Teaching Kids to Read

 Kari has inspired me to write this post about teaching littles to read.

(Kari, who, does way more to teach letters than I ever have)

She's amazing.

OK

First, a little background:

I was the "Sand Paper Letter Teacher" at a Montessori school.

Which means I sat with each child for a few minutes per day, 

or every couple days (there were a lot of students)

and taught the sounds of letters.

I knew when I started a daycare of my own, I wanted to use this method.

At the school I taught at, they had me only teach the sound and not the letter.

When I teach my own kiddos, I teach both, the sound and the letter

Now, you do not have to have a Sand Paper Letter set in order to teach,

but it is helpful and the kids love them! 

No more than a few minutes each day or every other day is enough

and only 3 letters at a time, with the exception of reviewing letters they have mastered already. 

 The letters are broken down into 3 sets, 

set 1 being the easiest to learn and so on.

I usually start with S A M

Now you are teaching the short sounds, "A" like in Cat.

You will trace each letter and when finished, say the sound

"Sssssss" and say the letter "S"

Then have the child copy you

and go onto the next letter

"Aaaaaaa" and say the letter "A"

child repeats.

When you have gotten to the last letter (of the 3)

and the child has repeated you,

"Mmmmmm"  "M"

You will say,

"Which one is "Mmmmmm" "M"?

Always start with the one you just did with them,

as they will most often get it right,

 and it gives them some pride of knowing it!

Then, mix it up, 

asking where "Sssssss" is and where "Aaaaaaaa" is

(sounding them out)

(child only points to white dot and does not trace at this time)

You never say "No..." You will say, "That's Aaaaaaaaa, where's Mmmmmm?"
 to correct them.
"NO" gives negative and it's too hard,
 feelings towards reading and learning sounds.

That's all you will do each day a few minutes each time.

You  might want to have a notebook to keep track of which letters 

each child has mastered or even a master of the alphabet, with each letter 

mastered circled.

There are 2 steps to mastering a letter.

1. To be able to answer "Where is Ssssssss?" 

(or "Where is (letter)?"

2. To be able to answer "What's this?" while pointing to mastering letter.

Once child has "mastered" a letter,

 move onto a new letter within the set you are working on.

(let them choose if you want to)

 Oh, yeah, I always forget this!

It is important that they know their numbers 1-10 by sight, 

so you can teach numbers in the same way

(I don't have Sand Paper Numbers though, so we use cards)

It's hard, to do numbers before letters...I am currently doing both of them with my 4 year old.

 Once your child has that first set "mastered" 

You can make words like:

mat, pat, cat, sat, hat

got, pot, cot, tot

cop, top, mop, hop, pop

You can make little word books out of old business cards

 or cut paper stapled together

You can do this with the letters themselves, 

or with shapes, numbers, colors and words

This will give them the feeling they are Reading!!

And they are!!

(you can even make little 3 page books with the letters they are working on right now)

You can make "Sound Picture" sets

where the children match the sound with a picture

(I laminated these)

You can do the same with "Sound Object" sets too.

(Sorry, I didn't picture ours)

 Once they've mastered their letters and sounds, even if only a few, 

you can move onto Bob Books!

I went on to teach my daycare kiddos to read using this method of teaching letters, 

and then my own kiddos!

Now you must remember that EACH CHILD IS DIFFERENT

EACH CHILD LEARNS DIFFERENTLY

Tell yourself this often, because it is so true.

When I taught my kiddos in my daycare, 

(like 17 years ago)

I had one girl that picked it up very quickly and was reading chapter books by Kindergarten,

one that was reading 3 letter words by Kindergarten, 

and one that was struggling to "master" that first set of letters by Kindergarten, 

and one totally uninterested child!

This has happened with my own children!

And you know what?

They all still eventually learn to read!!!

(in their own time)

My oldest could literally read DICTIONARIES

by Kindergarten!

My 2nd oldest could read 3 letter words by Kindergarten, then quickly caught on.

My 3rd oldest, struggled, 

hated the Bob Books, 

so we tried different things for her: 

 Catholic Heritage Curriculum Readers

HERE

(you fold each into a book)

I admit, that no child kept interested in these to make it to complete the 3rd brown set!

 She finally "clicked" when we started these readers with her, 

from Seton, Click HERE

 Now, my 4th struggled a little through even 1st grade, but now everything has clicked 

and she hated Bob Books, Catholic Heritage Readers, liked the green Seton readers a little, 

but loves these Little Angel Readers!

Click HERE

 Here's some ideas for making it fun!

Boggle Jr!!

Basically, the kids are matching letters to make words, 

there is only a short, little, window of time where they enjoy this, but it adds to the fun!

 While teaching letters, I start with their names

I write their names on handwriting cardstock in black marker

and cut tracing paper for them to clip with a paper clip on top and trace!

 If you read to your children, it will foster a love of reading, 

(for most of them)

(I do have one that never liked being read to, and she is the one who hates to read!)

Personality!!

 She filled out her reading chart, by reading every day outloud

at the end of the filled chart, she got to get a new Barbie

(because, you know, we needed a new Barbie!)

She's now in the middle of a reading chart and is working towards

a new Hero Factory!

(our reading charts are from Catholic Heritage Curriculum, 

and take about 8 wks to complete)

 He LOVES reading and being read to!

Remember that when they want to hear the same book over and over again, 

they are starting the process to learn to read, 

reading is all about memorization!

I do not claim to be a master at this, 

this is just what we do

and have found to work!

Follow their interests, 

don't push too much

and remember that only a few minutes is needed each day!

(for the teaching sounds part!)

If they are struggling, take a break!

You can always go back and start again!

Eventually, it clicks!