Homeschool Hi-Lights
>> Sunday, April 20, 2008
I have been invited to participate in a Homeschool Highlight Meme. I have gladly accepted this invitation and hope to post every Monday. For more Homeschool Hi-Lights feel free to visit Ellen @ Fun Learning.One of my favorite things about homeschooling is teaching my children to read. I love to see the sparkle in their eyes when the lights come on and they finally get it. There is that moment in time when it all comes together and the letters and sounds connect.
Lucas, our 6-year old, is doing great at reading. I started to teach him at age 4. He was not ready...not ready at all. So I waited until he was five and he did okay. Not good, not bad, just okay. But now he is 6 and he is finally getting it. Not only is he getting it, but he loves it.
I use 3 different products that work great for us. We start with a book called Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. After doing that for awhile I introduce a series called Explode the Code. This is by far Lucas' favorite. After completing the first 3 Explode the Code workbooks, we continue on in the series and add on Bob Books. These are my favorite. They are short, little books that Lucas can read in one sitting. To save on the family budget, we order Bob Books from the library (although someday I hope to own them all).
Teaching children to read is hard...well, it has been for me. Lucas is my third child that I have taught to read. The first two were a little more difficult. Not because of them, but because of my insecurities. I didn't know the first thing about how to teach a child to read. But after several years and a few different curriculums, I feel as though I have a handle on it.
If you are an inexperienced teacher, hang in there. It does get better and easier. And if you are an experienced teacher, feel free to share with me tips and suggestions. I love to know what works for other people.
Happy reading to you and yours.
9 comments:
Oh. This is the hardest subject for me to teach. My 5th child is now 6 and is about ready to read. I've gotten lucky with a couple of the kids and the other 2 were much harder. I have Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It didn't work well with my middle child, because she just wanted to read from a real book. But, I think that I'll look for it and try it out with the 6-year-old.
Thank you so much for participating in the first edition of this meme. I really appreciate it. It isn't even officially Monday and 4 people have already joined in.
Teaching reading can be so difficult, but it is well worth the effort, isn't it? Like you, I love it when my children "got it." I used "Reading Made Easy," by Valerie Bendt for three of my children, but we never had to finish it. As soon as they were reading, we introduced easy readers. I believe it uses a similar method to 100 Easy Lessons.
~Andrea
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/andijeane/519454/
I remember when "the lights came on" and I read a whole page of sentences my mom wrote out for me. When dad came home, I read them again for him and he jumped around shouting "you can read!"
I also remember Matthew learning to read and helping him out one day when I babysat the younger kids.
We use explode the code too. I love that series.
As a former teacher and homeschooler with three readers I would say it all depends on how the child learns. My older two are dyslexic and needed more hand-on training, my son on the other hand is teaching himself because he wants to learn. HE likes using hooked on phonics but also practices sounding out words wherever he goes.
We use the Phonics Pathways instead of the 100 Easy Lessons one, but other than that we do the same thing. We now have 3 readers all with extremely different learning styles and levels. I never thought they would read, but they all took off when they were ready. Two at six and one really taking off at ten:)
Cool blog.
I'm not a homeschooler, but I have taught many children to read in the public school classroom, and all three of my school-aged kids were reading (not sounding out words, but real honest-to goodness, sit down and enjoy a book, reading) a year or more before they started kindergarten. As a teacher, I had a wide variety of methods and curriculums to teach from. The best and easiest way I've found is to play with words and sounds--constantly. Sing phonics songs and word plays (Creative Teaching Press has a terrific series by Kimberly Jordano if this doesn't come naturally for you). Make up silly rhymes and clap out words. Such as, "I'm glad my name is Jessica, I'm glad my name is Jessica, but if I were to drop the /j/, then I would be Essica." Think "Farmer in the Dell" The great part about these type of lessons is they can take place at any time--cutting up produce in the kitchen, driving down the highway...
I also am a huge proponent for a method known as writing to read. As soon as your child begins drawing pictures, have your child dictate to you what they have drawn. Encourage them to tell you all about their picture. They have ownership of the words you are writing down. It is THEIR story, so they are already highly interested. Re-read the written words over to them several times. Make sure you are moving your finger as you read. Later, you will hear them "reading" it to Dad and brothers and sisters. Yes, they are technically memorizing it, but they are feeling extremely proud of their work, they are learning left to right progression, absorbing sight words, and making the connection between spoken language and written word. Great stuff. It amazed me how fast my son made the jump from memorizing to actualy reading using this method. He was three.
Sorry to just throw-up on your blog, but this is my passion.
I'm using Teaching Your Child with my 7yo...the phonics program I used with my two older children just didn't work with ds, but he is doing great with the 100 lessons. Thanks for the ideas for follow up lessons with Explode the Code and the Bob Books...I will have to remember that.
If you lived here I would let you teach my kids too!
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