3-year-old reading

M

mommyboy

Registered User
Hi all moms and dad

Could you please recommend any good books or websites about reading and learning for 3-year-old child? My son,Ray, is attending pre-nursery 5 days per week and going to K1 this August.

I would like to know what should children at this age be able to do or learn, for example, they should know all the alphabets or count 1-50 bla bla bla. I, of course, would like my little boy to maximize the absorbability of his little 'sponge'. However, I want to ensure that we keep it at the right pace and will not be to pushy..

I have a friend with a son,Ken, who is fews months younger that my ones. Ken could 'read/recognize' some simple words like, mummy, car, red and so on. Is he a genuis or Ray and other kids are supposed to know too?

Thanks for you help.
 
it is ABNORMAL for a child of three to be able to read. there is nothing to say that a child who learns to read at three is any more clever than one who learns at 5. when you look at people in the workplace, you don't think... oh, he's very clever, he must have read at a very early age!

start with the alphabet. but don't sit down and say, 'now we are going to learn the alphabet'

my son could recognise about 3/4 of the letters by two and a half. how did we do it? we sat at mcdonald's and i showed him the "m"...for the next few days if we were out, and i could see an "m" somewhere, i would point it out to him. after a few times, he'd start pointing them to me. it was a game. it still is...

we often play, "what's this letter?" sometimes he gets them right, but sometimes not. not a big deal.

i have a student's mother that insisted her son should read by 3 years of age. this is a local child with a fantastic oral ability bordering on native speaker fluency. i have tried in vain to change this mother's opinion.

the child takes, in addition to full day school:

two english lessons(with me, i try to keep them fun and interesting)
mandarin
phonics
music
swimming
sports
ice-skating
and now...
mathematics

this is over-kill and the poor child just wants to be a kid!

the best thing you can do is read with your child. also, make sure that your child sees you reading your own books. this will ingrain a love of reading. and this will see you much further than making him read before he's ready.

good luck!
ps> i didn't learn to read until i was in grade 1. that was the norm in canada in the 1970s. i remember learning phonics! i turned out ok!
 
Hi Carang

Thank you for you reply. I married to a hongkie who typically wants to make his child excel in all aspects. I know it is quite normal that he can't help to compare his child with other kids and he always prouds if Ray knows something more than other kids at the same age.


I could see Ray's future would be the same as the most over-scheduled children's in Hong Kong, busy with piano, violin, teakwando, tutorial classes............

I know that my first mission is to convince his daddy that Ray is doing alright at his age but it seems to be a little hard!!!!

Please wish Ray and me good luck. Thanks
 
i wish you all the best!

(keep in mind that the ONLY classes my son has ever attended ~he's 3yr3m~ are the ones that i have taught. he doesn't go to school, he doesn't do anything except my classes and playing. the parents that attend classes with their children always ask what other classes he takes as he seems rather bright for his age~knows the vocabulary, can always follow directions, usually shares the toys, tries to take care of the younger children etc~. they are all shocked when i tell them... none, not even kindergarten.)
 
Hi Mommyboy
I have sent you a private message.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do with your son.
Don't push him into learning too much too young, he is at the age where is fine motor skills are still developing and he needs to learn through play. He probably won't have the fine motor skills to hold a pencil correctly yet. Play games like Eye Spy to hear the sounds in words and enjoy playing games with him.
 
Carang, I think you are spot on and I applaud you for your decision to not send your 3 yr old to school. It is considered the norm here so when i tell people my 2 year old doesn't go they look at me like i'm a bit strange. I don't understand the rush to have these babies grow up so fast and to teach them what it is to feel pressured, unhappy, not up to scratch. It's really sad. Of course, if you just send your little one to school a couple of days a week for a few hours it's no big deal but when the rest of their time is scheduled to death and they have no time to play I wonder about what will happen to the child, what sort of person they will become.

