A few days ago, I spread several handwritten alphabet cards I had written with different colors of crayons on the bed and called my five year old daughter over. There were no fancy flashcards, no expensive learning kits, and no colourful classroom walls, I used just pieces of paper, a notebook, and two pens.(Red and blue)
At the beginning, it looked messy. But to me, it looked like progress.
As we went through the letters one after another, I noticed something that made me smile. She wasn't just naming the letters anymore; she was beginning to say the sounds each letter represents. When we moved to CVC(consonants vowel consonants) word families, which can be used to read simple words like cat, fan, bat, and jam etc, there were moments of hesitation, but there were also moments of excitement.
Those little victories are the ones people hardly talk about.
As adults, we celebrate graduation ceremonies, promotions, and big achievements. Children, on the other hand, deserve applause for reading their very first word without help. That single moment is just as significant in their little world.
One thing teaching has taught me is that children don't need pressure, they need patience.
I've seen children who couldn't identify five letters at the beginning of a term become confident enough to read simple sentences a few weeks later. I've also seen children who learned much more slowly but eventually caught up because someone refused to give up on them.
That's why I no longer ask, "Why isn't this child reading yet?" Instead, I ask, "What can I do differently to help this child understand?"
Sometimes the answer is repetition.
Sometimes it's turning lessons into games.
Sometimes it's taking a break and trying again tomorrow.
Every child learns at a different pace, and that's very okay. No child is dull.
Looking at the handwritten alphabet cards reminds me that teaching isn't always glamorous. It can mean sitting on a bed instead of a classroom chair, writing letters on torn notebook sheets instead of laminated cards, and celebrating a child who can decode a word using the alphabet sounds instead of memorizing.
Because in a way, they have.
Reading changes everything.
A child who can read gains confidence. They become curious. They ask more questions. They begin to explore the world without waiting for someone to explain every single thing to them.
That's why I believe teaching a child to read is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.
It isn't about raising the smartest child in the room.
It isn't about comparing children with their classmates.
It's about helping one child discover that those strange looking letters on a page actually have meaning.
And when that happens, a whole new world opens.
So yes, my age five can read.
Not perfectly.
Not every word.
Not every sentence.
But enough to make me proud, enough to encourage them to keep going, and enough to remind me that every fluent reader was once a child sounding out k-A-T = cat.
Sometimes, that's exactly where greatness begins.
Thank you for reading.
I'd love to know what reading method has worked best for the children you've taught or raised?
