Teaching children using Zaitsev’s method: when and where to start

Zaitsev's cubes are a fairly popular guide; even those who have nothing to do with teaching children to read have heard of it. But why cubes have earned their popularity and how they differ from other methods of teaching reading often remains a mystery to many. Is this expensive manual really so “miraculous” that your child will learn to read in just a few lessons? And how do Zaitsev’s cubes (Ozon, KoroBoom) differ from ordinary cubes with letters?

In fact, some questions remain with parents even after purchasing the benefit. In particular, the most important question is how to teach a small child using Zaitsev’s method so that it is really interesting? After all, the rather thick book included in the kit cannot boast of a clear and harmonious program of activities for kids.

In this article, I will briefly talk about the basic principles of Zaitsev’s method of teaching reading, and most importantly, I will give options for games with cubes that will help build fun and interesting lessons. Zaitsev's Cubes (Ozon, KoroBoom) – the manual is truly unique and worthy of attention!

about the author

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zaitsev (born in 1939) worked for many years as an educator and teacher of literature, Russian and English. Has a pedagogical education. And working with children for many years, I began to practice early development. This happened at the beginning of the 20th century.

He worked with different children: in a juvenile colony, in orphanages, in boarding schools for mentally retarded children, and in regular schools.

As he accumulates his teaching experience, Zaitsev makes a choice for himself that he is interested in working with preschool children and the talk comes about the birth of a new school for early development.

In the 70s of the last century, few people practiced such development, since Soviet education did not accept any innovations of this kind. There was no Internet, and not every village had libraries.

Information stagnated and was in no hurry to spread. Many years passed before they returned to this system and began to apply it.

In 1989, the Mazai society was created, which used Zaitsev’s development programs and he is a leading specialist. This is where the active dissemination of the method begins and the production of cubes begins.

In 1992, the author slightly modernized his methodology and greatly simplified it to make classes accessible at home.

Nowadays, the system is used quite successfully and may be familiar to many; it is used in schools and kindergartens.

The Mazai Society was renamed into Zaitsev Methodology LLC and publishes various manuals and original developments, such as:

Zaitsev's cubes. For practicing at home, you can make them yourself ().
“240 pictures for teaching writing, reading, drawing.” An excellent set of flashcards for activities that will allow your child to expand their vocabulary and knowledge, learn to read whole words and this is just a fun game.
"Thousand +" () - teaching mathematics.
“Who lives around me, what grows around me.” A study guide with flashcards for children learning to read.
"Songs and nursery rhymes." This is a restoration of Russian folk and everyone's favorite short poems, which were collected from different books. This book also comes with a CD of songs.
"Pure twisters and tongue twisters." Let's learn to speak correctly.
There are also numerous games and puzzles, mosaics and board games.

He is also the author of many educational books, for example:

Zaitsev N. A., Struve G. A. “Read and Sing” - funny and unpretentious nursery rhymes for classes.
Zaitsev N.A. "Letter. Reading. Check" ()
I also recommend this book for reading - Afanasova E.G. “The Game Library of Writing and Reading by N.A. Zaitsev”, the methods of games and activities are popularly described here. ()

Yes, I almost forgot, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if you hummed the lines during lessons with your child, so the child perceives information more easily and remembers faster. And the author’s own sing-along songs will help you with this. ()

Using Zaitsev's methods, you can teach children reading, writing, drawing, mathematics and grammar, geography, botany, zoology, ecology, foreign languages and other sciences. Each subject has its own teaching materials and teaching aids.

Despite its successful popularity, Zaitsev’s technique is never officially recognized.

Model of kindergartens according to Zaitsev

The Zaitsev system is often used in kindergartens to teach children:

reading;
mathematics;
singing in chorus;
synthesis of drawing and writing;
basic grammar;
anatomy;
geography;
ecology;
botany;
zoology.

Zaitsev has developed and tested special techniques and manuals for all these areas. In addition to teaching a child writing, reading, and counting, Zaitsev’s methods involve introducing children to the world around them.

At the age of 3, children experience a crisis in the formation of their personality, which is associated with the formation of their own self. A child who does not understand what is required of him and why refuses to follow the rules proposed by adults. The child begins to neglect his own safety.