What still really confuses me though is that is has been proven time and time again that play is the best way to learn for babies, toddlers and young children. It is not through forcing them to learn to read at the age of 3. I think when people want their children to excel scholastically before they need to it is simply a question of parental ego. The child's well being and happiness should be the number one concern.
 
i have a confession.... my boy will likely go to chinese kindie next sept. BUT ONLY so that his spoken Cantonese improves. he understands cantonese as that is what his dad speaks to him, but he chooses to answer in english.

the other reason we are sending him, we think, is that we live miles from anywhere and the only opportunity he has to play with other kids is when he comes to "school" with me. i want him to learn how to interact without mummy there supervising.
 
both of my children started going to school 5-days a week when they turned 2. my main purpose is not for them to "learn", but to interact with other children in a supervised environment, and to experience that school is "fun". i think a lot of parents feel the same -- that the kids have a lot of fun at school and that they can develop through play. i don't think it's a bad thing for them to experience independence, routine, and being in a structured environment. of course, if either of my children had really resisted school and not found it fun, i probably would have reconsidered. and i'm sure that there are parents who think that these things can surely wait until their kids are 5 years old -- i agree too because i didn't start school until i was 5, and i don't remember feeling at a disadvantage.

but back to the original question: what is the reading level for a 3-year-old? i'm not sure if there is a standard, i can only speak from my experience. my 3-year-old daughter can now recognize some chinese characters (she goes to a chinese school), all the letters of the alphabet, and can count up to 100. my son who is 4-1/2 now can recognize simple words like "one, two, car, dog" etc. but he certainly cannot pick up a book and "read" (as in figuring out the words by using phonics). and as far as i can tell, he seems to be at an average level. hope that helps.
 
here is my 2 cents:

I am also married to a guy from HK, but we livein canada, and I KNOW if we were in HK he would be so much more concerned about what everyone one else in Hk was doing and pushing for earlier school entry. His friends childre in Hk are doing home work unitl 9 or 1000 at night at age 6 and &7. CRAZY!!! I can't believe it. Of course they also think I am crazy because my children go to bed at 7:00 pm. When my chikdren at 6 and 7 there is no way they will be doing homework at that time of day, I plan for them to have already been asleep for a few hours.

As a compromise we have our 4 year old in a montessori 4 half days/week starting at age 3.5. Most 3 year olds would attend a 2 half day/week preschool, and 4 year olds a 3 half day/week preschool. The school is very good, the children go to school with children of many ages (3 to 6) and they work at their own level. Each week they learn a letter, doing a work page. My son is not that interested in letters yet, so he primarily just colors the letter page. He has only recently become more interested in the letters and really it is only because he got an alphebet themed go fish game and he really like it. I'd say he recognized about 2/3rds of the letters. He does not know all the sounds that go with them, but is starting to understnd that they have sounds that relate to words and how your read. He can recognize (not read technically) his name and his and his brothers initials. Maybe in HK he would be thought of as behind but I don't think he is. I want him to learn at his own pace so that he enjoys it. On the other hand, he LOVES numbers, always chooses the math based activites at school, he is started to figure out how to add on his own, just things around the house. He has picked up much faster math skills than reading skills.
We thought that just going from being at home to school 4 days /week was such a transition that he has been in no activites other than school.This spring he will go to soccer 1/week for 2 months. That is plenty. I cannot imagine having him in so many activites as your friend.


My 2 year old is starting to learn the alphabet, but only in the sense that right now he is really into songs and likes thesong, he hs no actual concept of what the letters mean.

I too did not learn to read until grade one in canada in the 1970's and we learned phonics. From what I understand now the popular thing here is a conbination of phonics and sight words.
The very best thing you can do to ensure strong reading skills is to read to your child, what your child enjoys, even if you read the same book 50 times and be an example to your child in that you read a well. This I worry about becasue while I love to read and read all the time, my husband never reads if he can help it.
 
huh, capital...your hubby and mine sound very similar. my local hubby reads magazines and hk newspapers, which if you've ever seen one is 90% graphic photos,9% advertising and 1% news.

i forced him to read a book once, harry potter. he enjoyed it, but it took him about 9 months to get through it!
 
I teach English in Hong Kong, phonics, and mainly to "younger children". I've taught a 3 1/2 year old who had a "reading level" of a typical 8 year old. He could read words like "knight" even!! And words with 2-3 syllables. Insane!

I think it's good to use a child's curiosity to teach them - and if a child really wants to read that badly, sure - help them along. But there's no "use" in a 3 year old having that reading level, I don't think!! There's no sense in a 6 year old knowing algebra and calculus!!

I'm all for helping kids to learn stuff that they're interested in - but I can't stand it when kids are PUSHED so hard that they really learn NOTHING because they're not ready to learn. I've had kids come in, they're at least one or two levels BEHIND the class - but the parent INSISTED that they MUST be in this class - because there are other 3 or 4 year olds in that class... and then the child really doesn't learn ANYTHING... it's such a waste...
 
