First Reading Lessons in earnest

Because as Charlotte Mason says, reading is neither an art nor a science, there are not steps set in stone to do in any particular order, and no fixed starting point. A child who has been learning to recognize letters and their sounds and building basic words, has been learning to read. But we can't always put a finger on the exact point when he has officially learned to read. It's a process and it's a little bit like magic... :) and it can be beautifully relaxed and fun!



We've had a lot of fun this time around with my youngest son learning to read. Even though his reading level is quickly advancing, so much so that he's halfway through Now We Are Six on his own, we are still carrying on with reading lessons.  Some might call them phonics lessons, word-building, or spelling lessons - we bundle them all together and call them all Reading Lessons (because it's all so interwoven).



In this post, I'm going to outline some of the ideas that Charlotte talks about, and show how we've done them.

Prerequisites to Reading Lessons:

With our most recent batch of readers, the following pattern has surfaced.

• Play with letters/words - relaxed (child learns many letters by form & sound, some easy words by sight)
  
• Learn single letter phonograms (age5/6) (child learns all sounds each letter makes by itself, some easy words by sight)
  
• Practice blending building letters and words (child learns that sounds put together make familiar words, list of known words increases)
  
• Introduce multi-letter phonograms (child begins to memorize through games, the sounds of the phonograms that have more than one letter, ck, ch, oi, oy, ea, ee, etc)
  
• Start Reading Lessons...(whenever fully interested and ready, or around age 6/7)

Read a comprehensive list of skills helpful in reading readiness here.



Ideas for Reading Lessons:

For these lessons you will probably want to do a couple of things ahead of time:

• Print 2 copies of either of the following: Jesus Loves The Little Children or Jesus Loves Me. 
• (choose the song most familiar... if unfamiliar spend a week learning the song before beginning)
• Cut out 3 sets of the words.  (leave one set intact for later)
• Spread the words from the first page only (the first two lines of the song) out in a shoebox or cake pan.
• Store each poem it it's own ziploc bag.

The following lesson ideas could be broken into more than one session depending on the level of readiness of your child.  He/she may be able to handle the whole lesson in one gulp, but you don't want the lesson to go much over 15 minutes.



Idea #1:

1) Using a dry erase board (or chalk board or markers on paper), write a word from the song (in random order), 2) say the word aloud as you write it, the child looks carefully and repeats, 3) from his cut outs, the child finds all the copies of the word.  
Do the same with all the words:

Jesus   children  loves  world  little  the  all

(*hint: try to keep the song a secret until the end... 

that way the child gets all the satisfaction from the discovery himself!)

4) from the board, child reads all the words as you point to them starting from the bottom of the list... words are still in random order.  5) child arranges his cut-up words in the same order as that on the white board.  6) child randomly rearranges the words in his own way reading them aloud.  7) Finally, dictate the song to the child and have them find the words as you go.  8) From the uncut copy, let the child read from the page.  He/she will be delighted that she can now read all the words in the whole song!  Review for the next day: 9) Have the child hunt for each word from the pile of cut up words. *optional: 10) if your child is ready for writing, have them write the word from memory. 



Idea #2: (using a different song/poem) 1) Read/sing the first half of the song out loud, sweetly and with good intonation of voice.  2) Point to the words as you say them aloud. 3) When the child can see the words as it were without looking (in his mind's eye), and repeat the words without prompting even when taken in random order, let him read the lines with clear enunciation and expression. Review for the next day: 4) Have the child hunt for the words in turn from a page of clear type (perhaps the book from which the poem/song was taken?)  5) Using his letters, have the child build each word in turn from memory.
Idea #3: From a book, pointing to words you know your child has mastered, point to words and have them read them out loud.  
Idea #4: Word building.  Using the phonogram sheet (available here), have the child build words learned in previous lessons.
Idea #5: Make your own lesson!  With these same ideas, use a poem or song already familiar to the child.  Here are a few more printable lessons I made.  The poems were chosen for the words themselves as well as interest level for kids this age...

My Shadow, (excerpt) Robert Louis Stevenson

A Good Boy, (excerpt) Robert Louis Stevenson

By the end of these lessons the child will practically have the song/poem by heart, and the lesson can double as a recitation!

Helpful Links:
Download & print, First Reading Lessons in its entirety taken from CM's Volume One, here.
Parent's Review article, First Reading Lessons, by Miss E. Armitage
Parent's Review article, An Essay on the Teaching of Reading, by F.B. Lott
Parent's Review article, First Reading Lesson, by Charlotte Mason (the same as in volume one)
Some of my friend's who've blogged their CM reading lessons -
Phyllis at All Things Beautiful - here and here.
Richele at Barefoot Voyage - here.
Kathy at Piney Woods Homeschool - here.

More posts in this series:
Our Story... I'm a failure. {part one}
Our Story... Struggle no more. {part two}
Our Story... Just relax! {part three}
Learning to Read - The Scary Myth {part four}
The Two Keys to Teaching Reading {part five}
Playing a Foundation to Build on.
First Reading Lessons in Earnest.  << -- You are here. :)