Teach Your Child to Read Series
It might be a little confusing as to why I created 3 different books for learning to read. So let me explain….There are 3 different Teach Your Child to Read books because there are several stages to reading. First, your child must prepare to learn to read (Crazy—I know, but trust me this is crucial!). Then, they will begin the process of learning to read using letters, sounds, and blending. And then they will learn the harder rules of reading. So, here is a breakdown of what is in each book…
The Ultimate Teach Your Child to Read Activity Book: Prereading will focus on phonemic awareness and preparing your child to get ready to learn to read. It is very important for your child to have a strong foundation as he begins the learning to read process. You will notice that many of these activities will be oral words or pictures of objects with few written words. The goal is to master hearing the sounds (phonemic awareness) before focusing entirely on written words.
First, your child will familiarize himself with the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters. Since a majority of text is in lowercase letters, it is important for your child to use lowercase letters from the beginning. This will help him begin to recognize the letters, and eventually the words, within children’s books.
Secondly, your child will have fun participating in rhyming activities. Rhyming is when words sound the same at the end. Rhyming allows your child to hear words that have similar sounds and to manipulate those sounds to form new words. It’s a fun way to practice his phonemic awareness skills—that’s one of the important skills your child will need to be a successful reader.
In the “Prereading” book we will also practice counting the syllables of words. Syllables are the parts of a word that contain a phoneme (sound). Syllables are often considered the phonological building blocks of words. Recognizing the syllables in a word will help your child identify the different sounds that make up a word.
Next, your child will be introduced to oral blending techniques that he will need as he advances through his learning to read journey. The blending activities are some of the most important activities in this book because this is a skill your child must have in order to be able to read words. Once you are familiar with the activities, the oral activities are great activities to do in the car, at the dinner table, during bedtime, or waiting in line at the store.
Finally, your child will begin to isolate sounds of a word. He will begin to identify where a sound appears in a word or what sound appears in a position. If your child can successfully isolate sounds of a word, then you know he is ready to continue his learning to read journey.
Many of the activities in this book are low-prep meaning that they only take a minute or two to prepare. These activities will be indicated in the Table of Contents and throughout the book with a low-prep badge.
The Ultimate Teach Your Child to Read Activity Book: Beginning Reader, (I begin to refer to the activities as lessons) lessons will focus on being introduced to a letter, letter sound, and new group of words comprised of letters your child has previously learned. Your child will be expanding his reading skills with each mastered lesson.
As noted, the primary focus throughout this book is to decode words, especially new words, by sounding them out. In addition, your child will be introduced to “sight words.” “Sight words” are words that are undecodable phonetically. There will be individual lessons throughout the book dedicated to learning new “sight words.”
Many activities will be repeated throughout the lessons in the “Beginning Reader” book. I do this because these activities are beneficial to activating the right areas of the brain needed to help your child learn to read. Please know that when you see a repeated activity it’s because I’m trying to provide you with the best, most effective resources for you to help teach your child to read. I want this to be a fun and enjoyable process for you and your child, so I do my best to provide variations of the same activities.
At the beginning of each lesson, you can locate the Flashcards of New Words that will be taught in the lesson. I recommend printing the Flashcards on cardstock for sturdiness and durability throughout all of the lessons. These Flashcards will be used as a teaching tool and resource. Your child will be learning to read through fun hands-on activities.
As your child progresses in the “Beginning Reader” book, he will begin to read short sentences and then short stories. He (and you) will feel so proud of this accomplishment—feel free to celebrate this huge milestone! It is an exciting time as exposure to short sentences and stories using words with which he is familiar, builds his confidence and fluency (reading without sounding out words) as a reader.
The Ultimate Teach Your Child to Read Activity Book: Developing Reader will now introduce your child to complex reading sounds—digraphs—through fun lessons and stories.
Digraphs are two letters that make one sound. The sounds represented by digraphs are often different from the sounds normally represented by the individual letters that make up the digraph. For example, “ar” makes the sound /ar/ (said “R”), like in the word “MARK” rather than /m/ /a/ /r/ /k/. Digraphs can be made up of two consonants (Ex. “ch”), two vowels (Ex. “oo”), a consonant and a vowel (Ex. “ew”), or two vowels separated by a consonant (Ex. “a_e”).
Digraphs can be tricky for new and young readers, so please take your time as you go through each lesson. It’s important that your child continues to stay confident in his abilities as a reader (and love reading), so don’t hesitate to repeat activities within a lesson if you feel your child is not ready to move forward.
The “Developing Reader” book is presented in lessons, just like the “Beginning Reader” book. Each lesson will include Flashcards, a few fun activities to practice the new digraph sound, and a story for your child to practice reading. It is recommended to print Flashcards on cardstock for sturdiness and durability throughout all of the lessons.
Your child will continue to feel proud as he reads short stories in the “Developing Reader” book. This is an accomplishment that should be celebrated, so cheer him on as he continues to learn, grow, and read! Exposure to short sentences and stories using words he is familiar with, will help build his confidence and fluency (read like he talks) as a reader.
After your child has learned all the digraphs, he will continue to enhance his reading fluency through fun activities. Reading fluency is helping your child read in a natural, smooth voice with expression (reading like he talks). Being a fluent reader allows your child to focus less on sounding out words and more on understanding the text. Being a fluent reader allows your child to concentrate on comprehending the text he is reading.