The introduction of such areas as anatomy, ecology, and geography into the kindergarten curriculum is quite justified. As children get to know themselves, they consciously follow the rules proposed by adults. It is at 4-7 years old that a child easily navigates:

to maintain a healthy lifestyle;
on not smoking;
not drinking alcohol;
not using drugs;
to preserve the environment;
to maintain your health;
for your safety.

And for this, the baby must understand his structure, know about things that are useful and harmful for him. Moreover, after anatomy, botany appears, and then zoology. This signifies the importance of man in nature. And geography is the path to peace.

Everything is connected here: anatomy is the path from oneself to the world, and geography is from the world to oneself and from oneself to the world.

In kindergartens with such items, injuries are rare, children are not afraid of doctors, strive for physical education, are non-aggressive, neat, eat properly and strive to learn even more about the world around them.

Zaitsev’s pedagogy of cooperation is very non-aggressive and gentle towards the child:

The mentor offers the children all the material at once, who master it at a comfortable pace.
The mentor works according to the child’s program without forcing him to do anything.
The absence of assessment of children excludes the emergence of lagging behind. Children's fear disappears, they just play, and in the game it is possible to lose.
The atmosphere in the classroom is very democratic, children do not notice the learning process itself, they just play, and the teacher guides them in the right direction.

Basic principles of the technique

Zaitsev seriously thought about how educational material was presented to children. At that time it was a bare structure: theory and consolidation of the material - an exercise for the lesson.

The child quickly gets tired of such activities and does not remember most of the information, or remembers it, but not for long.

Zaitsev decided to make changes to this pedagogy and proposed a completely new understanding of the material.

The peculiarity of this method is that all the material that needs to be studied is immediately shown to the child and is constantly systematized before his eyes in the form of special tables.

The methodology is based on principles that everyone knows about, but not everyone adheres to. According to Zaitsev’s method, the learning process should consist of:

Visual perception: the child examines the cube, here we see different colors.
Touch and tactile memory: from a concrete image we move on to action. We let the child look, touch, twirl, play, and maybe even throw it.
Hearing: we voice the words - we sing the warehouses and each cube sounds differently.
All material is completely systematized and presented before your eyes in the form of a table.

He is convinced that a child learns material 90% better when the teacher does not talk through the material, but clearly shows it.

If in Russian children first learn letters, then add syllables, then get the complete word. In no language in the world do they read by letter, this complicates and slows down the process of learning to read.

Years of practice led him to invent specially designed cubes. Let's take a closer look at them.

Zaitsev tables

Zaitsev's tables are highly systematic visual teaching aids on which all educational material is modeled.

The tables present all the material at once and are hung on the walls.

They create a learning information environment. Tables are multifunctional intermediaries between students and mentors:

learn;
give information;
are guides to educational material;
practice the necessary skills;
help mutual learning.

According to the contents of the table, they are divided into:

to warehouses (for comparing the qualities of sounds - softness, dullness, sonority, hardness, softness and for composing words);
for hundreds (for learning to count within 100 - this is a 4-color tape with numbers from 0-99, groups of squares and circles for learning tens, even-odd);
to mathematical ones (shows what numbers are made of, their properties, operations on them, the origin of numbers, fractions, powers).

Tables and cubes are inseparable parts of the learning process.

Magic cubes

Zaitsev gives us a new model of training: warehouses. He modeled his cubes with warehouses written on the sides. The sets you may find on sale may differ slightly: in size, weight, material from which they are made and fillings. This is 52 cubes (in which 7 syllables are repeated for such words, for example mom).

A syllable, unlike a syllable, is not only a combination of a consonant and a vowel, it can also be a separate letter, as in the word S-LO-N, or a combination of a letter and a sign (soft or hard), for example Ть or Нь.

This makes it easier for the child to understand, since in the recent past he learned to pronounce his first words in this way.

For example, MA-MA, MA-SHI-NA. This is how the child begins to speak, and this makes it easier for him to learn to read.

But what is their feature?

