Teaching your child how to read-Pt. 2

As I wrote in my previous post, I really wanted to log our journey of learning how to read. Mainly for myself so I can look back and see how much we have progressed, but also for others down the road who might need a little direction and encouragement in this area.

It may not seem easy, teaching someone to read, but in a short time you will be amazed how quickly children learn to read. Please bear with me, as I will be quoting from one of the master educators, Charlotte Mason, about this topic because my words will definitely fall short in explaining how children learn to read. She does such an amazing job in eloquently explaining this process. First let me start off by saying that you can read all her explanations in her own words here, starting on page 199.

This week I wanted to start off with a very quick overview of how we are able to read words. Once you understand this, the concept of reading will be easier and hopefully the teaching process easier as well. In Chapter 6, "Lessons as Instruments of Education" CM said,

"Learning to read is nothing more than figuring out, however we can, the arbitrary symbols for objects and ideas. There is no one 'right way,' and no necessary sequence of steps. There is no beginning, middle and end. The arbitrary symbols we must know so we can read aren't letters. They're words." (Pg. 215)

In other words, words are merely symbols of objects or ideas. As we build relationships with words, reading becomes easier. Since words mainly express an idea or an object, it comes to no surprise that the more interesting the idea or object the better the child will remember it. We've all learned to read by association with the printed word and the idea that it conveyed. This is what CM wrote about this:

"He should be given real words that mean something interesting to him from the very beginning. It's easy to read 'robin redbreast' or 'buttercups and daisies.' The number of letters in a word doesn't matter because the words themselves convey such interesting ideas that it's easy for the child to fix his attention and make the association to the thing. Once the child has made the association between the printed word and the idea that it conveys, it will be easier for him to use what he knows about the sounds of the letters to make other similar words by building on that word. For example, once he knows butter, it's easy for him to change the b to an m to make the word mutter." (Pg. 216)

Reading should be taught not only by sound (phonics) but by sight as well. Reading should also be a multi sensory approach, not only using the sound and sight sensory but also the touch sensory which is necessary for kinesthetic learners (those who learn by touch rather than sight). Adding this sensory to our reading, here at home, is what made Brianna take off in her reading! I personally believe children who struggle to read need this extra sensory approach to help them grasp reading. It helps to make words real for them and it helps them understand that words are simply symbols of things and ideas. So... for my next post I will cover how we do reading in our home. I'll give some step by step examples to this process.

2009-2010 School Schedule

Because we have school year round, I have to make sure we get in all of our schooling during this time frame. If I don't have a yearly schedule there is a huge chance we will be having to play catch-up towards the end. Here is the calendar I will be using to schedule our school year.

Basically what I will do is plan our year using this type of calendar. I have to make sure we get in 36 weeks of school with 16 weeks of breaks. The plan is to have school varying from 4-6 week increments then have one week off . With the exception of August, December and April were we will have 2-3 weeks off depending on how I have spaced our breaks.

Because life is unpredictable I have saved a few weeks for things that just come up. There are some months that I already know we need off such as VBS, vacations, spring break, Thanksgiving, etc. By dispersing our breaks in this manner I'm hoping to prevent burn-out for all of us which is what happened a lot this last year.

The weeks we have off will be "x" out. Our school weeks will be circled to make sure we get in all 36 weeks. As we complete each week I will number them to show we have completed it. I will do a count down format. In other words, our first week of school will be numbered 36 and the following 35, etc. We will try really hard to stay on this schedule but I do expect things to come up to take us off schedule. In that case I will have to tweak things around. I'm hoping this will help us all out this year.

Our China Study

When our home school co-op group had a country study this last school year, Rebekah piped up and said "Let's do China!". I thought if we choose China we most certainly have to do a Chinese dragon. So we got to work a week before the presentation. In the end, we had such a blast!


This is the Chinese Dragon that we labored so hard in making. The head was made out of papermachie and the body out of a plastic table cloth from the dollar store. For the head, we started with a box and for the mouth we used the lids of the box and taped them to one of the sides. We uses lots and lots of newspaper and flour to papermachie the box and mouth. It was a huge mess but the result was huge fun!


The eyes were cups taped to the top. The horns were cones make out of poster board, and the nostrils were toilet paper rolls. We broke out the tempura paints and had fun creating our dragon. We used lots of feathers and all the fun accessories were made out of Styrofoam balls and chenille wire. For the beard we used, Christmas tinsel. And viola!....A Chinese dragon. We will never forget our special Chinese dragon!



Here they are after the presentation. Don't they look cute? After learning about China, Rebekah told me she wants to be a missionary to China.

Teaching your child how to read-Pt. 1

Teaching your child to read can seem both intimidating and complicated, but really it isn't.

After I graduated from college with a degree in education and a concentration on reading, I felt I had a good grasp on how to teach reading. When I started teaching, I used phonics (decoding words using certain rules). I taught all the rules and blends but very quickly this became extremely boring!

When I began homeschooling, I used this same approach (don't ask me why!) with my first daughter, Rebekah, and it went well to say the least but became very tedious and wearisome very quickly, and above all else, *yawn* boring!! None the less, we trudged along only to find the reading process was slow.

I tried this approach with Brianna and for a whole year we were not getting anywhere. Both Brianna and I became frustrated, so I started praying asking the Lord "to show me the way". BTW this is what happens when you home school, you pray a whole lot! The Lord lead me to Charlotte Mason's writings about how to teach your child to read. It was an answer to my prayers! So far, it has been a success! What is so encouraging is that it is the same approach that mom's have been using for centuries! Susanna Wesley taught all her children to read this way in the late 1600's! So....the next few weeks I will be logging our journey using this method. Maybe down the road it will help someone else as well.