Simple Tips to teach Reading and Spelling to Preschoolers

Let’s face it, tackling reading skills was NOT a pleasant experience for most people. As a matter of fact, I find that when I mention educational games or teaching reading most parents treat it like a punishment or something you have to do (like taking your medicine by holding your breath). But when Nicole was 18 months old, I started playing vocabulary building and reading readiness games with her, and found that she really liked them. She actually preferred them over other activities.

I guess it all depends on how you introduce learning to your child. If learning and “school” was an unpleasant experience for you, you’ll need to leave your past behind and look at teaching your child as an adventure in a new world — even for you! Your excitement — genuine excitement — will be your child’s first exposure to learning. So make it a great one!

You don’t need to spend a fortune on educational games. For toddlers to pre-kindergartners, you probably have most of the materials you need. As you know, the English language is not phonetic — not even close.  Try sounding out “thought” or “phone”! I found the best way to introduce reading is to teach the SOUNDS that individual letters and groups of letters make.  So many people only teach the letter names — which doesn’t really help with the reading process! Or they only focus on short and long vowels and the main consonants.  But if you give children ALL OF THE TOOLS they need to learn to read, they will thrive.

So what tools do they need? First, start with the letter names. I know I just mentioned that the names aren’t important but they make learning their sounds much easier. So just teach the names of the letters so they recognize their shapes. Then, teach ALL of the sounds that each letter makes.  In other words, don’t teach them that the letter “C” only makes a “cuh” sound; teach them that the letter “C” makes TWO SOUNDS: “cuh” and “sssss.”  That way, you really are giving them tools to decode words!

Putting several letters together to create new sounds is really the key to teaching reading. When you put 2 letters together it’s usually called a blend because you are doing just that — blending the sounds. If English were that easy, reading would be a piece of cake!  But when you put 4 letters together, like O-U-G-H, you’ll lose every kid. These are called PHONOGRAMS. Did you know that there are 6 ways to pronounce “ough”? There’s ah (wrOUGHt), owe (dOUGH), ooh (thrOUGH), ow (bOUGH), uff (rOUGH), off (cOUGH).  Who created this language? Are you confused? Imagine what it’s like for  a young child! Check out LogicOfEnglish.com to learn all of the sounds our alphabet makes. They have great video and audio support so you can relearn these decoding skills.

Although this may seem difficult, it really isn’t.  We’re turning reading into a science by giving kids the tools they need to break down the reading process. Simple as that!  Using plastic letters, teach your kids the letter sounds — all of them — and then they’ll have fun making up nonsense words using their new-found skills. Put the letters together to form phonograms.  We created posters with each phonogram and my girls would add words that contained each phonogram.  You might be surprised by your child’s fascination with the science of reading when they start pointing out letters and phonograms while you’re driving or shopping! This is an excellent way to learn the many ways to read and spell.