How to easily teach your child to read using Zaitsev's cubes

March 12, 2019

Averyanova Sveta

Zaitsev's cubes have been discussed and debated for 30 years. Supporters of the method prove its effectiveness, opponents consider reading in warehouses harmful for future schoolchildren. Without practical experience in using technology, it is quite difficult to understand who is right. We also decided to participate in the discussion, but first we will understand in detail what the meaning of Zaitsev’s technique is, why it is unique and how to conduct classes with children at home.

Basic principles and essence of the methodology

Zaitsev's cube training method is based on reading by warehouses.

To understand what a warehouse is, put your hand to your chin and say any word. For example, K-RO-VAT. How many times the chin rests on the palm, there are so many meanings in the word. It turned out to be 3 warehouses, but 2 syllables according to the rules of the Russian language.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zaitsev believes that reading syllables is much more difficult for children. It’s easy to understand his point of view; try to put together the word VSVE-PE-ZUL-SYA, syllable by syllable. For a first or second grade student this is an impossible task, there are too many consonants. And according to the warehouses, they consist of any number of letters, it’s easy to read: VS-T-RE-PE-NULL-SIA.

The author does not use the alphabet or primer, and does not talk about letters and sounds separately. Children don’t need theory, says Zaitsev. It is necessary to form an image through clear examples and use concrete, visual thinking.

The kids themselves will understand the softness, sonority, and dullness of warehouses. The cubes are filled with pieces of wood and iron, they are different in size and color. Children feel them, evaluate their parameters and sound. The set includes the following cubes:

• Large ones with hard folds, small ones with soft ones.
• Double - combinations of a consonant and a vowel.
• White is for punctuation marks.

Fillers are needed to indicate sound:

• Iron - voiced consonants.
• Golden - vowels.
• Wooden - voiceless consonants.
• Iron and wood are combinations with a solid sign.
• Wood and gold are combinations with a soft sign.

The lines are written in different colors: blue for vowels, blue for consonants, green for hard and soft signs.

Preschoolers form a clear image of the warehouse based on sensations, without relying on a specific letter of the Russian alphabet. Then you need to move on to working with visual and effective thinking: the child sees the warehouses, hears their sounds and acts according to the example. Verbal-logical thinking is formed by writing words with a pointer and by fluent reading.

Thus, Nikolai Zaitsev based his working method on the following principles:

1. The child speaks in forms, hears them, which means he must read according to the example of oral speech.
2. All senses are used for learning: vision, tactile sensations, hearing. The child touches the cubes, hears the sound of their fillers, sees the written words, and learns the songs.
3. First we write, then we read. Homemade copybooks do not develop speed reading skills; they are mechanical work. According to Zaitsev, a child learns to recognize a word with his fingers, showing its parts (warehouses) on a table or cubes.
4. Forming fluent reading. This guarantees love for the book, writing without grammatical errors or spelling mistakes.
5. The monotonous lesson must be eliminated.
   All classes are conducted in a playful way. There is no lesson plan, the child himself regulates the load and type of game. Use ready-made activities and come up with your own options.

This is interesting! Left-handed people learn speed reading using Zaitsev's cubes better and faster. They have a more developed right hemisphere of the brain. That is, intuition, creativity, non-standard and logical thinking are well formed.

Watch a short video about what Zaitsev’s method is and how to teach a child using it.

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2018-02-09 11:56:25 0 9002

Every parent wants their child to become a child prodigy (or at least just capable and smart). To organize assistance for adults, there are many methods for teaching a child to read and write, reading and mathematics. These are the systems of Maria Montessori, Glenn Doman and many others. A special place here is occupied by Zaitsev's cubes - a method of teaching reading from a very early age.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zaitsev's parents worked in a rural school. After finishing school, Nikolai worked at a factory for 2 years, after which he followed in the footsteps of his parents. In 1958 he entered the Pedagogical Institute, Faculty of Philology. In his fifth year, he is sent to practice in Indonesia, where he works as a translator.

It was this period of time, when he had to teach adults a Russian language that was not their native language, that gave rise to the development of his famous method of teaching reading and writing. Implementing new techniques, creating interesting tables on the go, he tried to “convey the essence of the language to others.”

Having developed his own teaching method, the young teacher decided to test it in the middle classes of a comprehensive school. However, a huge failure awaited him here. The students only knew how to memorize the rules without trying to understand them. Accustomed to such training, they could not readjust.

Then Nikolai Alexandrovich decided to try his method on children. The methodology was revised, he conducted all classes in a playful way. And here huge success awaited him. Toddlers as young as one and a half years old and preschoolers who had problems learning to read and write only needed a few lessons to start reading. Some schools began to fully implement his teaching system, using the “ringing miracle” (as the cubes were called) in their work.

Observing the kids, the teacher came to the following conclusions:

• In order to learn to read, little ones don’t need to know what the letters are called. Most often in alphabet books, letters are associated with pictures. The child remembers the image of the letter and the image that he associates with it. Then it is very difficult to explain to him that CAT (letter K), SCISSORS (letter H), TOY (letter I), MUSHROOM (letter G) and STORK (letter A) add up to one word BOOK.
• Reading syllables is very difficult for a child. Even if a child learns the names of letters without pictures, it will be difficult for him to understand how the syllable MA is formed from the letters M and A. In order for children to understand the principle of merging syllables, teachers have to use various tricks in their work. But in the Russian language there are words of one syllable, in which there are many consecutive consonants (for example, VSPLESK). Reading such words will be very difficult for a child who reads syllables.
• It is easier for a person to first learn to write than to read. By writing he understood the transformation of sounds into signs, and by reading - the transformation of signs into sounds. It will be much easier for your baby to learn to read through writing.