They can be wooden or iron. And for good reason. Iron ones indicate voiced warehouses, wooden ones - deaf ones.
All the letters on them are of different colors, for example, vowels are blue, consonants are blue. This way we can distinguish vowels from consonants.
Signs (hard and soft) in green.
Large and small cubes also have differences: the large ones are hard, the small ones are soft.
There are no warehouses ZHY, SHY, ZHYA, SHCHYA, which will allow the child not to make gross mistakes in words.
White cube with punctuation marks.

This is how the child gets acquainted with words and begins to read, or better yet, speak. Then you can move on to the training tables.

Article:

Don't study, but play! This is how we can briefly characterize Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zaitsev’s method of teaching reading. Perhaps this is the most popular technique today. With its help, advocates of early development teach their little ones to read, write, count and even master foreign languages. And children are not against such training. After all, all that is required of them is to play with bright cubes and sing songs.

How Zaitsev's cubes appeared

Nikolai Zaitsev was born and raised in a family of rural teachers and had no doubt about his choice of specialty: after school he entered the philological faculty of the Pedagogical University. Herzen. In his fifth year he was sent as a translator to Indonesia. There Nikolai Alexandrovich began teaching Russian as a foreign language. This event became the starting point in the creation of his unique system of teaching reading and writing. One of the most difficult languages in the world - Russian - had to be taught in the shortest possible time. The students were adults, people who were no longer accustomed to studying—officers. Such a task seemed impossible, but Zaitsev did it brilliantly. He invented new methods on the fly, came up with original tables, tried to penetrate into the essence of the language in order - as Zaitsev himself put it - “to learn to convey it to others.”

Success inspired the young teacher to develop his own teaching system. A system that takes into account the psychological characteristics of the perception of the Russian language, is free of unnecessary conventions and cumbersome rules, and is visual. Zaitsev began testing his method of teaching Russian in secondary schools. The test result was depressing: Nikolai Alexandrovich was faced with the fact that the students did not understand their native language at all and preferred to memorize the rules rather than delve into them. The children, of course, were not to blame. After all, they are used to learning this way.

Then Zaitsev turned to preschoolers, including the youngest - children from one and a half years old. The methods were adapted for children - learning was reduced to games. And here the teacher expected success. His invention, the cubes, was called the “ringing miracle.” Children who had difficulty mastering literacy began to read within just a few lessons. The method has proven itself so well that a number of schools have decided to completely switch to training according to Zaitsev.

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 is difficult to read 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.

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.

Warehouses on cubes

The baby sees warehouses not in a book, not on cards, but on cubes. This is a fundamental point of Zaitsev’s system.

Why cubes?

Reading requires the work of analytical thinking (letters are abstract icons; the brain converts them into sounds from which it synthesizes words), which begins to form only at school. That is why we and our parents began to learn to read at this age.

The child’s lack of analytical thinking is compensated by a heightened perception of signals provided by his senses. Therefore, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zaitsev relied on vision, hearing and tactile sensations. He wrote warehouses on the faces of the cubes. He made the cubes different in color, size and the sound they make, so each time they are accessed, different channels of perception are activated. This helps children feel, not understand, the difference between vowels and consonants, voiced and soft.

Using these cubes, the child makes words and begins to read them. Zaitsev's idea is simple: what is good to show, there is no need to talk about it for a long time (it is better to see it once). Children must first be shown the subject of study in an interesting way, let them play with it, and then give a definition. This is how the holy law of learning is observed: from the concrete-figurative through the visual-effective to the verbal-logical.

Zaitsev's cubes. What types of cubes are there?

The “Zaitsev's Cubes” set contains 52 cubes (seven of them are repeated to build the words PA-PA, MA-MA, DYA-DYA and the like, which are closest to the child, especially at first. The cubes are divided into large and small, single and double, gold, iron-gold, wooden-gold. There is one white cube with punctuation marks. The cubes also vary in color.

The big ones are cubes with hard folds. Small - cubes with soft folds.

However, Nikolai Aleksandrovich strongly disagrees with the definition of “soft-hard”: what is hard and soft here? But there are big and small! Compare how your mouth opens when you say BA or BYA.

Large and small cubes come in different colors and with different fillings.

