The One Message I Would Give New Homeschooling Parents

 If there was one message I could give a new homeschooling parent, it would be to READ TO YOUR CHILD A LOT!  I can't emphasize enough the importance of this one basic habit.  I purposely have chosen curriculum... or added it in.... where there is a lot of read aloud time scheduled.  Today my youngest surprised me with how quickly she has advanced in her reading level over the summer.  We didn't do anything fancy over the summer.   We just utilized the local library.

It was the third day of school today, and Megan finished her phonics book for the semester. No... I'm not joking. We have done Hooked on Phonics' Learn to Read program, supplemented with Explode the Code workbook, since Kindergarten.  Last year we finished Hooked on Phonics for grade one early.  I continued forward, beginning the second grade level.  We worked on the second grade level for five weeks before we stopped for the summer.  During the summer we read library books, but we didn't do any curriculum-type materials for phonics or reading.

The Completed First Semester of Phonics in Three Days

On Monday we started school.  I decided to repeat lesson five, just to see how much Megan remembered.  She blew through it without any problems.  On Tuesday, I moved to lesson 6.  Again, she flew through it.  Today, I decided to see where she should be in the curriculum.  I had her read each lesson and the stories to see where she would begin to stumble.  I figured that when she got to where it was taking her longer to read, or she was stumbling over words, we would go back a lesson and start there. 

She never stumbled. 

She flew through the lessons.  After a few lessons I turned to the back of the book.  Again, she flew through the reading like an express jet.  It wasn't until the second semester book that she stumbled a little.  That is where we will begin. I think I will have Megan read through the rest of the first semester books a time or two, and then jump right into the second semester work.  We are also doing the Emerging Readers listed in Heart of Dakota.

Megan loves to read, and read every day over the summer.  We checked out numerous library books. I would read a few of them to her occasionally.  She devoured the rest of them on her own. She would read every night before she fell asleep.  I had hoped that she was maintaining her skills over the summer.  I was fearful that she would lose some.  Instead, she gained.  Hooray!!!!

I worried if I was pushing her too hard by using two or three different phonics and reading curricula at a time.  But, each program only takes a few minutes.  While I am a firm believer in teaching phonics to children, I also know that there is another thing that just causes their little brains to explode.

I read to her A LOT!  We've read hundreds of books in the last couple of years. I truly think this is the key to helping children developing a love of reading.  I have seen it happen repeatedly with my children.  Reading to them has so MANY benefits!

I get told often how unique my child is (in a positive way), and that she has a large vocabulary.  I have been reading to her, or she has listened in as I read to her older sister, since she was a baby.  Children pick up vocabulary solely from what they hear while they are little.  The more they hear, the more they will learn.  That learning doesn't stop when they learn to read for themselves.  They will understand a much larger vocabulary than they can read.  So... I keep reading.  A Child's reading level doesn't catch up to his listening level until eighth grade.  They keep learning.  Now that Laura is in high school, I don't read as much to her as I used to. The things I read to her now consist of Bible lessons, mostly. 

One last benefit of reading aloud to children is imagination.  Like many parents, I have to be stern and set limits on screen time.  If they had their way, my children would be content to spend hours sitting in front of a television or watching their ipods.  My youngest is no exception.  She knows how to turn on Netflix on my Nook.  But, we read together often.  I set limits on how much she watches on TV.  In her room, she comes up with entire lands as she plays and lets her imagination go wild.  She plays with her dolls, her ponies, and her other toys, and she doesn't bore easily.  She'll come up with the most fantastic stories to tell.  Why?  I think it is because, as I read to her, she had to visualize the stories herself.  That visualization leads to a strong imagination as well as multiple skills needed in school and later in life.

As I said in the beginning, If there was one thing I would tell a new homeschooling parent, it would be to read to your child often.  There is no other tool as effective in educating a child's mind or heart.