Zaitsev’s unique proprietary method has been around for over 20 years. However, the famous teacher does not stop constantly improving it. Now many different techniques and games have already been created to complement the basics. Using the technique, you can successfully teach even very young children to read and write. At the same time, for preschoolers 6 years old, just a few lessons will be enough, and you will be able to see that he can already begin to read.

This teaching method is suitable not only for children who like quiet games with blocks, but also for active, restless children. The use of this technique is suitable for working with children who are hard of hearing, have very poor vision and have mental development disorders. When working with them you can get very good results. You can see a good effect when working with children with autism.

In his methodology, Zaitsev emphasized that the child’s cognitive processes must go through all types of perception: auditory, visual, motor memory, touch and thinking. When working with children, a teacher must be able to organize a fun, playful learning environment and act as a mentor in the learning process.

Using dice games:

• the baby's vocabulary will expand;
• competent writing skills will be developed;
• the child’s speech will become more intelligible;
• a number of speech therapy problems can be corrected;
• develop the child’s logic and thinking;
• teach the baby to work independently.

The standard set includes:

• 61 pcs. assembled cardboard cube
• 6 pcs. cardboard tables with syllables, letters and other graphic signs
• 4 things. cardboard tables B3 format
• listening disk with songs for cubes and tables
• a teaching aid that you can use as a lesson summary.

In his technique, Nikolai Zaitsev offers an alternative to syllables - he uses warehouses. For him, this is the basic unit of language. The warehouse can be one letter, a combination of a vowel and a consonant, a consonant and a hard sign, a consonant and a hard sign. This principle of reading - warehouse - is the basis of Zaitsev’s methodology. This technique is very similar to Fedot Kuzmichev’s primer, 19th century, and L. Tolstoy’s alphabet. These books also used the principle of warehouse training.

The warehouse can be determined by placing your hand below the chin and saying the word. That muscle effort that you feel with your hand will be the warehouse.

According to his method, warehouses are located on cubes and in tables. He used vision, hearing and tactile sensations to help him learn, because... analytical thinking, the formation of which is required when reading, develops only by the age of 7. By placing the warehouses on cubes, Zaitsev made them different in color, sound, and size. With this, when the child picks up the blocks, different channels of perception are activated.

The creator of the method does not assume an authoritarian style of communication between the teacher and children. He says that it is necessary to take into account the individual characteristics and pace of development of each child.

Classes should be held only in a playful way. Children should not sit in one place, they need to move, jump, dance and sing. All movements in the lesson take place in a game with cubes.

Cubes may vary in size. Large cubes depict warehouses with a solid sound. On small cubes - with a soft sound. They can be single or double. On the double cubes there are consonants that do not combine with all vowels (zha-zhu-zhi).

The sonority of the warehouse is indicated by metal, the dullness by wood.

Gold - vowels. The hard sign is depicted on iron-wooden cubes, the soft one - on wooden-gold ones. The white cube contains punctuation marks. The color selection for letters is different from school. Here the color blue is used to indicate vowels, consonants are indicated in blue, and hard and soft signs are used in green. This difference from school blue, red and green colors, according to Zaitsev, helps children begin to read fluently.

Beginners learn to read at first only with cubes; later they get acquainted with tables.

Sets can be different:

• a layout may be offered for gluing the cubes yourself;
• may already be assembled;
• with a plastic base.

Gluing the cubes together yourself will take a lot of time. They need to be further strengthened from the inside. This can be done using a cardboard cube of the same size. After gluing, it is better to cover it with rubber bands, this is necessary so that your cube does not fall apart while it dries. For better protection, cover each cube with film or laminate the unfolded cube. If you choose this version of the cubes, it is better to make a copy of each scan. This way, during the game you will definitely have enough warehouses to write words.

Tables should be hung quite high. This helps prevent scoliosis and visual impairment. If you are working only with your child, then it is better to determine the height by the baby’s raised hand. It should touch the top edge of the table. It will be convenient to hang tables in the corners of the room, so it will be more convenient for the baby to look for the necessary warehouses. Tables can also be wrapped in film to increase their service life. Using tables is just as important as playing with dice.

According to the method of Nikolai Alexandrovich

, all the warehouses on the cubes must be sung. He believes that the effect of this is much better, and it is more interesting for the child to study with music, which helps to instill an interest in learning.

Provide your child with all the blocks to play with at once. This textbook should never be taken away from him. They must always be in his field of vision. Let the baby get to know them and look at them carefully.

Ask him to choose the one cube that interests him the most. Warehouses written on its edges must be shown by singing. Ask to find a large cube, then a small one, iron, wood, gold. The child must understand that all cubes are different in size and sound.

After he has mastered this information, introduce him to syllable tables. Sing one of the columns of the table and ask your child to bring a cube with the same folds. Sing artistically, showing your child what the voices can be: voiced or dull, small or large. You can even use appropriate movements. There is no need to ask your child to sing the words back to you. When he is ready for this, he will begin to sing with you and on his own.

