Hehe, Lily is really getting into the concept of rhyming words - initially she was confused and would say things like - Dog and Duck - they rhyme, don't they! But now she gets that they have the same initial sound, not end sound. She initiated it all too.

I distinctly remember Claire learning the concept of rhyming words - she recited a list of words that rhyme with duck to her grandmother, including a lot of emphasis on the one that started with F!

hahahaha!!!! That is so funny!

Like my little sister, loved the Dukes of Hazard and took great delight in running around shouting 'Enos the penis, Enos the penis'.

Brilliant stuff.

if she isn't showing a particular interest in learning to read just yet - then I personally wouldn't worry too much.
I would perhaps work on writing and recognizing her own name, taking herself off to the toilet, unwrapping her lunch, looking after her stuff (i.e putting her cardi in her bag when she takes it off without having to be told)...all those little things make a huge difference to starting school.
both of my children have started school at totally different spectrums #1 couldn't read, and struggled to count to 10 - yet i would say he was my bright child - bcos his thought and conversation outside of that just about floored you sometimes - he's now gone on to be getting the '2-3yrs above peers' comments in most areas (except RE (religous education lol - oops) ), #2 started school been able to count, add, read, lead, and talk anyones head off - he got moved up to the next class pretty fast along with his bestie who was in the same boat. however (and i may stand to be corrected) I dont think he is actually as bright as #1 he's more of a straightforward sort of thinker - and i doubt will be ahead in 2yrs or so when kids their age can all read and write etc (he doesnt have that passion for learning like #1 did).

oops long story short - what im trying to say is it probably doesn't really matter in the longrun whether they go to school bn able to read or not they all get there, and being able to read early doesn't determine future success. however if you've got a child that finds settling into new things quite difficult then having some of the basics - counting, writing, letter recognition down pat can make the whole thing easier- but not necessarily.

If she's showing an interest in reading or understanding letters and sounds then I would start to guide her a little.

DD started at about age 2 by recognising the letter "Z" for her name on the VTNZ sign. So then we found M's for Mum and D's for Dad and so on.

When she was 3 we picked up on a game they played at daycare where they did a letter each week and would write it (tracing over an outline of the letter), colouring in pictures to do with that letter and trying to think of as many words as possible that started with that letter. I didn't realise they played this game so it went something like this:

Me: Ant; DD: Antelope!. Me: Apple; DD: Alligator! Me: At; DD: Astronaut! Me: WTF??? My kid is messing with my head! LOL

Whatever you do, just make it fun but if she's interested then it's worth doing something and making use of that little sponge inside their heads!! :-)

for letter recognition we used to play a letter fishing game, you know those alphabet fridge magnets...stick them in a sink of water and get one of those toy magnet fishing rods...and you have to fish the letter out of the water - you only get to keep your letter if you yell out what it is when you take it out - it's a race to see who can get the most letters (mummy VS child - or brother Vs brother etc etc),
writing #1 used to adore books and would get a book and write the whole thing out under neath the words lol - we also wrote a few books ourselves together which we still have
rhyming - there are so many puzzles and computer rhyming games that are FAB can't really go wrong there.

I've always wondered about that 'my baby can read' learning to read system on the infomercials, i wish it'd bn around when i was pregnant then i would've tryd it out just to see if it worked - would be pretty choice tho.
ooooh you can also play word bingo - where their card has words on it instead of number and words get pulled out of the bingo hat/bucket etc (this is easy as to make - my boys are ultra competitive at it )
oh also sticking words on the ceiling and having to find them by torchlight at night time.
heaps of fun ways to learn

wouldn't recommend...

I found a cool game to play the other day - draw "parking lots" on a big piece of cardboard and write the letters in (random order, not ABC) and then when you say the sound, they park a toy car in the right park. Could work for learning high frequency words too..

My MIL gave me a baby reading book when I was pg with DD. It was based on memorising words, not phonetics. I didn't use it because of that. DD basically taught herself to read, and she memorised a lot of words herself. She has a great memory and tends to rush things so I think it was easier for her and less hassle. Then when she started school she had to go back and learn the sounds and how to sound out words. She got incredibly frustrated by the process and that's one reason why I'm emphasising sounds not letters/words with DS.

Heaps of fun ideas on here!

I forgot, the other thing I did was make some books on the computer for DD, you can just print them at home if you have a colour printer and I paid $2 or something to get them spiral bound with a cardboard back and plastic front at the stationery shop.

The books had pictures of DD doing activites and repetitive basic words: I am jumping, I am running, I am painting, sort of thing. She loved them because the whole book was about her.

I took it one step further and laminated an A3 sheet, printed all the photos a 2nd time and printed all the words, then she could make sentences (used velcro) - she could put a picture up and then find the same picture in the book and then had to find the words that went with the picture.

It's all about interaction - they absorb so much without you noticing (like swear words LOL)

We spend all our car time talking about letters and words and numbers. I will often point something out - like a bus, and ask DS what it starts with, which encourages him to go BBbbbbbbus - B!!, to which I say, what else starts with B - and we do as long a list as we can manage! he loves it, and DD copies along too he is also obsessed with speed limit signs, and has learnt to read all the ones that we see often, we talk about how fast the car is going - 40, thats less than 50 etc
We started on blends today, when he did it himself 'what does truck start with' tttttttttt T, and rrrrrrrrrrrr R!! TR!!! he was pretty pleased with himself, and then we did the 'what else starts with tr' list

I find the 20 or so minutes we spend in the car a day really enjoyable, (no whinging, too distracted) and I feel good that I am hopefully expanding his knowledge, with absolutely no pressure on either of us.