Games for Reading: Playful Ways to Help Your Child Read

We are a homeschooling family with young daughters. My youngest daughter has absolutely no interest in sitting down to learn to read and write. It has always been a struggle with her. At 8yo now, we have begun to get a little (maybe a lot) frustrated with each other and the learning to read and write process. We both inwardly cringe when I pull out the phonics books. However, Peggy Kaye's books: Games for Reading and Games for Writing have been lifesavers!!! These games are ALWAYS fun. My daughter eagerly looks forward to playing any of the games in these books. She will even write difficult spelling words over and over again just because she is in a contest with me! Who knew that competition would be the vehicle to get her interested in reading and writing? I'm so excited about these books that I would recommend them to absolutely anyone with young readers and writers. I haven't tried Games for Math, yet I'm sure that book is just as motivating as these books. My 10yo daughter, who reads and writes exceptionally well for her age, sees us playing these games and requests to get involved as well. Yesterday one of the games had us all in a fit of giggles as we were trying to figure out which of the statements we had written down were truth or lies. Fun! Peggy Kaye is certainly a goddess in our household.

I had been teaching my 4 1/2 year old daughter to read using pure phonics only (Phonics Pathways). Although she could read the words, she wasn't enjoying the process much, and I was afraid of turning her off reading. After taking the summer off and then buying this book, I made up a number of games from the book. My daughter loves the games and asks to play them all of the time. I can tell that she is learning new words and enjoying the process as well. I highly recommend this book. It is broken down into sections for teaching different reading skills - phonics, sight words, etc. You can pick and choose from the games to teach the skill that you think needs emphasizing.This book is well worth the money spent.

My older children learned to read without any trouble, yet my youngest daughter has been struggling and worse "hates to read!"She constantly says was when the word is saw, felt becomes left etc. Well, I read this book cover to cover yesterday and I am very encouraged. The author discusses children with problems exactly like my daughter, as well as other kinds of problems and the book is filled with many games to help. I believe that my daughter will enjoy most of the many games in this book and I do believe that they will help her. The book states that the most important thing is that children enjoy reading, so the games really are games. I can't wait to get started today!

I borrowed "Games for Reading" from a library for some ideas to use in speech therapy. I've enjoyed the games so much (and so have my kids) that I decided to buy the book for myself.

Peggy Kaye has produced an excellent resource for truly fun ways to engage a reluctant or struggling reader with games that both child and adult will enjoy. Some involve learning words themselves (labeling with handwritten pieces of paper the parts of the child's body). Others involve training the eye to see detail--eg, "set the table" in which the adult sets a few objects out and the child must replicate the pattern. The games are all simple, require no unusual equipment, and are well described. This has worked well for my children.