Lay the Foundation
Read to your children. A lot. Nothing else will spark their love for books like this will! Even when they are old enough to read for themselves, continue to read great books to them. For some wonderful book recommendations, check out the following lists:
Teaching Letter Sounds
Before beginning to teach my children to read, I like to give them a lot of exposure to letters and teach them all of the letter sounds. The Leapfrog Company makes a few wonderful products that have helped us greatly to that end. One is the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD
. Leapfrog actually has a whole video series – Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory, and Storybook Factory – but the only one that I particularly recommend is the first one. Another great Leapfrog product is the Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set
. Magnetic letters stick to the refrigerator, and when each one is inserted into a little device, it sings a song reinforcing the sound associated with the letter. I highly recommend both of these products which provide a lot of help in preparing children for a phonics program.
Teaching Phonics
For Kindergarten, my main academic goal is that my children will be reading with proficiency by the end of the year. I choose to spend the majority of my one-on-one teaching time with my K-ers working toward this end.
I begin with a solid phonics program. If I am teaching a child younger than five years old, my favorite program is Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
, by Siegfried Engelmann. I like this for the younger set because the author assumes that the child is unfamiliar with each letter sound. The program is extremely gentle, completely scripted, and designed specifically for very young children. I started using this book to teach one of my children at age three, and she was reading quite well by age four. Who’d have guessed she was our firstborn? 
Another favorite, which I used with my next two children, is Alpha-Phonics: A Primer For Beginning Readers
by Samuel Blumenfeld. It moves a bit faster than 100 Easy Lessons, and is probably a more complete program, but in my experience, it is not well-suited for children younger than five years. I prefer this approach for five year olds, because at that age my children already know all of the letter sounds and are developmentally more mature and ready for a faster pace.
My fourth child is currently learning to read, and I’ve used a bit of a combination with him. Last year when he was four, he had a great desire to learn to read, so I started him with 100 Easy Lessons. We made it a good portion through the book, but upon the start of this year (his Kindergarten year), he was still not reading with ease. Now that he is five, we put the 100 Easy Lessons book away, and are using Alpha-Phonics. He zipped through the first part of the book doing several lessons a day, largely a review for him, until he came to the part where his current level seems to be. We’re moving along a bit slower now, but I am very happy with the rate at which he’s progressing.
Supplementing
When a child is beginning to read with some amount of proficiency, perhaps halfway through 100 Easy Lessons or 15-30 lessons into Alpha-Phonics (you be the judge), I begin to supplement their phonics instruction with Bob Books
by Bobby Lynn Maslen. We do traditional phonics on Monday through Thursday, but Fridays are special because on that day, we read Bob Books instead. The change of pace gives them something to look forward to and keeps enthusiasm fresh.
Beyond Phonics
When we move past the need for phonics instruction, I simply let the children read. I’ve been very blessed with voracious readers so far, and I don’t have to give them much nudging to head for the bookshelves to select books of their own choosing. However, in addition to their free reading selections, I want to make sure that they are consistently reading something that is right at their level, neither too easy nor too difficult. For this reason, I use Pathway Readers
, assigning one chapter each day. Early on, I will sit with them daily and listen while they read aloud. Once they reach around second grade, I allow them to read their Pathway chapter independently on most days, and I will only have them read it aloud to me once a week. Pathway Readers are sweet and wholesome books produced by an Amish publishing company. The earlier books contain stories about children living on an Amish farm, while the later books contain segments of classic literature, stories of historical figures, and lessons in virtue. The books span from a first grade to an eighth grade reading level, and I greatly appreciate having challenging material on-hand that is also age-appropriate in content. Often, children are capable of reading at a level well beyond their actual grade level, but finding books with suitable content can be difficult!
Preserve the Books
Phonics books tend to take a real beating. While none of my phonics books are particularly expensive, I have already eaten the cost of two copies of 100 Easy Lessons. Upon the start of this year, I saw that the binding of our Alpha-Phonics book was beginning to fall apart, and the corners of some pages were becoming badly wrinkled and torn. At this point, I came up with a brilliant idea. Yes, I said “brilliant,” not to toot my own horn, but to stress that this is something I should have done years ago! I purchased a large (3 inch or so) three-ring binder and some plastic page protectors, disassembled the pages of the book, put them inside the protectors, and inserted them into the binder. With this solution, I expect that I will be able to use the book for the next twenty years, and with as many children as I choose to use it. The binder also has several pockets inside the front and back covers. The pockets provide an excellent spot to keep our Bob Books. Additionally, when Fred and I pack up his school work at the end of each “Mom School” session, we store all of his schoolbooks inside the front of his binder to keep them neatly together until the next day.
