How do I teach my homeschooled daughter, how to read?

Question

I have started homeschooling my daughter - while I have started quite a few things with her, I am absolutely stuck on what to use to teach her "how to read".

There are many things out there, Fitzroy readers, A Beka, Spalding - I want something that is going to be fairly easy to understand and grasp.

I'm not sure what can happen if I start with one programme and find that its not working and end up confusing her and at worst, hating reading as right now she loves and cherishes books, sleeps with them, eat with them, take them with her everywhere. I don't want to destroy this.

Answer 1

Read in front of her and she will follow by example.  I know it takes a leap of faith, but it is well worth it.

Keep books and magazines readily available.  

Good luck :d

Answer 2

We were also using Teach Your Child to Read but he had trouble with understanding what I wanted him to do. So I switched to the Explode the Code workbooks. He really enjoys doing them and is already starting to read (after 1 month of doing these books)

Don't worry about your decision to Home School you've made the right one. Just don't expect everything to go just as you planned (especially in the first year or so).

Answer 3

There is a book called Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons that my mom has used with many of my siblings. It's really fantastic how well it works. Here's a link for it; and it's on amazon/other sites that sell books. Good luck!

http://www.startreading.com/

Answer 4

Make sure you are building-she needs to know and be familiar with all the letters and their sounds. Then go buy the first set of "Bob Books". They are not too much money and she can start reading right away with the first set.

Teaching some sight words is good as well....she needs to know "No", "the", "a", "this" and other words.....you can buy sight word flash cards.

Above all, don't force her. Make sure that reading remains enjoyable for her.

Answer 5

Neither of my kids had reading lessons.  I read to them, answered their questions about letters and words, over time they recognized words, primarily logos and signs.  Let her learn to read on her own time, in her own way.  The world is filled with the written word; she will WANT to know.  Kids can't be taught until they're ready.  My daughter really didn't read easily until she was 10; my son was 8, and both had real reasons to learn (wanting to send e-mails, wanting to play neopets, wanting to read books).

Trust your daughter.

Answer 6

I used a great book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" to teach a 4 year old that I was babysitting at the time to read. It was awesome and he was way ahead of most of the kids in his class when he went to Kindergarten. He is a very bright child anyway, but the book was a great tool!

Edit: I didn't focus on spelling with this program at all, just reading. I didn't have him past 5 years old unfortunately and couldn't talk his Mom into home schooling :). He is excelling school now though.

Answer 7

It sounds hard, yet it's quite easy.  It was, I thought, difficult for me, because I was hyperlexic--just picked up a book and began reading one day.  Later in school, I learned all the rules for what I already knew how to do--yet paid little attention to the rules, because they bored me.

I began homeschooling my son who is now an 8-year-old 2nd grader at the beginning of his 1st grade year.  He had learn to read a bit in private kindergarten, mostly 3-letter words and sight words.  I felt it would be an awesome task to teach my son to read.  However, I faithfully continued to read to him daily, and I also bought some books from Christian Liberty Press including the following:

Adventures in Phonics Workbooks (Level A, B, & C)

Kindergarten Phonetically Controlled Readers

Noah Webster's Reading Handbook

All of the above were helpful, but what helped my son most was watching a PBS show called "Between the Lions," a free learn to read website, starfall.com (highly recommend it), and Time4Learning.com (an online home education program).  

Currently, my son has achieved fluency in reading, and testing proved that his reading comprehension is that of an 11.5 year old and his written expression is that of an 11 year old.  He has probably read 150 this school year.

He learned to read despite my lack of confidence, despite my switching methods, despite my anxiety, etc.  What helped me most was the starfall.com website, because it helped me to learn the pure phonemic sound of each letter, and I was then able to teach this to my boy.

All shall be well; you won't destroy anything, and you will witness one of the greatest miracles in the world:  when your child begins to read with ease and fluency.  Reading literally unlocks the door to everything else--which is one reason I focused on Reading and Math during our first year of homeschooling.  I knew once he learned to read, he could learn any and everything else with ease.

Understand also that children become ready to read at different ages; although my son is cognitively gifted, I don't think he was ready to read until he was 7, almost 7.5 yrs old.  Everything I did before then was in preparation.  However, when he was ready, he took off like a rocket, and I would venture to say, he is now reading at a 5th or 6th grade level.

I hope this helps.

Answer 8

Children learn to read at their own rate.  One day it just happens.  

I like 100 easy lessons.  It is different than anything you have seen before, and it seems strange.  But it does work.  By the time you finish the book they child can read at a 3rd grade level.

And even with 100 lessons, kids learn at their own pace.  You cannot change that. Some kids finish it in 3mo, some take 2years to complete the course.  It works.  But it works at the pace of the child.

