It’s exciting when your little one begins recognizing words and wants to learn how to read! You want to encourage his or her new found skill, but don’t want your child to get discouraged reading books with too many words that s/he doesn’t know. Feeling like a good reader is so important! I compiled a list of books that are super easy to read. Hopefully, by reading these, your child will gain confidence and feel like a successful reader.
First, some tips that worked for my little ones:
1. Read the book to your child first. This will expose your child to the words contained in the book. Remember, reading the book is not a quiz or test to see what words s/he know. You want it to be a successful, enjoyable experience.
2. When you read, point to the words. When your child reads to you, encourage him or her to point to the words as s/he reads. If your child doesn’t want to point to the words, you can be the pointer. Remember, there’s no pressure, follow your child’s lead.
3. If your child is stuck on a word, you can have him or her sound out the word or simply tell them the word. My general rule for this reading stage is that if the word is short and can be sounded out letter by letter, such as “big”, I have my child sound it out. If it’s a tricky word that requires advanced phonics or doesn’t follow any phonetic rule, I will simply tell him the word. The main point is to keep the continuity of the story. I tend to tell more words than we sound out at this early stage to keep the flow of the story and foster comprehension.
4. Most of the words in the book should be known by your child already. Of course, you will want some new words so that your child is stretching his or her reading ability. The new words are not as intimidating when everything else is easy for them. To me, the earliest reading stage is about confidence building.
I encourage you to find these books at your local library. We found many of these at our library. If you want to purchase a book from Amazon, I have included a link. If you click on any of the pictures it will take you to an Amazon link. Disclosure: This is an affiliate link, which means I make a small percentage from the sale at no extra cost to you. I hope you find this list helpful!
Here they are:
Scat, Cat! by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
The Fly Flew In by David Catrow
I Have A Garden by Bob Barner
Down On The Farm by Rita Lascaro
Oh,Cats! by Nola Buck
I Can Help by David Hyde Costello
The Ear Book by Al Perkins
What I See by Holly Keller
Bears On Wheels by Stan and Jan Berenstein
Pig Has A Plan by Ethan Long
Dinosaurs Do, Dinosaurs Don’t by Steve Bjorkman
Dog’s New Coat by Margaret Nash
Dot and Bob by David McPhail
The easiest books of all:
Hug by Jez Alborough
I hope you and child enjoy reading together! Have fun