I would say normal for a 3 year old is not to be able to read at all!!

Many (most?) children in Australia only start to learn to read in their first year of school which is age 4-5. But some kids get interested in letters around 2-3, and if they are interested then of course a loving parent can encourage that, simply by reading more books, talking about letters, choosing toys that have a focus on reading, etc.

If a child doesn't seem to pick it up, or show an interest, I think it's pretty silly to push the issue before age 4 or so. Maybe their talents at that point in life lie in things like fine motor skills, or being highly sociable. Encourage the things they already love, offer them the opportunity to learn new things, but don't panic if they aren't interested in the things you think they should be.

If you want a fun website to help your little ones play with letters and phonics, try this one:

http://www.starfall.com/

If your child is still learning to recognise letters, the ABCs section is wonderful. LOTS of fun!
 
hubby has to limit the $ i spend on books, or we wouldn't have any to buy food! i could easily go to a good bookshop and spend thousands without batting an eye...just the other day, i had to stock up for my hospital visit... hubby limited me to one book (i started it two days ago and am about 1/4 finished and it's LONGGGGGG!)... within about 4 minutes i had narrowed my selection down to about 10...and i could only choose one!!!

my that was hard to do!

(ps> i'm really into historical fiction, if anyone wants to trade!)
 
To read aloud is a very important part of playtime for your child. Of course, there's the fun of snuggling up on the couch, looking at the pictures, an enjoying the plot; the playful use of words and the rhythm of language come alive as you read. When you read aloud, the magic of story continues in your child's mind long after you close the pages of the book. It is as though these cherished stories and characters are like tiny seeds scattered into your child's imagination. The character and events from favorite books will likely crop up in your child's pretend play, creative ideas, and drawing and paintings. It's also a nice, low-key activity for you to do when you feel like you're running on empty. Below are some of my favorite read aloud books for preschoolers. I hope you will invite some of these charming characters into your child's world. You may get them at Amazon.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, illustrations by Ray Cruz


A Baby Sister for Frances by Russell Hoban, illustrations by Lillian Hoban


Bark, George by Jules Feiffer


Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey


Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? 40th Anniversary Edition by Bill Martin Jr., illustrations by Eric Carle


Bunny Cakes (Max and Ruby) by Rosemary Wells


Caps for Sale Board Book: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina


The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss


Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., and John Archambault, illustrations by Lois Ehlert.
 
thanks sunnie...can't get around too much after surgery, maybe i'll try next week. let me know if there's anything left!
 
ABSOLUTELY LOVE alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day!
i actually have a version that has two other stories as well. i remember my teacher reading us the book when i was in grade school!

i also LOVE anything by the canadian (professional) storyteller ROBERT MUNSCH. most of his stories are very funny("stephanie's ponytail," "i have to go," "thomas' snowsuit," "angela's airplane," "andrew's loose tooth," "the paperbag princess" are just a few of my favourites!), but there are a couple that make me cry EVERY time i read them ("love you forever"...gotta get out my tissue box!)
 
oh, and every child i have ever read it to LOVES "MORTIMER" about a little boy who doesn't like to go to sleep at night!
after the first couple of reads, the kids all sing the song with me!
"clang, clang rattle bing bang,
gonna make my noise all day!
clang, clang rattle bing bang,
gonna make my noise all day!"
 
You can not force a child to read before they are ready, to do so will only turn them off reading.

However I think it's important to instill in children a love for reading as early as possible.
I have been reading to my son since he was born and now at 18 months old he will happily sit while I read him stories; he will also go and sit by himself and 'read' his books to himself.

I have started to point out letters and their sounds when we are out and about, if he notices them. We also have magnetic letters on the fridge that he loves to play with and alphabet cutters for playdough. But we don't sit down and specifically learn the letters, if he wants to play with them anyway, so I'll tell him the sounds etc.

Pre nursery classes for 2 yr olds five days a week is very popular in HK....but it is not something I am comfortable with. Personally I think it is too much and unnecessary for a 2 yr old. I'm much rather my son was at the park, or at the pool.


A 2 yr old doesn't have to attend 'school' to learn how to socialise and interact. Simply playing with their friends, and other children will help teach them how to do that. As will attending more informal playgroups.
 
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