids learning how to read is like kids learning how to walk. Some can't wait to do it. Some could care less. Some start at 9 months. Some start at 15 months. But by the age of 2 almost all kids are running.
PS: That is so great that your home is bilingual! Read books to him in both languages!! I so wish my husband was still able to read in his native language. But his home language is very different from English and he was not able to attend school for several years before coming to the US. Books in his home language are difficult to find. I so wish we had done more to help our kids to be bilingual!
Honestly, I don't think you have to worry about teaching him. There are so many teaching techniques, and you may not have that many in your experience. Kids will learn through games and exposure in the classroom far better than they will sitting at the table with Mom or Dad.
Lots of kids don't go to kindergarten able to read - that's what kindergarten and first grade teach them! What they need is the ability to separate from parents, and the ability to sit in a group and negotiate their own space without whacking the kids next to them. That's pretty much it!
What was the outcome or what were the comments when he went to kindergarten pre-screening? What did the evaluator say? Assuming no one saw a problem, and assuming he has the maturity and social/verbal skills to manage with a bunch of other 5 year olds, I think you should relax and just let things happen.
Even if you are an experienced teacher using a variety of methods with your son, maybe he just doesn't want to focus with a parent. If you do not have experience with different types of learners, maybe your methods just aren't working, or maybe your ability to evaluate "progress" isn't as strong as that of a professional educator.
Kids all come to kindergarten with various skills. Some can read, but those who cannot may do plenty of other things ahead of the reading kids. It all balances out!
I think the worst thing parents can do is to push kids in a certain structured learning environment (perhaps the way you learned was good for you, but not for him) or sit them down with workbooks. It makes learning stressful for kids, and they will resist. Kids in school learn when they don't even realize it. Don't let other parents get you into a competitive mindset for just one subject (reading) at the expense of the many things kids need to learn!
Read with him, every day. For fun. For closeness. For stimulating stories, For adventures. For a topic that interests him. Don't make him study letters with you! Make learning a byproduct of your reading joys, not the focus of the day.
Keep telling yourself: He's 5. Five. He has 13 years of school ahead of him. He will work it out.
What ever you do don't give him a book, sit him in a corner and tell him to read it or else.
No one would like that!
Make reading time something fun that you do together.
It's important that he sees that you value and enjoy reading.
From 18 months old I started reading books to our son.
His first favorite was a cardboard picture book of expressions of babies faces.
He'd sit on my lap, we'd look at the pictures and talk about it.
We never went anywhere without a book and if we had to wait for anything for 10 or 15 min we'd read.
I remember reading in our pediatricians waiting room and I had several other kids come over, sit down and listen in (I'd show them the pictures too).
We read together every bed time till we had the books memorized.
Once I lost my voice and couldn't read out loud - and our son 'read' the book out loud to me.
We'd read about anything he was interested in - fire trucks, sharks, dinosaurs, dragons, wizards, etc.
Once he was in school and picking up sight words, we'd play with how many times he found a word he knew on a page, and they he'd read the odd pages to me and I'd read the even pages to him.
His reading on his own really took off during the 2nd half of 2nd grade.
By 3rd grade he was reading Harry Potter on his own - he surprised his school librarian.
We'd read chapter books a chapter per night for bed time story.
Basically - we've NEVER STOPPED reading with each other!
Now around bedtime we'll both be reading our own books to ourselves but he still likes sitting near me when we do.
And he sometimes recommends books to me that he thinks I'd like.
Reading has become something he really loves for it's own sake.
He's 17 (18 in a few months) and will be a senior this fall.
I'm missing Dr Seuss something awful right now!
I think, as a teacher, the most important thing is to read to him. Read daily, make it fun, go the to library and local bookstores for storytime.
I was reading aloud while pregnant and continued to do so throughout the years. Children learn to live the adventure, stories, etc.
It's ok that he's not perfectly proficient with sounds and reading alone right now. That will come in time.
Just spend time reading to him!!
My son has a July birthday, and we chose to have him wait until he was 6 to go to kindergarten. Best decision we ever made for him!
I'm not saying that because he doesn't know his letters and sounds. There were plenty of kids in both my sons' kindergarten classes still working on that halfway through the year. I'm mentioning that as a possibility because he doesn't seem to have the interest or attention span to learn right now. That's perfectlyl normal, and it's something that will change as he matures.
He's probably simply not ready.
I didn't teach my kids their letters or how to read. But I did read to them, and they picked up on a lot of it just by listening and following along and asking questions. Their kindergarten teachers taught letters and sounds and pre-reading skills to all the kids and guided their next steps towards independent reading and writing.
