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By the time my children were 2 they could recognize at least 20
words in a variety of situations. They loved reading and were keen to
learn. When other parents heard about this, they also wanted their
children to learn to read, so I started a preschool reading program at
a local licensed preschool. However, local schools complained that they
did not know what to do with the children who were coming to school
already reading, so the preschool abandoned my activities.
If you
would like to teach your own child then it is within your reach. You
can begin as early as you like with activities that produce reading
readiness. These include talking and reading to your child. With some
of the books you can point at the words as you read, but don’t just
point to the words in books, point to words in the word around you,
such as those on food packets and shop windows. Learning the
alphabet can be easy too. I made a wall chart with pictures of things
that began with each letter of the alphabet and pointed to them as I
read the chart. I found a range of alphabet books and number books and
read them each day. My children loved to bring them to me with other
books and we would read them together. You could buy a range of
alphabet books or create your own. Try making a scrap book with photos
or images of things that begin with each letter. You might like to
start with the first letter of your child’s name and glue in as many
image as you can that also start with that letter. When my
children were 18 months old I started writing down one word at a time
on a card. I used large lower case letters. When they could recognize
one word, I introduced another. When they learned to say a new word I
wrote that down for them too. I made little books with much repetition
of words for repetition is the key to remembering. One booklet had a
sentence on each page with an appropriate picture: “Here is my cat.",
“Here is my house", “Here is my mother" etc. When I saw the word “Here"
in a story book I would ask my child if they could see the word “here".
If they couldn’t, I wouldn’t wait too long but showed them where it
was. It was fun! One day I came into the computer room and found
my 2 year old had logged onto the computer (in the days before
graphical interfaces) and was playing a computer game we had for our 6
year old. She must have watched and remembered what to do as we had not
shown her how. The game was one of matching letters with pictures. In
one afternoon she taught herself the phonetic sounds that letters made! There
are many computer games of great “educational" value today that can be
sourced online or created using programs such as Macromedia Flash or
even Dreamweaver. This year I took two of my classes to a special
school where they observed what the children were capable of doing and
then made simple games to teach them basic concepts. You can view and
use some from my site below or try doing an online search to see what
free game making programs are available and make your own. Make
the learning fun. Seeing a word in different situations can be fun and
will help a child to remember it. Remember the key is repetition and
fun is the way. Try these educational games from phillips-games.com
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