How did I teach my kids to read - a personal experience
March 7, 2009 — Alenka | Posted in Teach Your Child, To Read.I am always interested how it actually worked for other parents. Thanks to Krista, the creator of MonkiSee DVD teaching to read sets for sharing this:
I can relate my personal experience. I took a few books and made lists of all the words in the books so I could teach my child. I never made couplets and phrases for each book I wanted my child to
read. I found this to be a tremendous amount of work and organization. This is what I did. I made about 50 to 75 homemade books for my child. Each book had 20 words and 20 pictures. We would look at usually two books at a time. My son loved these and sometimes we sat and read 5 or 6 in one sitting. I used every
picture I could find and made word books for my child. I made a few phrase books, and I made sentence books from pictures that I liked from magazines. When my son was one he had seen all the word books
so we just jumped into the sentence books. He learned to read many words in context and he was able to read books at 2 years old. I don’t think there is a magic formula and I advise people not to get caught up in this. Just teach them as many words as you can. I found that reading sentences from books took some work. It was slow at first. I used to have to point to the words in each sentence when my son would read a book. He is four and in the last year his reading has just taken off. He can read words, no finger and his
reading speed has improved dramatically. I think the most difficult part of the program was getting him to read sentences and books very well, but if you read to your children a lot, and pause when you reach a word they should know, you can gently ask them to help you read the story. I would read one page and then have my son read one page. It is my opinion that you can move quickly from single words to short sentences. That is what reading is all about anyway. It is about being an independent reader who is able to comprehend what they are reading. My son can read phonetically words he doesn’t know and he knows so many words just because he figured them out on his own.I had another baby when he was two so I did lose some time there when we weren’t doing too much of a program.
I was curious to know if children that were taught to read as babies read every word they see just like we do. I would be driving on the highway and any word that was in front of me I read, whether I wanted to or not. I was wondering if it was the same for my son. I started to play a game with him that we would read as many words as we could while we were driving and we would get a point for each word we could read. We never kept track of points and there was no winner, he was just excited to get points. We started this game when he was three years old. He loved it! It really improved his reading skills and I do believe that he does read mentally like all literate people do.
My daughter just turned two and I have been working with her since she was about three months old. I also launched a business that makes products to teach babies to read right after she was born. I have been busy and not as consistent with her. I do show her tons of stuff though. Since we started the business I have been trying to get testimonial out of her and she knows it. She purposely does everything wrong when I ask her. But lately we have reached a new phase. I think there comes a time when reading clicks with babies.
I think they just really start to get it and are able to learn new words at an extremely fast rate. My daughter now seems to be at that stage. Of course, I walk around the house all day pointing out any word I can. We read as we shop, we read as we eat, we read any word that seems large enough and clear enough to make out. She was reading the word granulated last week off the sugar package and she has been reading Colgate for months now. She just added luminous to her vocabulary too. That is on the toothpaste. I show her the word and tell her it means shiny. I asked her the other day what it said and she read it. Then I asked her what it means and she said shiny.
I have only told her about 5 times. Just a small example of what they are capable of learning. I have been using some of the Flesh cards with her too. She seems to like those. She hasn’t been as outgoing with showing me what she knows as her brother, but she gives me a glimpse every now and then. Whatever she learns, she learns, I just love teaching her. I encourage parents to give freely without trying to see what they know. My reasons for asking her were a bit different that most parents. If you go to my website www.monkisee.com and click on the video on the home page you will see my son reading the sentence books I made him at 18 months old. This will give you an idea of the materials we were using.
Here’s another tip, when my son was 2 years old, he had seen so many words I almost didn’t know what else to teach him. I just wrote as many big words as I could think of on 5×8 index cards and taught him those. He really liked that. I was unsure for awhile if he would need some phonics instruction but he really seems to have figured it out.
If you view my blog I write each day about things that are related to teaching babies to read.
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June 21, 2009 at 3:32 am
Hi Alenka,
I am amazed with your hard-work and your bright children.
Would you mind to advise in details on teaching the 50-70 homemade books? Were there only word books?
You started sentenses as and when they finished the word books or after teching all single word books?
May i know did you flash the word books to your child or the baby sit on your lap, point words on words as you read them? Read fast as per Glenn Doman ’s advise or just normal reading speed with explanation?
You read 5 to 6 books of 20 words each book for one sitting was really amazing. Your baby absorded like sponge.
sometimes i did this, but wondering whether was i over do it?
How many times a day to read words to them for same set of words? How often do you need to change the word books? Weekly or per GD method?
Per Glenn Doman’s method, retire after showing 15 times,3 times a day.
