Reading for preschoolers

[Mart]

My mom found this website and I absolutely love it.

It is a big success with my 5 year old twins.

I love the way they spell the words, I love the way the kids get to use the mouse and how it makes them learn fast and easy.

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/

[Kitty]

It's just too bad we can't find anything like this in French! Oh well, we'll just keep on looking.

[margx]

Great website. My 4 year old and I just checked it out, he had fun!
And yes, French would be good too.

[happydog]

Be careful, that's a gateway site. After they master Starfall kids will learn how to navigate to other sites like petpet park, moshimonsters, jumpstart, leapfrog, pbs.org, littlest pet shop, and other fun sites.

The next thing you know your tot is writing down websites they see advertised on tv like nickjr.com, and asking for your credit card number so they can "unlock the dragon" or "earn rewards." I had to ban the barbie website because there was just too much advertising. Littlest Pet Shop is barely tolerable.

Here's a few more. She really enjoyed Starfall. It was the beginning...

[Stingyhag]

Here is another site that has free online books, games etc. http://mightybookjr.com/index.php

Go to the upper right hand corner, and subscribe. Enter code "learntoread" for free membership.

[margx]

Be careful, that's a gateway site. After they master Starfall kids will learn how to navigate to other sites like petpet park, moshimonsters, jumpstart, leapfrog, pbs.org, littlest pet shop, and other fun sites.

The next thing you know your tot is writing down websites they see advertised on tv like nickjr.com, and asking for your credit card number so they can "unlock the dragon" or "earn rewards." I had to ban the barbie website because there was just too much advertising. Littlest Pet Shop is barely tolerable.

Here's a few more. She really enjoyed Starfall. It was the beginning...

LOL! I hear ya, only my boy already started that at 3 on an iPad. Now he's 4 and all the computers have his sites saved on them. Such is the generation. Well I'm glad that he's finding these educational ones fun and intresting.

[Mart]

I refuse to let my kids play video games and I refuse to let them navigate the internet. They are allowed some time on the computer to learn. If the games becomes too easy, I move them to the next level so that they have to use their brains. If they want to play, they have toys, each other or the great out doors.

When they point at advertisments on the screen and ask what they are, we say it's something someone put there to make us buy stuff we don't need. We say to just ignore it.

Plus we don't have a tv signal in our house and kids aren't allowed at the computer without our supervision. Maybe we are too strict but it's our comfort zone.

[happydog]

Wait till they can read. It gets a whole lot harder. They also will pick up more adept negotiating, reasoning, and arguing skills, lol.

[happydog]

On the other hand, your own negotiating, reasoning, and arguing skills improve as well. So it's good training for all parties.

[margx]

I like the games from Knowledge network and PBS, they have some fun games with learning numbers, colours, shapes and word world! Whats great is my son loves playing the games and is learning at the same time.

and yes Mart, limited time and supervision is always part of it. There is nothing like playing outdoors, exploring and learning with Mother Nature.

[happydog]

But then there's the rainy/snowy days. Or here we have Mud days, where it's not exactly raining, but it's not exactly dry either. Sometimes I just let them out to play in the mud but sometimes I'd rather keep them indoors and semi-clean. On those days some educational computer games come in handy.

[happydog]

And speaking of preschoolers reading - I am a huge fan of these Letter Factory DVDs. I got them for my daughter and I kid you not, between those DVDs and reading to her from a set of Dick and Jane primers, I taught her to read by accident. Turned out she actually LIKED the Dick & Jane books.

I checked out the DVDs from the library for my son and in one week he learned to recognize all the letters, what sounds they make and is beginning to sound out words. He walked by an open book the other day and spelled out L-O-V-E. I guess I'll go ahead and teach him to read too. He starts pre K next fall.

[Mart]

It's real magic to witness their learning curve. Seeing what they could do a couple of months ago and where they are now. They can all but read simple sentences now and it's a real pleasure to watch them spell out words and putting them in the context of a sentence. I have kindergarden activity books and we sometimes sit down and work in them and they are going through them pretty fast.

[margx]

And speaking of preschoolers reading - I am a huge fan of these Letter Factory DVDs. I got them for my daughter and I kid you not, between those DVDs and reading to her from a set of Dick and Jane primers, I taught her to read by accident. Turned out she actually LIKED the Dick & Jane books.

I checked out the DVDs from the library for my son and in one week he learned to recognize all the letters, what sounds they make and is beginning to sound out words. He walked by an open book the other day and spelled out L-O-V-E. I guess I'll go ahead and teach him to read too. He starts pre K next fall.

Oh ya we have 4 of those leap frog learning letters movies.They are fabulous!!! I have to admit that they had a huge part in teaching my son. LOVE THEM!