Resources to help your child read: In addition to reading, other things you might try

All the research shows that your child will not learn to read passively, by simply watching TV or playing a video game.  Reading, the art of reading, and I do call it an art, comes from human interaction and practice.  I do not want anyone thinking that by simply using the resources below that their child will read.  It will not happen in this way. You must read to your child, first and foremost, and build that initial love and connection to books.  Computers, videos and electronic reading toys will not do this.  The connection must be with books.

That being said, there are some really great wonderful resources out there to go accompany the reading parent.  Again, I am not advising that you stick your  child in front of these games/videos/toys and leaving it up to your child to absorb it from these sources - rather, in conjunction with daily reading aloud from books, you can use this as additional teaching resources.  The BEST way to utilize these resources is not to stick your child in front of them and walk away, but rather enjoy the resources with your child and ask questions as things are going on, making it much more interactive and not passive.

Starfall
For all ages and FREE.
www.starfall.com

Starfall is a great website that offers some really fun animated videos to help teach a child his or her letters and even demonstrates sounding out letters as well as blending them together.  I've used it with all three of my children, and right now, my 4 year old daughter who is a very good reader is helping my 2 year old son with the website.  He cannot navigate it, but loves sitting on my lap as I help him review letters and let him tell me where to click the mouse next.  My 4 year old daughter can also do this if I am otherwise occupied.  She navigates the mouse for him, asks him "Which letter is that?" and asks him "What letter do you want next?" and encourages him and corrects him if necessary.  It is a very child friendly website and I like it because there are great activities for all ages -2 and up.  As the child grows older, he or she can move from the letter sounds and phonics pages to the reading pages, where there are short little books that he or she can read along with.

Meet the Sight Words
Ages 2-5ish....after that it can be a bit boring, although my five your old still enjoyed it
Three DVDs

This is a series of three DVD's that animate sight words so that your child will begin to recognize them.  Mastering sight words is important as it increases fluency of reading for your child.  Imagine a child having to sound out words like the, and, what, where, here, his, her, an, a - every single time he or she picked up a book.  Mastering the sight words means that those words are recognized on sight and no longer have to be sounded out in order to make meaning.  There are 220 Dolch Sight words, and you can easily find lists online such as these.   Some are divided into grade level, and others by frequency.  (The, and, one being big players in that list.)  By grade 3, most of the sight words need to be mastered in order for a child to be a good fluent reader.  Schools generally teach sight words from kindergarten until third grade with teachers posting them around the classroom and whatnot.  I think however, that readers benefit from learning more sight words earlier than later.  Having them under the belt just ensures that the child will have an easier time reading.

These DVD's animate words and make them memorable.  My three children all watched these and all mastered their words very quickly.  The older kids (girls ages 4 and 6) now utilize them all the time so they retain their knowledge of the sight words with no problem.  My son however (age 2.5 now) watched these from about 20 months to about 25 months old, but is NOT reading yet.  He quickly forgets them because they are really just pictures he remembers.  Once he starts reading, then I think the sight words will stick for him.

If you want to just get all three DVD's (all different with different sight words)


Try out just one volume at a time - #1


#2


#3


Leapfrog Letter Factory Series
Ages 2 and up
DVD

This is probably one of the more popular series of "teaching kids to read" out there.  The animation is great, the story line fun and it is really engaging and exciting to kids.  However, my children did not learn their letters from watching this DVD alone.  They got lots of reinforcement from me and lots of extra teaching and reading with me before they mastered their letters.  This is, however a great start and introduction that is fun and exciting.

Introduction of the letters


Learning to decode the words


Complex words (long vowel sounds with two vowels controlling the sound)


Storybook (the least effective in the series I think)