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

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:

1. 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. 
2. Point out different letters to help promote letter recognition.
3. Discuss the meanings of words children may or may not be familiar with. Let them tell you what different words mean.
4. 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].