If you are ready to teach your little one to read, or you are just preparing for the future, I would LOVE to share what worked for me with my girls. I TOTALLY understand that all kids are DIFFERENT but I think the more options you have and tools you have in your tool-belt, the BETTER.
Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons
When I started trying to figure out how to teach reading, I had a dear friend who told me about this book-
It was written in 1983, so it is pretty old, and it is definitely not a super exciting book, but for me, it was 100% effective!
This book starts out with a long introduction for the teacher(s) to read. If you and a spouse/partner/parent are going to work together, I would suggest everyone involved read the introduction. Then everyone will be teaching the lessons properly and consistently.
Once you have prepared well, you are good to go.
Commitment to the Program
Just a heads-up, they make it very clear that once you start, you need to be committed to working daily and following their schedule (not skipping ahead or introducing them to different concepts before the book presents those concepts).
What do the Lessons Look Like?
Here are a couple pages right out of the lesson book-
Each lesson is pretty short. I didn’t have time fitting it in the day. In fact, it was something I really looked forward to most days.
With each lesson there is also a short writing component for your child to start writing their letters.
Finishing this Book
I am going to let you in on a little secret. My girls did not finish this book. I want to say they got around 80% of the way through and they were really burning out so I would jump them to other reading materials. I have heard other moms say the same thing. By this time they are starting to sound out words pretty well and have picked up on a lot of the reading rules.
What We Did Next
After we jumped ship from, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, we hopped aboard the Bob Books Train for sets 1 and 2-
After Bob Books-
After Bob Books, we move onto starter books. If we are reading from a book like “Go, Dog, Go”- we would definitely break it up into multiple sittings. Those books are SUPER long for a new reader.
I tried to AVOID highly commercialized books, such as the ones shown above, for new readers. They state they are Level 1, but they include names and other words that are way too hard for new readers to sound out. This ends up causing frustrations and feelings of failure.
Next Step Books
When you have made it this far, you are 90%+ of the way there. The books start to be more enjoyable for everyone. So, so, exciting! Take many opportunities to celebrate!!!
These books do vary a bit from book to book, but generally speaking, they were great next stepping stones for my girls. We love both series.
After this…it’s up to you!
All of my girls went a different direction after this point. One wanted to work through the easy reader books. One wanted to work on easy picture books. The last one wanted to start an easy chapter book. Remember that many picture books are written at higher reading levels than your beginning chapter book series.
Most of all, HAVE FUN!
Make sure all reading experiences are as FUN as possible so your child has POSITIVE memories of learning to READ. I honestly cherish those moments with my girls. I am grateful for this book that took almost all prep-work and thinking out of the teaching process. My girls all entered kindergarten reading and it has been a blessing for them. However, I do want to add that most kids will catch-up to each other around grades 3-4 in reading, so once again, NO need to PUSH. Just teach if your child is willing and ready.
