Frederick Said:

What are some good books on how to teach a child to read?

We Answered:

dick and jane -

http://www.amazon.com/World-Dick-Jane-Fr…

Any book that uses almost all small 4 letter words or less and only a few sentences a page with lots of drawings. :o)

Jeanette Said:

How do you teach a child to read?

We Answered:

Check out your public library on books that teach children to read or go to your local elementary school and ask for books on the subject. Do you know any teachers? Ask them them for tips.
You may also want to consider using TAG teaching if she is a reluctant learner at all. It makes learning fun! www.tagteach.com

When I Googled it, there was a great website that summarized the key skills involved:
http://www.succeedtoread.com/

Michael Maloney's "Teach Your Children to Read Well" book 1. This book provides step by step instruction to the parent, and it has a wonderfully well done phonics program.

Good luck!

Bryan Said:

How would you teach a child to read that was struggling?

We Answered:

I'd definitely use phonics. In first grade I got something called sight reading, and learned almost nothing. My mother taught me phonics over the summer. Two years later I was reading real books with no pictures. Endless drill in phonics isn't the answer though. I learned to read Korean in two hours. They have a phonetic alphabet that puts ours to shame. It was tailor made for that one language. It's not surprising that it looks something like Chinese. They originally learned to read from the Chinese and got fed up with writing Korean with Chinese characters. Phonetic writing was only invented once. About the time Columbus sailed, King Sejong had his scholars in Seoul develop their own alphabet. They group their letters into syllables instead of words, but they write from left to right like we do and they use the same punctuation marks.

Poor adult readers usually have small vocabularies and very limited horizons. They know what a bus is, but a pipe cleaner or a saltwater fish? Kids have to learn about the world they live in, not just how to decode words they don't understand.

Steven Said:

How early is too early to teach a child to read?

We Answered:

I am a grade school librarian and have noticed that while some kids in kdg. come to school able to read they really don't comprehend. Studies have also shown that early reading does not predict future intelligence. My advice would be not to push it and just continue to work on knowing letters and numbers. It sounds like you are doing a great job with that. Most kids now start learning to read in kdg. and can read fairly well in first grade. If you really want to start teaching your child now I would start with what they call popcorn words, ones that pop out at you because they are short and simple. Start looking for a, and an, then in and on, of and if, then move on to we and the, etc. Then start learning word families, like man, can, ran, and go from there.