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Should I Send
My Child to Preschool?

Homeschooling During the Primary Years

You Can Teach Your Child to Read

I’ve noticed that many parents are nervous about teaching their children to read. Personally, I think toilet training was a lot harder! If you have toilet trained your child, you are ready to teach your child to read!

When my first two children were 2 and 6 months, my husband accepted a job offer in Saudi Arabia. With trepidation and excitement we moved to a galaxy (and time period) far, far away. For the next 5 years, we had no public libraries, no museums, no nature centers (actually almost no nature at all), no zoos, and the television spoke Arabic, and we didn’t. None of the usual homeschooling materials were readily available including paper and pencils. And the Internet hadn’t been invented yet.

Because so little was available, I started with a “Kindergarten in a Box” type curriculum. I chose it because it included everything. It took several weeks to arrive by mail. Interestingly, I don’t remember much about what was in the box, but I do remember we were all very excited to find manila paper, lined paper, fat kindergarten pencils, a story book, and a ruler. I’m sure there were other things, but that’s all that made an impression on me!

Everything took a lot more planning in Arabia since I couldn’t just hop in my car and drive over to the mall. (In fact, women by law don’t drive at all and the closest thing to a mall was more like a cross between a swap meet and a crowded dollar store.) We learned to buy school materials (and clothes) on our yearly vacations and we learned to make do with anything we could find that slightly resembled what we had in mind.

Despite the lack of materials and resources, somehow my children learned to read, write, and do basic math before we left Saudi Arabia, and I didn’t need to order “First Grade in a Box.”

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Environment

Most preschool children see a lot of words in their environment. Everything from breakfast cereal and toys to road signs, store signs, license plates and bumper stickers, etc. display words. Children are curious and want to know what they say. Pointing out environmental words your child sees is a natural part of the learning process that doesn’t require any special curriculum. Children learn quickly and easily when they are young and will pick up a lot on their own when exposed to things. (Example: “Oh look, this says Cheerios!” I say as I point across the bottom of the word.) Don’t make it drudgery or a big production, just mention it like any other comment you make to your children.

When my children in Arabia were learning to read, we didn’t have much in the way of environmental reading and what little existed was in Arabic. We did learn to recognize Arabic numbers and names of some things, but being Americans and knowing we would eventually return to America, we wanted our children to learn English. Besides that, we didn’t speak Arabic ourselves. I read a classic book about phonics and used activities to teach my children to read.

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Activities

I created little cards with various letters and words on them and used them to write our own stories and play games. Now some people will say that sounds like a lot of work, but it wasn’t. I made a few cards at a time and added cards occasionally. It would take a minute or less just before each time we did the phonics games. My children loved the word games we played for less than about 15 minutes a day. My son made up silly sentences with the word cards and thought he was the world’s funniest comedian. This worked so well that I used the same method to teach my younger child who grew up in California. This system cost me less than $15 for all my children.

Today there are phonics programs that cost several hundred dollars, but they don’t necessarily help your child learn more, easier, or better. More money does not necessarily equal more value. You may decide that the extra money is worth it to you for some reason, and that’s great, but it’s not essential. Reading to your child, pointing out environmental words, talking about the sounds of the letters and learning to write them is usually enough. You can make it fun by playing phonics games.

Some children do like to do fun workbooks and if it’s not overdone (or the sole program) that can be added. (You can get one at discount stores for a few dollars.) Young children usually don’t know that workbooks are work, so they often think they are fun, especially if you don’t overdo it.

As with toilet training, there is no need to be in a hurry. Your children will learn best if you wait until they show signs of readiness, like understanding that letters make sounds and words, recognizing environmental words, and knowing when words rhyme. Not only will teaching your child to read be a lot more fun than toilet training, it will also be easier to clean up mistakes! So have a good time with your child and relax. It's a lot easier than you think.  

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Teach Your Child to Read Using the Book of Mormon
Helping Your Homeschooler Learn to Read
A Child Becomes a Reader
12 Things Not to Say to Young Readers By Bradley R. Wilcox
The Building Blocks of Reading By Noelle Barker and Stephanie Tripp
Misunderstood Minds
Early Childhood Education Network
Funbrain Connect the Dots
Between the Lions
Bembo's Zoo
Learn to Read
Mighty Books Animated Stories
Clifford the Big Red Dog Games
Alphabuddies
Elementary Reading Games
See-n-Spell
Syllables Game
Starfall
Kaboose Reading Games
Suessville Reading Games
Facts on Fiction book ratings
Reading Level Assessment
Reading Rockets
100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know
The Ultimate Reading List—Classics that Endure
100 Great Books
A Book in Time
Classical Homeschooling Reading List
Children's Books that Illustrate Values
Literature to Supplement History
Online Books
Yesterday's Classics for Today's Children