Teach Your Child to Read...

...in 100 Easy Lessons.


We did Lesson 27 today and we both are having SO MUCH FUN!  I  have been wanting to do something structured for moving along in the learning to read process with Aria for awhile now, but just didn't know what.  This book was something I had heard of and when a friend was pleased with her use of it, I checked it out from the library.  The first 4 or 5 lessons were iffy.  Some of the parts were great, but some parts Aria was resistant to.  Then all of a sudden she took off! 


And now she can sound out and read many, many words.  It still just blows my mind.  It is so fun to watch her learn and grow AND see her excitement for learning.  She has loved books since she was in utero and is feeling quite excited at the possibility of reading more on her own.


We kept the book from the library for 6 weeks and did the lessons most of the weekdays.  We took a break for Christmas and picked right back up where we left off.  After that I knew I could purchase it and get good use out of it. 


My favorite classes in college for my Elementary Education degree were the last two I took for my Reading endorsement called Diagnostic Reading and Reading Dysfunctions.  I learned a ton in those classes about how kids learn how to read.  But that was 11 years ago.  This book has helped me remember some things from that class and shown me things about how to teach my child.  My favorite part of the book is that in the first few lessons, Aria really learned how to sound out words.  I hear her sounding things out all the time now.  Of course our wonderful English language has so many rules that she doesn't get things right all the time, but she is learning.  I decided to incorporate a few sight words to accompany our lessons in that book and that has helped her to be able read more.  She knows the words the, and, you, I, is, and a really well.  She is also making progress at sounding out words in her head so that she just reads the word fast out loud. 


I also love that the book incorporates so many little lessons in the way it is structured.  It is incorporating comprehension by using pictures and questions to go with her word reading.  She reads "stories" now and associates what she reads to a picture.  It took a few lessons for her to realize she had to think about the words she was reading.  We had a wonderful moment last week when she read the sentence, "the ram is sad."  She read the words, only having to sound out ram and sad.  She thought for a second and then exclaimed, "Mom!  The ram is sad!"  It was like I saw a little light bulb go on in her head.  So fun! 


Another piece that is fun is the handwriting.  A common lesson for teachers out there is that you are able to understand something more if you write it.  The book has a handwriting component, but sometimes we take it farther.  Sometimes I ask her to write words like cat or ram just by sounding them out and writing down the letters.  She is so proud of herself when she writes words.  And her handwriting has become quite legible! 


The best part about all of this is that there is no pressure.  It may seem like I am a crazy mom forcing my child to learn to read at age 3, but I am not.  She enjoys doing it and asks for the lessons if I forget or if we miss a day for some reason.  She is challenged appropriately and we have a lot of fun together.  Plus, she is so excited for the opportunity to read words in books when we read together at other times.  Learning is so totally fun!  This is time spent with my girl that I will never, ever forget!  What a bonding experience!