Use This Booklet with Checklists to Teach Your Child to Read at Home

Literacy Begins at Home: Teach Them to Read is a helpful publication for parents with checklists of what parents can do with toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, first graders, second graders, and third graders.

I love the simple format of this booklet. It directs you to a specific age.

The most effective way for a child to learn to read is through experiences with a supportive adult who has a little information about teaching reading. That's why I write this blog.

Take a little time today to go through these checklists. If you would like help with any suggested activity or skill, let me know in a comment.

Here's one item from each checklist
in Literacy Begins at Home , a free publication for parents from the National Institute for Literacy
Toddlers
__ I read with my child everyday, even if it's only for a few minutes.
Find books and advice about reading to children here.
Preschoolers
__ I let my child pretend read parts of the book when we read together.
Watch a video of my daughter share reading a book here.
Watch a video of my son pretend reading a whole book here.
Kindergarteners
__ My child knows that the order of letters in a written word stand for the order of sounds in a spoken word.
First Graders
__ My child can sound out words he doesn't know, and recognize some irregularly spelled words, such as have, said, you, and are.
Second Graders
__ My child pays attention to how words are spelled and correctly spells words he has studied.

Third Graders
__ My child uses what he knows of phonics and word parts (prefixes, roots, and suffixes) to sound out unfamiliar words.

Use This Booklet with Checklists to Teach Your Child to Read at Home

Short Vowel Reading Practice Videos

  Here are a few YouTube videos I've made for short vowel reading.

You will find the magnetic letters, magnetic easel, Starfall phonics books, Nora Gaydos phonics books, Reading Pathways, and Phonics Pathways from the videos here.

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Short Vowel Reading Practice Videos

How to Help and Support a Reader

The ultimate goal is to teach your child to be an independent reader who reads for meaning and fixes mistakes when reading doesn't make sense.

It is very important to have books that aren't too difficult. If there are too many mistakes in a row a child can't fix mistakes on his or her own. Nothing sounds right. It all sounds wrong. If most of a child's reading sounds right, he or she will be able to stop and fix small mistakes when they happen.

Don't be a helicopter and swoop in to tell exactly which word was wrong and how to fix it. Give your child some thinking time. Give help and support when asked. Help a child sound out a word when asked. If it is too hard to sound out, you can tell the word and move on.

The next pictures demonstrate what questions a reader should be asking themselves to grow into an independent reader.

A reader needs to stop when something doesn't make sense. Teach a reader to read from the beginning of a sentence that didn't make sense. A reader may want to check out the picture, think about what has already happened in the story, decide which word or words didn't sound right, and look closely at words as a sentence is read again.

Reading should match the way a person talks. Sometimes a reader is reading and everything sounds right until the next word is read and immediately it stops sounding like a person would talk. The syntax or language structure isn't right. A reader needs to stop, reread from the beginning of the sentence, and fix which words he or she read incorrectly. A supportive adult may stop a reader and say, "Something didn't sound right. Did you notice that? Next time you can stop and reread the sentence on your own. I bet you'll figure out which words you read wrong. Try it now. Let's see if you can fix this sentence."

Sometimes reading makes sense, but a word doesn't look right. I usually don't stop a child's reading when everything makes sense. For example if a reader reads a for the. I choose my battles and be as supportive as I can. A reader may notice themselves that a word didn't look right and fix it. If there is a  consistent problem I will direct a child's attention to looking closer at the letters in words.



How to Help and Support a Reader

What Are Phonograms?

Phonogram Definition: Phonograms are one letter or a group of letters that make a sound.

This site shares spelling and sounds of some common phonograms.
Phonogram Page - Daily Phonics 

Are you teaching phonics and phonograms?
Phonograms can be one letter or a group of letters.
You can point out phongrams in some of the books you read out loud.
Single letter sounds are usually taught first.
I like to mix in a few more than one letter phonograms as early as possible.
Start with a few at a time. I like to start with ou, ay, and oo.
Once a reader knows and is comfortable with letters working together it becomes natural to learn and look for letters working together to make one sound.

Here are some free sites to teach phonics.
Starfall
Progressive Phonics
Literactive

Would you like some free phonogram flashcards? You can contact me here, and I will email you the printable sheets. I use heavy paper when printing.

What Are Phonograms?