Teach your child to write using blocks or a pointer. By singing the words and showing them on the table, the baby will begin to understand how words are composed. You can teach your child to write and play outdoor games at the same time. Ask him to write the names of loved ones at different ends of the room. Now let the child run to visit loved ones.

Once again, please note that all classes should be held only in a playful way. The child should not sit in one place; give him complete freedom of movement. Each child is individual. He doesn't owe anything in class. Let the baby develop to the best of his ability, don’t rush things. Don't make the game a forced activity. Of course, it’s better to study every day, at least a little, but if your child is not in the mood to study today, then it’s better to postpone it than to force him. You can play both in the morning and in the evening. Focus on your baby's mood.

Choose games that your child will enjoy most. If you are restless, it is better to use outdoor games in class. If your child prefers quiet games and spends a long time putting puzzles together, then use games that do not involve activity during class.
If your little one loves to build, then invite him to build named locomotives, towers with warehouses, roads, and houses out of cubes.

You can introduce your baby to blocks almost from birth. Keep in mind that at this age the child is not yet capable of studying. Until six months, a child’s development proceeds at a very rapid pace. There is no need to overload it further now. The cubes can be used as a rattle, only occasionally showing him a warehouse or a word. Do not try to see any results during this period, do not expect them from the child. Now, with their help, you will only prepare the child for the learning that awaits him ahead.

After 6 months, the child is no longer interested in playing with blocks like a rattle. Now you can start singing the warehouses. Until the child reaches one year of age, continue to show cubes, warehouses, and simple words. Let the baby crawl among them. You can try asking him to give you a cube with a certain warehouse. Leave folds on the objects whose names you have made up and throughout the day, show and sing them to your baby.

The older the child gets, the more difficult the games are offered to him. A one-year-old baby, along with the games that came before, can already increase the level of difficulty by offering new ones. Take things gradually. You can use N. Zaitsev’s manual “Writing. Reading. Account”, which offers a lot of entertaining games, or you can come up with your own. Use your child’s imagination, ask him what games he wants to play.

Play Zoo. Let the child place various animals around the zoo, making up their names from the warehouses. In the “Shop” he can arrange the goods on the shelves. When going on a “Journey,” you definitely need to pack your suitcase. Let him play the role of a cook, putting in a saucepan the names of ingredients needed to prepare soup or his favorite dish.

Invite your child to play the game “Who can name the most?” Name words that begin with a given word. You can make this game themed.

Place cubes in front of him, from the warehouses on them it should be possible to form his name. Let the child try to do it on his own. Next time, complicate the task; he must find suitable warehouses himself. Let him put words together from cubes, and then look for these warehouses in the table, pointing with a pointer to the required warehouse.

The child will play with great pleasure the games that you come up with together, because they are much more entertaining for him than those proposed by the author. These games will be exactly the ones he likes, designed with his interests in mind.

Like every modern method, learning to read using Zaitsev’s cubes has both its advantages and disadvantages. Let's take a closer look.

Advantages

• Children learn to read very quickly. It takes very little time for a child to start doing this. Moreover, the older he is, the faster the learning process proceeds. According to the author himself, even children who have just turned 4 years old can start reading on their own after just 4 lessons. Of course, this does not apply to all children. On average, children 3-4 years old need six months to study, an older preschooler needs 10-12 lessons, a child 6-7 years old will need a week.
• The Zaitsev teaching method is not tied to any specific age. You can start practicing when your child is 6 months old, or you can use it for first graders.
• The sounds produced by the cubes, different in timbre, pitch and volume, will contribute to the development of hearing, memory, and will perfectly develop a sense of rhythm.
• As a result of playing with blocks, fine motor skills of the child’s hands actively develop, which is very important for the development of intelligence.
• Learning takes place at a pace that the child's abilities allow. Everything is very individual. No one rushes or pushes the guys, no one tells them that they owe something.
• Mastering the technique will not be difficult. It can be successfully used at home.
• Children immediately learn to write correctly. There are no warehouses on the cubes that are impossible in the Russian language (such as CHYA, ZHY).
• The Zaitsev teaching method promotes the prevention, preservation and promotion of health. While playing, the child trains the eye muscles. This helps preserve vision. Its preservation is facilitated by the placement of large text on the tables in different places, and the bright color of the cubes, which does not irritate the eyes.

Game aids, located taking into account the requirements of the methodology at the proper height and in different places, serve as an excellent prevention of poor posture, physical inactivity, and overload of didactics during classes.

In general, this game method of teaching reading successfully helps in the development of a comprehensively developed harmonious personality.

• The method is built on the principles of cooperation pedagogy, which avoids conflicts between children, parents and teachers.
• Children play by themselves. This perfectly develops independence and self-organization. Even short lessons are enough for successful learning. Playing with them constantly and keeping them inconspicuous according to the “by the way” principle will give excellent learning results.
• The technique is very simple, systematized, and visual.
• The child does not have to master ways of merging letters into syllables; he learns ready-made sequences, which contributes to the ability to read fluently and without hesitation.

Advantages and disadvantages

Zaitsev’s methodology has been used in the preschool education system since 1989. The author's program was subjected to negative criticism, received a positive assessment, and was thoroughly studied in theory and practice by teachers, psychologists, and parents. All this made it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the unique method.

