How I taught my toddler to read

[rose08]

Thanks for sharing

I have been doing a combination of flash cards and little reader.

Also, each week I go to the library and let my daughter pick out a book to borrow for the week. We will read that book over and over (her choice, not mine ), then return it at the end of the week and get a new one.

She also has her own books which we read over and over...she loves reading her books and when she is awake that is all she really wants to do.

I will just sit down to rest for a second and she will toddle up with a book in her hand...pushing it at me saying mummummum.... very cute so I cant refuse...

[hypatia]

Great read. Karma to you!

Do you keep a diary of your daughter's progress? I've been keeping one since we started doing activities and it is a great reference.
I do not write tons, just what she did that week, or on which days such and such cards where introduced, whether she was able to recognize a word, as well as her physical milestones.

[Jeimy64]

I started to keep a diary  when I was doing the word cards, but then somehow I lost it, and never got around to starting a new one.  I wish I had kept a record just because it would be so interesting, but I might try to write down a few things from memory.  I have kept a private blog about my daughter, but doesn't include that much about her reading -- Rather I write down things from all aspects of her life --  grandparents' visits, blowing dandelions, stomping in mud puddles, plus her reading and cognitive growth too.  It's a very good exercise to help keep things in perspective and focus on the whole child. 

[Raising Ethan]

Thats great, you have given me some more tips to helping my one year old read better. He currently watches YBCR once a day and sometimes I flash word cards. You've inspired me to use more flash cards! He reads many words already. I really need to update with new videos of him reading. You can see some on www.youtube.com/raisingethan or www.youtube.com/shy417

[trulypearl]

Thanks for sharing.  Your post was very insightful.  I hope one day my son will be able to recoginize, read, decode, love, and learn words on his own. 

[mmetlich]

Wish there were libraries around in my city... but I guess the bookstore helps some. Anyway it is encouraging for those of us who did not start so early.

[norcalmommy]

AMAZING. Your story was exactly what I needed to read. I came onto the site to post about teaching my son his alphabet. He already knows so many of the letters and their sounds, I've been wondering if I should augment that with doing letters of the week etc.  I thought it was discouraged in the 'Doman method' for a period of time, so I wasn't sure how to progress.  Well, you answered my questions. We too have been doing YBCR and Doman style words with LR/LM.  I'll certainly check out starfall.com, librarything.com and not shy away from letters any longer.

Thank you for sharing your story. Congratulations on finding and sticking with a method that worked for your daughter!!!

[mooncake2]

Jeimy34,  great to hear your work and how you taught your daughter to read!  I'm also in the same boat, trying to teach my daughter to read.  She's now 13+ months old.  I'm using LR exclusively as I find it more convenient rather than having to make my own flash cards.  Here's how I do it.  We've been at it for ~1 month.

1.  I show a word quickly, followed by a picture of it. 
2.  6 categories of 5 words each.
3.  Due to time constraints, I can only show her 2x a day for each category.

The problem is that I do not know if she's actually reading the words.  She pays attention when I show her the words and pictures on LR.  I tried testing her at times, but she doesn't bother much.

I have a few doubts.
1.  Am I doing the right thing by showing words followed by pictures? 
2.  Or should I just flash purely words quickly one after another?
3.  Do you stop on every word and explain the meaning of the word?  If not, how will she appreciate the meaning of the words?

Hope you and the rest of the forummers can shed some light to my questions.

Thanks!

[Jeimy64]

Great question from Mooncake regarding words and pictures.  Basically, when I was doing the Doman-style cards with my daughter, she was 16-18 months, and she already knew the meanings of the words we were using.  So most of my cards didn't have pictures.  For some of the cards, I found pictures from the internet and pasted them on the back, but that was very labor intensive, and I'm not sure it was necessary.  For the most part, I just flashed the cards really fast while saying the words.  But sometimes we talked about the words, or I flashed "refrigerator" and asked her to point to the refrigerator, etc. I think the rapid flashing of words is what really helped her to learn to read, but I'm sure it wouldn't have worked if the words didn't have any meaning for her. 

Making the cards was relatively easy.  I bought a box of card stock from office max, and then I went to the "Copy Max" next door and had them cut it into thirds, so that each card was about 8 by 3.6 inches.  I started with 3 groups of 5 cards, and flashed them once or twice 3 times per day.  After 5 days, I took one card out of each group and added a new one to each group, and then I did this every day.  On the back of each card, I wrote the date that it was added to the rotation.  Then at the end of each day, I took out the 3 cards that had been in the rotation for 5 days, and I created 3 more cards to go in.  I kept everyting organized in an accordion folder.  It was super easy and not a lot of work, and it was very easy to create word lists.  You can use "baby's first word" books for ideas: parts of the body, animals, foods, people's names, plants, action words, clothing, and anything your child happens to be obsessing about.  I always decided what words to at the end of the day and didn't prepare materials in advance.   

[mooncake2]

Hi Jeimy

Do you mean that you make sure your daughter knows the meaning of the words before flashing them before her?  Since there are so many words to introduce, I often flash words that were never previously explained to her.  Is this ok?

Part of my dilemma is this.  If I slot in 1 picture for every word, I won't be able to flash those words fast one after another.  Is it ok to flash one word quickly (1 sec), then followed by a long pause on the picture while explaining the meaning of the word?  I'm using this method every day, hence I want to be sure I'm doing the right thing.

[zeezee]

just joined this website/forum.
it is an inspiration that your daughter has learned so much at an early age.
i'll be checking out those resources you have mentioned!

thanks for sharing with us.

[munkee23]

How do you feel about the money see monkey do dvds. Just as good as your baby can read?

[Umm Sayyid]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope to hear more from you.

[gharam]

Hi there,
what is "money see monkey do "
is it avalible to download on this site

[munkee23]

MOnki see Monki Doo is a dvd program similar to YBCR but less expensive. Have not bought so not sure how good they are. Looking for any info. You can find them on the intellectual baby website

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