Does teaching a child to read seem like a mystery of the universe? Let’s compare it to another mystery of the universe you have already conquered, potty training. It also took longer than expected, was messy, and unpredictable. Did you comfort yourself with the knowledge that all college students are potty trained? I did. Whether it be potty training or teaching a child to read there will be some parents who boast they didn’t teach reading because their brilliant prodigy “just got it”. I assumed they must have used some kind of dark magic, or worse, my child wasn’t intelligent.
Take comfort that literally for thousands of years children, with various abilities, have learned to read all over the world. There really is a step by step process, a recipe, if you will, that has been followed. Keep applying these guidelines and in time you too can hold the key to the reading mystery. No dark magic required. Then you can look forward to future mysteries like teaching teenagers how to drive and monitoring their internet access. You’ve got this.
- READING RECIPE
- Lowercase letter/sound cards
- Bob Books
- Rime units with flash cards & games
- Dolch Sight words with flashcards & games
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons or ABeCeDarian Reading Instruction
- Adult models fluent reading by reading aloud engaging chapter books & discussing it with the children
- Child reads aloud daily to parent who corrects mistakes
- Daily consistent practice, encouragement, fun and patience
1. Preheat oven: Teach the sounds for each lowercase letter until automatic. (It is unnecessary to teach names of letters yet – think “Cc” says /s/ or “Gg” says /j/.)
2. Blend with wet ingredients: Add automaticity by teaching rime units like /at/, /et/, /it/, /ot/, and /ut/. Weave reading into the day. Use foam bathtub & refrigerator magnet letters fearlessly. Write them in chalk on the driveway like Zorro. Use shaving cream as a finger paint… we learn best with games. Write “letters” and mail them to friends.
3.Mix together dry ingredients: Put together into CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words like mat, sat, cat. Use Bob Books (sets 1-5) daily for child to practice reading. At this point you can use an effective, research based program: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons or ABeCeDarian Manual A.
4. Fold in raisins: Read nursery rhymes, Dr. Seuss & play rhyming games together. Incorporate them into daily life “Hop chop”, “After while crocodile”, teach jump rope chants, sing bath songs, poetry, etc…
5. Stir in chopped nuts: Add sight words after basic blending and continue with phonics instruction. Add Dolch Sight Words starting with pre-primer list. Use free apps, flash cards, games to review until these are automatic. (Some children don’t master decoding and only memorize words; although they appear to be strong readers, when confronted with a new word they guess. Suddenly they are failing. Use silly made up words to be sure they are decoding.) https://sightwords.com/sight-words/games/
6. Give time to rise in a warm nurturing environment covered with kindness, patience & consistent daily practice. Write your child treasure hunt notes to find items, have them help cook and read some words and numbers. ENJOY.
7. Knead in the 44 sounds from a simple teaching book, like Alpha Phonics, Phonics Pathways, or Recipe for Reading.
8. Let the dough rest: They read aloud to you daily 20 minutes a series they enjoy reading independently. When they read aloud correct every error gently, saying “check it” or model it correctly. IF they have 5 or more errors per page it is too difficult for them. Drink coffee, lots of coffee, because hearing “Mmmaaaatttt sssaaatttt” is the undisputed cure for insomnia. (Maybe the parents are the dough that is resting here.)
9. Bake: You read aloud to them or listen to audio books. Snuggle on the couch and read classic quality books like The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, or Heidi (unabridged), or The Secret Garden (unabridged), or historical adventure stories to model fluency, comprehension, character and plot development, and develop a love of characters. Discuss the book, predictions, real life connections. Good readers play a movie in their mind… encourage their imagination.
10. Serve with celebration and lots of praise!
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The mission of More to Grow Cognitive Development Training is to improve learning ability and function through cognitive exercises that meaningfully transfer to all educational and everyday life situations so individuals maximize their potential.
Darlene Lewis, darlene@moretogrow.com, https://moretogrow.com/