Advantages

1. There are no age restrictions for starting classes. Teach kids warehouse skills from any age from six months to 1st or 2nd grade.
2. Learning to read goes quickly. Children of senior preschool age begin to read 1–2 weeks after becoming acquainted with warehouses, children of the middle and younger groups (3–5 years) after 3–6 months.
3. Children never get tired of learning. Classes are conducted only in the form of unobtrusive games, lasting from 5 to 15 minutes. If you structure the learning process correctly, your child will master new material without even noticing.
4. Children learn to read fluently. In Zaitsev’s system, there is no stage of merging syllables; babies perceive entire syllables without dividing them into individual sounds. This maximizes reading speed.
5. The program is lightweight and easy to understand for children and parents. You can practice without professional training, at home. The kit includes a manual for parents, teachers, and a collection of interesting games.
6. Sense organs develop. Classes with cubes are built on the principles: hear, remember, feel tactilely.
7. Improves memory, attention, hearing and fine motor skills. This has a positive effect on speech development.
8. Vision does not deteriorate. Large font and bright colors on cubes and tables do not irritate the eyes. Children do not strain their eyes to see the inscriptions; they are perfectly readable from afar.
9. Children's health is preserved. There is no need to sit at a table. The child can run, stand, sit on the floor with his favorite toys. Forget about scoliosis, physical inactivity, and overload.
10. Creative abilities develop. Singing forms a sense of rhythm, inventing games develops imagination and strategic thinking.

Flaws

1. Children learn words by heart, so it is much more difficult for them to isolate syllables when parsing a word at school. We'll have to relearn.
2. Schoolchildren read fluently, but swallow endings and pronounce words incorrectly. This is due to the lack of letter analysis of words in Zaitsev’s system.
3. It is difficult for first-graders to master the basics of phonetics at school. Warehouses are once again to blame for the difficulties. Children do not understand why the combination WE is hard and MI is soft, which affects the sound characteristics.
4. The child experiences difficulties in morphemic parsing of words.
   It is problematic to see prefixes and roots. The child is used to reading: S-PIT, so he mistakenly identifies the prefix S- and the root PIT-.
5. High cost of the training kit. Not every family can afford to spend 5 thousand on cardboard cubes, which you also need to glue together yourself.

The advantages of Zaitsev’s method are difficult to dispute. The author's system truly develops an independent, intellectual personality. And the shortcomings become noticeable to parents and teachers after the child enters school. This is due to the discrepancy between Zaitsev’s course and the primary school curriculum.

On a note! In addition to easy learning to read and write, Zaitsev's cubes contribute to the rapid mastery of counting and foreign languages. This is due to a developed sense of rhythm, hearing, and abstract thinking.

Optimal age to start practicing this method

Zaitsev's system of teaching reading is not aimed at any specific age. You can start even as early as six months. At first it will just be a demonstration of the cubes to the child. Of course, the methodology for a one-year-old baby and a six-year-old preschooler will be different. Statistics from teachers showed that with regular classes 2 times a week for half an hour to an hour:

• children 2-3 years old begin to read after 6-9 months;
• children 4 years old - after 16 lessons;
• children 5 years old - after 5-10 lessons;
• children 6 years old - after 5-6 lessons.

The cubes are also suitable for adult foreigners starting to learn Russian. Even after the first lesson, they will be able to form the words they hear from the cubes. And after a couple more classes, they’ll start reading.

At what age to start

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zaitsev first tested his method of teaching reading with children aged one and a half years. The game lesson was used exclusively. The result exceeded expectations. The children started reading after a few lessons.

Observing kindergarteners, the author of the method came to the conclusion that children can begin to get acquainted with blocks from birth. Don’t set yourself the task of teaching your little one something. Cubes should become a toy for a baby. Let him use them as a rattle for up to 6 months.

After six months, you can start singing phrases and composing simple words. Make the games more difficult gradually. At one to one and a half years old, ask your child to give him a cube with a familiar shape. Hang Zaitsev's tables so that they are visible to the baby.

By the age of 1.5 years, if you play with warehouses every day, even for 5–15 minutes, the child will be able to independently form his name, a few simple words: mom, dad, ball. Parents need to constantly spur children's interest, sing new words, show how to add one more word.

Do you think your child needs early reading instruction?

• I think it's good 52%, 33 votes
  33 votes 52%

  33 votes - 52% of all votes

• Yes, of course 33%, 21 votes

  21 votes 33%

  21 votes - 33% of all votes

• No, they will teach you everything at school 16%, 10 votes

  10 votes 16%

  10 votes - 16% of all votes

Total votes: 64

12.03.2019

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We don't need the alphabet

After observing the children and how they mastered literacy, Nikolai Zaitsev came to the following conclusions.

