Little Women

• Apr. 30, 2006 - an informal way to teach children to read

I never intended to teach my oldest to read, at least, not at her age.  I was interested in homeschooling, but she wasn't really the right age, yet, and I just wanted something to do with her, a fun way to play.  She knew all her colors and shapes, so I thought,  "do the next thing."  The next thing seemed to be letters, so we did that, then.......    But I'm getting ahead of myself. So, I'll get WAY ahead of myself, and skip to today!   :)   A post on a different forum encouraged me to write down the informal way I have taught my kids to read  Perhaps it will help or encourage someone.    (I should say that this works well for kids who learn to read pretty easily. It's all I've ever done, with 3 readers. However, I am not saying it is necessarily this easy with all children.  If your child is struggling, PLEASE do not think you are doing something wrong.  Some kids find reading easier, and for those kids, I would like to present this method.  I don't know if it will work for the more challenging kids, but, at least, playing this type of reading games cannot hurt, I think.) 1. Start with colors and shapes. They are easier than letters, but use the same type of skill. (This can be as simple as "would you like the pink shirt, or the blue one?" While saying this, you hold out each hangar.) 2. Move to initials of people or things close to them. Really emphasize the letter, when saying the word: "Look, here's MMMMMMMommy's letter. Here's LLLLLLLLLLaura's letter." Etc. I started with just a couple, but add more when they really know the ones they've done before. (My kids get bored if they are all old, and answer silly ways. Then I know I need to add more! )  As we go along, we do all siblings, then cousins and friends, pets if needed, eventually objects, if we run out of names. 3. I will also occasionally say, "See here's ALL of Jessica.  This is your letter, which says "J"  then the rest of the letters spell the rest of the word."  At this point, I may often read very slowly, aloud, words that she is interested in, such as "CHCHCHCHC-EEEEEEEE-RRRRRRRRR-IIIIIIIII-OOOOOOO-SSSSSS". When I do this, I will run my finger along underneath each letter. I don't do this a lot, and take only a minutefor it at any time. I think it helps them to see what *I* do when I read. (I discovered, after I "invented"  this with dd#1, that this type of "slow reading" is an integral part of Teach Your Child to Read with 100 Easy Lessons.) 4. When they get a fair number of letters, I start asking, "What ELSE starts with LLLLLLLaura's letter? A LLLLLLLion? A LLLLLLLLollipop?" I'm trying to branch out here to the idea that letters have sounds.  5. If your child  is interested in workbooks (2 of mine have been, 2 have not), you can probably bring in the pre-Explode the Code books, at this point.  There are also cute little workbooks at any bookstore or even stores like Walmart that work on letter sounds.   My #3 dd thinks workbooks are fun, and I suspect my #4 will, also. It gives them a bit of "school" for themselves. 6. I also like to give them a word to "read" when we go through a story. This is especially good with stories like "Are You My Mother."  My kids have had fun reading "their" word, when I point to it, as we go through the story. This is just a casual way to make reading fun. 7. Once they pretty much know their letters, we start working on putting them together. We do this together, with very short lessons. Usually, we start with some simple word they see in a book. (One of my kids started by reading the word "moo" off a book with a cow picture. She had some external clues, of course, but she also knew she had put the word together.) Bob books are good for this, as are many of the early readers the library has. (My library has a lousy classification system for early readers, though, and I got very tired of pawing through them all, looking for the *one* I wanted.) This stage can take a long time. I just keep showing them what I do, and letting them "play" with the letters, for as long as they want to. Eventually, they pick it up. 8. Two of my 3 kids, once they had gotten the basic idea of reading, decided they didn't want to read any more--it was too hard. I have learned to back off when this stage hits. They will still be reading, a bit, when they want to, and will pick it up again once they've done it casually enough that it's easy and fun. One resource I have used during this time, though, is the Dr. Seuss workbook, "I am NOT Going to Read Any Words Today!" It is classic Dr. Seuss style rhymes and pictures, mostly from Hop on Pop, eg, it shows a picture of a cup on a dog and says, "Cup on pup. Yes, No." Each page has 2-3 short sentences, with a quick yes/no, or underlining. My kids always laughed when I got it out, and were willing to do one page. 9. Once they get past this stage, you are home free. They will never stop reading, and their skill will advance rapidly. However, you still have to be carefull not to overdo it, especially if they are younger. It takes awhile to be ready for even shorter chapter books, and those with longer chapters take longer to get ready for. My kids have preferred to read chapter books which I had read first, such as The Little Princess. After I read it to them, they had the interest to push through it on their own. (Some kids might prefer new books, depending on personalities.) 10. I dealt with phonics questions as they came up. It was pretty easy to say, "when the word has 2 vowels, usually, the first one says it's name, and the second is silent." Then I could also teach exceptions, as they came up. Even many sight words, such as "the" can be taught by showing the original pronunciation, "th-long e" and showing how it got slurred and shortened into current American pronunciation. These never seemed to confuse my kids. 11. After this, I let them read a lot, whatever they wanted, and I have never worried greatly about pushing their levels upwards. Ruth Beechik talks about a long stage where they just need to read a lot, and enjoy it, and how giving them that freedom, in the end, lets them forge ahead when they are ready. 12.  The one thing I had to go back and really teach, later, was syllabication.  Explode the Code book 4 was very good for this.  (I did do this book for my older 2 kids, as they eventually ran into challenges in this area, that I felt were more important than their aversion to workbooks.) With my oldest 2, this is all I did. As I mentioned, #3 loves workbooks, and I have had her do the ETC workbooks. I think they are good for cementing phonics skills as well as teaching beginning spelling. I never pushed this with my older 2, though, as they were "allergic" to pencils.

Post A Comment! :: Send to a Friend!