Teaching 5 year old to read English

[Vienne_Billygoats]

Hi

I am hoping to use the summer holidays to teach my daughter to read English. She is 5 years old, and very keen to give it a go. She starts CP in September and will obviously learn to read in French but I feel I should try to keep up the English side of her education.

The biggest problem is I have never taught anything before and do not really know where to start. I was therefore  hoping that someone out there may be able to give any hints or tips or at least point me in the direction of any relevant websites, software and to let me know what is considered the best reading material for a beginner (is it still ladybirds, Janet and John?).

I have been given a book on teaching your child to read using the SRA DISTAR method, has any one any experience of how effective this is or is not worth the effort.

My other idea was just to put it off for a bit longer and try to teach her off the back of learning to read in French but I am not sure if this will have any benefit.

Anyway any comments and advise will be gratefully received.

Many Thanks

Kay

[Mistral]

My two eldest  read in both languages. I was planning on "teaching" them to read in English once they had learnt in french, but as things turned out, they didn't need any help from me. They learnt to read in french in CP and then both of them just transfered these skills to English without any problems. I thought they would have problems with words which aren't written as they are pronounced but they even coped with words like "laughing" without me saying anything. It was as if their brains were telling them that the word "lawgging" (the way my pupils try to pronounce it) didn't exist in english.

 I didn't want to confuse things by teaching them English at the same time they learnt French because the two languages have two different pronunciation systems. But things didn't turn out as I had planned.  With my son I had planned on waiting until he had been reading well in French for a couple of years.  But one day, he just picked up an English book and started reading it out loud. With my daughter I  had planned at least to wait until she had the basics in french but by christmas she was  having trouble with the whole word system used in her CP class and the teacher was suggesting an orthophonist, so I started her on letterland which sorted the problem but also meant she was working  both languages at the same time. It didn't seem to be a problem.

This is just my experience. My kids are bilingual from birth, although more comfortable with French. I have never felt the same need as some posters here to keep up their English education since returning to the UK isn't an option for our family. Anything they do in english is just a plus. You'll need to go with how you and your daughter feel comfortable.

You may find this website interesting for word/letter sound work (it's American so the voices obviously have American accents) http://www.starfall.com/

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

I taught my three (bilingual) sons to read english before they started school, using flash cards and the Ladybird Peter & Jane books. Eldest read his first book (14 word vocab!) before his 4th birthday.

We started with a "Teach your Baby to Read" pack, by Glenn Doman, that included lots of flash cards and instructions, plus a Dr Seuss book. I don't know if the whole packis still available, but the Doman book that explains the philosophy & method is in Amazon's lists.

The boys never really got into the Dr Seuss's but they were all reading fluently by the age of 5. The trick was to make the flash cards part of a game and actually to treat reading sessions as a reward.

[TWINKLE]

I agree with Mistral.

  I have spoken english and read english stories to my 7 year old daughter since she was born.  I wasn't sure whether or not to teach her to read in english first or wait until she could read and write in french first.  Anyway, I've always had ladybird books and 'I can learn' ready for reading books around, but I've only ever used them in a casual, fun way.  She now reads and writes very well in french after completing the CP cycle.

  I've always kept seperate shelves for english and french books in her bedroom, and just recently she's starting to pick up the english books and is  having a go at pronouncing the words, she loves it when she realises a whole sentence!

  I feel that this is the natural and  progressive way of doing it and ok, she's doing it a bit later than if I had really got down to it with her and studied with all the right books, but my daughter works so hard at school and at the end of the day when she gets home and finishes her homework, I'd rather see her relaxing and playing games than learning to read in another launguage.  I don't think they get confused learning french and english simultaneously, and if your child is inquisitive enough and enjoys it then go for it. 

 They'll get there in the end one way or the other.

[Ormx]

hi,

I did the same last summer with my (then) nearly 5 year old, although she had another year of maternelle to go before CP. I used a book called "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" (cant remember author) and it does what it says on the tin! It's a bit lacking in colour/pictures/humour but daughter loved it (loved the fact that it looked like a daunting big-person book .... wanted to write adult book there but worried about connotations!) and got through about 60 or 70 lessons over the summer. we gave it a break then and took it out over Christmas when she finished it. she can now read the easy dr seuss, but has transferred her interests to other things, and doesn't try too much. By the way i didn't push her at all, she did all the pushing/begging for the next lesson.

it's hard to say if it makes any difference to her overall education. she's obviously finding the easy 4-word sentences they copy out in GS very easy, but, as I said, has many other things she can concentrate her mind on (currently it's the concept of continents v countries v planets). Her English and French are on a par I'd say, and judging by the amount of visitors from Ireland who have planned visits she'll have plenty of practice to keep up her English.

Hope this helps.Would love to hear how you get on.

[Rob Roy]

Have a look also at the BBC Schools website. There's lots of information and on-line resources available on there - I was looking at it to see if there was anything suitable for teaching English to French children.

[tetley]

before leaving the uk, i had some training on helping children with SEN read......was very interesting, and funny how I think of them now I am trying to learn french!! I think of them when I have to read something aloud in french and can understand exactly how they must have felt. According to research, just reading to your child 3/4 times a week, allowing them to see the words, is a really great basis for your child absorbing the written language.....sounds simple and like common sense and something alot of us do without thought, but unfortunately alot of children don't get this sort of help and input at an early age.  Important to not overdo it and put too much pressure on....little and often is my motto!!  there is a website that has some good games  www.primarygames.co.uk 

 

oops...just had another look at that and it is maths games....I was sure there were some literacy games....

[Kas33]

We moved to France 3 years ago, just as my 4 year old was due to start school in the UK. I taught him to read in English when he was in GS, I was keen for him to learn in English first as I thought it would help the French reading (this has been proved, he picked it up the quickest in his class at CP - the only foreigner!) also I didn't want him to fall behind if God forbid we had to go back to the UK. Thirdly, if he is to be truly bilingual, and what a gift, it is up to us at home to teach the correct English.

Now his baby brother is just taking his first steps in reading. We use the 'learn to read' ladybird series, and any other simple book, even baby ones, picking out the 2 and 3 letter words, spelling them phonetically and getting the child to discover the word, then gradually moving onto the longer words, and watching like a hawk for any mispronounciations. It's as simple as that.

Now the eldest has a reading ability above his age, and we are so proud that we taught him how to do it with out any help.

Go for it!

[Vienne_Billygoats]

Hi again

Just to say a belated thanks for all your help and advise and a few good websites.

I have decided to start teaching my daughter now as she is so keen and with a nice long summer holiday she will hopefully not be as tired as she is after a full day at school. I also feel after reading some of your comments about learning to read English on the back of learning to read French that it might help my daughter in reverse as she is still playing catch up with her French speaking and needs every help she can get next year when she start CP.

I was interested in your comments Ormx as you used the same book as I have and so I am pleased to hear it has been used with some degree of success. It looks a bit frightening to start with but now I have read the introduction I feel it should give a me a bit more of a structured basis as I am not really sure how to start. I just hope my daughter does not go through life only being able to read with lots of dots and lines under her words.

Congratulations as well to those of you whose children learnt to read before school age, makes me wonder if I might be able to teach my almost 4 year old soon, that's if he ever shows any interest in anything other than pirates.

Anyway I'm off to order some Lady bird books and to look into a group called the Oxford Reading tree that someone has reccommended.

Thanks again

Kay

[Harley]

Try this site 

 http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/

[:D]