You’ve taught you kids everything they need to know in life and now, you’re wondering how to teach my kid to read. Maybe you are wondering if teaching your child to read is even possible. I mean, you don’t even have a teaching degree. Where do you even start? I will say absolutely it is possible to teach your kids to read. And simple.
All it takes is a little time, patience, lots of positive encouragement and this $13 book.
I love to teach my child to read! I’ve taught my three oldest and I’m starting on my baby. Every time I teach them to read, I love seeing their mind open to the reading world. Any parent who can read has the ability to read can teach their child to read. And I definitely think you should!
- Why you will love teaching your child to read
- How do I teach my kid to read?
- How does this book help teach my kid to read?
- When should I start to teach my kid to read?
- How do I start teaching my kid to read?
- When do I do lessons?
- How to persevere through the challenges of teaching your child to read
- How long will it take to teach my kid to read?
- Benefits of Reading before Kindergarten
Why you will love teaching your child to read
Teaching your child to read is the most rewarding work you will ever do. It is a gift they will have for the rest of their life.
Most parents delegate this process to a trained and educated teacher, but YOU can do it easily, cheaply, and quickly. Why let the teacher have all the excitement of watching your child develop this skill?
You and your child will be forever grateful you taught them yourself. Reading will open up your child’s world. As you progress through the program, you will notice them reading signs, toys and cereal boxes.
Your child’s understanding, comprehension, and questions of the world that has long been a mystery, is now figure-out-able! Watching your child figure it out will be a great reward!
One of my greatest joys is to watch my child learn to read.
How do I teach my kid to read?
All you have to do is buy a $13 book! (Oh, and you have to actually work through the book, too!)
How does this book help teach my kid to read?
Teach your Child to read in 100 Easy Lessons is amazing. It tells you exactly what to say (and what the child is supposed to say). There is absolutely no preparation you have to do daily for each lesson.
- The book starts teaching the child to sound out words. It is a skill to be able to blend the sounds together to make sense of a complete word. Together, practice sounding out words for the first 20 lessons. It can get a bit boring, but it is worth it!
- Every other lesson will introduce a new sound and review past sounds. The way the book moves in progression through the sounds is perfect!
- Long and Short Vowel sounds are taught in separate lessons using symbols to help the child know the difference. After lesson 80, the symbols are taken away and the child learns to differentiate long and short sounds.
- Your child will learn digraph sounds including th, sh, ch,& w, As well at the oo, ou, and ing sound.
- Sight words that don’t follow the normal sound patterns are introduced throughout. The child sounds out the word the way it ‘should’ be and then you teach them how we actually read it, without shaming them at all! You say ‘This is a funny word!’
- After reading short stories, you will ask comprehension questions aiding in their reading understanding.
- The final step in the lessons is to write the ‘sounds’ (you will call them by their sound rather than the letter name to reinforce learning)
When should I start to teach my kid to read?
Every child is different, but I start when my kids are about 4 1/2. This is usually 6-12 months before they are starting kindergarten. They have all done amazingly. Starting about six months before kindergarten is enough time to complete the program and transition to easy reader picture books before starting school.
When I first flipped through the book at looked when we would finish 100 lessons I thought, there is NO WAY they will be able to read that long of a story in about three months. But slowly and surely, all of my kids did! This book provides a perfect step ladder for succeeding!
How do I start teaching my kid to read?
- Read the introduction for parents so you are aware of how and why the program works.
2. Make a 100s chart with your child. Talk about the patterns they see in the numbers and connect this to their number learning, reinforcing the connection between math and reading. Write in the chart the rewards they will get when they complete certain lesson numbers.
I love talking about numbers and patterns all the way through the reading program. This is the perfect opportunity to work on math skills. My kids all learned to count to 100 by the end of these lessons, too.
3. Buy their favorite stickers to mark their progress.
3. You’ll also need a fun pencil (or a boring one) and a writing tablet with the lines and middle dashed lines in them.
4. Open to lesson 1 and begin reading! I’m serious when I say you really don’t need to overprepare or overthink this. The book walks you all the way through how to do it. Just start.
When do I do lessons?
