Monday, July 13, 2009

She Reads!

I never had to teach our first two children to read as they were in a school for those years. I did however teach my third to read and to be honest it was simple and exhilarating. Next up was teaching Squirt to read. Little did I know how much she was going to knock the wind out of my sails with how easy it is to teach a child to read.

Anyways, a year and a half later, after trying several methods, a friend of ours who is a teacher gave me some recommendations on how to work with her. We did a couple months of flash cards and her forming her own sentences with those same cards. Because summer was looming and I wanted something a little more portable than flash cards, I cracked open the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons again. Wow!! You would think that Squirt had never had problems with this book earlier in the year. We covered the first thirty lessons in a week. Now we're moving along at a comfortable two lessons a day, and she is doing extremely well.

Squirt puts the strong in strong willed, but when she decides to do something she will work at it until she finally gets it. Finally, she gets reading. She doesn't love it yet and would still rather be read to, but she can recognize hundreds of words now and can sound out even more.

So a little advice to you moms out there who are despairing that their child will never learn to read. (You know they will). Some just have their own schedule. Be patient, change it up, put it away for awhile (I did this too), whatever you need for your sanity, and the positive self-esteem of your child because sooner or later it will click and they will read!

4 comments:

  1. I agree, Deborah! Our youngest struggled a bit (she would rather climb the monkey bars and ride her bike) but she DID get it and sailed along after the initial "ah ha!" moments! Good for you! I love the comment you made on my post today and it convinces me all the more that the Lord is doing the same sorts of things in the same sorts of hearts, because He is such an amazing GOD! Even when it's as simple as TWO women that love Him playing around with teapots on the same day, HIS ways are incredible! I love it! Joy!

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  2. Very Good Advice. My friend used that book as well with her children and loved it. I remember teaching my children to read! That is a very exciting and scarey time hehehe.
    Looks like the begining of many book adventures for her!!
    and it sounds like your doing a Great Job!
    Blessings Heather ;-)

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  3. WOO-WOO!!!

    Hurray for Squirt, and for Mom's perseverance :0)

    Julie

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  4. That is very good news!

    I have many many struggles with some of my readers. It's a lot of effort for little reward. I imagine their frustration, too. I just bought 100 Easy Lessons to use with the next kiddo. I hope it can cut out some of the frilly stuff I went through with the others.

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