Curious about reading progression, toddlers and young children

[micromoo]

My son is 2.5 now.  Yesterday, I showed him an usborne first reader book, level 4 (~750 words per book, 48 pages, 40 words/page, 3-6 lines of text per page, about 8-15 words in a sentence).  He read the whole book.  I did not read it to him first, and he had never seen it before.  He was a little off on 5 words at most.  I did underline the text with my finger to help keep him focused, and he frequently stopped to look at the pictures and talk about them, but he did need my encouragement to continue with the text after each break to talk about it.   I'm not concerned about this; it seems developmentally appropriate.  My question is do you recommend doing anything for increasing stamina, or is this just something that will switch over as he develops?

I'm continuing to use little reader to increase vocabulary and doing stories on it as well, increasing the number of words per page over time.  I figure he'll just get there when he does with this method.  I do have an inclination to go quickly though.  I've plugged verse like Lewis Carol's "Jabberwocky" into LR, font of 90, up to 6 lines per page, and he liked it so much he asked for it many times in a row (and now recites it when he's playing).  I included no pictures.  I initially did this in black text, but changed to red/blue with each syllable b/c I think he could still use it. 

Please share any experiences you may have regarding the transition to independent reading, including but not limited to decreasing text size, increasing word count/lines of text/ words per sentence, switching to black text, reading aloud vs. only doing a reading program on LR, etc.

[KL]

Wow, that's wonderful reading abilities!  You should capture it on video!

I remember Felicity would also stop for long periods commenting on pictures, and would need a gentle nudge to proceed with the next page of text too!

I think it's quite natural.  Over time, I think you will find that as they read more, and understand more, they will become more and more involved with the storyline and want to know what happens next.

[Tanikit]

It sounds like your child is doing very well and reading what he is at 2.5 years old is impressive from a stamina point of view. I have found with my child that she goes through phases and also prefers some independence. I think a lot of it depends also on the childs personality and how interesting the book is. Keep trying to find books that your child is interested in and which are of varying lengths - allow him to read some easy ones and some at the level he can just cope with.

My daughter also enjoys talking about the pictures a lot and occassionally we don't bother to read the story at all I just let her tell it to me - in fact sometimes she tells me she will tell a different story to the one told by the text. I also do not always expect her to read a whole book - it is more important right now that she increase her reading vocabulary and enjoy it than that she increases her stamina - that will come naturally.

The only other thing I would advise is that you read longer books to him - the books you read to your child should usually be sligtly beyond what the child can mange by himself as that will make him want to read more complicated stories.

[micromoo]

KL and Tanikit,
Thanks for the replies.  We get books with a range of reading levels from the library, and we keep all the easier books we own out for my dd (8 months).  When I'm occupied, he frequently just picks up a book at looks it over himself.  With the library books, his interests align best with the more challening stuff (US States, countries, space travel, the solar system, etc.)  That's a challenge for us b/c these books usually have too much info for him, even though they are dead on as far as interest goes.  I try to break things down into sizable chunks and do it in LR.  I read him fiction that's above his reading level (Beatrix Potter, Colleted Poems of Stevenson, and Andrew Lang's Fairy Books).  I'm really shocked that he lets me read the latter to him, but hey, I'll go with it. 

KL, first of all, you have a wonderful product.  Thank you!   I did take a video, for my own future enjoyment if nothing else.  Maybe I'll post a section.

You're right, Tankikrit.  They do go through phases, as they develop and as interests change.  There are challenges for me as the parent/educator, but when I'm attentive to my chidlren's interests, the learning is always fun.

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