A Painless Formula to Make 1st Grade Reading Easy
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I am a proud bibliophile.
I have a confession to make – for as long as I can remember, I have had a love affair with reading. Children’s books? Oh man. By the time my oldest daughter was a year old, we had amassed a collection of over 100 children’s books. Our collection has only grown since that time. Though recently I’ve been on a bit of a “purge” streak and realized that I should spend less money (and space) on buying and storing books and take advantage of the two public libraries to which we have cards. Library day looks more like a book fair in my house (I even manage to check out novels for myself and read them – gasp!). I just adore reading stories to my children, and when my oldest was a baby, we’d spend entire days cuddled up reading together.
But the idea of teaching my child to read stressed me to no end.
As much as I love to read, this was the single thing that stressed me out the most when I thought about homeschooling. My guess is a lot of moms are in the same boat. It’s so crucial to every other thing in a child’s education, and yet – do you remember being taught to read? I don’t. The most I remember is how proud I was to come home with my first set of books. But how do you teach the basics when you don’t remember learning them yourself? What I do know is that like most things, research has changed how we teach children to read in the three decades since I was taught. And when in doubt, I always turn to the research.
Part of my problem is: I don’t fit in any boxes.
If you’ve read my Bookshark review, you’ll know I don’t fit any particular box with regard to homeschooling (or life, but I digress). I’m not quite an unschooler – as we do some structured work – but I also don’t like the inflexibility of a check-the-boxes curriculum. I believe all homeschooling methods have their value at different stages of the game, and I like to chase rabbit trails where they arise.
With reading, I knew I wanted something beautiful and gentle. I wanted it to be inspiring and fun. And I needed it to be secular. I was a bit confused where to start because my oldest very clearly knew all her letter sounds. At the recommendation of a cousin, we tried “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.” This almost made my stress about it worse. It was dry, boring and all around terrible. If your child enjoys textbook/workbook-style learning, 100 Lessons is for you. My kid did not, and neither did I. I didn’t like the idea of bribing her to get through it (which my cousin shamelessly admitted to doing), and so we tossed that $20 investment right into the trash.
That’s when my research began. There had to be something out there. Homeschooling has changed a lot, especially since the pandemic. Secular resources abound – you just have to know where to find them. Over the last year, we’ve found a few great resources (and one curriculum) that have checked all my boxes: plenty of play time and learning in a way that is much more natural, fun and engaging.
ABC See! Hear! Do
ABC See! Hear! Do! is a brilliant way to introduce children to word sounds and the idea of blending them. For each letter, it gives a picture and an action, so wiggly little kids get to move their bodies while they learn their letter sounds. People learn so much better when they’re moving or eating. They introduce letter sounds in a way that gets kids blending “speedy fast” as Junie Jones would say. Then, when they get to the word pages, the little picture assigned to each letter is shown underneath the letter as a fun and gentle reminder. Because my older kiddo already knew her letter sounds, we mostly used this for teaching how to blend.
While we didn’t use this exclusively to teach my first daughter her letter sounds, my four-year-old has been using this program to learn them. She is the true definition of a honey badger. However! When I ask her what sound a letter makes, she defers to the motion, which tells me it’s working, even though she’s a wiggle-worm who gives zero effs about anything other than dolls, playdough and living her best life.
Wild Reading
Wild Reading has been an absolute gem for our family. Created by a homeschool mom with an impressive background, Wild Reading uses science and nature to get kids reading quickly, but in a way that is completely natural to their development. Age and stage, people.
Wild Reading reinforces letter sounds through a weekly story, a letter themed book list and letter themed activities. For example, working on the letter “S,” you could teach your kiddo to skip or go play in the snow. Each week, Wild Reading provides a menu of books and reinforcement activities, so if something doesn’t work for your weather or isn’t available at your library, it’s easy to interchange with something that does or is (they also have plenty of indoor options listed). The foundation of earth science is woven into the entire program – with plenty of options for outside work, as well as lots of books and activities geared toward encouraging curiosity about the world we live in. Ever completed a moon diary? Well here’s your chance.
I know that lots of people love “100 Easy Lessons,” and that’s all well and good. Not everything is for everyone. This curriculum has kids working with sight words in week TWO. That’s 1-0 lessons, guys. This means kids have the confidence to start recognizing words around them within two short weeks of starting the program. By week five, digraphs, and by week six: word families. The lessons are short (<20 minutes) and can easily be completed outdoors. There have been many times we’ve completed lessons on the driveway with sidewalk chalk while my two younger kids explored the yard or scootered in circles around us.
Wonder of Nature Alphabet Sheets
As a supplement to Wild Reading, we have recently started using the Treehouse Schoolhouse alphabet sheets. They are absolutely beautiful and compliment Wild Reading perfectly. I place them in dry erase pockets because I don’t have the patience or budget for laminating All The Things. Treehouse Schoolhouse is new to me, but I am enjoying their secular line of materials, as well as the ability to check out previews of the product before I commit to buying something.
Mrs. Wordsmith Blah! Blah! Blah!
My oldest loves to play games. She would be quite content playing games for the entire day. I stumbled upon this game in a homeschool group page, and I’m so glad I did. If you like UNO, you’ll love this one. The game rules are identical. There are three levels of play (the cards are divided into three colors), and the words are broken into their individual letters. Let’s say the player in front of you lays down T-E-N. You could lay down O-N-E because it shares the “n” or the “e.” When you get down to one card, you say “blah! blah! blah!,” otherwise you have to draw a bunch of cards.
Crack the Code
I might like this one more than my kiddo, but she obliges me, nonetheless. I did take the time to laminate these, because it makes them easy to transport and we can use a dry-erase marker on them in place of the movable alphabet (extra writing practice, anyone?).
Fun Tales & BOB Books
Every blog I’ve ever read about teaching kids to read discusses the importance of using BOB books. While I do agree they are a fundamental piece to learning to read, I would say you don’t really want to use them on their own and call it good. Making the jump from individual word sounds to blending in the BOB books would likely feel very intimidating to a six year old. Wild Reading doesn’t introduce BOB books until week 8, so consider that in your reading calculus.
Phonics Phones
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