Originally, I wanted to write a book about teaching my children to read, but then it seemed natural to preface it with how much we love books and how they play a big role in our lives. So that post became so long, I decided to split them up. This one will be about Teaching Reading. If you want to read out how we love books and what we are reading, you can check out my previous post.

Teaching Reading has been my number 1 goal (followed closely by encouraging a love of reading as well as an understanding that if you read, you can do anything, learn anything you want to know).

With Game Master, he recognized his letters by the time he was 3. But really didn't have much interest in reading. From three until he was almost 6, we did workbooks that we purchased at Sam's and Wal-mart that had the basics of phonics and word recognition. He wasn't that interested in taking it to the next level. We put pieces of paper on items around the house that had their names and I would take him around before we went to bed and read the words for him.  We also watched shows like Read Between the Lions.

We played a game...goodnight book, goodnight light, etc.  I started thinking about getting Hooked on Phonics. I was afraid because I don't remember all the rules of reading and there are so many dang exceptions in the English language (we would have the hardest language in the world to learn grammar wise).  But then in the last three months of his year of being 5, it happened. The child just began reading. All the books I had read to him over the years, the notecards, the workbooks, it just clicked. And within three months he was reading chapter books!  It was an amazing thing to watch.  He was ready and it happened. And I was thrilled! I knew he had the world by the tail now!

So when GM was three, Jungle Princess arrived on the scene. And I have to say, her early reading experience wasn't as thorough as GM's. I didn't seem to have the time to do all the reading games with her that I did with Game Master. There were no note cards on the objects around the house, we didn't practice letters when she was young and there just never seemed to be enough hours in the day!  But I still read to them pretty much every night and early on, like her mother, she liked just holding books.

She has spent the last 5 years reading books by the pictures and sometimes her story is pretty close to what the words say and sometimes it is more enchanting than the actual story line. Jungle Princess devours workbooks and often would come to me with several pages clutched in her hands that she had been able to figure out what was going on by studying the pictured example.  This is actually a lot like me. I remember looking at examples and skipping explanations and being able to complete my work. GM on the other hand, reads the instructions. Isn't it Awesome how God made us all so different!

However, her letter recognition didn't really get good until the beginning of this past year (and she still messes up a few letters...b and d for example). In fact, she didn't even start making it correctly through the alphabet song until last year. I was concerned, and once again started thinking about Hooked on Phonics, but it's cost was prohibitive.  So we got easy readers from the library and would try reading them in the fall, but she gets easily frustrated and so most of those I read myself. She wants to do it right the first time and has had to work to understand that it is okay to mess up a word or a problem and redo it.  Well she turned 6, 8 days ago. And in the week before her birthday, she began to read!

She is picking up more words everyday. She takes the easy reader books with her and reads them everywhere, trying to figure out the words as best as she can. She takes harder books and reads through them, only reading the words she knows (like in the bible...) And once again, I know that singular joy that comes with my child learning to read. 

Now I still don't remember all of the reading rules that I learned 35 years ago when I started reading and sometimes I worry about how that will affect them. But then I think back to mom's in their cabins 100+ years ago, reading to their families from the few books they had and teaching their children to read from those same books. They didn't have the "benefit "of Hooked on Phonics or numerous workbooks or phonics videos, yet those children learned to read from listening to their parents read. And that has been going on for thousands of years! 

So read to your kids, there are plenty of great children's books you can enjoy while sharing that time with them. They will love to hear the stories and your voice. From hearing well written books, they pick up on rules. When Game Master is taking a grammar test where he has to pick the correct word in a sentence, he goes by what sounds right, and gets it right every time. There is so much to be gained by listening to you read. Knowledge, close time and a grasp of the English language. 

And lastly, remember every child is different. Some start reading at three or four. Some don't really get it until they are 8 or 9. But in every case of homeschooled children that I have heard of, when they are ready, it doesn't come in little showers,  it comes in  a torrent! The child that doesn't start until 8, is soon reading age level books for instance.

Well, I have gone on enough. I love books! I love reading! So many books...so little time is my motto!  I hope this has been of use to you. Have a great day!