Hello, my name is Laura, and I am mum to 2 amazing daughters, aged 6 and 3.
If you are just getting started on the journey of teaching your child to read, I know how confusing and overwhelming it can be!
And I know how scary it feels when you see your kid is not going at the pace that is expected.
When my first daughter started to learn to read at school, I had done all the things that were required for her at that point, and even had gone the extra mile. She was able to recognize her name, she even knew some letter names and letter sounds, and was able to write many of those letters down in uppercase and lowercase.
I was not worried. That was way more preparation than many other children had, apparently.
Besides, everyone around me insisted that I shouldn’t teach her more at that point: “Otherwise, she’ll get bored at school”.
Maybe you’ve been told that argument too… Such a common belief! Even among educators…
So, I really thought that learning to read at school was going to be a smooth process…
How naive!
When formal reading training at school started, she started to come home with lists upon lists of words that she had to memorize. These lists never seemed to stop coming…
And getting her to memorize those lists wasn’t neither a fun nor an effective way of teaching her to read…
But, according to the teachers, these words were just too difficult to be sounded out and read phonetically. However, I would look at the lists and think… “Not all of these are irregular words! You can totally read many of these words that she is told to memorize phonetically”
So What Were this lists of Words? (called “SIGHT WORDS”
These lists of words were the Dolch Sight Words. These words were not just words that can’t be sounded out, but lists of the most common words on the English language, which were developed in the 30 – 40’s by Edward William Dolchm upon analysis of the children’s books of that time…
MY DISSAPOINTMENT…
I did not like the system. Apparently, the system was very much based on the principles of whole language programs, and included a little bit of phonics instruction.
I can’t blame the school for using this system. It is the standard system used in all schools…
But, I was honestly not impressed with this way of teaching children to read. My child didn’t enjoy the experience, things were not going the way they were supposed to… And everything seemed to rely on memory and guess work!
I am not surprised she was bored and got tired so quickly… This way of learning to read can be exhausting for a little mind!
THE SEARCH…
So, this is when my deep research on how to teach children to read really started… For me – my background is Spanish – this “whole word” concept was new. In Spanish, the whole word approach simply doesn’t exist.
I guess that is why I went so deep into the research, why I tried so many things…
I have an educational background on writing and communciations (Degree in Journalism) and I have always love everything that has to do with languages…
I guess that pushed me further to understand the logic behind learning to read in English.
Sharing the Knowledge with other Parents!
I have learnt so much about the different ways of teaching children to read, that I felt that I had to digest the information and share it with the world…
Because when you find a way that works for your child, you can turn things around, and he/she will become a fluent reader smoothly!
As your child progresses using the right approach for your child and is able to decode more fluently, accompanying on her path of learning to read is an extraordinarily rewarding experience.
Unfortunately, the standard way of teaching reading doesn’t work for many children. In fact, it is said that many children actually succeed in learning to read DESPITE OF the system!
So, for many parents and kids, this can be a path full of tears and sweat.
But, I would like to tell that you it doesn’t have to be that way!!
If the standard approach doesn’t work for your child, look for alternative solutions!