My 6-year-old has an amazing vocabulary and teaching her has been by far the easiest. I think that is the case because I've had a lot of trial and errors with the first four children. I can say, this time around, I taught my youngest the way I felt confident. I've done my own research and paid close attention to their needs and abilities. All children learn differently. Yes, I am aware but luckily, teaching my children to read was quite similar.
Here are some of my favorite resources in teaching my children how to read:
Teach My Monster to Read app- I have been using this app for a year and I can honestly say, it has been the foundation of my reader's journey. I enjoy freebies so while this app was free, I scoped it up! If you follow me on my social media platforms (Facebook) and (Instagram), you would have seen all the post about this! It has been such a blessing to us!
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons- I purchased this book in hopes that I would actually utilize it for 100 days... LIES!!! :) With all of our daily readings and activities, I have yet to complete the book. I have to skip ahead in the book now just because my daughter had advanced so much within the past few months. It is a great resource to teach sounds in repetitions and focus on phonics and because it's scripted for the parent, you won't have to second-guess yourself as I did with previous books. :)
BOB Books- This has to be the classical way of teaching your child to read! Good ol' step by step reading materials. As the child becomes familiar with the English language, breezing through these series of books are second nature. These are a series of children’s books designed to teach reading skills acquisition. With a foundation in phonics methods, each level addresses each stage in a child’s reading development.
Library- Now you know I wasn't going to end my list of resources without mentioning the local library?! We visit our library weekly to search out level appropriate books for each child. My children weren't always eager to search for books because honestly, they didn't like to read! It took a lot of prayers to understand that I had to find things my children were interested in to get them to read. Well, mission accomplished! Now seeing what my children are interested in, it makes so much sense as far as their personalities are concerned. A book can shed so much light!
Why is early literacy so important?
There is a magical time between ages 3 to 7 when children expand out beyond verbal communication and start to develop written language skills as well. It's an amazing transformation. Very young children can identify letters and sound them out. Eventually, older children learn to identify common words, and then start to write and read on their own.
Now some of our favorite authors for early readers...
Eric Carle. Best known for A Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear... His books are always colorful and full of adventure. He's been writing children's books for over 40 years!
Dr. Suess. Best known for A Cat in a Hat and Green Eggs and Ham... He's basically the legend of children's books! I've read his books growing up and all of my children have read his books as well!
James Dean. Best known for Pete the Cat. I was introduced to Pete the Cat while I was teaching Pre-K. There were videos on YouTube with amazing music as the narrator read the story. So fun and inviting that I purchased a few of the early reader books of some of the classics.
Learning to read is the foundation for everything in life! When you can read, you can change the world!
