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How do I teach my child to read? (Part 2) by Tracey Willet

10/31/2024

If your student is in K-2nd Grade, you have hopefully already picked out a good phonics curriculum. (If not, get one ASAP! Check out our blog post from July 2023, “Choosing a Phonics Curriculum.”) Learning to decode words through the study of phonics is an ESSENTIAL reading skill. You must teach this! (CHA does not teach reading so this is the job of the homeschool parent!)

In addition to phonics, learning sight words is a nice supplement to get your child reading quickly, and figuring out those pesky words that break the rules of phonics. Once he or she has learned letter sounds and a few beginning sight words you can start introducing early readers. The first early readers are ones with “cvc” words (consonant-vowel-consonant), which you will find in books such as Pan and the Mad Man and Dan of the Den (check out those titles from Veritas Press Phonics Museum in the CHA library!). Scholastic Sight Word Readers and Bob books are also two popular series.

As your child progresses through the phonics program, you will want to introduce readers that build vocabulary. Non-fiction early readers are an excellent tool for this. (And be sure to take the time to review vocabulary when reading Story of the World to your child for History!)

Some parents also find it helpful to have their child doing word games and word puzzles, vocabulary worksheets, or additional reading comprehension passages in order to increase reading skills. These are pretty easy to come by at the Dollar Store, on Amazon, or on TeachersPayTeachers.com. (Hint: Find reading materials on Health topics and kill two birds with one stone!) Overwhelmed by the myriad choices? Ask for help and recommendations! That is one of the many blessings of the CHA community.

It takes time to teach your child to read. But teaching reading is a great way to put the five love languages into action during your homeschool day. Pull out the special reader you picked out for your child! (Even if it is on loan from the library, it counts as “Giving Gifts”!) Don’t overschedule yourself, or your child. Put your phone away. Give your child your full attention. (Quality time.) Sit close to him or her. (Physical touch.) Speak encouraging words at the end of each page (Words of affirmation) and celebrate a finished book by serving your child a treat or snack (Acts of service.) When it gets frustrating, or if you find yourself starting to yell (hey, it happens), find a bookmark and take a short “brain break.” (NOT a screen break! Provide a musical instrument, give them a chore, or do an exercise.)

You can do this! You can teach your child to read! And what’s more you can teach them to LOVE reading. Stay tuned for next week’s article, “Building fluency in reading.”

This is part of the CHA Bits: Tips, Tricks, and Hacks series.
Is there a question about CHA or homeschool that you would like answered?
Submit inquiries to [email protected].

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How do I teach my child to read? (Part 1) by Laura Hamilton

10/30/2024

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Teaching your child how to read may be one of the most rewarding (and frustrating!) things you will ever do as a homeschool parent.

Teaching children to read begins way before the child brain is ready to actually decode words. We need to prepare them to read! Reading readiness skills are developed with a variety of practices that begin at an early age. We teach the importance of learning to read by modeling to them ourselves reading and enjoying good books. Reading our phones doesn’t count! 😊 Having books of all topics for children to pick up and peruse is fun and important.

We also begin reading to them at an early age. Go to the library and let them pick out those little board books in a variety of topics. Be enthusiastic about reading! Make time for reading! As children get older, they will beg to go to the library to pick out books for you to read to them. As you read:

Point to the words. Pointing out words develops the printed word knowledge that we read from left to right and top to bottom of the page.
Point out different letters to help promote letter recognition.
Discuss the meanings of words children may or may not be familiar with. Let them tell you what different words mean.
After reading a book, discuss what happened in the story. Discuss the characters. Talk about why or how the character did what he/she accomplished. Talk about the setting.

As parents who embrace a classical education, we get to choose books that teach children Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. These include: Bible stories, Aesop’s fables, fairy tales, and poetry. Create a household habit that gives you, or another family member, the opportunity to read these to your children before bedtime.

It is so important to make time for reading at home as all of these practices prepare a child for the actual decoding of words.

Unfortunately, video games and screen time are too often replacing the time that could be spent reading. Anecdotally, teachers are reporting the epidemic of children having shorter attention spans and the inability of students to sit still. Science is showing that reading from paper engages your brain in a very different way than interacting with any type of screen does.

At Christiana Homeschool Academy, these reading readiness strategies are a very important component of the curriculum from pre-school to grade 2.

Stay tuned for next week’s article as we cover how to teach a reading curriculum in “How do I teach my child how to read, Part 2!”

Laura Hamilton is a former CHA mom and tutor. She enjoyed reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Doctor Doolittle to hundreds of CHA second graders over the years.

This is part of the CHA Bits: Tips, Tricks, and Hacks series. Is there a question about CHA or homeschool that you would like answered? Submit inquiries to [email protected].

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Why is it so important to learn Latin at CHA?

10/16/2024

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Salvete omnes! I’ve been digging through some older articles and podcasts recently, and these thoughts about learning Latin were worth sharing. Especially since any quote about “cultivating attentiveness” in our children seems, well, worth our attention!

The Society for Classical Learning writes the following about learning Latin (and Greek) in their article, “The Elements of Classical Education”:
Classical educators defend Latin and Greek in a number of ways. They are convinced that language studies discipline the mind. Nothing cultivates attentiveness, memory, precision of thought, the ability to think in principles, communication, and overall accuracy like the study of Latin and Greek.