I suggest you stop trying so hard, let him be and step back and see what happens. He really might not be ready for kindergarten yet.
Read to him frequently, and make it fun. He's too young to worry about him knowing his sounds. That's what kindergarten is for. If anything concerning reading is becoming a battle or unpleasant for him, stop it. You don't want reading to have a negative connotation.
Read a lot to him. That will help. If you are bound and determined to further his reading, hire a young kindergarten teacher who needs some extra summer money. She will be really good at engaging him and he'll be more ready for when he starts kinder.
I do have a question for you. Have you had the school's guidance counselor test him for school readiness? You should. He's pretty young. The testing will tell you a great deal and help you make an informed decision as to whether or not he's mature enough to get through kinder without struggling. I did this with my son who was going to be the youngest in his class. I ended up keeping him in preschool and never regretted it.
When children start reading is developmental and you can't really change when they 'get' it. As long as you are reading to him everyday, he sees this as fun time together and he sees you reading as well, he will get it when he gets it. My BIL didn't read until the middle of first grade and he has a PhD from Yale. My son read when he was 5-1/2 (he is 10 now) and he is in the accelerated reading program in our school now (taught at 2 years above grade level). Finland doesn't even teach reading until the kids are 7. Waldorf programs in this country don't either. I wouldn't worry.
ETA - Not yet reading is certainly NO reason to hold him back and put him in preschool for another year. He will be 5 - that is old enough for kindergarten.
I really like what Erica posted below... she's got a lot of wisdom on this.
I am a preschool teacher and knew that, even though my son went to a play-based preschool, he'd be fine. He went into K identifying a small handful of letters; learned to read to benchmark in that year. He's 9 now and reads about a book a day. When he was young, I *always* had a book with us. Restaurants? I read to him. Waiting for the bus? Read to him. Before bed? About 30 minutes at least of book time.... you get the idea.
We homeschool now and each day we start with me reading aloud for at least 20 minutes or so. It's probably his favorite part of the day.... and that doesn't count the more academic/research reading we do.
It's a lifestyle, to me. Each afternoon I take time to go up to my room and have some quiet reading time. We visit the library weekly so he can stock up, we can look for new materials for things we are interested in....
If you want a fun activity, take some printer paper, fold it in half, staple it into a little 'book'. Then, have that be a little 'journal' of things you notice he enjoys. Let him draw the pictures and you can give simple labels. Cat, Dog, park, swing, fire, butterfly-- whatever. It's just the experience for him of having his idea given a word label.... I'm a big believer in experiential learning!
Our son, now 17, wasn't much of a reader throughout preschool and kindergarten. He would sort of do it, but he didn't seem to care about it. I took him to the library and let him pick out his own books to take home. We chose things with a variety of interest, like dinosaurs, cars, firefighters, etc. He and his younger sister picked out their bedtime stories and we read nightly. Sometimes it was the same stories over and over again, but the interest was there.
I was worried that he wasn't getting it and talked to his kindergarten teacher, who wasn't at all concerned. Then, one day, it clicked. He just picked up a book and started reading. He still doesn't love reading, but he enjoys it when it catches his interest.
On a side note, kids love to mimic adults. If he sees that you're reading, he may read more too. Best of luck to you and your kiddo!
My kids learned by having me read to them a lot. Try different kinds of books until you find something he likes, then read them to him. Don't say anything about making him learn, but run your finger under the words as you read.
My kids are most engaged by funny books. Right now we are reading the "my weird school days" books. We previously read "Horrible Harry" books. These aren't deep educational books, but my kids think they are hilarious, and most important to me is that while they are young, they think reading is fun, not a chore.
ETA: My son is a summer birthday and small for his age. We enrolled him right when he was 5 because preschool said he was ready. He is one of the youngest in the grade. He is going into 5th this year, and there have been no problems at all so far. If the teacher said he was ready, I wouldn't second-guess that.
my son has a july b-day, he was about the same with knowing letters and most sounds they make. i didn't worry about it, i didn't push it. we read to the kids every night and when he started school the teacher stated that by october they would be starting bag of books, which is 2-4 books picked by the teacher for the child to read to the parents. there were instructions about reading the books to them then them reading and such so the teacher had her method of involving parents in the teaching the child to read. at the end of kindergarten all 26 kids in the class could read without too many issues. my ds was in the top 1/3 readers of the class.and the youngest in it.
Well, he's probably not interested since this is a bit beyond his cognitive abilities. Kids don't usually learn to read until they're in 1st grade. Kindergarten kids do sometimes read but not more than their sight words, they don't sit down and read book after book. They recognize the words and say them out loud and some of it clicks and they get it but most of the time it's just words on paper. They still have to learn comprehension and sentence structure though. This is very important for pre-reading skills.