1. To learn to read, you don't need to know the names of letters. A common phenomenon: a mother bought an alphabet book, the child learned the letters, but cannot read. His words don't stick. “The ABC is harmful,” says Nikolai Alexandrovich. In the alphabet, there is a picture for each letter: A - stork, B - hippopotamus, etc. The kid will remember both the letter and the picture, but how can you then explain to him that the zebra - stork - lizard - heron flashing in his mind should form the word “hare”. And even if the child did not learn the letters according to the alphabet, which makes it difficult to memorize the names of the letters, it is still difficult for him to immediately understand that B and A turn into the syllable BA. That is why teachers are forced to use various tricks to show how two letters merge into a syllable.
2. It's difficult to read the syllables. In Russian, a syllable can contain from 1 to 10 letters. If you see a surname like Pfeldt or Mkrtchyan in the text, you won’t be able to read it right away, but it’s only one syllable. Of course, a child does not need to read such complex words, but even a simple one-syllable word “splash” will cause certain difficulties for a child who reads the syllables.
3. A person first learns to write and then read. It is easier for a child to approach reading through writing. Just like an adult when learning a new language. Provided, of course, that by writing we do not mean “scribbling a pen in a notebook,” but by transforming sounds into signs, and by reading, accordingly, by turning signs into sounds. Therefore, if you have ever tried to teach a child to recognize the most native words and wrote on the asphalt or on paper “mom”, “dad”, “grandmother”, “grandfather”, “Sasha”, and then asked: “Where is dad? Where's grandma? Where is your name?”, then the child did not read, but rather wrote. He turned your sounds into signs you wrote.

Set contents

The Zaitsev development kit includes:

• Assembled cardboard cubes - 61 pieces. There are other options: ready-to-play plastic cubes, plastic cubes with filling, or cardboard blanks that you need to glue together yourself.
• Tables with graphic signs, letters and syllables - 6 pieces.
• Large wall cardboard tables - 4 pieces.
• Discs with recordings of singers in warehouses.
• A manual for parents and teachers.

On a note! Skillful dads make Zaitsev cubes with their own hands. They use old plastic cubes from a set of children's toys, cover them with paper, and label the warehouses with a felt-tip pen. They fill it with everything that is in the house: scraps of wooden blocks, iron filings, beans. And pictures with tables can be downloaded on the Internet and printed on a home printer.

An alternative to syllables is warehouses

How then can you teach a child to read, since letters and syllables only confuse him and delay the moment of mastering reading?
The basic unit of language for Zaitsev is not a sound, a letter or a syllable, but a warehouse.

A warehouse is a pair of a consonant and a vowel, or a consonant and a hard or soft sign, or even one letter. For example, SO-BA-KA, PA-RO-VO-3, A-I-S-T, etc. The warehouse principle of reading is the basis of Zaitsev’s method of teaching children to read.

Why a warehouse?

“Everything we pronounce is a combination of a vowel-consonant pair,” explains Nikolai Alexandrovich. - A consonant must be followed by a vowel sound. It may not be indicated in the letter, but it is there.” Our ancestors felt this and put “yat” at the end of nouns ending in a consonant. Say, for example, the word: “o-a-zis”, holding your hand on your throat, and you will feel the force of the ligaments before the “o” and before the “a”, or, in Zaitsev’s terminology, “the muscular force of the speech apparatus.” This very effort is the warehouse.

Application of the technique in action

The easiest way to understand the essence of Zaitsev’s method and the technique of teaching reading is through practice. Build a system of activities with your child step by step, use the instructions and guide to the program.

Prepare visual material

It will take a couple of hours to glue the cardboard cubes and fill them. The necessary material is included in the kit. Think in advance about how many cubes you will need to add long words.

We advise you to make photocopies of blanks with warehouses in order to add elements to the set. This recommendation applies to all vowels and vowels with consonants S, P, M.

Buy a pointer about 1 meter long or make one out of wood

Glue and strengthen the cubes

Fasten cardboard cubes from blanks with Moment glue or PVA. You can place another frame made of thick paper or a plastic cube inside to make the toy stronger. Dry for at least 2-4 hours, tighten them with a rubber band, so the toy will not come apart. Then cover the top with tape or laminate the cardboard blanks in advance.

Prepare tables

Trim along the lines, align the edges and glue with tape. If the parts of the poster are not held together, they will move apart. Hang them on the wall so that a two-year-old child can reach the topmost fold with his finger. When the preschooler's height allows, raise the posters higher. If possible, place a large table in a corner with its edges spreading across two walls. This way the child can easily reach any element with an outstretched hand.

Show your baby the blocks

Give the entire set at once. Let him take and play with those that he likes first. Spend 2-4 days studying the toys. Play.

Learn songs

Turn on the included disc and sing the warehouses. Link singing to looking at cubes. You can’t read letters and memorize words, you just need to sing.

Give the cubes names

Focus on the fillers inside the plastic or cardboard toy and the size of the cube. Say this, give me a big cube - it will be dad, wooden, gold, iron, small.

Double cubes can be called grandparents.

Sing the warehouses at the same time as squatting, rising on tiptoes

This is necessary for orientation in the dimensions of the cube. When you sing warehouses of large toys, rise on tiptoes, small ones - squat.

Show warehouses in the table

The child takes a cube, and you show this warehouse on the poster, sing together.

Learn to write

It is to write with a pointer or finger in the warehouse table, and not to read. You can try this exercise when the child recognizes the words for his name. Ask him to show them one by one on the poster. US-TYA, AN-TON. Then write familiar words and names of relatives.

Expand your vocabulary and reading skills through play

This is very easy to do using cubes. Come up with any story about your baby's travels, for example during the holidays.

