Brian is Reading!

 

Brian reading a book again that he read yesterday for the first time.

I let my kids guide me on how much and fast they want to learn how to read.  Joshua really took interest at 4 years, but started to pull away from reading while he was 5.  He read bare minimum.  I think I was pushing him and I stopped.  Since he's been six, we found a series of books that was difficult, but he loved them (Nate the Great Series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat).  We started by Joshua reading most of a page and then I would finish up when I started sensing frustration.  I would read an entire page, then it was his turn again.  This helped him get to hear some of the story which helped keep his interest.  We would then move to him reading 2 pages then I would read 1.  We would continue this way until he was reading them by himself.

Brian has decided he wanted to do what his older brother is doing since he was little.  One day I realized that he knew almost all of the letter sounds and names without going through curriculum with him.  He loved playing games with letters.   I had bought an old Hooked-On-Phonics complete set from eBay for$25 and Brian took off.  They both loved the HOP books.   We never listened to the CD (or in my case, cassette).  We used the cards for the games and used the parent book a little, but mostly we read the books.  We borrowed a copy from the library to try it out, then decided that it was better than anything we had tried.  That is what ended up working for us. 

We supplement with TONS of books from the library.  I use the accelerated reader list as a guide to what reading level each book is at and worked my way through the list.  We also have several computer games that require reading, as well. 

For more information about teaching your child to read, there is a wonderful post at www.yarnsoftheheart.com that is entitled, "Teaching Your Child to Read."  You should check it out.