Ready to Read in Home School
Friday, June 23rd, 2006By Mimi Rothschild
Home school parents know when their children are ready to read by observing, participating, and encouraging their development from a very early age. Home school parents interact with their children on a daily basis, open to their curiosity and supportive of their initiative. Since each child is different in personality and aptitude, only the home school parents can determine when is the right time.
Home school children will begin to take an interest in the words they see in their home school environment, the ones in books, newspapers, and magazines. They will be interested in the words and pictures on boxes, envelopes, and letters. Home school children will ask, “What is that? What does that say? The home school parent has the time to carefully explain the labels, the addresses, and the words to them. The first step in learning to read begins with the sounds of individual letters. The home school child learns to read by repeating and remembering what he hears. There can never be too much repetition of sounds and words.
Books with pictures are fascinating to the home school child. They begin to ask questions about each picture and soon learn the meaning of each one. The young home school child will try at an early age to tell a story in his own words, partially remembering the sounds he’s heard and later identifying the words he reads. Parents of home school children can help them learn to read with cutout or magnetic alphabet letters and building blocks. The home school child will soon learn that A is for apple, remember the sound, and associate the sound with the word.
Read anything and everything to your home school child. There are games that the home school family will enjoy playing, such as Hangman and Scrabble, which will help your children learn to read. Introduce your child to the library and make it a part of your home school activities. He or she will be excited to have his own card and books to bring home, just like Mom and Dad. Crossword puzzles are excellent tools for furthering reading, and vocabulary, skills. Reading can be a quiet pastime when the home school family reads together or alone, at times sharing what they read with each other.
Who wants to be a reader? We all do and teaching your child how to read in home school will open a brand new world of knowledge, adventure, and fun.