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READING WITH PHONICS
The program that teaches YOU how to teach your children to read.
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Q: Hello,
I am teaching my daughter at home.
This is my first experience of home shcooling
and I am not sure how much time I should
spend on each letter or word.
My daughter has a hard time remembering
things after she is shown them,
so I was wondering if you have any ideas I could
use to help us both in this area?
A: Dear ____,
Thank you for your interest in our reading program.
I'm sorry it has taken so long to respond,
but we occasionally get behind on emails and prefer to
send a personal response a little late,
rather than a canned response right away.
I certainly understand how worrisome it is to know what is right, or enough, when homeschooling. We've been homeschooling for 13 years and, even with a young man going to college, I worry about the next step, is he learning enough, is he learning the right things? I think it is the nature of being a caring mom.
It is difficult to say how much time should be spent on each letter, as it really does depend on the child. Many children begin homeschooling after spending some time in traditional classrooms, so I don't know how old your daughter is.
If you could send me more information I would be happy to make more specific recommendations. How old is your daughter? Has she attended a traditional classroom? Can she handle age appropriate math skills? Are you using textbooks or an eclectic curriculum?
There are, however, two general rules: First, is your child ready to learn to read? This is called "reading readiness" and is discussed on our video tapes. I recommend using a child's ability to remember the shape, name, and sound of a letter from one day to the next as a sign of readiness. If your daughter is young and is having difficulty remembering her letters, you may just want to wait a few months and try again. Some children learn to read as early as two years old, some as late as nine years old, and all are considered "normal".
If you are working on beginning phonics skills, and your daughter is young (under age 7) I would recommend just a few minutes at a time (maybe 15 minutes) to start, twice a day, then gradually build from there, as she learns more letters. Once you are working for 30 or more minutes per lesson, I would then drop to one lesson per day. If she is getting confused, continue review, but one lesson per day, every other day. Down time is as important as learning time. Children often need to just relax and "digest" the new information they are learning.
I hope this helps. If you have more questions, please feel free to email me again.
Sincerely,
Michele
If you have any questions, general or specific, about helping your child improve in school, you can contact Michele at:
