All About Grooming & Encouraging Good Reading Habits

[jedamum]

Thanks everyone.

For science, I reckon it is more 'economical' to get an encyclopedia to expose my boy to more stuff before going indepth into what he really likes . Any good one for kids to recommend? Currently, he likes this http://www.popular.com.sg/jsp/product/product_detail.jsp?vca001=105&vpd001=62164 that i got from Popular.

[breguet]

jedamum:

Thanks everyone.

For science, I reckon it is more 'economical' to get an encyclopedia to expose my boy to more stuff before going indepth into what he really likes . Any good one for kids to recommend? Currently, he likes this http://www.popular.com.sg/jsp/product/product_detail.jsp?vca001=105&vpd001=62164 that i got from Popular.

Hi Jedamum, we like our DK Illustrated Children's Encyclopedia, but there is a tonne out there that look interesting. Anyway, the book you have looks pretty interesting too - think I'll go to Popular to have me a look. Tks!

[metz]

Hi Jedamum,


Besides DK books as recommended by breguet, Usborne also has a number of interesting science related books under Library of Science. The P3 science textbooks can be quite an interesting read, so I was told by another mom who read them with her then 4 yo. Otherwise, you can try the science enrichment books by Lower Block (hope I didn't get it wrong) at Popular. Pretty interesting as well.

We have the Childcraft Library set. My son would pick them up for leisure reading as and when he likes it. His favourite title - How Things Work. Believe that the JE library has a copy.

[jedamum]

chamonix:

The P3 science textbooks can be quite an interesting read, so I was told by another mom who read them with her then 4 yo.

Hm...how come i didn't think of science textbook?
Thanks for the tip!

[ck123]

[Moderator's note: Topics merged.]


Hi all experts,

I have been reading a lot of threads that if a child can read and likes to read it will solve most of the issues.

So can anyone help to share how you get your child to read?
Is it as and when or with a fix time schedule?

Btw my son is 4yrs old, likes to look at the pictures in books but cannot read yet.

Thanks

[daisyt]

Hi ck123, \"if a child can read and likes to read it will solve most of the issues\" - yes this is very true.


At this age, you can start by spending some time every day reading to him. Make the reading more like story telling so that it is interesting to him. Then you can slowly go to the next step, role playing. Follow by you read and he recite with you. Once the child reach K1 or K2 when he could recognise words, you can borrow some simple books for him to read to you and have some discussion on the storyline, the character, the pictures while he is reading or after reading. Just my 2 cents, not really an expert

[mintcc]

hi ck123,


daisyt is right, just keep encouraging him. Its great that he like to look at pictures in books. Not to worry too much, that he is not really reading. important thing is to keep them interested and feel that reading books is an enjoyable thing. Don't worry so much if they can't read words yet.

me not an expert either but here is some stuff that the experts say:

- about 3 % of 3 or 4 years olds really reads - i.e. \"the understand phonics and context, and they will likely keep up their accelerated reading pace throughout their school years.\"

- the majority of early readers \"memorized lots of words by sight. Instead of understanding the discrete sounds and segments that make up the word CAT, and understanding that each letter in the word has both its own name and its own sound or group of sounds, these children - like our early ancestors - see it as just a whole symbol for the furry feline. Change the first letter to E, and they might still think feline, until they memorize the new word. Studies have demonstrated that the early reading advances these kids show typically wash out a few years down the line.\"

- A classic study in the 1930s by noted researcher and Illinois educator Carleton Washburne compared the trajectories of children who had begun reading at several ages, up to 7. Washburne concluded that, in general, a child could best learn to read beginning around the age of 6. By middle school, he found no appreciable difference in reading levels between the kids who had started young versus the kids who had started later, except the earlier readers appeared to be less motivated and less excited about reading. More recent research also raises doubt about the push for early readers. A cross-cultural study of European children published in 2003 in the British Journal of Psychology found those taught to read at age 5 had more reading problems than those who were taught at age 7. The findings supported a 1997 report critical of Britain's early-reading model.



source :Rush, little baby
By Neil Swidley
The Boston Globe
October 28, 2007
`

[breguet]

Hey Mincy,


Just wanted to compliment you on being so researched . I really enjoy learning about these. The Swedish educational system (home of a lot of Nobel Prize laureates), btw, doesn't want language to be taught till age 9 because they don't want the neural pathways to be fixed at too young an age.

Judging from US school textbooks, grade 1. Gr 2 is when beginning reading starts. I had a chat with a US psychologist based here who says that the educational system in Singapore is an accelerated one, ie, only gifted children in the US are exposed to this level of early reading. The trouble comes in for us in Singapore because all children are expected to be adequate readers by the time they reach P1.

I really agree with Daisyt - and now is a great time to start. It sounds like your son is already interested in books and associates words with names of things. You might want to introduce letter sounds (some people like flashcards, others like videos like the Leapfrog Letter Factory) so he can see that letter sounds eventually make up words. We had a big cloth Chicken poster with pockets that had felt pictures of things that began with each letter. I really like the reading and pointing out of words so that the child can follow. Some people also start with a more formal phonetics program such as three letter words first, and then so on.

[jedamum]

Hi,

I am trying to cultivate my 6 yr old to read...think its a bit too late. Despite starting early, ie reading everynight since he was a toddler, he doesn't like to read at all.
I'm now trying a slightly different method with my going-2yr old.
1. I read that it is crucial to make reading materials readily available. So instead of keeping the books in a cupboard in the bedroom (like i used to previously), now I put it on a open shelf in the living room.
2. Instead of fixing a timing (eg bedtime) like i used to, now reading can be done anytime of the day (cos I have the luxury of being a sahm now)...after breakfast, during lunch (when my boy finishes his food and need to wait for other people), in the queue (mainly to entertain/distract him) etc etc.
3. When the kid is busy browsing through the books, avoid the temptation to sit down and read to him. Let the kid do some 'independent reading' of his own.

I hope the above will work in cultivating ds2 into a bookworm.

Now my 6 yr old 'blamed' me for his dislike for reading, cos he said that previously I did not read to him throughout the day and only during bedtime. :shock:

[jedamum]

breguet:

Anyway, the book you have looks pretty interesting too - think I'll go to Popular to have me a look. Tks!

I went ahead and bought the whole series. Although it is not as comprehensive as Encyclopedias, but they are simple to read (big enough font size). And cos they are in different booklets, my resistant boy will not be 'intimidated'. Probably not for advanced readers maybe?