Secrets of How to Teach 3-5 Year-olds to Read 
by Bev Jaremko

When teaching grade nines I noticed several kids reluctant to read aloud.  I soon discovered why they could barely read. Their low marks in all subjects and their later dropout were now explained. I vowed to spare my own baby that heartbreak.

At three, he wanted to know what those marks were on the page. I figured if he could name 26 toys he could identify the 26 letters. But I knew that I would have to break the task down into pieces. I decided to teach  lower case letters only to not confuse him. I would teach one sound per letter for the same reason and I would make the letter's name that same sound. H was huh, m was muh. I entered into his world by explaining the shape of the letters in stories -s was a snake, w was waves, m was mittens, h was a house with a chimney.

These memory clues made it easy to recall the letters. We studied one every few days felt it on signs, in wood, in plastic, in cardboard, ate it in cheese. This was tactile experience. After 6 letters I added 'a' which I said was half an 'apple' and it said ah.

Then we put the letters into rows and sounded out results - huh ah muh became ham. I recall vividly the first time he put the letters together and sounded them out, nonchalantly. He was reading!  I rearranged them. He read the new set - pat, pam, hat.  We added new letters, stories and poems and then more combinations.

The process took about a year and he could read over 600 words. He wanted more so I invented stories of how the letters grew up - b got a new bump, h got a new chimney. And I created stories explaining how some letters yell "get out of the way, ay"  while others stay quiet - and he could read "pail, aid, " We continued till I had four volumes of books making even exceptions logical,  and he had now a reading vocabulary of several thousand words.  

Best of all, he was equipped to enter school feeling competent and excited about learning.

(Optional inclusion of the entire poem I use to teach the alphabet) Here is the poem the child learns, combining rhyme, rhythm, visual clues and logic for the alphabet-

huh is for house
muh is for mittens
puh - pretty flower
suh - snake is bitten        
wuh is for waves
tuh for traintracks
ruh -round the corner
ah -apple stacks

buh- bump on bottom
cuh -is for curl
duh -is for doorknob
guh -long-haired girl

nuh nail got bent
ih- it jumped up
eh- egg fell open right into a cup
oh - is for octopus
uh - under embrella
fuh has a funny top - he's a strange fella.

juh just a jet's trai
l kuh - kite on string
Luh is for ladder - you climb it in spring

vuh is or very good
yuh - yarn with tail you see
zuh is for sizaga- you draw when you feel happy
x is for crossing the street where you've been
q is the letter that starts that word queen

If anyone is interested in this method, its step by step rationale is given on my website at http://www.telusplanet.net/public/bjaremko.  Bev Jaremko is a graduate of the University of Calgary, and an experienced teacher of children from birth to grade 11. She has developed material for within the classroom and outside it and has served on a provincial government curriculum committee.  She lives in Calgary, Alberta and can be reached at bjaremko@hotmail.com or 403-283-2400

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