In our family we try to make learning something that becomes part of our lives. One of our mottos is “We can always learn something new”. When I began homeschooling, I was doing just that, School at home, and it did not go well.
As I have become more aware of my children’s interests, and learning styles, I have gotten rid of a lot of that “school” type stuff. We still do some work in workbooks, on the computer for about two to three hours a day. However, the rest of the day is spent reading, do activities from our reading and life skills.
Our oldest child struggled with learning to read. I finally got fed up with trying to teach him out of the phonics readers we had been using. I bought him some simple Non-Fiction books to help him understand the need for reading. Once he was able to read enough to gain information he was interested in, he soared and within weeks was reading three grades above his level. This same concept took place with our now eight year old. Three months ago, she was struggling with first grade books, now after just handing her a stack of easy non-fiction books she is reading at or above third grade level books. The best thing about this, is they are comprehending what they are reading.
Our children have never been forced to read the “boring” school texts, and therefore have a love of reading that will help form a lifelong learning habit. If you can read, you can learn anything.
We do use phonics workbooks to help introduce all the sounds. Once they have most sounds learned—within five to six months, they are able to start on books that interest them.
It amazes me how much being able to love to read, and being able to learn about what you read, help improve skills across the educational spectrum. Don’t hand your resistant child a text book and expect them to learn to read. They won’t it will shut them down. Take it from one who had to learn the hard way, let them learn to reading while read something they want to learn about.
What methods have you used to help your children learn to read?
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