All About Grooming & Encouraging Good Reading Habits
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Picolo:
Try these websitesCan I know where do you get audiobooks resources? I prefer those that can be downloaded to my MP3 and low cost/ free.
http://librivox.org/
http://freeclassicaudiobooks.com/
Alternatively, you can also try http://www.nlb.gov.sg. Someone commented that they have an extensive library online too.
For those who are interested in books, try contacting Angie at http://www.thehomelibraryonline.com/?page=shop/category&CLSN_2260=1230473463226025df12245abe01598e.
She has an extensive selection of books which caters to kids of all different ages. -
My girl started reading the Peter and Jane series at 4 years old. She loves to read the books. She started at book 8a, finished the highest level, which is book 12a and 12b, at the beginning of this year. Sometimes she still takes out the earlier books in the series and reads them on her own. She enjoys looking at the pictures which are of a high quality. Fashion and hair style mean nothing to children of this age. The scenes of Peter and Jane playing at the beach, visiting the farm, playing at their tree house, etc, are all timeless and will appeal to children of any generation.
Alice in Wonderland is written in 1865, Wizard of Oz in 1900, Peter Pan in 1904, and there are many children's classics which are written long ago. We should not deny our children a chance to read these classics just because they are old. It is very shallow of anyone to think that a book is no good just because of the fashion and hair style are out of date.
My boy started reading the series at 3 years 3 months old. He also enjoys reading the books. He always examines the pictures and asks a lot questions. He is very interested in what Peter and Jane are doing. Thanks to the Ladybird keyword series, he is very interested to read other books now.
The Peter and Jane series has been around for more than 40 years. That means the books can stand the test of time. Personally I think that it is the best graded reader out there. The newer Ladybird series cannot be compared to the Peter and Jane series. The Rigby series used in many kindergarten are quite bad in comparison.
Here's a website dedicated to the Ladybird series.
http://www.ladybirdflyawayhome.com/readingschemes.htm
Different techniques should be used for children of different levels of learning abilities. The Ladybird keyword series is best for children who are not exceptionally bright or gifted. As I mentioned before, those people who do not have average children can never understand which techniques are most effective for teaching these children. -
chamonix:
[/quote]Angie of HomeLibrary introduced Michael Driscoll's Intro to Poetry to us and I find its wide range very useful for beginners. It comes with a CD too. You may like to check it out. My boys like Silly Rhymes and Limmericks (compiled by Nicola Baxter).
Any idea what type of poetry you son is looking at? Have you tried Jack Prelustsky or Shel Silverstein? Both are winners for kids. But if you are looking for something more 'classic', try The Harp & Laurel Wreath. And if you are still clueless, how about this http://www.thehomelibraryonline.com/?page=shop/browse&category_id=1043&CLSN_2260=1230473463226025df12245abe01598eclare:
[quote=\"clare\"]I would also like to ask if anyone has recommendations for poetry for kids. My son has recently decided that he wants to write verse :shock: so I'm on another hunt for reading material..
Abstracted from its intro: Did you know that you have to be pretty clever to write something really silly? Edward Lear was a landscape artist whose paintings were hung in the National Gallery. Lewis Carroll (whose real name was Charles Dodgson) was a lecturer in Mathematics. Today, they are both much more famous for their nonsense verse than for their 'real' jobs.... -
clare:
Agree on 'whatever that works', my SIL's kids were not taught phonics and all of them entered primary schools not knowing how to read. I was shock to learn this, but surely it didn't matter, because her eldest gal scored 266 with 3 A*s (including English and Chinese) in this year's PSLE.
Anyways, for parents who worry about their preschoolers not liking to read or not learning to read as early as you'd like, don't fret too much. My personal experience: I only started to read at age seven after entering primary school, in fact that's when I learned my ABCs! Sure, we weren't expected to enter P1 knowing how to read, but I think learning the alphabet only then was probably very late by any standard, whether it was then or now (certainly my classmates knew them all). But starting at a later age has its advantages - it was easy to pick up reading because I guess I was developmentally ready. I jumped into Enid Blyton chapter books immediately (no need for one-sentence picture books) and have never looked back since. By the middle of my P1 year, my reading level was probably two grades ahead. Incidentally, my younger sister benefitted tremendously from all this since my resourceful mother employed me to entertain her by reading aloud. At age five she picked up my Amelia Jane books and surprised us by reading aloud flawlessly. And this was a kid who refused to go to kindergarten because she was so spooked by a horrid teacher, so she practically had no academic skills whatsoever. My parents thought she would never enter school and were in despair. She didn't know ABCs so phonics wouldn't have worked for her, I think, but the look and say sight vocabulary method was perfectly suited for her. So, to reiterate, whatever works lah. -
clare:
Absolutely! I can't agree more. I enjoy reading books written in a simpler, gentler time; my children are engaged by these timeless tales too. They don't care whether these are 'old-fashioned'; good story-telling never goes out of fashion. But I know many people also object to the political correctness of books written yester-year. E.g., fans have complained that some Enid Blyton books were edited to remove references to gollywogs, fairies, the use of the word gay, etc. Even the names of some characters have been changed (publishers substituted the names of the children in the Faraway Tree)... My kids have noticed the disparity between children in some older books, e.g. protagonists who had servants and cooks and who went to school versus the tradespeople and their children who worked for a living, didn't go to school, talked differently etc.
One thing about the Peter and Jane series. They sure age well :lol: and I couldn't see any un-PC content in them at all, so it's great for parents who are concerned about that.