Carrie McGraw, host of the podcast “Homeschool Journal” by Memoria Press has this to say:
I once likened the study of Latin to planting a tree. You dig a hole bigger than the root ball, you fill it in, the root system has to grow equally as large as the tree to withstand the elements. On top of these strong roots in Latin we grow branches of the arts and sciences. Primarily, the seven liberal arts, then the moral and natural and theological sciences. And these things are reaching and growing year by year.

Latin isn’t an “elective” that we study in classical education- it is a “roots” subject. Tanya Charlton, Director of Curriculum at Memoria Press, says that the Latin (and Greek) languages form the basis of our 2,500 year old education system, “which was invented in ancient Greece, imitated and expanded on by the Romans, preserved and solidified by the monks in the Middle Ages and experienced a rebirth in the Middle Ages that lasted until the mid-twentieth century.” Learning Latin as a core subject is distinctly different from modern, progressive education.

And in case you think I write this just because I am a language geek (I admit that I am), here is a link to the video we shared two (or three?) years ago at the parent meeting, “3 Reasons to Study Latin (for Normal People, not Language Geeks).” If you haven’t seen it before, it is well worth the <12 minutes it takes to watch it!

This is part of the “CHA Bits” series. Is there a question about CHA or homeschool that you would like answered? Submit inquiries to Tracey at [email protected]

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How do CHA families teach Health?

10/2/2024

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Let’s start by answering the question, “Why doesn’t CHA teach Health?” The simple reason here is that we have always thought Health was best handled by you, the parents. Although, in 1st grade, Mrs. Craig does cover nutrition and germs as part of her Science unit, and this definitely counts as “Health.” And our Biology classes in 3rd, 6th, and 9th all have units that teach about the human body and can double as Science and Health. In other grades, parents should definitely be making sure to cover healthy topics in some way at home. Read on to find out some different topics, suggestions, and resources!

The purpose of studying health is to make sure that kids develop a good understanding of what goes into staying healthy in real life, which is mostly lived outside of a classroom. So, we tend to cover health through day-to-day activities such as cooking and meal planning, and the conversations that spring up around this. Our county reviewer is always happy with this! Some of my kids also see occupational therapists or counselors, or are involved in activities where they discuss the same types of concepts that would be covered in a school health class, and all of this "counts" for the reviewer as well. -Erika Adam

What are some common health topics to cover with younger children?
Fire safety, weather emergencies, “stranger danger,” bike riding rules, crossing the street and being safe around traffic (understanding traffic signs), community helpers, germs, personal hygiene, body safety, basic first aid, manners, emotions, nutrition, meal planning, and food preparation are all typical “health” topics. It’s good to realize that when you do many of these things as part of “normal” family living, they count as homeschool health! Chances are, you are already doing more than you realize.

When I want to be intentional about health instruction, I may check out a book from the public library. (For example, The Berenstain Bears series covers a lot of these topics!) I have also used Teachers Pay Teachers for FREE Health resources. Search for “Health,” select a grade level, and sort by Price (Ascending) to get the free ones first! Resources like the “Health and Hygiene Reading Comprehension Passages” double as health and reading practice for a K-3rd grader. Or, find a “healthy teeth sorting activity” to review dental health and scissor skills.

The God’s Design for Sex Series, which includes “The Story of Me” (ages 3-5), “Before I Was Born” (ages 5-8) “What’s the Big Deal” (ages 8-12), and “Facing the Facts” (ages 12-16) are also a terrific resource for Christian families.

A Note About “Body Safety”
This includes the difference between safe touch and unsafe touch. Not keeping secrets that can make your child feel bad or uncomfortable, what to do if a child is touched inappropriately, general assertiveness techniques, and body boundaries. Talk about body parts and use the proper names. Teach that some body parts are private and not for everyone to see. No one should touch their private parts and no one should ask your child to touch someone else’s private parts. Tell your child that no one should ever take pictures of their private parts. Teach children that they will never be in trouble if they tell you a body secret.

What about Health for teens?
In high school, one credit of Health is a Maryland state graduation requirement. So you may need to do a bit more “record-keeping” when your child gets older. Topics such as Online Safety, Mental Health, Reproduction, Drugs and Alcohol, and Pro-Life Apologetics may be added to your Health instruction. Christianbook.com carries several Health textbooks by Christian publishers, such as Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Health and Nutrition. (Our family found this to be a nice complement to the 9th Grade Biology class at CHA and completed half over the summer and the other half spread out over the school year.) Combined with some practical meal planning and preparation by my teenager, it was a complete Health curriculum!

Here are two great additional resources, shared by Galadriel Simons:
https://mbfpreventioneducation.org/
Their official curriculum is expensive, but they have a solid collection of free resources, and links to other organizations who also have good information.

https://www.missingkids.org/netsmartz/home
Lots of parent and child/teen information, plus free resources

This is part of the CHA Bits: Tips, Tricks, and Hacks series. Is there a question about CHA or homeschool that you would like answered?
Submit inquiries to Tracey at [email protected]

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How do I teach my child to read? (Part 2) by Tracey Willet

How do I teach my child to read? (Part 1) by Laura Hamilton

Why is it so important to learn Latin at CHA?

How do CHA families teach Health?

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