Masha decided to go stay with her grandmother, then with her grandfather, and finally with Uncle Kolya. She returned to mom and dad at the end of summer.

Collect the words: GRANDMOTHER, GRANDFATHER, UNCLE KOLYA, MOTHER, DAD on cubes. Place them at different ends of the room. Tell the story, and the child will run to the relative you named. Kids really like the active play form of learning. This way you can play out any plot.

Play every day

It doesn’t matter how much time you have time to devote to cubes, tables, 5–10 or 40 minutes. The main thing is to play every day, constantly interest the child, and come up with new types of entertainment.

This is interesting! The warehouse method of reading was known long before Nikolai Zaitsev developed his own training system.

This is how Leo Tolstoy taught children to read in rural schools. Zaitsev improved the proven methodology and made it clear and simple for a modern preschooler.

Watch this video that details how to properly teach children to read using Zaitsev's cubes.

How to practice using Zaitsev’s method at home?

The tables included in the kit are placed on the wall. Their lower edge should be at a height of approximately 170 cm from the floor. This is not too high, but optimal for developing children's vision. The letters in the tables are depicted quite large and clearly, they are clearly visible even from a distance of 10 meters. All material in the tables is completely systematized and presented before your eyes.

Zaitsev suggests using his materials to include in the learning process:

• visual perception : the child examines the cube, sees different colors;
• touch and tactile memory : the child touches, twists, plays, throws a cube;
• auditory perception : we voice the words - we pronounce or, even better, we sing the words, and remember that each cube sounds differently.

Pointers should be approximately 1.5 meters long or more so that children, without going close to the tables, can look around the entire table field. There should be shelves for cubes under the tables.

Rhythmic pronunciation and especially singing are powerful means of influencing a child’s memory. From the first lesson, you should sing the entire table from beginning to end, showing the necessary warehouses on it. Children repeat after adults. The warehouse blocks are similar to each other and children soon begin to recognize them and reproduce them from memory.

Singing songs help quickly capture warehouses. By following an adult's pointer, children learn to be attentive, their eyes train to glide along a line, move to the next, and notice punctuation marks.

Games and exercises

Nikolai Zaitsev included many different tasks in a playful form in the textbook for teachers and parents. It is not necessary to stop at copyrighted materials; you can come up with games yourself.

Locomotive

Build a train of carriages with your child. But don’t ask to take all the cubes in a row. Use those cardboard toys that have a specific letter on them. For example, A. Show what the letter looks like. Explain that such a warehouse is found only on large cubes. Install the first trailer yourself.

It doesn't matter how many blocks a child uses. Celebrate every success. Before setting off, the warehouses need to be sung. The child must move his finger through the letter combinations.

Singing Tower

Build a tall tower using cubes. Tell her that she is magical and can sing. Ask which cube your baby wants to listen to. Let him point with his finger. Slowly sing the warehouse. The preschooler's gaze should be directed at the indicated cube while singing. After a few days, sing in chorus.

We sing according to the table

The preschooler already knows that blocks can sing. Go to the table. Take a pointer and show the warehouses. Sing any column, moving slowly from top to bottom. Then show these warehouses on cubes. It's better to start with the golden one (a series of vowels).

Sing exaggeratedly, rhythmically, clearly moving your lips and tongue. In the first lessons, children usually follow not the pointer, but the movements of the teacher’s mouth. When the child takes the initiative and wants to work with the pointer himself, stand near the poster together. Now he is the teacher and you are the student.

Nonsense

Making words out of cubes is boring, but sometimes you can have some fun. Place cubes without syllable rules. The result will be absurd. Children really like these games; they repeat their parents’ chaotic words, but at the same time they learn to recognize warehouses.

What do I eat

We create a menu for lunch or remember our favorite dishes. A child writes on a poster with a pointer. SOUP, SALAD, CUTLETE, JUICE and so on.

Puzzles

Play riddles, write down the answers in cubes or show them in a table. If the answer is not found, write the correct version yourself, and the child must read it.

Repeat

Exercise for developing memory and attention. Write a word in cubes, show it to your child, then put it aside or hide it. Let him repeat what he saw with the warehouses in the table.

Write according to the picture

Show your child a picture with a lot of objects. For example, an image of toys placed in a room. The child must write the names of all recognizable objects in turn.

Games with blocks for children from 0 to 6 months

It is useless, unnecessary and even harmful to teach anything specifically at this age. A child already goes through a long journey from a helpless newborn to a mischievous baby who can already do a lot of things. Therefore, there is no need to overload him with a large number of additional activities.

During this period, the cubes simply accompany the child. This is one of his toys, entertainment. There is no need to do any classes. Just keep a few cubes on hand at all times and sometimes show your baby a warehouse, a cube, or a word. The cubes are different, they sound different. Pay your baby's attention to this.

Use the blocks as a rattle. And even if you do this rarely, from time to time, nothing bad will happen. Even minimal interaction with the blocks will do its job - prepare the baby for further learning.

Don't expect your baby to show words or words. Just play. Don't test your baby, don't try to understand what he learned from your games. He undoubtedly sees everything, hears everything, gradually remembers everything and will produce the result in due time.

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Which is better - Zaitsev's or Chaplygin's cubes

Evgeny Chaplygin is the author of his own method of teaching reading. Following the example of Zaitsev, he uses cubes with letters and warehouses as educational material. The set contains 10 double letters, 10 single letters and a rotating panel for composing syllables.

