Khye Can Read @ 4 1/2yo!

I bought Peter and Jane books for Shern when he was about 6yo when he was struggling to read. Although he could speak English really well then, but he was still not reading fluently.
I initially bought the starter's boxset of Peter & Jane to see if Shern took a liking to it and also if the books suits him or if they are beneficial for him.

And it did. The books kind of taught Shern how to read. Since he was already 6yo+ then, after reading a few books, it somehow 'clicked' and after several books, he figured out how the words and sounds formed and could read rather fluently then.

To tell the truth, I was rather impressed with the books. Although I know many mothers read the books when they were young. I for one, had never read them.
So I was rather surprised these 'boring' books could be so beneficial.

And now it is Khye's turn. But the difference is that he is only 4 1/2 years old now.
I for one is not someone who pushed my kid on learning how to read asap. But then since young, Khye loves his 123s and ABCs.
He could only talk at 2yo but by 2yrs 4mo, he already knows his ABCs.
And his 3rd birthday theme was Alphabet-themed because of his love for ABCs too.

And recently he is really interested into reading words, as he always asked us to read out the words we see during outings. Or he would spell us a word he sees and ask us to read it.

And that was when I took out the Peter & Jane books for Khye to try.
And as expected, he was sooo happy and he loves the books.

I took it out just a few days ago and he has been reading about a book each day just before bedtime.
The books started off with very simple words in Book 1a, with very much repetition.

Peter.
Jane.
Here is Peter.
Here is Jane.
Here is Peter and Jane.
(new words: is, and)

Here is the dog.
Here is Jane and the dog.
(new words: dog)

What I love about the book is that it lets you read the words as a whole (and not through phonics).
It uses the repetition method of teaching, and introducing new words slowly.
This is the traditional way of learning how to read just like how we used to learn when we were small.

As you know, the English language is very funny. It has lots of rules but yet has lots of exceptions to the rules. So it gets really confusing sometimes.
But when you learn to read the word as a whole, it makes more sense sometimes.

However, Khye and I still use phonics to sound out words that he may not know. He try reading a new word using phonics and it helps too.

This is Khye reading a page of Book 2a all by himself:

And this is Khye again a few days later reading Book 3a:

You can see that there are more words in Book 3a compared to Book 2a.
Khye is really getting the hang of reading now.

Another good thing about these Peter & Jane books is that Khye has a sense of accomplishment because he can read a whole page all by himself.
Unlike if you take a random story book, and he may not know how to read half of the page as there are many words he may not know.

And for Khye's case, when he can read the WHOLE book all by himself, he gets really happy and excited and is really more eager to want to continue reading more.

But most important is don't force. Let the kid guide you. He will let you know when he wants to read. He does not need to finish reading the whole book at one go. A few pages a day is also good.

So for now, Khye just finished Book 3a. He can't wait to read more. He was asking for another book just now but we stop him because it is his bedtime already, haha.
My little nerdy boy!


Happy Reading Peter & Jane!