Doubles are cubes glued together, with consonants that do not combine—“be friends”—with all vowels. For example, ZH(ZH)-ZHA-ZHO(ZHE)-ZHU-ZHI-ZHE. Options such as “zhy”, “shi”, “chya”, “shcha” are simply excluded.

Iron - cubes with ringing warehouses.

Wooden cubes - with muted warehouses.

Golden ones are cubes with vowels.

Iron-wood - used for warehouses with solid signs.

Wooden and gold - for warehouses with soft signs.

The white cube is used to indicate punctuation marks.

The letters on the cubes are written in different colors:

vowels - blue; consonants - blue; hard and soft signs - green.

Many teachers and parents are confused by this coloring, because the school standard is completely different: consonants are blue or green, vowels are red. This means that the baby will have to be retrained. However, the author of the method claims that avoiding red-blue-green combinations allows one to avoid the color “torn” of words, and therefore children immediately begin to read fluently, without hesitation.

Getting ready for classes step by step

Glue the cubes

Zaitsev's cubes come in three types: standard unassembled, assembled and plastic. The cubes from the standard (unassembled) set include blank cubes that you need to glue together yourself. You can do this exciting activity in the dead of night while your beloved child is sleeping. But imagine what the first action will be performed by a small child who receives a cube with some kind of rattles or noisemakers inside? Right! He'll tear it apart. And if you glue the cubes together, such a temptation will not arise, because it is already clear what is inside.

Think about strengthening your cubes in advance. To do this, you can insert another cube, almost the same size, cut out of thick cardboard, inside the cube.

You can glue the cubes with Moment glue. If you don’t have it, you can use PVA glue. While the glue is drying, tighten the cube with rubber bands so that it does not move apart.

Be sure to protect the cubes - cover them with tape on all sides. Before gluing, you can laminate the development or wrap it with thermal film, and after assembly, also tape the corners of the edges with tape.

After gluing with tape or thermal film, the cubes can glare in bright light, then you must make sure each time that the child can see clearly, looking at the cube from his point of view - literally sitting in its place.

Hanging tables

It is advisable to first cut the tables included in the set of Zaitsev’s cubes along the line shown at the edges. Then, aligning the edges of the table parts, glue them together with glue or tape. If you hang the parts of the table without gluing them together, then during the lesson they may begin to “move apart”.

It is also advisable to wrap the tables with thermal film. Thanks to this, they will not tear or get dirty during use.

In Zaitsev’s book and in the methodological manual attached to the set of cubes, it is written that it is advisable to hang the tables high, with the lower edge at the level of an adult’s head or higher. However, these recommendations are based on the fact that Zaitsev’s cubes are mainly used in a group (the author of the technique himself only worked with groups of children). If you hang the charts low, children will block each other's writing. But if you study with Zaitsev’s cubes at home, then you have one listener - your child. In addition, classes in groups begin at 3-4 years old, and at home a mother can study with a two-year-old or even one-year-old baby. Such a baby simply will not be able to see anything on a high-hanging table. Therefore, hang the tables at home so that the baby can reach the top edge of the table with his raised hand. When he grows up, lift the table - the child should reach for it, and not bend over.

And one more important note. The table is too big for a very small child. To see several warehouses drawn at different ends of the table, he needs to either move far away (then he will not be able to show them), or run back and forth along the table. It is best, if you have such an opportunity, to hang the table in the corner of the room, bending it in half. Then the baby will be able, standing in one place, to easily reach any edge of the table with his hand.

It is advisable to place the tables in the place where the baby visits most often, that is, in his room. But if there is absolutely no space there, then you can place them in another room, in the hallway or even in the kitchen.

Wall tables are just as important as cubes, don't neglect them.

The author of the method, Nikolai Zaitsev, is very proud of the fact that when working on tables, vision does not deteriorate, but sometimes even improves, because the eyeball is always in motion, looking for warehouses.

Learning songs

It is necessary to learn them, because you and your child will not pronounce the warehouses drawn on the cubes, but sing them. According to Nikolai Alexandrovich, learning to read with singing is much more effective, interesting and fun than without it. And some children at a tender age cannot be taught to read any other way.

