Jess asks: I have a 3.5 year old boy and 20 mo girl. My son has known his letters and their sounds for about a year. He’s always asking me what words say and I’m wondering how your eldest learned to read. Were there specific things you did or did it naturally occur? I think Jack is capable of learning to read right now but I don’t want to suck the fun out of it (I’m a voracious reader and hope the same for my kids). Nor do I want to push him too early. Suggestions? Heidi answers: Levi also knew his letters and sounds early, but the beginning stages of reading did not occur naturally. I began using The Ordinary Parents’ Guide to Teaching Reading with him somewhere around the age of four. He didn’t particularly like learning to read, but we plugged away (over a year and a half before he took off) and now he is a voracious reader.
Luke was a completely different story. He also knew his letters and sounds early, but wasn’t much interested in books. I figured it would take longer for him to develop reading skills, so I planned to start lessons with him a little later. Something about plans, mice, and men…. Luke decided on his own to start reading before he turned four. Now he is 4 1/2, and he reads at about a second grade level. I’ll share what I learned the second time around:
The best thing we used for the first stages of reading was magnetic lowercase letters. I love the letters and board which comes with the Teaching Reading Combo Pack at Peace Hill Press, but any magnetic letter set will work, as long as it has lowercase letters. (A large metal cookie sheet works well for playing with the magnets at a table.) (Work with your child to familiarize them with the lowercase letters if they aren’t yet comfortable with them.) Luke had watched the Leap Frog Talking Words Factory, which prepared him for the basic idea of reading three letter words. So, we simply started playing around with the magnets. I would make words such as hat, sit, dad, mom, and pot. He would read them. Stay with this stage until it becomes fairly easy for your child to read these words. Treat it like a game, and if your child looses interest, put it away and try again another day. 
(We also occasionally used the Boggle Jr. game during the first two stages of reading. The other word magnets pictured are from the Magnetic Poetry Kids’ Magnetic First Words set.)
After Luke was reading the simple words with ease, we moved on to Playful Pals and Bob Books. Both of my boys preferred Playful Pals, but levels 3 and 4 of the Bob Books were very helpful between levels 1 and 2 of the Nora Gaydos series (beginning with Playful Pals). Both of these series are phonics based and very slowly introduce phonics sounds and rules. Both sets come with helpful hints and instructions for parents. Again, at such an early age, follow your child’s cues when it comes to reading time. Make time to read with mom available on a consistent basis.
It is so easy to get frustrated during this time, both for the child and parent. (Listening to a child slowly labor over ‘the cat sat’ can be tedious at times.) Remember, they are very young. Reading doesn’t click for all children at the same age. Stay relaxed and enjoy this process!
(My general Learning To Read Tips can be found here.)