How to Teach Homeschool Reading
When I first started homeschooling my children, homeschool reading was a subject I was terrified to teach. That sounds a little ridiculous now, but back then it was a real fear. I consider myself a very good reader. I’ve always loved to read, well, for as long as I can remember.
I remember my mother reading Little Golden Books to me over and over again. I loved it. But, how in the world would I teach my own children how to read?
Enter Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This has been a lifesaver for me. The two children I’ve taught to read with this book, both read very well. Every time they read aloud, I think to myself, “I did that,” and just smile.
Our First Reading Curriculum
Beginning sometime during my child’s Kindergarten year, every day we were schooling, we’d sit and do one lesson. Sometimes, if my student wanted to continue, we’d do two lessons at one sitting.
I found if you push too hard with this curriculum, trying to speed up the progress, your child won’t get nearly as much out of it as if you take it slower and let the child’s level of learning dictate your pace. This could vary from child to child.
Twenty to thirty minutes a day is all the time you’ll need for one complete lesson. After we completed our lesson, we’d read other books, and I’d have my kiddo pick out the sound we learned for that day from the book we were reading.
Once enough sounds were introduced that we could make small words, I began using BOB Books as our readers and would have my child read me the words I knew he could read at that point. The amount of reading done by the child depended on the words he had already learned.
At the time, there was a free website that provided the writing exercises to go along with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I either printed off those worksheets or I made my own from tablet paper.
Once enough words were learned that the child could follow along when a book was being read to them, we transitioned to a different approach to reading.
Learning to Read Independently…Well, Sorta
Librivox offers free audiobooks in the public domain. Gutenberg offers free reading books in the public domain. So, I searched Librivox for an audiobook I thought my child would be interested in, and then searched Gutenberg for the book. I first learned about doing this from Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool. My son used their curriculum for one or two books and wanted more from the same author.
I began pairing them up on a website that includes what my kids’ assignments were for that day of school. You can find them, at what I now call the Educating Campbells Reading Room. The link is for first grade and includes what my kids did for that day of school. I’ll be updating the grade levels to only feature reading assignments soon.
Other grade levels are listed as well, so feel free to look around. I would appreciate your patience with that site as it has been in a bit of a transition phase since I started Educating Campbells.
Reading can be difficult for some children. I had intentions of beginning 100 Easy Lessons with my twins at the start of this school year. We tried, but I honestly don’t think they were quite ready. So, we put the book back on the shelf and we’ll try again after Christmas break.
Being able to say, “No, I think we need to wait on that,” is one of the many Reasons We Homeschool. I get to decide when my children are ready to read and when they are not.
Using Reading Workbooks to Help Kids Learn to Read
We’ve all picked up those workbooks from Walmart or Amazon as a supplemental resource to help our kids learn to read. I’ve used them from time to time, but always end up feeling like I’m giving my kids busywork. They don’t give much instruction as to how to use them as a viable resource, so I always end up back at square one.
A few years ago, I tried something just for the heck of it. I just wanted to see if teaching my kids to read could be quick and easy. Now, I don’t know where the idea came from specifically. I do know it was a Godsend and once I saw it worked for my kids, I started working on putting it together into an actual homeschool reading curriculum called A Heart for Reading.
A Heart for Reading gave my kids the kickstart they needed. It wasn’t just workbook pages that lead to nowhere. They had fun and we had discussions about words and sounds. It was great. My twins that had previously had such a hard time were “getting it.” They were having so much fun with the reading curriculum that their younger brother joined in and can now read, in most cases, better than the twins. They’re constantly asking him to spell words for them.
If you’d like to check it out, I offer a free sample, complete with instructions on how to use the pages. Just fill out the form below and we’ll send it right out to you.
There are many ways to teach your child to read and you are the best judge of which way works best. You are also the best judge to decide if your children should wait a little longer to try and learn. Don’t ever let someone make you feel you are doing a disservice to your kids by waiting. Every child is an individual and every child has their own timetable for learning.