Bringing the cubes to life

Let's play with cubes

Now the child comes into play. All cubes with storage areas are made available to the child immediately and forever. Don't be afraid that your baby will get confused. Precise systematization allows you to quickly grasp the patterns of language, without clogging the child’s head with all kinds of “scientific” ideas. To begin with, let him choose the cube that he likes more than others. Take it and, turning the side you call towards the child, sing all the folds. Now let the baby choose a large wooden cube. Then small. Gold. Iron. When all types of sizes and sounds have been mastered, you can sing the column of warehouses according to the table to your child and ask him to find a cube with the same chant. This way he will at the same time master both warehouses and their classification.

You stand at the table, take the pointer in your hands and start chanting. Please note that you need to articulate the sounds well, to show the child that the sounds are different: large and small, ringing and rustling.

For clarity, you can move: stand on tiptoes or squat, spread your arms, etc.

It is very important to breathe life into the cubes. Come up with names for the cubes: here’s the big daddy cube B-BA-BO-BU-BE-BE, and here’s the little baby cube B-BYA-BE-BY-BI-BE. Double cubes are grandparents.

Let's start writing

Next, according to the methodology, you need to start writing (precisely writing, not reading! - reading will come by itself).

Don't be afraid if your child is not yet able to hold a pen. You don't need to write with pen on paper. The baby will move a pointer or finger along the table, singing: “Ba-bo-bu-be-be, Ma-sha, mo-lo-ko.” He needs to understand how words are composed, take them apart and put them back together again. And, of course, you need to write using cubes, making words from them.

Start writing with what is most dear to the child - the name. By the way, you can write KO-LYA, but it’s better - NI-KO-LA-Y A-LE-K-SE-E-VI-CH (the child will be glad to feel big). Then make up the names of toys, the names of loved ones. Having collected the word MOTHER at one end of the room, GRANDMOTHER LISA on the table, and UNCLE PETER at the window, start an active word game: “Hurry up and run to GRANDMOTHER! Look who came to us - UNCLE PETY! Meet him! And now MOTHER is calling you with her!” In this way, reading on the move can be taught without sacrificing vision and posture to literacy. Please note that we do not teach a child to read or write using blocks, we just play.

There's not enough cube! What to do?

Indeed, there are not enough cubes in the set to write certain words. For example, you want to write the word BANANA, but we have only one cube with warehouses NA and N (cube NU-NO-NA-NE-NY-N) and it is impossible to rotate it with two faces at the same time. Often there are not enough cubes with words in S, M, P, and cubes with vowels.

What to do?

If you bought cubes, don’t rush to glue them together right away. First, photocopy the scans of the most commonly used cubes on a color copier. Cut out the base for them from cardboard.

If you don’t want to make anything extra, then write those words that you cannot write in cubes on a sheet of paper with felt-tip pens, highlighting the warehouses with different colors, or write on the table with a pointer.

Games with dice

When, where, how much to play

Play with blocks at least once a day. The time spent playing the game may be different each time. Sometimes it’s 5-10 minutes, sometimes the child will ask for more and more, and you’ll get carried away and won’t notice how the evening went. But even if a preschooler worked with blocks for 15 minutes, and then rolled cars for a whole hour, he has already taken his toll. A dozen of these classes are enough for a four-year-old to start reading. By the way, teachers of kindergartens where Zaitsev’s system is used unanimously claim that cubes captivate children so much that even those whose mental development cannot be called early are introduced to reading.

It is not necessary to play at the same time of day (only in the morning or only in the evening). Play when you are in the mood and the child is not busy with anything else. You shouldn’t tear him away from building a spaceship or putting a doll to sleep for the obligatory game of Zaitsev’s cubes. It’s better to skip one day completely than to make playing with cubes a compulsion.

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.

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).

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 the baby will love them even more than “cooking” 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.

Let's sing the cube's song

Zaitsev's technique involves not only playing with cubes. It is also necessary to sing and listen to warehouse songs.