Give Them Something to Play With
Little kids are antsy. Some more than others. Most of my children have had a tendency to touch and crinkle the corners of the phonics book pages during lessons, and doing this for 20 minutes a day can really take a toll on the books. When they begin to do this, I give them something else to hold. A small piece of modeling clay to squish and squeeze works very well, as does a small piece of soft, silky or knit cloth to rub. Note: If you try modeling clay, be sure to use a white color unless you want green or red smudges all over your book!
Challenge Them to a Race
Sometimes Alpha-Phonics will provide long columns of words to read, and it can be easy for a child to become sidetracked. Case in point? Fred is a talker, and enjoys discussing each and every word in his lists. A few days ago, he came across the word “cap.” He excitedly proceeded to tell me about his favorite baseball cap, and to inform me that a cap could also be called a “hat,” and did I know that in Minnesota Cuke, Larry the Cucumber called his hat a “fedora?” While I adore Fred’s enthusiasm, we have to keep the chit-chat to a minimum to prevent a 20 minute lesson from becoming a four hour lesson! When we have long lists like this, I will typically begin by pointing out (or asking him to point out) what all of the words have in common. I might ask, “Did you notice that all of the words in this list start with ‘ca-?’” Then I will challenge him to read the list as fast as he possibly can. He enjoys the challenge of a race, and when he gets sidetracked, I can simply remind him, “Remember, you’re racing!” and he will get back on track.
Make a Game
One of our favorite homemade learning tools is a game called “Roadblock,” which I learned about at a homeschool workshop with Carol Barnier. FYI, Carol credits this idea to Peggy Kaye’s book, Games for Learning. To get started, I made a simple gameboard with around 20 slots, decorated it with a few drawings (a house, a tree, and a gas tank), and slipped it into a plastic page protector. I also made a tiny orange paper cone and gathered a few matchbox cars. Here’s how it’s played: In each slot, I use a dry erase marker to write a letter or word, depending on what skill I want my child to practice. We get out a little matchbox car, fill it up with gas (sound effects are encouraged), and begin the game. Slot by slot, I have the child tell the letter, letter sound, or word that they see. If they get stuck, I put up the little orange cone (aka the “roadblock”) and we go over the difficult letter/word a few times. Then we go back to the beginning of the board, leaving the roadblock in place. When they get to the roadblock, they usually get it right this time. At this point, they are allowed to crash through the roadblock and knock it out of their way, continuing along the board. When they get three roadblocks during the game, it’s time to put it away to play again tomorrow. When they are able to complete the board, I erase the board and put up some new letters or words, being sure to include some that gave them trouble before. Note: This game is highly versatile and is great for teaching other subject areas as well – especially math facts!
1: Hold up 1 finger. This means that God comes first. So the first commandment is that God said, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
is a nice supplemental resource to introduce children to Art History and Art Appreciation.
I could read these wonderful books while a sleeping or nursing baby laid in my arms, or while a one or two year old would climb up and down from the couch to peek at the pictures. Three or four-year-olds could sit through most of the stories, and participate in many of the follow-up activities.
why would we think that they are the ones who are best equipped to develop these traits in our own children? I think that society has sold us a bill of goods. “They” have said it long enough and loud enough that we now believe that children cannot be “well socialized” unless they spend large amounts of time with their peers.
Isn’t that the best title for a book? It is a “Let’s Read and Find Out” Science book. We have at least a dozen books from this series lying around, and they are great for kids. This one explains what germs are, how big they are, what bacteria and viruses can look like, how they attack, how they multiply, how white blood cells and antibodies fight them, how they are treated, and so on. All this is explained in a short book with lots of pictures, in a way that even very young children can understand.
Michelle
Gameboy
Polly
Iron Man