for experienced parents or preschool teachers- (about teaching toddlers how to spell and sound out letters)?

At four children do not have a long attention span. Make it fun and it is not about how long you do it but how often you do it. If you try to force it on him he will not want to do it at all. Be patient.

It sounds like you have tried many of the right things. You might be amazed at what he is learning when you think he isn't paying attention.

When you guys are playing with cars spell it...say the color, what it is etc.

You can use flash cards. Make up songs and games.

When he is playing with a teddy bear say b is for bear what else can we see that starts with a b.

Go basic...not with words. Work on letters and sounds. He is probably not ready for full words yet. Even the most simple of ones.

Four is still very young. He will not be expected to know how to read upon entering kindergarten and they will work with him more there too!

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Four is young to be reading words. Concentrate on letters and sounds first. Do lots of rhyming games with him. Keep reading. That is the best thing you can do. Also, make it a game. For example, when you are at the store buying bananas ask him what letter banana starts with. Then think of other foods that begin with that letter. Also, you can use the magnetic letters to practice making words. You can have him look through magazines and find things that start with a certain letter. Writing in the sand or the dirt is always fun. You can also get a chalkboard or dry erase board to work on letters with. There are also some phonics tapes that have some catchy tunes on them. You can also use flashcards to help with letter and sound identification. Don't expect a long attention span, do a few minutes at a time and make it fun. Your brother is very fortunate to have a sibling who cares.

I have been a mom for 27 years, have an early elementary teaching degree, and have run a daycare in my home for 19 years. It is commendable that you are interested in helping your little brother. Children with supportive family members tend to do the best in school. At 4 years old, though, he is still pretty young to have much more than a 5 minute attention span. Reading with him is the ABSOLOUTE best thing you can do with him. The puzzles and the leapfrog are also great. I would suggest you continue using those. Don't put your focus on him being able to actually spell anything or on how long he can sit still. Instead focus on enjoying your time with him and let him work as long as he wants. Good that you don't want to bribe him with anything, especially candy. The love of learning is not instilled by bribes and threats. It can be fun to use macaroni letters or Alpha-Bits cereal to learn letters. 4 year olds, especially boys, like tactile learning (meaning things they can touch). You can use stencils and cut letters out of sandpaper. Also writing in shaving cream, using finger paints, and making letters out of play-doh are fun. They make letter magnets that you can get at the dollar store. Play with them on a cookie sheet or on your refrigerator. Say the names of the letters and maybe spell a few things, but let him move the letters around as he wishes. Kids love to learn how to write their own name. Be sure you are teaching him how to write properly with a capital letter only for the first letter and lower case for the rest. That is how they will want him to do it when he is in school. His fine motor skills needed for holding a pencil properly and staying on lined paper are not yet developed at his age, so be patient with him as he learns. The skills he is learning now are just the first stepping stones of knowledge he will gain as he matures. He is fortunate to have you care so much about him.

Well your brother is actually a preschooler and dependent on whether he is a young 4 or more closer to 5 is where the answer may lie. Also just get books that are simple in word repetition like books by Scholastic are excellent, Dr. Seus and so on. I also boggle jr may be helpful as well as the internet: pbskids.org, disney.com and any educational games for the computer. Most kids love games that are colorful and it sounds as if he likes a lot of movement so games that involve movement and rhymes. Trying karoke of a preschool tape that has a lot of rhythm.

Hi! It's great that you're working with your brother. I'm a preschool teacher, and I've also taught kindergarten and first grade. I'm going to be very honest with you, because I know you care and want your brother to learn at an age-appropriate level. Correct spelling is not as important as phonics. We want children to learn to use sounds to be able to sound out words. Here is what I want you to do: make sure your brother knows the letters of the alphabet in random order, the letters in his name, and every sound (long and short) in the alphabet (both lowercase AND uppercase.) Spelling will come after his phonemic awareness (sound recognition and sound play) and phonics are developed. Two out of the three words you mentioned can be spelled phonetically. This is what you really need to focus on at this point in his education. Building phonemic awareness and phonics skills are the foundation of reading, writing, and spelling. Here is what you should do:

*Rhyming games

*silly songs that stress sounds and letters (like "Apples and Bananas", "Wee Willy Winky")

*keep using those foam letters--at Toys R Us, they have some you can use in the bath!

*play word games, for example "What sounds do you hear in the word "cat, bat, etc"--only do this AFTER he knows all sounds/letters. Remember, just because he knows all of the sounds with the uppercase letters does NOT mean he knows all of them that go with the lowercase. You have to teach each explicitly.

I hope this helps--I would love if I had more involved families like you in my classroom!

Kids learn better if they become physically active in the learning. For letters and words, try having a pan of sand and have them draw the letters/words into the sand. Flour works well also. Also, those magnetic letters for the refrigerator can be fun. Another technique is to turn the child into the teacher, try having the child 'Teach' their favorite doll a new word. They will learn the word to teach it.

Hi,

There are numerous documented benefits and advantages of teaching children to read early on, and teaching them to reading using phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. It is clear that early language and reading ability development passes great benefits to the child as they progress through school at all grades, and that early language and reading problems can lead to learning problems later on in school.

For a simple, step-by-step program that can help your child learn to read visit this web site: http://readingprogram.toptips.org/

Cheers ;)

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i suggest first of all zero outside distractions. you'd be surprised how quickly kids learn when taught in form of music. i mean look at all the children's learning programs on tv. what do they all have in common? music.... why? it's fun. it's entertaining. it gets the child active and moving. the songs cover every range of topics imaginable. most of all children don't realize they're learning.