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Even though my oldest two daughters are already reading, I went ahead and ordered TRL anyway in anticipation of using it with my third and fourth dd, eventually I thought. Well, dd3 who started LHTH in March is absolutely facinated by the written word. She is always asking anyone who will listen, what everything says. Words not just in books but on food containers, calenders, the computer, everywhere. She recognizes a lot of common words by sight and knows a lot of her letters and letter sounds too. So I was wondering, has anyone used this successfully with a child so young? I am usually a less is more kind of teacher but otoh, if she is ready I do not want to hold her back. Thank you to anyone who has some words of wisdom or experience.

I haven't used TRL, but I have a daughter who was like that. She was just curious and wanted to know about words. She was asking about words everywhere and trying to read them. She wasn't quite as young, probably 4 and I didn't know about many of the reading programs then. Someone who has used TRL might be able to help you better decide how that program might work at such a a young age, but I thought I would share what we did. We used to help our dd sound things out and worked on blending letters while we were waiting places. We got the LeapFrog DVD's, The Letter Factory, The Word Factory, and the Code Word Caper. After that we moved onto Bob books and she really took off. She was just a natural reader and with these very gentle approaches, she took off reading. I don't think she would have had the patience at that age to do a formal program, but every child is different. My advice would be to feed her curiosity and keep it fun.

I have been using TRL with ds for K this year, and dd who is 3 (almost 4 now) asked to "do reading" too, so what I do is I get out the book when she asks not every day only when she remembers and I will let her sound out and read as much as she wants. Some days I have to stop her because she would go on and on. However, before this she was already blending the sounds in her head. She started saying sounds that didn't go together and making nonsense words. Then I tried playing with her and saying sounds to see if she could tell me what word it was, like I would say Ssss-Aaaa-Dddd and she would tell me the word so I knew she would not get frustrated trying to do it when actually looking at the letters. I say go for it if you can do it with out pushing. Don't make it official reading lessons yet, just let her do it if she asks. I do not remind dd or even bring it up. If I am doing reading with ds and she says she wants to then I let her. TRL is set up in a way that even a very young child who is ready can use it since there is no writing.

We started phonics with my oldest then, and he thrived. We were doing LHTH too. That really helped keep balance to his day, and it kept the fun things going that that age really needs. I don't see any harm in starting a page a day with her, and seeing how it goes. But, putting it aside whenever it becomes too much or really slowing it down would be good things to do if you can tell it's just too early.

In Christ,
Julie

I also think you could give it a try and see how it goes. It's very gentle and you only have to do one page per day. I did the sample lessons with my daughter when she was 3 and she liked them. We just ordered the book (she just turned 4) and we're up to Lesson 3 already. So far, it's been easy and enjoyable for her.

~Catherine

Hi Gina!

My son won't turn 3 until the end of August and he has already started TRL. He just does one page a day, and I start by saying he can earn a sticker when he is done. Anything he does correctly, and I shower him with praise so he is more eager to continue. We quickly review the page from the day before (I just have him look at where I'm pointing and read the word so it isn't like he is working through 2 pages a day).

You can always try it and see how she takes to it. I find it extremely child friendly because of the simplicity of each page. The child isn't overwhelmed by hundreds of small words they can't read yet that are directions for the parents to read. I've used Starfall on the internet and the book Hop on Pop in particular to supplement TRL and have found them complimentary.

He is learning "at, cat, and sat" right now, and Hop on Pop has those kind of word families. That is the only reason I mentioned that book, and I think he is starting to see the connections.

Jen
Mother of Seth 2 and Elijah 1