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Use these tips and resources to teach your young child to read
Set them up to be confident, successful readers!
Follow the lead of the child and set a solid foundation
Reading is one of the most important skills learned in life. Everything in our world revolves around reading, and the importance of teaching the fundamentals of reading is key to a child being a successful reader. The foundation of an excellent reading program must be implemented from the beginning stages of learning language.
In a Montessori Primary classroom, letter sounds are taught, rather than the letter name. Since early reading in the environment is phonetic, this helps the child successfully and confidently begin the reading journey.
The Foundation
1. Phonetic sounds
Phonetic sounds for each letter are taught in group of 2 to 5. This done with the beginning phonetic sound of each letter, as well as the ending sound for “x”. I would group the letters into groups of five, and leave the ending sound for “x” separate. Each group of five letter sounds had one vowel and four consonants. Give lessons on a few sounds at a time, and as they master them, move on to more. I would also suggest using letters from the Moveable Alphabet and adding language objects to create five sound baskets for children to practice on their own to help master sounds.
2. Word building
Once the child has mastered around fifteen to twenty sounds, they have enough to begin word building with the Moveable Alphabet. Phonetic word building is just that; building and practicing sounding out sounds to create words. Start with three letter words for each vowel, then move on to four and five plus letters for each vowel. Have children practice short vowel word families as a precursor to reading. It is important for young children to not only see the sounds, hear the sounds, and touch the letters when spelling and word building. They must also write these words out as well, combining it all together as one. It helps them remember things better!
Use phonetic word picture matching cards allows children to practice sounding out words and blending them together to read. You can also use just the picture card for use with the Moveable Alphabet or just the word card for children to practice blending as a review. Have your child practice each vowel sound a, e, i, o and u.
The Critics
I know that many people believe that Teaching Young Children to read at a young age is not age-appropriate and may not even be possible. I am here to tell you that it is indeed possible, and that teaching a young child to read is age-appropriate when the child shows signs that they are interested and have been exposed to an environment that is rich in language.
In Montessori, it is customary to follow the child’s natural development and direction. Don’t get me wrong, teaching young children to read can be a long, detailed process. But the process and path of reading is one of my favorites! The look on a young child’s face the first time they read to you is simply priceless, and you can see them beaming with joy!
The fun part…introduction to reading
Once a child has mastered spelling three, four and five letter phonetic words, then I would introduce phonetic readers to them. They should have practice with and can put sounds together to form words before being introduced to the books. I have a complete language and reading program that I have developed over my years of teaching that has worked really well. For the reading books, I use the infamous Bob Books, which you can find almost anywhere these days. There are many different reading books to choose from, but I feel that these are the best.
Bob Books come in different sets, I would suggest starting out and using the Beginning Sets 1 to 5. You can either get each individual set or all five sets. I would consider having your child read through the books a few times before moving on to the next book in the set. If you sense that your child is having difficulty with any book, have them reread until can get through it without aid. Also, continue with building and spelling new words; introducing concepts like consonant blends (ck, st), double vowels (ai, ea), digraphs (ch, sh), silent “e” and other spelling patterns.
A good speller makes a great reader!
-Anitra J. Jackson
Chronicles of a Momtessorian
Set 1 Beginning Readers Set 2 Advancing Beginners
Set 3 Word Families Set 4 Complex Words
Set 5 Long Vowels
Sight Words
Bob Books introduces children to sight words. I simple explain sight words as words that you can’t sound out, you just have to know them and remember them when you see them. You can give some helpful tips or hints to help them like with “I” and “a”. I would tell them these say their letter name. The most important thing in recognizing sight words is to practice them often. These sight words flashcards I’ve made are simple and easy to use. Just download, print and cut them! Each set contains between forty to forty five of the most commonly used sight words.
Reading for the first time
Reading is such a big deal, and a HUGE accomplishment and it should be celebrated! When I was a classroom teacher, whenever a child would finish reading their first Bob Book, I would have the entire class stop what they were doing. I would turn off the lights to get everyone’s attention, and announce that child x had just read their first Bob book. Then all of the kids would cheer and clap for them! It always made them feel so special, and it showed them how proud we all were of them as a class. It would also set a bar in the classroom that could be reached and would be motivating for the other kids. I would use any occasion to make them feel special! They LOVED it! So make a big deal of it!
What to take from this
When introducing and teaching young children to read, the most important thing is to make set a solid and stable foundation that is set firmly so that children will not experience failure. Your overall goal is for them to be successful, so review or stay on certain language tasks as long as necessary for the child. Being a successful young reader comes from children being confident and comfortable in the earlier language experiences. As with anything, practice makes perfect, so make sure to keep your child reading everyday. As I always told parents of children in my classes, since this is all new information they are storing, if they don’t use it, they’ll lose it! So keep them reading!
If you don’t use it, you lose it!
Anitra Jackson, Chronicles of a Momtessorian
So get out there and use it!
