Teaching SMALL FAN to read

Borrowed a book, Teaching Your Child to Read in just 10 minutes a Day by Sidney Ledson, from the National Library and got really motivated by it.. The books say you can teach a child from 2 years old onwards to read in less then 60 days. Thought I could make myself proud if I'm able to teach SMALL FAN to read. So, after reading the book, I diligently prepared all the necessary materials, practice pronuncing some of the letters and started SMALL FAN on the journey of reading.

This is basically what I did based on what is suggested by the book, although I modified a bit to suit my boy:

Day 1

* Print a letter "U" in an A4, using Arial Bold Font.

* I then made a dot to dot (from no. 1 to 10) of a letter "U" (modified it, original version just need the kid to trace their finger on the printed letter)

* Start teaching him the letter "U", not "You" but "Urg" as in "UP".

* Then I get SMALL FAN to trace the dot to dot of the letter "U".

* Then I paste both letter on the wall.

Verdict: SMALL FAN was really excited about the dot to dot, tracing it whenever he feels like it.

Day 2

* Did the same for letter "P"

* Then I made a play board (suggested by the book), see picture attached.

* I start teaching him to blend the letter "U" & "P" to made up the word "UP". Then I played the board game with him. I put jelly beans in each of the small cupcakes container and everytime he read the word correctly, he got a jelly bean. SMALL FAN was really excited about the jelly beans and diligent read the words.

Verdict: Hey...this seams to work, he likes it.

Day 3

* Taught SMALL FAN the letter "C" and then try to teach him to read "CUP".

Verdict: SMALL FAN was so excited about what coloured jelly beans to eat that he totally lost interest in the game as he can't wait to eat the sweet. So, the whole game became, what coloured sweet to eat.

Day 4 onwards (about 2 months now)

* Taught him more letters using the same tracing method. He can now recognise and know the sound of the following letters : A, B, C, U, P, O, T, G, I, H, R

* Give up on the board game as I have to struggle keeping his hand off the jelly beans and he can't seems to see the trick in blending the words.

Final Verdict of the method: Was successful in teaching him the letters and he still enjoy tracing the dot to dot and counting as he goes but blending words proof to be too difficult for him at the moment. So now, I'm stucked as I'm not sure if I should continue teaching him how to blend words as it doesn't make sense to him. Now, I'm reading up more from the internet on the proper way to teach blending....sigh.....looks like a proud mothers attempt has failed...

SMALL FAN's room is now full of alphabets....ha ha