My Method in the Madness
In a large family with so many littles, I’ve had to streamline and simplify how I teach reading.
I use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (by Siegfied Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox & Elaine Bruner, Touchstone Publishing) with a significant twist!
If you are at all familiar with this book, you know that the sounds and words to be taught are in a large, bold font. After the first introductory lessons which do not have stories, each lesson has a simple picture with a “story” (some of only a sentence or two, others much longer) for the child to read which practices the sounds and words they learned. (Some of these stories are a hoot, and my children grew to anticipate whatever funny story they would read that day!)
This book uses a special orthographic (how words are spelled) font so that children become familiar with the sounds certain letters make without being confused by sound rules.
Each lesson also comes with a carefully detailed script – both for the parent to say/teach (in pink print) and an expected response from the child for each lesson. They also give writing exercises, rhyming activities, picture comprehension questions, and multiple questions/answers throughout each lesson.
Confession time: I only focus on the bold print when I teach my children reading from this book.
Yep, I brazenly ignore all the fine print, writing exercises, rhyming, and multiple admonishments for repeated readings. (I know, shocking!)
This way there is a lot less drag and irritation from the slow progress, and my kids and I can zip through the first several lessons without even breaking a sweat. Because the book starts very simply, teaching only two sounds in the first lesson, then slowly building each time, I often find that my child can easily cover multiple lessons in the early days, then as the reading increases and the stories at the end become a little longer, we “slow down” to about two or so for each reading session. (One of my children was so excited by her progress that she insisted on covering about four to five lessons each time we worked on her reading!)
Here’s my method in the madness, broken down:
1. I use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, but teach using only the bold text without following the script.
I use it as a resource, not a mandated method. My kids react with irritation if I try to slowly go through all fine-print script, slowing us all down and increasing frustration. When I let it go, they start to fly through the lessons with increasing enthusiasm and excitement. It is an easy choice.
2. I use the actual lessons as a general guide, but go at the pace my child sets, rather than insisting he/she completes a set number of lessons or pages.
If we are struggling through one lesson and don’t even finish and ten minutes is up, I often say cheerily, “OK, let’s get to the end of this line (or to the bottom of this page) and then let’s stop for the day! Great work so far!” because then my child knows the end is in sight and is encouraged to keep going for just a little longer.
I try to generally aim for about ten minutes at least for “reading time” with me, in addition to whatever books they read to themselves or each other before bedtime or during quiet time.
Once in a while, I know my child is just being a punk and decided that he/she doesn’t feel like doing the work of reading that day. So then I will tell them that they need to complete a page (or a lesson) before moving on to another activity (like playing), and if they refuse, they will lose that other activity. As the mom of my kids, I can tell when it’s totally an attitude thing versus a real problem like an illness or exhaustion or low blood sugar.
Even though I want reading to be enjoyable, sometimes getting to that point will be work. And teaching my child that work is part of life is never a bad thing.
3. I often fit “reading time” in with normal life. This means that after we get through the initial lessons and my child is more confident in reading, I often have a child sitting (or lying!) on a mat on the kitchen floor next to me or sitting on the couch, reading aloud, while I clean up breakfast dishes, fold laundry, or cook dinner. I stay close and keep an eye on their book and can usually direct them easily if they make an error or need a reminder about a certain sound, or can chat with them about the picture and discuss the story.
This way I can get through about two or three children’s reading lessons (usually the most I have in this learning stage is three kids at a time) while still getting through the regular household things that I need to accomplish for our family.
4. I never insist that we finish the book!
I have experienced now with several children that by the time they reach around lesson 75 (three-quarters of the way through the book), they have enough confidence and reading skills that they have already begun reading other books that they themselves have chosen, on topics they find interesting. THIS IS SUCCESS.
Some of my kids never go back to 100 Easy Lessons because they self-teach new words and sounds through other materials. (Often later they go back and read the fun stories at the end of each lesson, merely as an entertainment rather than a scholastic endeavor.)
And I cheerily put it back on the shelf to wait for the next upcoming reader, knowing it has successfully completed its mission of helping me teach reading to my child.
Booyah! Victory.
There you have it, the basic way I teach reading in my home. Up next: Part Three: How I cope with specific challenges like wiggly kids, meltdown-days, and learning difficulties.