Teaching Reading: Help for Parents that Homeschool or Afterschool Their Children

The idea of teaching my child to read was daunting. However, I was determined to give her a head start to the public education she would have to receive as well as to supplement it once school started. My husband and I both work and were delighted to learn about "Afterschooling". An alternative to homeschooling your children, afterschooling is done for a few minutes each day after school and during the summer break.

I believe reading is one of the most important skills we can learn. Good reading skills will help in every other subject at school.

With this philosophy in mind I began to teach my three year old the basics of reading. Currently she is doing very well. She will be entering kindergarten soon and is at a second grade reading level.

I would like to share the method I used as well as some tips to make teaching reading as easy as possible.

Start by finding a good workbook or reading program that walks you step by step through teaching reading. It should start by guiding you through teaching the basic letter sounds and then progress on to blending letter sounds together. Stay away from flashcards with pictures. Your child will learn to memorize letter sounds and words based off those pictures. Discourage programs that emphasize memorizing more than just a few "sight words".

I believe the best book available is "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" by Jessie Wise, the author of "The Well Trained Mind" and Sara Buffington. This book requires no preparation time for each lesson. Just pick up the book and start. It will give you the dialogue to read to your child. It has lists of words to practice in each lesson and a small story at the end that includes the new words learned as well as words from recent lessons. It also includes ideas for optional games to try. Each lesson is short and you are encouraged to do a lot of reviewing of previously taught concepts.

If you child already has some reading experience you can skip to the section that fits their level. I would recommend going back over the sections you skip as quick reviews just to make sure no concepts have been missed.

"The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" is very thorough and complete. You will find yourself learning phonetic rules you were never taught. It makes sense out of reading and decoding words. It does not encourage memorization by rote.

The next most important thing you can do is read to your child. Read to your child often even after they are reading on their own. This will introduce them to books beyond their own reading level and stretch their vocabulary.

Your child does not need to follow along with you every time you read to them if they get bored. Read to them while they color or engage in another quiet activity. Ask them to illustrate what you are reading to really have them connect with the story and pay attention.

Play word games all throughout the day. Ask them to sound out simple words at the grocery store, bank and post office while you run errands. Sing letter songs in the car while traveling. Songs and games cement into their minds the reading concepts they are learning.

The most important thing to do is be patient. Your child will gradually learn how to read concept upon concept. Have realistic expectations. One of the hardest concepts to learn is how to blend sounds in the very beginning. However, they will grasp the concept eventually and when they do it will be amazing how fast they progress. There will be different times when your child struggles or even seems to digress. Go back to reviewing for a little while until they are comfortable moving on.

Teaching a child how to read is very rewarding and will help them for the rest of their lives. Do not be intimidated. Every moment spent helping your child learn how to read is very valuable. Just do the best you can.