It’s better for kids to just sing songs without showing the warehouses on cubes or tables. Older kids already like to look at the warehouses while singing. Under no circumstances ask your child to repeat the lines after you, much less sing on their own. When he wants and can already do this, he will start singing without your request.

Learn to sing the song and at the same time show the warehouse on the cube. Try to turn the cube and pronounce the words quite quickly. If you spend a long time looking for the next warehouse, the child will get bored and refuse to look or listen. If you can't turn it at all, sing only according to the tables.

If singing chants makes you violently indignant (“God, what am I doing, from the outside you might think I’m crazy!”), then don’t sing at all. Just pronounce the warehouses in a row, preferably rhythmically.

You can sing songs during any other dice game.

It will probably be difficult for a fidgety child to just listen to the songs and watch you turn the cube. Try singing while moving. Place the cubes in one room and sit in another. Ask your baby to bring you blocks, sing the syllables from beginning to end, and let the baby run for the next block.

Pros and cons of the Zaitsev system

Read quickly, read fluently

Let's start with the positives.

The undoubted advantage of this technique is that the child immediately remembers the letter combination in a playful way. He doesn’t need to rack his brains over how to read the B and A next to each other. The baby doesn’t falter and quickly masters reading.

We write correctly

Zaitsev's cubes contain only those combinations of letters that are fundamentally possible in the Russian language. For example, in his system there are no combinations Шы or Жы. Studying according to Zaitsev’s manuals, the child will be immediately and for the rest of his life protected from the stupidest mistakes (for example, he will never spell “zhyraf” or “shyn” incorrectly).

The system is not tied to age

Zaitsev's cubes allow you to teach a child to read even from the age of six months. But even five-year-olds are not too late to start. The system is not tied to a specific age.

"Ambulance" for a child who cannot read

If a child does not keep up with the pace of modern school programs, Zaitsev’s system can become a kind of “ambulance”. It is built in such a way that it is easy to understand and easy to work with. Moreover, the author himself claims that, for example, a four-year-old will begin to read after just four lessons.

Children play by themselves

Ideally, cubes and tables should become part of life, and the activities themselves should be unnoticeable. Let each of them last only a few minutes - the result will not be long in coming! And time is saved at the same time - everything happens as if in between. And today's parents are very busy people; they have no time to sit through the evenings with their children preparing homework. Training according to Zaitsev improves health and develops the senses

Zaitsev's cubes affect many senses.

Their color is bright, subtly and precisely chosen, does not irritate the eyes, the text is large and visible from afar, the manuals are located in different places in the room, which means that during the game the eye muscles are trained.

The cubes make sounds of different timbres and pitches, and the parent or teacher will “voice” the cubes many times. This develops an ear for music, a sense of rhythm, and musical memory.

Often in the hands of children, cubes of different sizes will affect fine motor skills of the hands, which in itself has a strong impact on the development of intelligence.

If the manuals are correctly placed along the walls throughout the room and above eye level, you can forever forget about the potential threat of scoliosis, physical inactivity and didactic overload as a result of classes.

Relearning at school

But, as often happens, a plus in some cases becomes a minus.

We said that the baby immediately learns words and this speeds up the process of mastering reading. But to understand how one letter connects and merges with another means making some kind of discovery. Zaitsev deprives the child of the opportunity to come to this discovery himself, immediately offering a ready-made warehouse. What does this lead to? Speech therapists and defectologists say that children who have learned to read “according to Zaitsev” often “swallow” endings and cannot figure out the composition of a word (after all, they are used to dividing it exclusively into clauses and nothing else).

Children have to be retrained already in the first grade, when they begin to undergo phonemic analysis of words. First, the teacher asks to lay out the word on cards: a vowel sound - a red card, a voiced consonant - a blue card, a voiceless consonant - a green card. In Zaitsev's method, sounds are indicated in completely different colors. And since the baby spent a long time fiddling with the cubes, the colors of his sounds, as they say, have already been written down. Try it again! The little one will make mistakes willy-nilly.