The educational systems of Zaitsev and Chaplygin have much in common. To understand how they differ, let’s conduct a comparative analysis. We use the opinions of kindergarten teachers, parents, and school teachers.

Another advantage of Chaplygin’s cubes is their compliance with the school education system adopted by the Russian Ministry of Education. There is no confusion in the minds of children in the first grade.

Games with blocks from 6 months to a year

The cube as a rattle is already boring for the baby. So keep showing the cubes and naming the warehouses. After you have shown and named the cubes several times, ask them to find a cube with certain folds. Let the baby crawl among the cubes laid out on the floor and find the one he needs.

Make simple words from cubes. For example, denoting pieces of furniture that surround the baby: wardrobe, sofa, chair. Some words can be left for a while (for example, the word CLOSET can be placed in a closet on a shelf or directly on a closet). And some will have to be removed immediately so as not to damage the cubes (for example, the word CHAIR on the chair will last until the baby grabs it or a tired dad sits down on your word).

Zaitsev's reading table

Zaitsev’s technology involves working with cubes and wall posters. Parents neglect the last condition. But in vain. Posters are necessary for the transition to reading texts. The tables show the same warehouses as those on the cubes, but in the required sequence. With the help of posters, the child systematizes the acquired knowledge and practices speed reading.

If a preschooler studies using Zaitsev’s cubes in preschool educational institutions or development centers, repeat the material using mini-cards at home. This is similar to wall posters. You can take them for a walk or on a trip. A4 format easily fits into a paper folder or backpack. Download the layouts online and print them on a color printer.

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Who is the Zaitsev system suitable for?

Let's summarize. Zaitsev's method certainly has many advantages. And the most important thing, perhaps, is that almost any child can be taught. Age and temperament don't matter. Zaitsev himself has repeatedly emphasized: children learn through play, at the pace they need, without prodding. So, if you like the method and are willing to spend time and money on building benefits, go for it.

However, experts note that Zaitsev’s method is more suitable for right-hemisphere children who think figuratively and therefore more easily perceive a word or word as a whole, while analytical skills are their Achilles heel.

Reviews

Read reviews on Zaitsev's cubes left by parents, teachers of early development centers, kindergartens and schools. They will help you form your own opinion about the author’s technology, decide to buy a set or abandon this idea.

Marina, mother of 4-year-old Sonya:

— I recently learned about Zaitsev’s technique. I read rave reviews on forums for moms and decided to use the development. Today we had our tenth lesson with my daughter. I am delighted! Sonya immediately became interested in the cubes, we play with pleasure every day. A little more than a week has passed, and she is already singing many of the lines herself. If we move at this pace, we will master speed reading in a few months. A very unexpected result for me.

Olga, preschool teacher:

— We started classes according to the Zaitsev system with middle group (4–5 years old) kindergarten students as an experiment. The results after 6 months were different for all the children. But no one has yet learned to read fluently. It seems to me that according to Zaitsev’s development it is better to study individually, at home, or with a teacher at the center, then the result will be better.

Oleg, Ira’s dad (5 years old):

“Zaitsev’s cubes were of no use to us at all.” We started studying at the age of 4, built houses and locomotives from them, and tried to draw our daughter’s attention to letters. The result is zero. We left it for games, we will try to read it later using a regular ABC book.

Irina Vladislavovna, speech therapist:

— I have been using Zaitsev’s cubes in practical work with children with ODD and SDD for a long time, about 10 years. Therefore, I can judge the effectiveness of the method objectively, taking into account extensive experience. In short, reading by word order, of course, cannot be a panacea for all children.

Someone reacts to them with great interest, actively sings, listens, and completes tasks. Other children are quite the opposite. But I still advise all parents to buy a set, since 80% of my students read fluently at school, speech problems are solved in the learning process, and the speed of thought processes increases.

Nadezhda, teacher:

“I didn’t have time to teach my children using Zaitseva’s method; I learned about it when they were already grown up. But I have been using this technology with children in preparation for school for 8 years. When I hear parents say, “Our method doesn’t work for us,” I come to the following conclusion: the method didn’t work for those who devote 1-2 days a month to classes. This is due to busyness, pessimism or something else.

For those who invest a little effort and 15 minutes a day, everything goes smoothly. Therefore, I conduct open classes for parents, showing that singing warehouses is easy and interesting. Many people get inspired and get results.

Oksana, mother of three children:

— I advise you to teach your child to read as early as possible. We bought Zaitsev blocks for our first child back in 2005. We tried it and abandoned it; our son was not interested. In 2014, twins were born. We took the cubes out of the box when they were 3-4 months old. They played, sang, read, and did not attach much importance to learning. Until we saw that at one year old they began to hand the cubes into our hands and sing the warehouses themselves.

We hung up the tables and began to study purposefully. As a result, both twins are reading by the age of 4. I advise everyone to try and not stop once you start. If you make an effort, there will definitely be results.

Matvey, Roman's dad (8 years old):

“I think that it’s illogical to bother children with reading and numbers at an early age. Let him play, relax, gain experience with bumps and bruises. We started thinking about recruiting Zaitsev when he was about 5 years old. This is the optimal age to prepare for school, in my opinion.