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added

just so you know-- Abeka didn't work for us either.  I don't like it at all. 100 lessons works

Answer 9

THE best i found was Reading Reflex.  they are out of the university at Gainsville, Fl.  it has saved my daughter- who would just now be diagnosed dyslexic had we kept her in school, instead now shes reading pretty good, and spelling.  dont get just the workbook, get the book "why our children cant read and what we can do about it" by Diane McGuiness.  it is absolutely worth its weight in gold!! its not just for dyslexic kids or even just kids- even my spelling improved after learning "the code".  other phonics programs seem incomplete by comparison- and its 40$ or so price is cheap compared to the hooked on phonics and other curriculums.

Answer 10

Gypsy is right....Just keep reading to her and pointing at the words.  Children love being read to.  The more you read...the more she will learn about reading.

Also, Hooked on Phonics is awesome.  My oldest used it and loved it.  My youngest has liked the whole word approach, but we throw in some HOP and k12 phonics as well.  

We use www.k12.com for our curriculum, and their phonic program is fun and interesting.  That is the one we are using for my youngest.  It is a step up from HOP in my opinion.

The best you can do is just have fun...if you are having fun, she will have fun.  Teaching my oldest to read opened my eyes to just how hard it is to learn to read...the English language is just weird with bunches of exceptions to every rule.  Sometimes it amazes me that anyone learns to read...LOL

Good luck and don't forget to have fun!!!

Answer 11

For my youngest son I tried several times to teach him how to read. I would try first one method and when we both were getting frustrated I would drop it for a couple of weeks or so then try again. I did that about 5 different times before hitting on the right combination.

I used a combination of two different books one was The Writing Road to Reading. Unfortunately I don't remember the title of the other book. I had found both in our local library and I had heard great things about The Writing Road to Reading.

I would look for it and others at your local library. You'll probably find it in the 371 or the 372 section of the non-fiction books.

At any rate I ended up using the combination of two books. I sensed that my son needed to start using the sounds he was learning. So for the sounds I used the "Writing Road to Reading" book. It teaches all of the vowel sounds first. The child doesn't just learn the short or long "a" sound but learns all of the sounds the letter "a" makes all at once. Then it moves on to the consonants.

Again the consonant sounds taught all of the sounds of the letters such as the soft and hard c and g sounds.

I liked that book for several reasons. I liked the way it taught how to make the letters for learning how to write.

I also liked the phonics section because it has a chart for the "er" sound that lists these words across the top with each having others that fit that spelling listed below it...Her First Nurse Works Early. It also had cards for teaching the different sounds for the "oo" and the combinations such as "ough" and the different sounds they made.

There's a class that the author used to conduct on how to use this book which I never took.

The other book I used started right off the bat having the student learning sounds and saying words right at the beginning starting I believe with "at".

Using two books took a little juggling because they wouldn't always hit the same info at the same point but I was able to make it work.

By the way my son loves to read.

Don't let teaching your daughter how to read scare you. It's not that hard and it's really a lot of fun to see your child gain that all important skill of reading and really take off with it.

My daughter started kindegarten right after she turned 5 and when she was in 1st grade (public school) she had some nit picky little reading problems. When we homeschooled the next year I got the advice to not force her to read. It worked. She didn't start picking up books on her own until the following spring. I am absolutely convinced that had she stayed in public school or had I continued to force her to read she would be one of those people who would only read when they have to. Although I don't think she's the avid reader the rest of us in the family are she does enjoy picking up a book to read for fun.

As long as your daughter is interested and eager to learn pursue teaching her. Check some of those books that have been recommended out from the library and see what they're all about. Which appeals to you. If she's ready start teaching her. If she gets frustrated then drop it and try again in a few weeks or a month. It'll take when she's ready to learn.

By the way my children are all adults now.

Answer 12

Keep reading to her.  Use your finger to point to the words as you read them.  Keep it fun and interesting.  Show her words, show her letters, make the sounds.  Don't get hung up on a "reading program".   One of my daughters knew all the sounds but would not read until I got the "Pathways" readers.   Her reading ability just exploded when I took her off the reading "programs" and just found her a book with an actual story.  Another of my daughters did really well with the vintage readers, "d**k and Jane".      Go to your library and ask if they have beginning readers.  They  are graduated level story books that the children read themselves.    Please don't worry about programs.    Take her natural joy of books and use that as your base.  Let her interest guide you rather than cramming some program down her throat.

Answer 13

We have also used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with great success.

On top of that though, keep reading to her. Read aloud to her books that are beyond her own reach, listen to books on tape in the car. You can check them out from the library for free - great books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlotte's Web, The Little House on the Prairie.  Hank the Cowdog (not great, but hilarious).  My kids are quite beyond needing me to read to them anymore, but we still read aloud and listen to books on tape.  Harry Potter helped us through a 12 hour car ride !!

For YOU I would recommend some reading too. Go to the 371 section of the library and check out some books on homeschooling. Calm yourself down and realize you CAN do this, others have, so can you.  I personally found Abundant Homeschooling, by DIane Waring, Patchwork of Days by Nancy VanLande to be among the most useful books.

Find some real life homeschoolers to talk to - we are great here, but real conversations can help you out so much. Been there done that :)