Inconsistency of method

There is no combination ZHY or SHY on the dice. This is good, the child will write correctly. But there are combinations of a consonant with the vowel E (BE, VE, GE, etc.). This means that the child gets used to this combination as possible in the language. Meanwhile, this combination is possible only in very few exceptions. There are almost no words in the Russian language in which the letter E is written after a consonant (except for “sir”, “mayor”, “peer”, “ude”, “plein air”, and the last word in modern printing is also written with E). This means that we will have to explain each word in which after a hard consonant we hear “e” and write E, we will have to explain separately, stopping the child’s attempts to write E, but there are a lot of such words, for example, “coupe”, “tennis”, “highway” and etc.

Expensive and time-consuming benefits

Another important aspect. Not every family can afford Zaitsev's benefits. Moreover, you are unlikely to be able to reduce the cost of training, even if you make the cubes yourself. You will still have to spend money on color printing, cardboard, paper, etc.

The manuals need to be glued together; this will take more than one evening. Lastly, the cubes need to be stored somewhere. And if the aids are damaged, which is inevitable if a small child plays with a cardboard cube, restore them.

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.

We learn to read according to Zaitsev. Parents' opinions

And finally, at the end - the opinions of parents who mastered Zaitsev’s technique.

1. We learned from Zaitsev's cubes. I bought a kit, glued it together, gathered the neighbor kids and started studying twice a week for 40 minutes, naturally, all in a playful way and without coercion. Zaitsev gives the words immediately, and the child does not have to explain how the letters form syllables. For about three months we sang the words according to the table, but didn’t read them, and it already seemed to me that nothing would work out, when one day at a bus stop my son asked: “Mom, why does the word “bread” have the letter B at the end and not P?” I began to explain for a long time and confusedly, and then asked how he knew that it was spelled that way. To which the child nodded his head at the store sign and calmly said that “I read it there.” He was three years and ten months old. Gradually the rest of the children started reading too. We didn’t stop studying, we studied for two and a half years until school. At the age of five, everyone read fluently, but the main achievement for us was not reading technique, but the fact that the children fell in love with reading. Fortunately, we have not encountered the situation where a child knows how to read, but does not like it - he is lazy. On the contrary, I have to limit it, I allow reading no more than an hour a day, so as not to spoil my eyesight.

2. We survived Zaitsev's cubes. We practiced them in the garden from the age of three. The result, it must be said, was not enough. Then we went to a speech therapy group. And by the end of the year, after classes according to the old classical program, we began to read.

3. Zaitsev’s cubes didn’t work for us: I tried it when I was a year old, when I was two years old, and just recently. But we generally have a problem with this: no methods work. True, I learned the letters by two, and then... I tried to study using N. Zhukova’s ABC book, type on the computer, and connect the letters. He doesn't want to, that's all. I think it's just too early. The son doesn't understand the meaning.

4. I’ve heard a lot about Zaitsev’s cubes. For example, that children then have problems at school: they can read, but cannot add syllables. But at school they require it. I shared my doubts with the teacher who teaches in our garden according to Zaitsev. She said that she would teach division into syllables additionally. It is not clear, however, what the point is in the two methods.

5. I read in Zaitsev’s book that you can start learning to read from the age of one and a half years. And even successful examples are given. Only for us it didn’t go either to one and a half, or to two and a half. In general, the general opinion is that Zaitsev’s cubes are for group activities. This way they are more effective. But I’m generally wary of them: I read that later at school there are big problems with dividing syllables into sounds. The child can read, but the mechanism of syllable formation is inaccessible to him. In principle, what difference does it make, the main thing is to read, but there is no escape from our education system. So it turns out that according to the traditional method, one must learn how sounds form words, but according to Zaitsev, the child will then, on the contrary, have to learn to break them down. It’s not easy either way.

6. I do not use Zaitsev’s technique in its pure form, only its elements. I like the idea of warehouse reading (very smart) and all the aids (both the cubes and the table). But knowing the letters does not complicate, as Zaitsev says, but simplifies reading with the help of cubes. Zaitsev does not explain how warehouses are made, but I will definitely explain this. You can say, for example, that the letters go to visit each other. I first explain how warehouses (syllables) are obtained using an alphabet book, on a board, or using cards with letters. And only then we look for and read these warehouses on Zaitsev’s cubes and in the table.

