Thanks, everyone, for the encouraging words!
Well done Ella,
May I know how long have Ella using this Little Reader program? Were the books that you showed in the video in Little Reader's package?
Sorry, I got a lot of questions, feel so exciting to see your daughter can read so fluently. I hope my son can do it as well although I haven't started to teach him anything. Don't know where I supposed to start with.
Thanks
kosasih,
I started teaching Ella to read English at 3 months old by showing her YBCR and Chinese at 10 months old by using Baby Learns Chinese. Then I stumbled across this wonderful forum when she was 14-15 months old and found out about Little Reader and she has been using it until now. She started reading phrases and sentences a couple of months after that and eventually started reading books before she turned 2. As for Chinese, I used LR to make my own Chinese files because the Chinese curriculum was not available yet when I started teaching her last year.
The books she is reading in the videos are not part of the LR package. The English book is a Level 3 book from Usborne First Reading graded readers.
http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/usborne-reading-programme.aspx?area=YR And the Chinese book is a Level 4 book from the Wo Hui Du graded Chinese readers.
http://www.studioij.com/E-EduChinese.htm The Wo Hui Du readers actually come in simplified chinese but I converted them to traditional chinese by printing out the traditional characters on sticker paper and sticking them onto the pages. I had been looking for a long time for graded readers in Traditional Chinese that follow the Doman method of showing the pictures and words on separate pages but have not found one to my liking so I decided to just modify the Wo Hui Du readers.
I am not sure how typical Ella's progress is because we only have one child and, aside from her, I have zero experience with teaching kids to read. I think the key is starting early (around 3 months), not putting any pressure on the kid (i.e. not testing... as much as possible - I know it's hard to resist!
), and just having LOTS and LOTS of books and reading material available around the house. I myself LOVE to read and have slowly been collecting books over the years and building up a reading library for her. This is a list of some of her beloved books that I think helped her most in learning to read. I have not included books that we just read for pleasure.
1. The YBCR lift-a-flap books and sliding cards book (these books have been loved to bits!)
2. Homemade printable mini-books from DLTK:
http://www.dltk-teach.com/minibooks/index.htm3. Brand New Readers book set:
http://www.amazon.com/Brand-New-Readers-Blue-Set/dp/0763620610/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288274022&sr=1-24. Peter and Jane Ladybird books
5. Ladybird Read-It-Yourself graded readers
6. Usborne First Reading graded readers
7. I Can Read! Level 2 books - Frog and Toad, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Little Bear, etc.
8. Scholastic Science Vocabulary Readers - I got tons of these cheap on eBay!
9. Science A-Z leveled science readers
For Chinese:
1. Baby Learns Chinese flashcards
2. Wo Hui Du graded readers
3. Reading Lads graded readers - I like these because each set of books has a different theme (science, morals and values, famous chinese historical figures, chinese history, etc.) but are still simple enough for my toddler to understand. The only thing I don't like is they're only available in simplified so I have to convert them also to traditional chinese.
4. Tao Shu books -
http://www.littletaoshu.com/shop/5. Qiao Hu 巧虎 readers and activity books -
http://www.benesse.com.tw/As you can see, I am a big fan of graded readers since I believe in scaffolding and building on prior knowledge as the most effective way of learning. Whew! This turned out to be a really long post! Anyway, I hope this helps! Good luck!
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