When I was a child, I love those beautiful dresses that ladies wore hundreds of years ago, especially Marie Antoinette's dresses (1755-1793). I still love them now.
Believe it or not, I never read Enid Blyton, and I don't intend to let my kids read her books.
I am one parent who is very concerned about any un-PC content, whether it is racism or violence or even cruelty to animals.
The Ladybird series have been updated before. Checkout this page. The part about Daddy doing more is quite funny.
http://www.ladybirdflyawayhome.com/oldsite/peter_and_jane.htm -
Picolo:
Hi Picolo, yes, I'm not sure I about how effective the reading systems are, and I also have the LeapPad that tamarind has too. In fact, I have Popular's iPen too, which tied up with Robin publishing to develop pen-readable titles for Robin books (which are the closest competitor to the Ladybird series). The iPen is great, but suffers from very limited memory (usually only enough to store contents of up to 2 books), and the titles are quite boring such that the potential of the iPen is not fully exploited. The Tag system has got better (and more expensive...CKS,
I like some of the Leap Frogs products such as the DVDs, Phonics Desk, Alphabet Magnets, etc but not the Reading Systems. It's just a form of kids' entertainment. I think it's just a pricy toy and don't really promote love for reading...
To side-track a bit, remember to look after your kids' eyes too. My Pri 1 DS1 had perfect eyesight (or so stated on the medical report from the school at the start of this year) and oh my, I had a rude shock when I found out from my reliable optometrist he is 275 degrees for each eye this school holiday! We have no PSP and the kids hardly watch TV programmes or play computer games. I just bought 2 inverter reading lamps and a good friend offered me a book on eyecare and a EyeCare machine.
), but the titles are very well developed and really brings the books to life. My 3yo daughter gets tired of the Popular iPen in less than 5 mins, but she can play for hours on the LeapPad.
The main reason why I like these systems is because my daughter spends a lot of time at home with the maid who has less than proficient English reading skills. So I teach BOTH together on how to use the system and hopefully, that can bring up their standards together :). Again, I must stress that nothing beats our own reading to our children for 5-10mins daily, when it comes to developing the joy of reading.
With regards to poor eyesight, I believe the number one cause is poor lighting. You have made the right choice/investment in inverter lighting - just make sure you place them at your child's workstation and train him/her to turn the lights on before any reading/writing session. -
chamonix:
Thanks, Chamonix!
Try these websitesPicolo:
Can I know where do you get audiobooks resources? I prefer those that can be downloaded to my MP3 and low cost/ free.
http://librivox.org/
http://freeclassicaudiobooks.com/
Alternatively, you can also try http://www.nlb.gov.sg. Someone commented that they have an extensive library online too. -
EN:
...CKS, do you happen to know which are the schools that require books written by EB White or Roald Dahl to be used as part of the English curriculum? Does your son's school includes drama as part of his English lesson as well?
Sorry, no idea exactly which schools use them. Just know that my son used it in P3 for some writing project in Konghwa. I don't think it is a \"permanent\" arrangement, either, so it changes annually.
In KHS, my son had to do both English and Chinese show-and-tell almost every term since P1. I remember how stressful it is for us parents during the holidays, because we always end up making sure he worked on these projects. In P3, it was less and became group-based presentations, so we just let him do what he needs to do with his group. These are graded as part of his assessment, and the better ones are selected for intra-class competitions. -
clare:
Hi Clare, I'm not sure. Her kids go to a neighbourhood school with different races, so definitely hers would not be the only ones who did not know how to read when entering pri schools. I guess there weren't much problems, otherwise she would have warned me.
picolo, do you know if they had any problems in P1 though?Picolo:
Agree on 'whatever that works', my SIL's kids were not taught phonics and all of them entered primary schools not knowing how to read. -
clare:
When I was in P1, we only started to learn A,B,C,... Many kids have not even attended kindergarten. Back then the English standard in primary schools was not as high as nowadays. My teachers were very kind, they taught us to read every word in the textbook. I could read and understand the questions on exam papers perfectly. But reading story books is very different from answering questions in exams. There are so many words that I could not read, I did not have the patience to finish any book before age 13.tamarind:
Charlotte's Web has special meaning to me, simply because it was my very first english literature textbok when I was in Sec 1. At 13 years old, I struggled to read Charlotte's Web, I could not read many words in the book, because I did not know phonics at that age. In fact I could not read any english story book before that age.
Tamarind, can i ask you something... Hmm, how did you cope with English in primary school? I'm curious because I know kids who don't read English books at all and they did HORRIBLY in PSLE English and eventually even failed 'O' level English. I remember from some thread that you went to a top school so I assume you did very well in PSLE
Yes I went to the top girls' secondary school. I was even within the top 10% of the entire level.
How did I do it ? I memorized entire english textbooks, including physics, chemistry, geography, history, etc. It was impossible to memorize the whole of Charlotte's Web/Crucible/Animal Farm/Midsummer Night's Dream, etc, which were my literature textbooks. Even if I did, I could not understand the story very well. So I did not manage to get an A in english literature in Sec 1 to Sec 3. In Sec 4, however, we had a nice lady teacher from England who gave us model answers to the english literature exam. I memorized all the model answers, and even got an A for english literature at O levels !
But I think that the education system nowadays is very different from the time when I was young. Children who cannot read well will not be able to excel in their studies.
I still remember there was once in Sec 2 or 3, I mispronounced the word \"Italy\". All the classmates laughed at me. This is something I don't want my kids to experience.
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