7. We have been learning from Zaitsev’s cubes since we were one and a half years old, but not quite regularly, so we’ll miss a day, or even a week. The child likes it, reads simple words of one or two syllables: “mom”, “dad”, “juice”, “sleep”, “house”, etc. He reads complex words of three syllables or more, but what is it? per word, cannot say, names the last two cubes. I try not to give up on classes and finish the job.

8. The eldest learned to read at two and a half years old using Zaitsev’s cubes, but it was not me who taught him, but the teacher in the group. At home, I simply drew warehouses, asking what word Leva wanted to read. At the age of four they read books. Now Leva is nine years old, she loves to read, but without fanaticism. I won’t say that he is any different from those classmates who learned to read at the age of seven. But it was terribly pleasant to see the surprised faces when the three-year-old kid quickly read all the inscriptions that came his way.

For what age

The system is also not tied to a specific age. You can start mastering it at one, two, or five years old.

For children from 1 year: the child will speak faster and at the same time master the basics of reading. But, at first, it is better to play simple games with him: find a large or small cube, sort it by colors or sounds.

Children aged 3 years and older begin to read after just a few lessons. You can model the classes yourself and see for your child, if he is interested, you can do it more often, if he is not interested, put it off. Children usually like to play with blocks, sometimes inappropriately.

Role of parents

Zaitsev's methodology is part of the pedagogy of cooperation. The main thing in it is the creation of a learning environment and a mentor.

The educational environment is created together with parents, which gives a powerful impetus to the development of the child.
Parents should also support the authority of their children's mentors.
If at least one link drops out of the child-mentor-parents system, training becomes useless.
Parents should be passionate about learning and help their child with pleasure. This will be the key to their child's success.
If parents decide to teach their child according to Zaitsev’s method at home, they must create a creative developmental environment, understand the basics of the system, and then begin systematic classes. Only then can we hope for success. We must remember that Zaitsev’s cubes are not just toys, but teaching aids.

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.

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.

Audio CD

Classes on Zaitsev's cubes are usually conducted with musical accompaniment. The set includes an audio CD containing 35 melodies. During each lesson, children will “sing” all the warehouses to them. This is a very important part of learning, because kids learn to pronounce sounds clearly and clearly. The game principle makes this process fun and tireless - as a rule, children sing with great pleasure along with adults. By the way, many educators and parents note that after training using the Zaitsev method, the child’s speech becomes much clearer.

Advantages

Like any other pedagogical find, Zaitsev’s method has both pros and cons. Among its undoubted advantages are the following:

Learning while playing brings real pleasure to the baby. He is interested, the lessons do not cause boredom.
Activities with blocks help develop a child’s fine motor skills, which is useful in itself.
Development of memory – both visual and auditory.
The child has a real chance of learning to read much earlier than his peers, without tedious cramming and tears, and with pleasure.
Literacy training. The warehouses are compiled in such a way that they comply with the rules of the native language, so from an early age the baby will remember that SHI and ZHI should be written without the letter Y.
There are no age restrictions; you can read at any age, the main thing is that the child finds it interesting.

As you can see, there are quite a lot of advantages, and they are significant.

Flaws

Parents should also become familiar with the disadvantages of the technique.

When a child reads a syllable or structure, he does not fully understand the entire process of formation of a separate sound. Therefore, he may begin to miss endings when reading and even in oral speech.
You will have to re-learn at school. The teachers, of course, will be amazed at the little one’s skills, but they will teach him about syllables, as required by the classical program. In addition, the problem will arise when performing tasks like “divide the word into syllables.” The child is accustomed to warehouses, so new language units can become a stumbling block for him.
The technique is largely based on the use of associations (colors, sounds), so at school, where there are no such tips, the baby will have a rather difficult time.
Many kids begin to confuse similar syllables like VE and BE. The problem is especially noticeable in writing.
The development of the baby’s creative abilities is completely absent.
Impressive value. Not every parent can afford the coveted set.

Modern teachers recommend paying attention to reading Zaitsev’s warehouses for those children whose right hemisphere of the brain is more developed - they have imaginative thinking. It is quite easy to recognize such a baby - he is left-handed.