This is the number one question I am asked, “when can I start teaching letters/reading?”
Even as a reading specialist, I was intimidated by teaching my preschoolers to read. I always assumed I would start letters with my own son around age 3 or 4, but he just wasn’t interested. Of course I wasn’t going to give up, but it did make me question 1. How can I simplify learning letters so that learning to read is motivating and confidence building? And 2. What can I do to prepare my preschoolers to read?
And I will tell you, I have no regrets about this whole process and WHEN I started because I prioritized preparing them to read. And when I found a better letter learning strategy, it really clicked so fast.
Whether your child is 2 or 6, you can prepare them for reading success by building up their phonological awareness skills. And reading happens faster when you combine these skills with effective phonics strategy. Even if your child knows their letters and sounds, these skills are still essential.
When my son was 4.5 and my daughter was 2.5, I decided to start teaching pre-reading skills really intentionally, even though I was still working and not homeschooling yet.
So I kept my routine really simple because we were busy! We played with words during car rides, while I made dinner, and in the bathtub. Just by including maybe 20-30 minutes across the whole week, my kiddos mastered rhyming, beginning sounds, and can segment and blend the sounds in 4 sound words. And that meant when they learned letters, they were able to start blending those letters into words on day one! Now they can read words with blends too.
All that to say, teaching these skills up front makes reading so much easier and faster for our kids. You have to think of reading as 2 parts. #1 is knowing the letters or phonics patterns and #2 is being able to actually blend those sounds and read words. When we introduce our kids to playing with the sounds in words, we’re simplifying both parts.
Here’s how I got my kids to master these skills:
- Rhyming: I would give them a few rhyming words and then they would shout out made up rhymes. We also read tons of rhyming books and I let my kids finish the rhymes. So if the page read, “Ovens hot, in they go! Bake, bake, bake, rising _____” I would pause for the last word and let them say the rhyme, “dough!” We also played a rhyming matching game that they were obsessed with.
- Beginning sounds: we played with beginning sounds often in the car. We played I-spy with beginning sounds: “I-spy something that starts with /c/!” maybe a car or cactus, we live in the desert! This took some time before it clicked, but now they like to play it the other way around, where they give me a sound and I have to guess the word!
- Blending: I started by giving them compound words! I would say “hot” and have them repeat, and then say “dog” and they would say “hotdog!” Then we practiced this with a compound word matching game. Then I started to give them 2 or 3 sounds at a time to ask them what the word is. So I said /ow/ and /ch/, what’s the word? Ouch! Or have them repeat each sound after me as I say /m/ /a/ /n/ and then ask them “what’s the word?” Eventually they were playing with words with 4 or more sounds, like crab, plant, and sing.
- Segmenting: I did this alongside blending! First we segmented, or broke apart, the syllables in names. We played with their names, Mommy, Daddy, and friends and family members. So I would give them a name like Mommy, and we would clap “mom” “my” and then say it again and then do it again by counting the syllables on their fingers. This took a lot of practice but they caught on and then were able to do the same thing with counting the sounds in words with 2 (like ash), 3 (like match), or 4 sounds (like camp). When they could do this fluently, I knew they were ready for both reading and spelling.
Then, and only then, did I start thinking about actually teaching them to read. We had put in all the work upfront, and now it was time to start using my faster letter strategy to learn to read letters and cvc words in just a month. And it worked!
Because they already understood beginning sounds, Lit Letters clicked right away. The visual naturally fits into the shape of the letter, so when my kiddos see w or p, they think worm and paint! This allows them to easily recall the beginning sound, so now they don’t even have to rely on Lit Letters to remember their letter sounds.
And from the first lesson, they started blending those letter sounds together and reading words like at, ic, and cat. At the end of 30 days, they were reading short words confidently, and we have continued to master more kindergarten level phonics skills from there.
That’s why I included a 30 day scripted lesson plan with Lit Letters, so that you know exactly how to teach letters + words with game and spelling ideas too.
The biggest piece of advice I have is to start. If you are interested in teaching your child to read, then jump in with this low-pressure method. My son wasn’t interested in letters (currently he only cares about star wars and legos) but preparing him to read with those phonological awareness skills gave him the automatic confidence he needed to excel (without tears).
Pre-reading skills are the most important reading skills you can teach your child before kindergarten, so even if you plan on waiting to introduce reading, start playing with words now to take that pressure off in the future.
I always tell parents, if your child is talking, they are ready to learn the skills that will prepare them for letters and reading! That’s why I created a reading foundations course within Play to Read called Beginning Basics, and if you join now you can jump right into kid-friendly lessons with printable games so that your child can master these skills in preparation for reading!
