Feb. 22, 2006 - Learning to Read...

And developing a love of reading.

I, of course, am by no means an expert on the subject, but have had numerous people ask me in the past how I got my children interested in reading, how I taught them to read with no curriculum, etc.  So, after responding several times to emails, I thought I'd just write up on long speech and get it done with:)  Maybe then I can get it all down without forgetting half of what I wanted to say!

First off ~ I've been blessed with girls who loved to read ~ just sooo wanted to learn to read, that they almost taught themselves.  They had a great drive to learn.  Paris and Abyni got a LOT out of www.starfall.com.  They learned SO much.  Abyni loved the Leap Frog dvds ~ and playing computer Jumpstart cds as well.

Other than that, for teaching phonics I generally just made "games" with index cards/construction paper.  I would make cards with all the sight words and play memory ~ the older kids played a lot with Abyni, until they had that down. 

I own TONS of easy readers that really encourage kids, and are uplifting to them when they can "read all by themselves" ~ this generally goes against my feelings on "twaddle" type books, but I make an exceptions for learning phonics.  At any rate ~ these books only last so long and the kids need to move on.

One of the biggest problems I had with my boys (Who, by the way, did not pick up reading quickly at all!!) was that once they learned the basics, it seemed to take them forever to get to the point where they could read anything more than easy readers. 

They got so discouraged, because the things they wanted to read were just too hard.  They would stumble through and then give up.  I finally realized that they were mostly just having problems with a few words.  So, I chose a couple of good "boy" books and read through them myself, picking out any words that I thought might hinder them ~ either with reading or the definition. 

I then wrote them all down in anotebook, listed by chapter.  I would do "vocabulary" with the boys each day before reading.  I did this separately since they were at different levels and they found it stressful to try and "keep up" with the other.  I would have them read the words aloud to me ~ explainging any blends/pronounciation rules as we came across them.  They had to write down any word they couldn't read to me, and then come back and read them to me again.  Once they had all the "hard words" from a chapter down, they got to read a chapter. 

The books I chose first were Red Dog by Bill Wallace, Zia (sequel to Island of the Blue Dolphins), The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum and Matilda by Roald Dahl.  Both Red Dog and Matilda were the absolute best books.  They both had the boys (more so than with any others) begging for me to do extra vocab with them so they could read just one more chapter.  Generally I made them wait... and gave them a different book to read (Henry Huggins went over well, as well as The Million Dollar Shot **Other books listed below) 

This improved their reading levels so dramatically, they went from being two years "behind" their age level, to being a year ahead within 10 months.  They were just loving the books.  We did narrations, so the boys were telling me everything that happened in each chapter as they read, so I knew they were comprehending what they were reading.  It ws great.  It helping to encourage them, and helped them be able to read books that actually held their interest.

Other books my boys loved:

**All of the Hank the Cowdog books by John Erikson (These are hilarious:)

**All of the Magic Treehouse Books by Mary Pope Osborn (Paris is liking these too finally!)

**Beverly Cleary (which Paris is also reading now as well)

**Indian in the Cupboard (a little later)

**Encyclopedia Brown books

**The Boxcar Children series

Paris is also enjoying ~ The American Girl books right now as well

Abyni is reading the easy readers and just loves reading "Biscuit" and any Dr. Seuss!

We try to have a quiet time each night ~ and have done this since our oldest was 4.  The kids all have to stay in their rooms and be quiet.  Those who can read (even a little) have to read.  The little ones can read, and then just color a picture (about what they read or whatever)  The older ones have to read and then can do journaling or word puzzles.  They have been raised this way ~ without knowing anything different, so for them it has just been the way you get ready for bed:)  It helps to settle everyone down ~ and gives Dh and I some down time with some quiet to discuss things or do our own reading.

My Dh and I have always loved reading and read voraciously... it was a huge priority for us to instill the same love of reading in our children. 

Also ~ I always make sure to include the younger kids in Bible time reading ~ All the kids get a verse to look up and read aloud.  Even when Abyni needs help with a word or two, she still feels so good that she is "old enough" to read the big Bible.  Before she was able to read that, she would read a story out of her "Beginner Bible" ~ which she did for our Christmas story this year.  That seemed to boost her reading level immeasurably as well:)

And yet one other thing ~ I forgot ~ I always do at least one read aloud during school time.  I do my best to find good, interesting books for them to read for their school work ~ and make sure they have a variety to choose from.  They all do independant reading for History and they all have a "literature" book that they are reading at any given time (excpet for Abyni who is five) When we are learning about a certain time in history, I make sure they have a variety of history and biographies to read.  BTW ~ Robert Quackenbush does the best biographies for the younger readers... Jean Fritz and the D'Aulaires for the slightly older ones!!!  Awesome Awesome Awesome!!  For their literature, I go by the booklists at www.amblesideonline.org for suggestions as well as

http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000-primary.html

I don't force the kids to read something (generally) that they are absolutely not enjoying either.  I don't like to read a book that is just draaaging along, and I don't expect them to either.  Sometimes, if I really want them to read something that starts slow, or that they don't think they're interested in, I'llr ead the first couple of chapters aloud, and then make them take over:)