All About Grooming & Encouraging Good Reading Habits

[breguet]

Hey Mincy,


Just wanted to compliment you on being so researched . I really enjoy learning about these. The Swedish educational system (home of a lot of Nobel Prize laureates), btw, doesn't want language to be taught till age 9 because they don't want the neural pathways to be fixed at too young an age.

Judging from US school textbooks, grade 1. Gr 2 is when beginning reading starts. I had a chat with a US psychologist based here who says that the educational system in Singapore is an accelerated one, ie, only gifted children in the US are exposed to this level of early reading. The trouble comes in for us in Singapore because all children are expected to be adequate readers by the time they reach P1.

I really agree with Daisyt - and now is a great time to start. It sounds like your son is already interested in books and associates words with names of things. You might want to introduce letter sounds (some people like flashcards, others like videos like the Leapfrog Letter Factory) so he can see that letter sounds eventually make up words. We had a big cloth Chicken poster with pockets that had felt pictures of things that began with each letter. I really like the reading and pointing out of words so that the child can follow. Some people also start with a more formal phonetics program such as three letter words first, and then so on.

[jedamum]

Hi,

I am trying to cultivate my 6 yr old to read...think its a bit too late. Despite starting early, ie reading everynight since he was a toddler, he doesn't like to read at all.
I'm now trying a slightly different method with my going-2yr old.
1. I read that it is crucial to make reading materials readily available. So instead of keeping the books in a cupboard in the bedroom (like i used to previously), now I put it on a open shelf in the living room.
2. Instead of fixing a timing (eg bedtime) like i used to, now reading can be done anytime of the day (cos I have the luxury of being a sahm now)...after breakfast, during lunch (when my boy finishes his food and need to wait for other people), in the queue (mainly to entertain/distract him) etc etc.
3. When the kid is busy browsing through the books, avoid the temptation to sit down and read to him. Let the kid do some 'independent reading' of his own.

I hope the above will work in cultivating ds2 into a bookworm.

Now my 6 yr old 'blamed' me for his dislike for reading, cos he said that previously I did not read to him throughout the day and only during bedtime. :shock:

[jedamum]

breguet:

Anyway, the book you have looks pretty interesting too - think I'll go to Popular to have me a look. Tks!

I went ahead and bought the whole series. Although it is not as comprehensive as Encyclopedias, but they are simple to read (big enough font size). And cos they are in different booklets, my resistant boy will not be 'intimidated'. Probably not for advanced readers maybe?

[jedamum]

My not-so-advanced-in-reading 6 yr old is currently reading this http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=seriously+silly+stories&x=0&y=0 of books. For the first time in his 'reading history', he sat through 15min to finish the whole book.

Personally, I find the stories hilarious and very creative! Best of all is that, my boy has to read the original story (ie the original Goldilocks and the three bears) to appreciate the silly story (ie the Ghostyshocks and the three scares)...good reason for me to coax him to read more!

[breguet]

jedamum:

My not-so-advanced-in-reading 6 yr old is currently reading this http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=seriously+silly+stories&x=0&y=0 of books. For the first time in his 'reading history', he sat through 15min to finish the whole book.

Personally, I find the stories hilarious and very creative! Best of all is that, my boy has to read the original story (ie the original Goldilocks and the three bears) to appreciate the silly story (ie the Ghostyshocks and the three scares)...good reason for me to coax him to read more!

Great stuff, Jedamum! That's quite a milestone! I'll remember to look it up for my son. You must save this memory for your son. I only remember my \"big child 1st book\", which was Nancy Drew's 99 Steps when I was in P1 (it was what we had in the house because my eldest sister was really into Nancy Drew at the time). I remember thinking it was hard work, but I felt so compelled by the story .

[tamarind]

You must first build up his confidence in reading. Once he can read well, he can read anything. You should start him on graded readers such as the Ladybird Keyword series. I started my 4 year old boy at the beginning of this year, he is now reading very well.


Checkout my blog about teaching my kids to read

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2008/02/reading.html

[breguet]

jedamum:

Hi,

I am trying to cultivate my 6 yr old to read...think its a bit too late. Despite starting early, ie reading everynight since he was a toddler, he doesn't like to read at all.
I'm now trying a slightly different method with my going-2yr old.
1. I read that it is crucial to make reading materials readily available. So instead of keeping the books in a cupboard in the bedroom (like i used to previously), now I put it on a open shelf in the living room.
2. Instead of fixing a timing (eg bedtime) like i used to, now reading can be done anytime of the day (cos I have the luxury of being a sahm now)...after breakfast, during lunch (when my boy finishes his food and need to wait for other people), in the queue (mainly to entertain/distract him) etc etc.
3. When the kid is busy browsing through the books, avoid the temptation to sit down and read to him. Let the kid do some 'independent reading' of his own.

I hope the above will work in cultivating ds2 into a bookworm.

Now my 6 yr old 'blamed' me for his dislike for reading, cos he said that previously I did not read to him throughout the day and only during bedtime. :shock:

Hi Jedamum,

Yah, I now display all the books so he can pick what ever is of interest to him. My son likes to read on his own, so I'm lucky in this respect. He's not the sort who will read what I want him to read, so I place \"good books\" all over the house for him to choose from. I'm a new SAHM too :), so I can choose tougher material (above his reading ability) to read to him at any time of the day, although this still happens largely at bedtime.

I can see you also have a cheeky one on your hands! :lol:

[jedamum]

BlueBells:

I have read one Geronimo Stilton book, and though I agree that the artwork of the book is very enticing, I am not in the least bit captivated by the story line.

Popular Bookstore is having sales now, so I picked up two titles to let my boy try out.
Although I agree that the storyline is so-so, that mouse is working his magic on my boy. I have not been nagging him to read for the past week (Yippee!!). He is on his second book now.

breguet:

All this talk about good looking women, I feel, is not exactly appropriate for young children. I didn't know how to explain to my 5yo!

Erm...still remember which title is that?
My boy is currently captivated by Pinky. He told me about how he wished that she is real so that he can meet her. :roll:

[mummytofengkai]

My P2 boy loves books on sci , history and geography. I try and get him to read books from other genres...at times it's been challenging..He loves his Young Scientist and even guide books for P3...hopefully he wont have any problems in sci next yr

Recently, he asked me to get books from this range :
http://www.kidslovetravel.com/travel_mystery_books.htm

[fo12eal]

[Moderator's note: Topics merged.]


To name a few

At the moment they are
1. Julia Donaldson
2. Lucy Cousins
3. Richard Scarry
4. Sandra Boynton
5. Eric Carle
6. Dr Suess

Any other nice authors out there to share?