If you have been following me for any length of time, you know my son took to reading like a fish to water. Right now he is 4 and reading at a 2nd grade level. Everyone asks me how we taught him, so awhile back I shared this post – Teach Your Toddler To Read – A Hooked on Phonics Review. It’s one of my most viewed posts. But, what should you do before that? Before Hooked on Phonics? That’s a question I get asked a lot. So often, in fact, I decided to put this post together.

UPDATE: Because I’ve had several people email me and ask where I got the map in the picture above, I thought it might be a great idea to put the link here! It’s and awesome map it goes up in panels with a paste just like wall paper, it’s dry erase and we figured out that vinyl stickers work AWESOME on it!

First, read to your child. We have a rule in this house. If one of our children brings us a book to read we STOP whatever we are doing and read them the book. The next step is for them to learn the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make. It really is just that simple. Here are my top 3 ways we encourage learning letters and their sounds.

Side note – how cute is he reading Frog and Toad to little brother? I just stumbled across this old picture. <3

Start Teaching Your Toddler to Read – Our Top 3 Ways

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Songs

We hardly ever sing the alphabet song as I don’t really see any value in it. We do however sing A is for Apple (video below) on a daily basis. This song is great because you can throw in your own words or themes. Last week we did A-Z Paw Patrol. True story.

Use Alphabet Toys

Take any alphabet toy, blocks, magnets, or whatever you have and make up silly words. Once they know most of the phonic sounds, it’s super easy and silly to make up your own words practicing the sound each letter makes. I’m sure you’re wondering about vowels and rules… we just don’t go there at this point. For now, all the vowels make one sound A – Ah , E – Eh, that kind of thing.

Books

We read lots of alphabet books and as we read them we point out the letters and say the sound. So, if my 1 year old is pointing to the letter A in a book. I would say, “an A – ah ah – A . A is for ah ah – Apple” Here is a list of our favorite 7 books.

1.First Steps to Reading Complete Set. We love this set for learning. We have read one book a week for as long as I can remember.

2.Once Upon an Alphabet Oliver Jeffers is one of my favorite authors and this does NOT disappoint! It’s probably my favorite alphabet book!

3.LMNO Peas Super cute book, my boys love finding all the peas!

4.Eating the Alphabet This is a really fun book.

5.Dr. Suess’s ABC’s Another great one to practice phonic sounds

6.A is for Apple trace and flip book This is great for phonic sounds and practicing writing!

7.Chicka Chicka Boom Boom While I don’t think this helps with phonics as much, it’s a classic that everyone loves!

Basically, we are just repetitive and always say the letter sound with the letter. Please note I firmly believe that every child is different and NEVER push your kiddo into something they aren’t ready for. My younger son, who’s 2, is still working on his letters while big brother was reading at this age. I’d hate for anyone to read this and think that their child is behind. There is no such thing!