I suggest you keep working with him but don't expect him to get this right now. He'll probably get it by the time he moves from kindergarten into 1st grade.
Some kids don't even read fluently until 2nd grade too. He might be a late bloomer.
Make reading fun and not work. He will learn to hate the written word otherwise.
We used to take our son to Barnes and Noble once a week when it wasn't busy and just let him browse. I didn't try to steer him or suggest anything, I just let him browse around. I could then track what his interests were. Then, we'd go to the library and I'd find books at his age level in the subjects which interested him. I've read a little about multiple intelligence theory, i.e., that we tend to focus on one type of intelligence, the verbal..but that we have several different types, e.g., visual/spatial. Our son won't read "literature", but give him a manual to a construction toy and you can't get him away from it. Just let him wander around B & N...he'll find something. Then, I'd also say: Let him have the book in his room. Let him figure it out or ask you. I think kids tend to be fearful of being "wrong" in front of us and, hence, they won't try. Finally, comic books! It doesn't have to be superhero comics...there are, e.g., Alf comics.
Finally, my parents weren't born in the U.S. and didn't learn how to read English until I was in junior high. Every week, they took me to the library and let me wander around. I found the picture books...took home 4 every week..."read" them under a tented blanket in my room...and every week went back for 4 more. No questions from mom, no instruction. Just here you go...this is fun...have at it! I've got a couple of degrees and had nice S.A.T., GRE scores. And, I attribute it to my mom just letting me explore.
I bought the book "How to Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". My daughter and I spent 15 minute a day going through the book. (We didn't do the writing activity) she went into kindergarten reading at a second or third grade level. By 5th grade her reading comprehension tested at 12 grade 8 months level.
BTW...your son will probably be one of the youngest if not the youngest in his class. It seemed to me that parents of boys especially held back their kids if they had a summer birthday. If they do this in your area your son could be a whole year younger than many kids. The cutoff in our district is September 1. You may want to consider sending your son to pre-K instead.
When my oldest were in kindergarten, the teacher had a project for them. They had to bring in labels or signs of foods. They actually had fun doing it. Each of the kids tried to out do the others by bringing in a label or advertisement/logo with a name that the other kids had not yet brought in. "Oreo" was the most recognized name. At an open house that year, the teacher had a display with the words/names etc and talked about how the kids were able to recognize the letter sounds because these names and such were sounds they heard all the time. When we would go to the store, they would find packages of foods and say the name. They even tried to pronounce names they did not know. The trip to the store took a little longer since they were finding the foods we were buying but it was fun for them and side benefit is they felt they were helping.
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.
You can get it on Amazon, or your local larger bookstore chain, probably. Inexpensive, all inclusive book/workbook that gives you exactly what to say and do with your child. It is literally 100 lessons. They average about 30 minutes for each complete lesson. I did it with both my kids.
It teaches them phonics, not letter names. (They will learn the letter names at the end, but it's irrelevant to the sound they make when you are reading, if you think about it.)
They can read anything when they complete the book. And they learn to read with comprehension.
I'd do the workbook with him, and read, read, read, read to him. Make it fun when you are reading to him. Don't ask him to do anything when you read (except turn the pages, maybe, lol). Reading should be a relaxing or fun time he spends with you. Read in the afternoons, read for bed time story, read something to him out of a magazine, read the menu to him when you are out and about.
The first dozen or so lessons are very short. By the end, they do take up the full ~30 minutes of time, and I sometimes would split the reading portion into 2 segments. We'd do the lesson part, then when it is their turn to read (near the last few lessons, it is 2 pages of reading) I'd have them read a half page, and then take a break, and then come back and read the rest if they seemed to lose steam.
I also kept a chart with stickers for every day we completed a lesson. They got to choose the sticker and put it on the chart themselves. Batman, Spiderman, whatever he was into... not just stars. Stars are boring. LOL
I wouldn't be concerned. My son's bday is 8/26 and our cut off is 8/31 so he started kindergarten last year on 8/23 at the age of 4. Midway through the year he was still having trouble with sounds and to this day he is still writing some things backwards (b,d, m, w) but by the end of the year he could read over 70 sight words. His writing will get there- it is developmental and he is almost a whole year younger than many of the other kids. I did not "redshirt" him because he is also tall and has a brother who is 5 years older than him so he is extremely verbal and social. He has been "playing up" his whole life and more comfortable with 10 year olds than 5 year olds. It has worked out, just hoping his first grade teacher will be okay with his writing skills.
