Learn to Read

When I was pregnant there were a few things I knew for sure I wanted to teach Kennedy at an early age, things like: swimming, Spanish, boundaries (don’t play that’s real), and to READ! I learned to read at an early age and fell in love with the magic of reading and now as an adult I just know the importance of reading…it is fundamental. Through reading you can learn about anything and everything you want, through reading you can travel back in time, through reading Teaching your child anything from morals to academics can be a very taunting task, I’m constantly thinking to myself “I just don’t want to mess her up” but one thing I’ve learned in my whole 3+ years of being a mom is THEY HEAR AND SEE EVERYTHING so it’s not so much a sit down lesson they need, they learn from what we do and say…not necessarily to them but in our own lives! This goes for learning to read too. There are tools that I have used on our journey that you can find here: Reading Tools Shop and some videos that are hopefully helpful for you below or here: Learn to Read Videos

THINGS TO NOTE:

  • There is no one size fits all method, adjust and do what works best for you and your family.

  • Every child is different. They learn different, they think different, they process different, they grow different!

  • Be consistent. Read books daily. Review letters daily. Review sounds. This doesn’t have to be a sit down lesson. Point letters and sounds out as you see them in your daily life.

  • Be patient and give grace, this goes for you and your child.

  • Make it fun. Think about your favorite teacher, favorite class, favorite subject. Chances are you didn’t love the class with the mean or boring teacher. At this age learning is play based.

  • Read! Read your kid books as often as you can. When reading ask questions about things in the book. Example: What color are Sam’s boots? Do you see the sun here? What else do you see?

  • I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL…this is what worked for us or works for us now (you’ll also see that I had to adjust when teaching Kennedy).

LET’S READ:

  1. Letter Recognition. We started this from very early on. You know those my first abc board books (it’s in every baby library) they come in all shapes, sizes, and themes. We read that to Kennedy, long before she was ready to even talk. Once we started bath time (she was 15 months when we moved to our apartment with a tub) we purchased foam letters to use in the tub. We would pull a letter from the water say it to her and stick it on the wall throughout her bath and also just let her play with them. Also, educational programs - Elmo was Kennedy’s personal tutor, thank you Sesame Street! We thought Kennedy was too young for all of our letter talk because she appeared to be straight up ignoring up then one day on her own she started pulling her foam letters and reading them off to us!!! CONSISTENCY! THEY HEAR EVERYTHING!

  2. Sound Recognition. Once Kennedy recognized all of the letters we started with letter sounds. We did this with a mix of flash cards, abc books, and songs. “A is for Apple” it started with words so it was easier to grasp then once she got a hold of that we dove into just the letter sound “B b-b-b B”. One of the best tools we had for this step was a speak and listen phone (linked below) this made it FUN for Kennedy and really allowed her to hear herself and the sound. Songs were great too for us because Kennedy loves a good jam session and can hear any given song approximately 4,000 times…REMEMBER CONSISTENCY, ha! Leap Frog’s “Letter Factory” is great for sounds I’ve linked it below but you can also find it on Netflix…do not be afraid of educational screen! This is also where you can turn to the 4 Weeks to Read Program (discount link below) either to start learning sounds or once they know the sounds, either works. This program made it fun and easy to both teach and learn, I was VERY impressed.

  3. Blending. For us this was the most challenging and frustrating parts. So for this part I stress PATIENCE. ADJUSTING. GRACE. INNOVATION. REWARDS (many chocolate chips were consumed in the early days). FUN. Blending is when you start combining sounds aka BLENDING. We learned all consonants and short vowels (ex. a as in apple not APE, e as in elephant not FEET) then we started blending with easy three letter words one short vowel at a time (ex. SAM, CAT, BAT, MAP). Per usual I turned to screen time for some reiteration that didn’t feel like “learning”, I would search Youtube for “short vowel blending” and find clips that best suited us (Preschool Prep and Leap Frog were favorites). This was the longest lesson and it’s continuous (it’s reading) but it takes time and practice, my main goal was to build her confidence and find a method that worked best for her. The 4 Weeks to Read program helped tremendously with this.

  4. Reading. This is when it gets exciting!!! Once Kennedy got a grasp on blending I wanted her to feel good and show her the fruits of her labor…READING. At this point I ventured away from the 4 Weeks to Read program (remember you have to adjust to what works best), Kennedy needed more of a “story” so the one word per page books weren’t going to cut it for us that’s when I purchased Bob Books (link below) and it’s been great! The first set of books focus on those short vowels while telling a story which was great motivation for Kennedy. In addition to the short vowels they do include a few sight words so I pulled out sight word flash cards (linked below). Sight words are basically words we memorize, so they’re not sounding them out like other words.

LINKS: READING TOOLS SHOP

I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions at all please comment below in case others have the same question or reach out to me directly. Happy Reading!