Each lesson is designed to take about 20 minutes (although depending on the focus of the child can take longer.) If you schedule a consistent time in your day you are more likely to make it happy daily. However, the great things about teaching your child to read yourself is that you can totally be flexible, too!
Make sure you have no other distractions. Schedule it into your routine, so it is predictable. For us, it works to do it right after lunch when my baby/toddler is napping. Find a time that works for you and your child, not when you are tired or hungry.
when I first begin teaching my kid to read, they are super motivated, so we might do two lessons a day (one in the morning, one in the afternoon). As the lessons get more challenging, one a day is sufficient.
I try to do a lesson every day, but as life gets busier we tend to take the weekends off and miss here and there. Don’t worry about missing a few.
Even after a 2-week break for Christmas, my daughter on lesson 62 remembered every sound (including the one she had just learned before the long break). So give yourself permission to miss occasionally, but try to stick to a schedule.
How to persevere through the challenges of teaching your child to read
Despite this reading program being simple, it is also challegning, for parents and children. You will have to have a supermom amount of patience and positive encouragement. You will have to redirect their attention as they get distracted or overwhelmed.
Getting through all 100 lessons is essential! Here’s some tips for not giving up.
- Have a small reward for completing each lesson and bigger rewards for every 10 lessons. This helps keep up the motivation and encouragement. What will really motivate your child? What would you love to give your child so you are motivated too?
There are times when this process is boring and grueling for your child (and for you, too!). Don’t give up. Push through! It is worth 20 minutes of being bored and or helping your child focus to give them the gift of reading. You can do this! Make a schedule and stick with it!
2. Drown them with praise. Seriously, everytime they remember a sound, celebrate! Did they read their first word, have a dance party. Make it fun and be excited to do it! Show off their new skills to dad or their siblings. Facetime grandma to show off the new word they learned.
The structure of this program is such that any child will succeed and feel confident in their abilities. As the parent, encouragement for every accomplishment and they will glow with pride and confidence along with the motivation to learn more.
3. Enjoy your time together! Spend time touching and watching your child as they struggle to learn something new. You will love being in the moment and present with your baby. There are moments my heart soared with love as we read together. My children love the one-on-one time with my full attention.
4. Take turns with your partner to give the lessons. It can get a bit monotonous as the adult helping your child through this process. Its good to take a break. Each lesson is so easy to do, even my older siblings have been able to do a few lessons for my youngest!
5. Don’t be afraid to take a few days off or repeat an older lesson to get a break.
How long will it take to teach my kid to read?
Just like the book promises, you child will be reading in 100 lessons. depeneding on how quickly you and your child are able to move through the lessons, they could be reading in a little over 3 months!
The lessons say they will take about 20 minutes each. I’ve found that in the beginning, I can do twol lessons a day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). The lessons will get progressively more difficult with more to remember every other lesson. Sometime we need a break and the lesson would take a couple of days to complete. It’s ok to follow your child’s needs a take a break.
My best piece of advice is to work all the way through the book. If you don’t get past lesson 75, your child will not be able to recognize regular letters as the book writes the long and short vowels differently for the first lessons. Even though it gets challenging, it is worth finishing all 100 lessons. Create a reward for yourself and your child for completing all the lessons!
What do I need to teach my kid to read?
- The “How to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons” workbook
- Writing tablet
- Sticker rewards
- Pencils
- Hundreds chart
- Optional: The INGOLF Kids chair is perfect for small kids sitting at the table to read and write!
Benefits of Reading before Kindergarten
Coming into Kindergarten already reading will mean your child will have a bit of a head start on their learning. I’ve seen the following benefits with my children. They are:
- Capable of absorbing so much more from their lessons
- Able to read signs around the room, test questions, books their teacher is sharing, assignment instructions, etc. The world is theirs to read
- Independent, won’t need to wait for help
- Capable of helping others, aiding in social skills and building friendships
- Teachers will love their skills and use them to help other students
- Reading early and developing the skill well, will bless their life throughout their education as they read to learn, instead of spending time learning to read.
I hope if you are wondering “How do I teach my kid to read?” you feel the confidence and capability to do it! Please comment about how it went for you and what you loved about teaching your own child to read.
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