When to start Reading Made Easy?

[Jeni]

Would you use Reading Made Easy with a child who knows all her letters, capital and lower case, all their sounds, recognizes about 10 sight words, "reads" to you from her favorite books that she has memorized word.for.word., sounds out 3 letter words but is still a little clumsy with blending because after all she is only 3yo. :blush:

Am I crazy for even thinking about this? Normally, I'm all for waiting until they are 6 or 7yo but she's pretty much met all the criteria I've seen for a beginning reader. I've looked at the samples online and she wandered in while I was looking and started telling me the sounds in the lesson. We completed the sample lesson (lesson 7) and she loved it and wanted to know when we could do it again. :lol:

I think having something like RME for us to do together will make it easier for me to give her some "school time" and actually do something productive. And the "let's get a book and read together" at the end of the lesson is a perfect lead in to doing some B4FIAR after the RME lesson. ;)

Without some structure already made for me, I have a bad habit of putting preschool on the back burner because it is only preschool. :unsure: I was thinking we could complete one lesson per week and play some games with the lesson material through the rest of the week. And of course we'll shelve it if she's not enjoying it or hits a major road block. ;)

So what are your thoughts? Anyone done RME with a 3yo? Any reason I shouldn't give this a go?

[Janee' in Texas]

I used it with my 3yos and they did very well. Finished it up at 4 and were strong readers ever since. However, my last dd has been a different story. :unsure: So I would say go for it! You can always put it on the back burner if it does not go well. Check out the new workbooks that go with it they are great!

[Jeni]

Check out the new workbooks that go with it they are great!

Do you think they would be appropriate for a 3yo? I see the early lessons are just "X the correct picture" type things which would be fine but by the 20 something lessons, they are copying sentences! :eek: She likes to draw and color but I worry about pushing writing too soon. Trying to get my oldest son to read and write from a young age backfired horribly....but he did have hearing and speech issues that Brooke does not.....but that early experience has always made me shy away from really trying to actually teach anything early.

What do you, or anyone else for that matter, think about it? :unsure:

[Robin(CA)]

I probably wouldn't, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't. I think I'd let her keep figuring out things and she may end up reading on her own.

I think it's great if you do end up doing RME with her, but at our house I wouldn't want to do school with a 3yo, KWIM? (cause I'm lazy and would rather just read enjoyable stories to her)

ETA: I certainly would NOT do any workbooks or any writing stuff.

[Janee' in Texas]

Some of the pages would be above her writing ability, but quite a few are circling or writing one letter to complete a word. In no way would I make her do it, if she loses interest, drop it! That said, I know what it is like to have your child ready and eager- even at 3!

[Amee]

My son was like that when he was 3. I looked at a bunch of reading curriculums, but none of them seemed right for him at that time. Even though he was reading, he wasn't ready to sit down and have a real reading lesson. He wanted to ask me questions and have me write things for him to read, but he was not interested in me picking something to teach him. So I finally decided that I would just keep answering his questions. I figured there was plenty of time to wait and see if we needed a curriculum later. I never used one with him, and he is a great reader.

On the other hand, I know what you mean about preschool getting pushed aside. My daughter didn't get nearly enough individual attention from me last year because I was too busy with the baby and school with my oldest. The laid-back approach worked great when I had one child--he got all my attention. But with three kids, I've found that I need more of a plan to make sure they all get some time with me.

So I think you could go either way. I'm using RME with my 5yo now. We're only on lesson 8, so I'm not very experienced, but it seems so gentle. I really don't think it would hurt to try it. I think your 3yo would be fine with no formal lessons yet; but if you think you just need to be doing something with her so she gets enough one-on-one attention, I think RME would be good, especially since she seems to like it.

As for the writing, I think you could just leave that out or adjust it to work for her. I think in the instructions Valerie Bendt says to only do it if they are ready. My son was way ahead in reading, but at 3 he wasn't anywhere near ready for handwriting. A lot of reading curriculums teach these together, but I don't think all kids are ready for them at the same time.

[Tricia O]

My oldest was 5 when we started RME, but we omitted the writing exercises and she still turned into an excellent reader.