Teaching kids to read.

It's good that both you and your wife are quite hands-on in teaching your daughter. As parents, we want our children to excel and surpass our expectations. However, we always have to remember that learning process differs from one child to another. One kid learns to read at 3, others learn at 6. The best that we can do is to inspire our kids to learn. Read to her often. Let her see you read the newspaper or magazine too to get her interest. Look for books that are easy to read. I recommend Dr. Seuss beginner books. Rhythm and rhyme makes reading easy and enjoyable.

Actually, the child was 5 years old, not yet time to be taught to read, but can be invited to learn while playing. You can invite your child to learn while playing. It would be fun for your child. Do not be too forced to be immediately read, because the child will feel overwhelmed. I say this, because I had a bad experience about this problem. I want my child to be read, but the results to be not good.

I have always read books to my children (they could both read before they were 5). My oldest was never particularly interested and I struggled to teach him but he picked it up pretty quickly once he went to school. I guess whatever the teachers did worked for him where whatever I did wasn't working although I believe that me reading to him at every opportunity (including road signs, shop names, etc. when we were out and about) helped him a lot. My youngest was a lot more interested in stories. I read to him and after a while he just started reading along with me. He was about 2 and a half I think when he could read properly. One thing I did which others would perhaps not say is that I did not repeat the same stories to him. That way, not only was he learning a lot of new words, it also meant that I could tell that he was actually reading rather than remembering. All you need to do with your daughter is find books which she is interested in (or even books which interest you so that you can be enthusiastic about what you are reading. She will pick up on your enjoyment and, hopefully, will be interested. Just keep on reading to her. One trick I used sometimes was to pretend I was stuck on a word (just simple ones) and get my child to read it to me. She will read when she is ready but, I think someone else said it, don't teach her to read but show her how to enjoy books.

Reading to your child is the most important thing you can do. take her to the library so she can pick out her own books. Point out small words to her as you are reading, words that have something concrete to link them back to like cat or dog. If you want to work on letter formation and small words, have her write them in pudding. Put the pudding on wax paper or a large platter. have her start with her name then she can lick her fingers and re-spread the pudding. I did this activity with my fourth graders on occasion and they loved it.

Maybe books with pictures will help. I just notice my 3 years old son likes to browse books with pictures on it.

I agree with the other responses...you don't want to conflict what they will be teaching her in school. Based on personal experience with my daughter, some things you CAN do are the following: Make sure she knows BOTH the uppercase and lowercase letters and can write her name properly, not in all capital letters. Most preschools have labels around the room for common objects. Try printing your own and posting them around your house...like "door", "shelf", "chair", etc. Daily exposure to these common words will start to make them recognizable to her. This is called incidental learning. Don't put too much pressure on her and make things fun. Good Luck!!