Appreciate your guidance as my child age 11 months old and 3 years old don’t seem interested on flash cards and educational dvd.
I just continue to flash even though she don’t pay attention.
I really got headache.
July 11, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Having a baby who doesn’t pay attention to any words, cards, books you are about to show can be very frustrating. I feel your pain. I already have two babies like this!
My first one never was interested in cards, words, etc. He still isn’t. I came up with tons of fun and sneaky ways to teach him and find out what he knows. My materials, books, phrases are all here: Reading materials. Many things that I tried to get his attention (with various degrees of success) are here: What can I do if the baby is losing interest.
My second one, a six month old, is currently keeping me just as challenged. I’m coming up with new ways to convince him, that cards are fun way to learn: I show him a card and throw my baby into the air, or woosh him around, or make funny sounds, or play hide and seek behind the couch. In other words, I do ANYTHING that would get his attention AND smile. The baby MUST like it, or he wouldn’t learn! That’s what I learned with my first one - he has to be engaged in the subject in some way… he has to be interested.
With my first one, I used to pretend to “vacuum clean” the cards, since it really amused my son. He loves cleaning, so I used to “wipe” every card as I name it, or suggest him to wipe the card “milk” - he would look at the card, and I would find out if he knows his words… I used to do somersaults with every card. I used to play with Encyclopedic bits: pretend to climb tall buildings, or pick colors for animals, or make silly conversations, etc. “Doman way” of showing… just never worked for us. So, I do what works!
Around 18 months we started looking at presentations on the computer, since it was holding his attention better, then cards, and it turned out easier for me to update.
Right now, my older one is almost four. He is so used to seeing his presentations three times a day, that he gets upset if we miss it.
My older son loves treasure hunts with words and sentences leading him to a treasure; my older one loves sounds at the presentations; my older one is really enjoying tons of books that I created just for him - about him, about our special occasions and holidays… or just everyday things. I don’t have those on the site. Just yesterday my friend suggested me to take some old 4×6 photo albums from her, since she no longer needed them. I thought about throwing them out for a second… and then decided I’ll fill it with my son’s pictures and, of course, some words and sentences! He is able to read really small fonts, so having a sentence on one page and a picture on the other - would create a fun and very educational (and memorable, and sturdy!) book!
The only exception were the cards by A.P.P. For some reason he absolutely loves these words:< a href="http://www.childandme.com/combination-of-doman-and-phonics/" target="_blank">Combination of Doman and Phonics.
In the worst case scenario, if he starts fooling around, I use the “reverse psychology” as my last resort: I’d say that if he is not paying attention, I wouldn’t LET him see any more presentations. If I use some other activity - it would be a punishment, and he wouldn’t become interested in presentations. But since I use the presentations themselves as a bait, he catches right on: even if he wasn’t so interested in the presentations before I said this, after I say it he gets worried: is he missing something really fun? So then he starts begging me to see them, though right before that he couldn’t care less for it. I think it’s a little too much pressure, but sometimes I resort to it.
Doman says, that you should stop BEFORE The baby wants to stop. I agree with this concept wholeheartedly. Nevertheless, my babies didn’t want to start. So I had to come up with different ways to associate some good things with it, and to incorporate it into routine so much, that my kids are not aware they can live without it.
Is it too pushy? I often worry that it is. I would appreciate any feedback on it.
July 27, 2009 at 8:13 am
I think I see how to show my baby the words (although I may be back with other questions), but how do you make sure the baby knows what the word means? I have flashcards with pictures on one side and just the word on the other. I have been using the side with just the word. What is the best way to incorporate the picture or to make sure my baby knows the meaning of the word?
July 31, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I started my baby on the words that he already knew: relatives, body parts, animals, etc. However, we are stumbling onto something new all the time. Doman says it is not important to show pictures, since you can just familiarize the baby with a new subject during normal daily interaction. I really like to show the word and then to walk to the object itself: window, fish tank, sofa. I like to let the baby touch it, look at it, feel it, smell it. I do it a few times and eventually just skip this lengthy “introduction” process and just show him the word. It is not a traditional method of using Doman cards, but it doesn’t matter to me how orthodox my methods are, as long as it works for my kid!
August 9, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Thank-you so much for sharing this!! This is wonderful information
October 19, 2009 at 10:32 am
I taught them using the materials actually around us - newspapers and magazines. i would select a common word that might recurr in the headlines, like “a,” the simplest word. then progressed to “the.” i pointed “a” out to the kid. then, showed another line where “a” occurs and she was able to point the word immediately. i repeated this for some times and then added other word the next day.