Homeschool Reading Curriculum

I’m answering your questions on my podcast, Suddenly Seeking Homeschooling. This episode (episode 13), I addressed a common struggle that homeschool families experience – learning to read. I suggest ways to tweak your homeschool reading curriculum and some things to look for when you are choosing a phonics program. This is a transcript from the podcast (so I left the time stamps). Don’t want to read it? You can listen instead.

First Grade Reluctant Reader

(00:01):

A listener sent me a question recently and she says, I need suggestions to help with a first grade reluctant reader. He loves being read too. But getting him to read is like pulling teeth. He acts like he doesn’t know words or even letter sounds. We’re halfway through a popular program, but when it comes to reading, he just guesses. I feel like I’m failing him when it comes to reading.

I just want to give you a hug. Reading is such a tough one, especially for people like us who are not reading specialist who have not taught, been trained on how to teach kids to read. I’ve homeschooled three of my four kids and two out of those three have had language based learning differences.

Looking at a first grade reluctant reader, my immediate thought is just to take a step back and slow things down. We found the curriculum you mentioned to be overwhelming for our kids because we found that, especially with kids who are struggling little (it’s not clicking as fast). It takes lots and lots of practice to make things automatic.

The Big Homeschool Reading Curriculum Fail

(01:15):

This is one of the big places I feel like homeschool curriculum fails. And yeah, that’s kind of a pet peeve of mine. All of the reading curriculums wanted us to move faster than my kids were able to move.

I was doing a lesson a day or three lessons a week (or whatever) and it was overwhelming for my kids. Now as an older, wiser homeschool parent – I throw the lesson numbers out the window, and I know that I need to focus on practice, practice, practice of new skills.

It’s just like when you were learning to drive, when you learned to play a sport, when you learn to play a musical instrument, you had to practice, practice, practice, and they need to be practicing with these reading skills, especially early readers, like all the time.

As far as curriculum, we are all about the Orton-Gillingham based curriculum. It is a research based method. It is solid for teaching kids is especially good for teaching kids that might have learning differences or might be reluctant readers. It’s very systematic. It is very direct instruction.

Phonics Instruction Needs Practice

(02:30):

There is a rhythm to the instruction and how things are taught. I’m not a reading specialist, but I can tell you the more fun and the more practice, the better it will be. If your child is guessing he is not learning.

I wish someone had helped me with this early on. He’s only a first grader, especially boys in first grade, their language centers in their brain are not as highly developed as their female peers. It could just be, he needs a little more time and you can just keep practicing with him as that grows.

You want to build on opportunities for success. I really encourage and wish I had done more of this with my kids when they were younger – writing. This time in our world is a great time for us to really encourage our kids, to get back to letter writing and sending cards and things.

Getting Your Kids to Write

(03:27):

Many of us aren’t getting to see all the people we love as often. Encourage your kids to reach out to others because that can be a great motivator, right? Not like, Hey, I want you to write a letter to grandma for school.

You have to set the stage. You know what? Grandma misses you. And she hasn’t seen how much you’re learning and how amazing you’re getting. Could you write her a letter or, you know what? Grandma loves to hear your stories. Could you write her a story?

You can start by them narrating a story to you, but I really encourage you to have them pick up a paper, right? Let them spell things out the way they hear them. This helps you see if they have the letter sound awareness that you think they have or should have. They will become more confident and look forward to writing if you’re not constantly correcting them.

Need more support to help with writing? I suggest using WriteShop

Use LOTS of Phonics Strategies

(04:17):

So I got up this morning and my six year old had written a note on the white board and it was so cute and spelled phonetically to her. I had to have her read it to me because I didn’t really see it (I couldn’t read what she had written). I haven’t done this for 25 years, like a kindergarten or first grade teacher. They could have probably read it right away.

If you can’t read it, ask them to read it to you. Pro tip – if they can’t read it back to you, then at that point you might consider some intervention, just say, okay, but that’s okay, next time you’ll remember. Not being able to read something they’ve written back to you, definitely indicates they’re not getting the letter sound correspondence that you think they have.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

(05:06):

So practice, practice, practice, do worksheets, play games. Find the sounds that you’re working on in signs. Look for books that have the new sound or skill as part of the title or character.

For example, we have a book called Silly Milly and it talks about double consonants. Milly only likes words that contain double consonants. She likes pennies, but she doesn’t like nickels cause pennies have two Ns in them.

Look for things like that, that help reinforce the skills, look at phonics books and things like that. They have their favorite characters in them. Just practice, practice, practice.

If they, if your kid doesn’t like handwriting, which is not uncommon for boys again, writing it just a few things at a time are good using things like Star Wars workbooks, or cut and paste sheets to help reinforce their new skill.

Speaker 1 (06:02):

I have never met a kid that didn’t like sorting activities. You can’t have too much practice. Right. And the big thing I see is that sometimes the curriculum (makes a lot of assumptions) and you feel like you need to follow the pacing. You don’t.

Go at Your Own Pace- You aren’t married to your Homeschool Reading Curriculum.

If you are thinking – my kid hasn’t mastered the skill from lesson one. You can take a pause and practice. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can slow things down (or up) to meet their needs. There will be times that you will see, they don’t need the practice. Like they’ve already kind of picked up some of the rules of language. This will come along as they build their confidence.

(06:52):

So practice, practice, practice, practice, grab worksheets that reinforce, you know, and I have lots of ideas in terms of finding resources that do this (see below).

Be Patient and Consistent

Don’t worry. You’re not failing him. You are doing a great job. He probably just needs to slow down and go back to the beginning and get a little extra practice.

A little patience and you need to step back and not be so panicked about his progression being fast enough and focus on slow, steady, meaningful progress. You can switch curriculum, but you might just adapt what you are using. Maybe instead of doing the hundred lessons in, you know, a hundred school days, you choose to say, well, this lesson has this sound in it, or this group of sounds. You choose to change things up and practice these new skills this week.

I like the Orton-Gillingham because it introduces the sounds in a sequential order that lets them gain the most number of words fastest. So it helps to build that confidence. All right. I hope that helps. You’re doing a great job, mom.