We read the description of the classes with my wife, figured it out, started trying to read scriptures to our son, sing, and used all the games from the book of assignments. But the son decided that he did not need it or did not want to study with his mother.

We signed up to see a teacher, to a development center. I went there with pleasure, wrote copybooks, learned to read according to Zhukova, and mastered mental arithmetic. As a result, Zaitsev’s kit was not useful to us. In favor of the method, I will say that it did not harm the child.

Games with cubes after a year

Continue with the previous exercises and gradually introduce more difficult ones. In Nikolai Zaitsev’s book “Letter. Reading. Counting" there are a lot of interesting games and tasks with dice. But you will soon discover that you don’t have enough ready-made material; you need to come up with your own. Your games will be no less interesting, and your baby will love them even more than the “branded” ones, because you know what he likes to play and will try to choose a game to suit his taste. To the railroad? Well, use PA-RO-VO-3 cubes with VA-GO-NA-MI. Build cities? COMPLETE FOR-MO-K V-L-SHE-B-NI-KA. With girls who love to hang out in the kitchen, you can “cook” K-T-LE-YOU or, say, K-M-PO-T. You can play right in the kitchen; ask your child to find the “products” - warehouses, without which lunch will not work. While the baby is looking for the right cube, he goes through dozens of others again and again, remembering along the way the warehouses that are depicted on them.

Play “shop”, “zoo”, “travel”. Let the child make up the names of the animals he saw at the zoo, or “pack” a suitcase, putting in the words needed for the trip.

Invite your child to come up with as many words as possible with a certain letter (or word) “just like that” or on some topic.

After you have played with blocks and tables with your child several times, he has seen many words written by you, he has seen his name and other familiar words more than once, invite him to try to write something on his own. For example, give your child blocks with which he can write his name. As a rule, all children quickly cope with this task. Next time, invite him to find “his” cubes himself and write his name.

It is interesting to write the word by moving the pointer across the table and naming the warehouses. Collect a word from cubes and invite the child to “write” it in the table himself, looking for warehouses and showing them with his finger. Swap places, now you “write” the word on the table, and the baby writes with cubes.

When the child has memorized many of the blocks and learned to write words, make the tasks more difficult: offer to invent and write words not “just like that,” but according to certain rules. For example, come up with and write words where the same letter is repeated: TOAD, STICK, CARAVAN, BARANKA, CHEST, CHIPMUNK, MILK, GOOD, POWDER. Get the kid interested, let the kid get one point for each cube - the more cubes, the longer the word, the more points. And over time, the points I collect can turn into something tasty or interesting.

Or here’s a game: you need to come up with and write a word with certain parameters on a table or in cubes. For example, a word must consist of four cubes - two large, two small - or not contain the letter I and a soft sign. Compliance with all conditions gives the player 5 points. For each mistake, one point is deducted. Examples of such words: ne-ve-S-TA, VO-RO-be-y.

What is the reading process?

A person learns to read in order to process information and the semantic load contained in the text. Let's take a quick look at the reading mechanism. The eye sees letters, i.e. signs symbolizing sounds familiar to a person. In a special section of the cerebral cortex - the visual analyzer - signs are combined into a whole word. Next, speech-auditory and speech-motor analysis occurs (a person pronounces a word and hears it, or does it “to himself”), impulses go to the memory departments of the brain, and the word is searched for in memory stores. This way, what you read is given meaning.

A little history of N. Zaitsev’s technique

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zaitsev (1939 – 2018) – Russian teacher, developer of teaching methods. For some time he worked as a Russian language teacher and translator in Indonesia. He had to teach military specialists who did not speak Russian to read instructions. During practical training, he developed an optimal system, which became innovative. Zaitsev used cubes, putting parts of words, phrases, and syllables on their sides. When composed, words were obtained. The technique was successfully tested on foreigners.

In 1989, the spread of N.A.’s unique practice began. Zaitsev in domestic educational institutions. But children who learned to read using this system were ahead of their peers in terms of knowledge, which led to disharmony in primary schools. Therefore, the technique was not recommended by the Ministry of Education.

Cubes

If you bought blanks, you will first have to assemble or glue them. Even if the baby has expressed a desire to do this on his own, it is better to control the process - then he will not be tempted to “gut” the “ringing” cube and examine its filling. It makes sense to reinforce paper cubes with cardboard from the inside and tape along the edges. It is best to “duplicate” the most frequently used warehouses. Before assembling, simply copy the images and make several identical cubes - then your child will be able to form any words without any problems.

Benefit

The Zaitsev's Cubes set includes a teaching aid; of course, it is better for your child to learn from an experienced teacher who has mastered the Zaitsev method well, for example, in a kindergarten or in a children's development center. But you can work with your baby yourself. Honestly, there is nothing complicated here, just read the manual carefully - the whole process is described there in accessible language and in great detail, there are also descriptions of many games and interesting tasks with which you can start learning. Later, you can come up with games yourself that will be interesting to your baby. If for some reason singing warehouses is a problem for you, pronounce them in recitative. When singing or pronouncing words, show them on the table with a pointer or on a cube, turning it in front of the child - this is very important! Simultaneous exposure to sound and vision dramatically increases learning efficiency. In addition, the child trains his vision and memory, and also learns attention.