How I taught my 4-year old to read

I've been wanting to write about this for a while. However, finding time to blog is hard these days. Juggling two kids and all of our activities. This post will explain how I taught my 4-year old to read. I know many people fear homeschooling because they are afraid they wouldn't be able to teach their child to read. For me, teaching things like reading are just a part of life. I love teaching and if I were to take a paying job outside the home again, I would most likely teach.

I have a degree in English. However, before having kids, the only "formal" reading instruction I've done is tutoring 3rd graders in math and reading while I was in college. English was most of these kids second language, which is why they needed extra help. I also volunteered at an elementary school and read to kindergartners and 1st graders, one-on-one. The school encouraged volunteers to come and read to children who were struggling. Sadly, many of these kids didn't have parents who read to them at home. That's when I first learned how important reading to your child(ren) is.

To begin with, I want to remind you that every child is different. I'm very impressed with Blue Rock but he has always had a love of letters and numbers. He's been doing so well lately that a few weeks ago I had him take a few reading tests online and found out that my 4-year old is reading at a 2nd grade level!  His reading has gotten really good and since we home school, I'm trying to decide which language arts to do for kindergarten next year.  He's almost done with our "Pre-K," kindergarten curriculum. He's been able to read for a while but he's consistently been able to read very fluently for a few months.  The number one way I think to teach your child to read is to read to them, a lot! That's my biggest advice.

Besides me and my husband reading to him, here's how I taught my child to read. I taught him the alphabet between 16 and 18 months using an alphabet puzzle and playing a game of matching the letter pieces with their slot. For example, I would pick up a letter, say it's name, then put it where it went. Then he would take a turn and do the same. Before he could say them I would speak for him. He quickly picked this up. He's known the alphabet since he was 18 months old and knew all of the letter sounds before he was 2. I taught him the letter sounds the same way. When he was 2 and 3 I stopped formal reading instruction. I wanted reading to come to him naturally and not feel forced. Also I noticed he was just memorizing the story or words and I really wanted him to learn how to sound words out.

This year I haven't pushed it either but have just done a little bit every week. Not every day, but every few days.  When he was 3, I thought him how to read consonant vowel consonant (CVC) words. He was half-way interested, so I stopped and just went back to reading to him for the fun of reading. He'd memorize books and read them to me picking up words here and there. The only "formal" instruction I've really done this year is going through My Father's World Kindergarten. This is a gentle homeschooling curriculum and I think it has worked great for Pre-K for us. A few things we do each week are, I have him read words and place them with pictures and then I'd tell him a word and he'd find it on a page and underline it or circle it or something like that. When I read to him I point out words, especially sight words. I also downloaded a few free sight word apps for my Kindle. At first he was super interested in them because one of them had the word "but." Go figure, silly boy! So obviously he picked up how to read and spell that word very quickly. Occasionally we'll play some sight word games together. Honestly, he just has a really great memory. He can look at a word and remember it after seeing it once or twice. Which is another reason I held off "teaching" him to read. I wanted to make sure he could phonically read words. When we started level one books, I would read a page, then he'd read a page. Now that's he has gotten the hang of it and it's not too overwhelming, I encourage him to read 1 to 2 books to his baby sister every day. He loves reading to his sister. We're going through the Bob books and some Scholastic Little Readers. He's a proud brother to be able to read to his little sister. I think it's important that children get comfortable reading out loud to others. Throughout life reading aloud is something that most people will be called to do from time to time.

So my basic advice is, read to your child every day. This is the most important step. Next, teach the letters of the alphabet, really you could start with their sounds. If you want to go a step further, teach the phonograms, that's how I'm going to teach my daughter when she starts showing interest in letters. Then practice reading books. The great thing about beginner readers is that there are lists of sight words at the beginning of the book. I have my son try and read them. If he doesn't know a word, I tell him. Then we practice it. Once your child is reading, encourage them to read to you every day. The more they practice, the better they'll get. If they aren't interested in reading themselves, read to them. Reading is one thing I would go with your child's pace. To teach letter blends, I point out the blends in words and I have flash cards. He's not really interested in flash cards so we mostly will write the blend or a word or several words with the blend, such as th. I'll write, the, there, that, etc. This seems to work well. Have fun reading with your child! Don't stress. If they aren't interested in reading themselves, just read to them.

If you need more guidance for teaching your child to read. I highly recommend The Reading Lesson by Michael Levin, M.D. and Charan Langton, M.S. I will most likely start with this when it's time to teach my daughter.