How to teach your kid to read, WELL!

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A pearl of wisdom I heard and HAVE to pass on.

You know those random comments or pieces of advice you hear, and just KNOW you’ll need to remember it? The ones usually said by someone without much thought but are pearls of wisdom. So you file it away in your brain for when the time comes?

I have one for teaching my kids to read. And its proven itself three times over….

It was from two different moms at two totally different times.

“Every kid learns to read on their own time”.  

I heard this phrase once when my oldest was a baby. I couldn’t tell you who said, where we were or what we were even talking about to strike this comment. But I heard it and it struck me. I knew it was a pearl to file away and remember when the time came. 

Years later, when my second was baby, someone else in a whole different setting/group of friends/ maybe even country said something along the same lines and it reminded me of the first time I heard the same sentiment.

“They’ll wake up one day and just know how to read”.

Two different women I respected who didn’t even know the other existed. Confirmed! This pocketed pearl n how to teach my kids to read was a handy one. Or more so a teaching tool to remember. And like I said up top, it has proven to be OH SO TRUE!!!

Fast forward to Tessa being five and proficiently reading with almost no effort on my part. We did read A LOT together as baby and toddler. She was always happy to sit on anyone’s lap and read books. Like for an hour straight, no joke. And no doubt that played a roll in her ability to totally just pick it up.
I even remember borrowing “Teach your child to read in 10 easy lessons” from someone because I wasn’t prepared and she was starting to read on her own. That book would never get opened passed lesson 5 because she didn’t really need it. I secretly rejoiced cuz it was NOT easy. At least not for me at the time. Now, at 13, we all ask her or Alexa when we want to verify spelling. No joke and no shame in my game. 

Second kid, boy, only 18 months younger than Tess so they basically did everything together.. but much more interested in building and how things worked than sitting and reading with us. He does love doing things together so would sit often or at least within ear shot and could sneak a eau at the pictures if he heard something interesting or ask a question…. so many questions…. still. 
Around that same age Tessa picked up reading, I naturally started to encourage Jacob, always remembering that little pearl of wisdom. We’d pick up that “easy lessons” book again, but still never get passed lesson 5. It was the worst. He hated it. I hated it. I can remember the day I realized it wasn’t for us, too. Looking at my little man, teary eyed cuz he hates not being able to do things he wants to do/ expected of him, and throwing it across the room. I smiled and told him that book would get the boot and we’d find a better one. It totally lightened the mood and reset our whole learning to read experience. He needed some handholding but picked it up over the next year. 

Then there’s Ellie. Oh, sweet wild child of mine. The one who lives so deeply in her imagination and can hardly sit still long enough to get through a Dr. Seuss board book. Coming up on eight, and although I know she CAN read, she chooses very strongly not to. Unless it’s her idea. When we do sit and practice, I have to remind her to get a book she does’t already have memorized. She loves her spelling book and dictation is something we do weekly so I know it’s in there. Just waiting for that confidence to flourish…. waiting… patiently… very patiently.  

The point is… if it’s not already obvious, do your due diligence. But don’t stress about it.

Read with them. Work on the phonetics when them. Point as you read. Do some tracing or copy work when they get older, read toy labels, lego instructions, street signs, it’s everywhere! Making it easy to point out little things. Signs you pass by on the regular. Recognizable things. Sight words are what they all basically become anyway… Do the things but keep it fun. They will quite literally wake up one day just knowing how to read.

They’ll blow your socks off with their hidden talent and surprise you over and over again as they start to gain confidence. It’s the best! Watching lightbulbs go on as they learn is my favorite. It would make me so sad to miss so many of those moments if I wasn’t homeschooling them. Especially after a struggle, and then to see it click!? Ugh. The. Actual. Best. So don’t miss it on this one. We throw major mini parties when big words get read, the first full page, the first full book! Make it a big deal. Try different things. Don’t forget writing and reading go hand in hand so do tracing and copy work and dictation. (This is where Spelling-U-See has come in SO handy.) Make it memorable. They will learn to read. You’ll make sure of it. 

P.S. If you want to know what else we use, follow this link.

I also started homeschool ideas list on my amazon storefront you can get some fun games and ideas from.