Learning to Read

Rachel has been very excited to learn to read. We've been spending a 5-10 minutes a day (Mon-Friday) working with her. I didn't know how to start teaching her though. There are studies that show a phonics based is best, others say learn by sight words, and other use word families. So we're doing a little bit of it all.

She knows the letter sounds so we can work on phonics sounding words out (which she doesn't like to do, it's too much work). But I wanted her to have confidence before she actually started reading, that she could do it. That's where her sight words come in, letting her read the articles first giving her confidence that she can learn to read. I found a series called the I'm reading now series that I really like, it's based on word families but also incorporates sight words and beginning and ending blends. Once she learns a family she quickly understands how the rest of them rhyme and can find more words that are in that family.

As a way to keep track of what she's learning and how she's progressing you'll see two new list on the right with her sight words and books that she can read all by herself! We are very proud of her and it's fun to find her reading her books to Ashley.