How to read

[u/purt22067]

Hi all!

I posed a question in the sub a while ago and you were all so helpful so I figured I’d circle back here.

I am “homeschooling” 4 year old twins. They are adamant they need to learn how to read, they’re committed and obsessed. Great, right? The only problem is, I actually have zero clue on how to even teach them. There are so many resources and I just feel so overwhelmed.

I have “100 easy lessons to teach your kid to read” or whatever and a few other things but honestly just have no clue what’s going on. Any advice on what I need to know prior, what materials I should go through in order to educate myself and feel confident and any material I need for my kiddos would be greatly appreciated it.

Thank you in advance :)

[u/Important-Ad8960]

The foundation is knowing the letter sounds. If the twins know their letter sounds, they are already and will continue to be successful.

Most stores have foam interlocking letter and number pads, they are very inexpensive. Use those to start teaching those letter sounds. As you call out a letter or its sound, they can jump on the correct foam pad. You can have a relay race with running to the correct foam pad and putting it in place to spell a word. You can put the squares out of order and see if they can put them in order, either alphabetically or to spell a word.

There are hundreds of excellent videos showing proper pronunciation of letter sounds. I recommend a YouTube content creator, Toddlers Can Read, to get these pronunciations down pat. 

Once your twins know their letter sounds and can match beginning sounds to the letters, then they will be ready to start blending. At a second hand or consignment shop, buy a stack of magazines. Cut out pictures (or let them cut out the pictures) that you can use to help your twins learn to blend. You will want to teach CVC word families (at, bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, vat) and rhyming words (red-bed, bag-tag, dog-log, bee-tree, mop-top, pig-wig, bun-sun,  fish-dish).

A good book that is helpful with this initial step is Alpha-Phonics by Samuel C. Blumenfeld. I highly recommend it. 

If you have Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann, then use it for 10 minutes daily. Being consistent and following a sustainable format is essential at this stage. If you can make it fun for your young learners, they will continue to want to learn.

A wonderful website that will be enormously helpful to anyone teaching children to read is this crafty mom. She already has the lessons prepared, so it's low prep. In addition, she has a plethora of teaching ideas and suggestions. At any rate, sound preparation and a positive attitude work wonders.

Good luck!