Beginning to Read

Graham has started to show more of an interest in reading. So last week we made a book that he could read. It was so simple, and he was so proud of himself! Try it! You'll be amazed by what your three year old can do!


First, I let Graham take pictures of objects around the house. They weren't fantastic pictures, but he LOVED using the camera. Here's a sample:
Then, we put the card reader in the computer, uploaded them to picasa, and ordered them online to be picked up at our local CVS. An hour later, they were ready. I picked them up that night after the kids were in bed.

The next day, we cut some cardstock for the pages and used photo stickers to stick the pictures on. You could probably use glue and for sure you could use tape, but the photo stickers were fast and didn't make a mess.

After each photo, I asked Graham what we should write on that page. Since this was our 'A' book, we wrote 'A mug.' or 'A phone.' When we got to the frog picture, I suggested that we use the word 'my' because he loves that frog.

Then, we just stapled the pages together. I asked Graham what we should call his book. He said, 'Graham's Pictures.' He loves to read it!

A few little reading tips:

• Stick with eight to ten pictures for this book
• Stick with a pattern, introducing only one new word (my)
• Use both sides of the paper. That way your child will learn to look at the left side of a book before the right side.
• Consider using upper and lower case a's so that your child knows that it's the same word.
• Consider writing the words on one page above the picture and the words on the next page below the picture. This will help your child learn to look at the whole page and not just the bottom. Seems like a little thing, but later on it will make a difference.
• Have fun!