Teach Your Child to Read in Just 5 Easy Lessons? YOU BET!
I used to think that my kids had to know ALL the alphabet letters and sounds before I could even entertain the idea of teaching them to read. So, I printed random alphabet worksheet after random alphabet worksheet, thinking I was doing my kids a favor.
I considered it a success when my children traced the letters and coloured the bubble letter at the top. Naturally, I thought, if they’re going to be able to read, they need to know all the letters and sounds.
Digraphs? Back when I was teaching my littles to read, I wouldn’t have had a good answer for you. I knew the basic ‘sound it out’ strategy, but mine certainly did not include digraphs or long vowel teams.
I didn’t have a simple sound blending mat – truly, just a rectangle for each sound in a simple CVC word to live in. A must-have tool of the trade trained teachers know about and implement with beginning readers everyday! As the saying goes, sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know.
At first, I didn’t know about the phonics skill of blending and CVC words. I thought it was more about memorizing these words and reading them enough times to make them stick. I didn’t know about the brain retrieving a sound to quickly blend with other sounds to read whole words. Even the simplest of words. I just didn’t know.
So, today, I want to share with you what I learned about teaching your child to read her first words. The same skills that teachers trained in phonics instruction lead their student through everyday.
How to Teach Your Child to Read in Just 5 Easy Lessons?
- Teach your child 4 letter names and their letter sounds.
- Work on quick recall of each of these 4 letter names and sounds.
- Teach your child to blend just these 4 letter names and sounds.
The KEY is to focus on just 4 letters and sounds. Think about how long it would take your child to learn the entire alphabet, plus letter sounds for each letter. If you waited for perfect recall of all 26 alphabet letters and sounds, your child is missing early opportunities to begin decoding words by blending sounds.
It is entirely possible to teach your child to read in just 5 easy lessons. Lesson one should focus on the letter name and sound for the letter ‘m’. Lesson two should focus on the the short /a/ vowel sound and letter name. Lesson three should focus on the letter name and sounds for the letter ‘s’. Lessons four should focus on the letter name and sound for the letter ‘t’. Finally, in lesson five, teach your child to blend simple CV and CVC words using just these four letters.
So, if you teach your child 4 letter names, 4 letter sounds, quick recall of these 4 letter names and sounds, AND teach your child to blend these sounds to read a word, then GUESS WHAT? Your child is reading whole words!
Congratulations! You now know HOW to teach your child to read in just 5 easy lessons!
