Learning to read

My four-and-a-half year gal is starting to learn to read.

She picked it up all on her own. We did not use any flash cards or teaching materials to encourage her to pick up reading. She did so naturally, all by her own.

The only thing we helped to facilitate the process was by reading tonnes of books to her night after night.

The bedtime reading is a real pleasure. Kids’ books are just so much fun! The storylines are usually very simple. Yet, at the same time, they are so heartwarming and humorous. The best children’s book is a fun read for both the parent and child, and we can read them over and over and still not feel tired of it.

It is also a great bonding time for the parent and child. I love to put the little one on my lap, with his sister crowding in near us. We will then read through the two to three books that they have selected on the bed. It feels so nice and cosy.

This has become so much of a bedtime ritual that if I dare to suggest to temporarily stop it for one night (maybe because we were so late getting into bed, or I was dog tired from a day of work), there will be howls of protest. In the end, it was faster to just give in to their request to read a few short books.

Now the ritual is starting to reap its benefits.

The first time my gal started to read a word or two, it came as a surprise.

“Wow, you can read this word!” I exclaimed as she interrupted me in my bedtime reading. Ever since then, she has been surprising us more and more. Now she can read through a simple book all by herself. We show off her skills by asking her to read to her grandparents, aunties and uncles.

Now we are proceeding to the next stage of buying more age-appropriate books to let her practice her reading.

Very soon, she will be able to read on her own. Then we will still continue the ritual of bedtime reading, but I will have a “covering officer” when I am too tired to read to the little ones.