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Hi everyone. I am on my way soon to order Little Hands to Heaven for my 2 and 3 year old boys. My 3 year old, Israel, wants to read. I tried to put it off. Tonight though when I was reading to him and his little brother he said " Mom , I just want to be able to read to you." It was so sweet. Since he wants to, it wouldn't be forcing at all. But the thing is WHERE DO I BEGIN!? He just three and knows most letter sounds, but I want him to become more familiar with ...but ...after that then what? Thanks everyone! I know I will get some input here!
God Bless,
Depree in WA

I think 3 could be a bit young, but most important is to go with what you feel is right. If he is asking for it, you could just begin with simple sounds: ap, ad, ag, etc....then add beginning letters as he's ready. Actually, this is how Reading Made Easy does this, so you may want to use that. However, I'm sure you could find some things to do on your own. Do an internet search for free options. I have used www.starfall.com with dd and younger ds to help with letter sounds and names; this site also has levels for beginning reading.

LHTH will help solidify the letter names (not sure about sounds b/c we have just ordered it!) Have you seen the sample week, here:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/little ... t-week.pdf
And have you looked carefully at the books that go with LHTH?
http://www.heartofdakota.com/little-hands-packages.php
Also, here is a look at the introduction to LHTH:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/little-hands-intro.pdf

Have a look at the links, decide if that might be enough. Carrie's programs are very full, and offer more than you may think right in the guides! He's very young to begin reading.... I know there will be others who have a wiser post than mine. I hope I've helped a little bit.

I would suggest starting with Reading Made Easy with the mind set that you will be taking breaks and that this will be a long process. 3 is young yet if he is asking you are not pushing. I know with my son he wanted to learn to read but wasn't quite ready yet so we worked on ETC Primers. This worked on beginning sounds and satisfied him for a few months. Then we started working on reading, he progressed nicely for a few months then it got to hard and he just wasn't picking up blends. So we stopped. I found lots of little readers and we just read for about 2 months then started working on blends again. He was ready and now he is reading wonderfully.

So I guess what I am saying is follow his lead. Work with him on what he can do and more importantly wants to do and know that breaks are to be expected. He is 3 and what they want to learn seems to change on a regular basis.

Thanks everyone for the advice! I know it's so hard when they are little, LHTH teaches letter sounds so that's what we will do first. Then I think we might do ETC Primers. I love learning through play, finger rhmes and such, so I just want to follow his lead and make this experience fun for him. If he wants to stop, so be it. I've seen so many kids get pushed, but I don't want him to feel burnt out at 5 My goal right now is to instill in my children a life long love of learning and a love for Christ and their fellow man
Thanks !

I just wanted to relate my experience and advise you to pray and trust your instincts. My now 5.5 dd used to hold her books and cry when she was 3.5 and tell me she wanted to learn to read. So I researched phonics programs and we got started. Between Leap Videos and our phonics programs she got off to a good start. However she became very frustrated when she didn't get something the first time and for awhile I put it all away and we did alot of natural learning. We did letters in sidewalk chalk on the driveway, or on drawing paper, the activities in LHTH (letters in salt, pudding etc.), letters or words in mud - mostly at her leading. If she was asking questions, I tried to stop what I was doing and go with her interest. We read alot of great picture books. Now she has a great attitude and really wants to learn to read well. She is reading 4-5 letter words and beginning level readers. But she has a great attitude.

Personally, I am trying to strike the balance between challenging both my dds and being patient and allowing them to discover and love what they're learning. Both my girls are fairly bright, but I am learning that if I am patient and wait for them to have the emotional maturity they need, that we have a great time in school and they love learning.

God has been faithful to lead me even when I feel lost or like I've made a wrong turn. He has such a heart for our children and us as moms as we learn along with our children.

P.S. I was in such a hurry this morning that I didn't read the entire thread to your last post. You said exactly what I was thinking in one paragraph instead of 3.

Hi Depree,

I think if your child is showing a desire to learn to read, then it would be fine to encourage that. I would recommend taking it very slow though. I started teaching my 2nd daughter how to read when she was just over 3. Her older sister was learning to read at the time and she wanted to be a part of the fun. She already knew most of her letter sounds. Well, she wasn't grasping blending letter sounds together at all so I put it aside for a while and she was fine with that. At a little over 3 1/2 we tried again and she was able to understand more the concept of putting letter sounds together. She is almost 5 now and is reading way beyond her age level.
We used The Reading Lesson and have gone at a very slow pace, just working on it here and there for the last year and a half. I think we are on lesson 11 of 20. She has picked up a lot on her own though just by reading books we have around the house and her Bible. HTH