Anyone have a child who says, 'I don't like to read'? A huge complaint I hear from parents is ‘my kids don’t like to read’. Many times the problem is that the children were never motivated to love reading... Here are 3 practical steps to help motivate your child to learn to read: #1. Recognize that reading has an impact on your child's future reading success Statistics consistency confirm that a parent, grandparent, sibling, caregiver or friend reading to children is a powerful indictor of future success in reading. You may feel your baby or toddler is too small, distracted or just won't sit still, but statistics don't lie....so read on! Look at the pic below - my grandson Clark is moving around, but his eyes are still fixed on the page as his big brother, Ollie, reads. Allow your children to have exposure to books and hold them captive with the intonations of your voice as you read (even a boring story can sound exciting with a little creativity). They will be hooked for life on books and on their way to being avid readers themselves. #2 Provide them with an opportunity for a sense of accomplishment with small BUILDING BLOCKS Teaching kids to read starts with the BUILDING BLOCKS. I used a method to teach my kids to read that I discovered while homeschooling them through the Abeka curriculum. We began with teaching letter recognition, moved on to knowing the appropriate sounds for each letter, and added a few vital site words like 'a', 'the', 'is', etc. Once those building blocks were in place, we purchased the graduated reader series for K-5 students. My favorite feature of the Abeka system is that they never have the children read a word unless they know the sounds within that word have been mastered. Each book in the series adds new letters, new sounds, and a few new site words... all the while building on what they already know from the last book. This process builds tremendous reading confidence. A discouraged reader will give up, but my kids always felt they could read the book presented to them. High Success = High Confidence :) *For another article on building reading confidence, read this article on Reading Eggspress The blog Reading Eggs is a helpful resource. The section on 'Remember that building phonological awareness is key' is in line with the philosophy I put into practice as a young mom teaching her children to read, as well as the philosophy I was taught while working on my master's degree in Linguistics in TESOL at Tel Aviv University. If you attempt to bypass the sounds of letters leading to the reading of words, you handicap your child from reading unfamiliar words outside of their basic vocabulary. Memorizing frequent words found in most texts and various 'site words' (a, the, of, is, etc.) will ease reading fluency, however there is a limit to memorization; so phonics, phonics, phonics is the key! Moral of the story here - give them the tools to succeed by building slowly and steadily! #3 Help your child PERSEVERE when they stumble The short film below shows my son trying to learn to surf. He needed a helping hand at first, he had a little slip up...whoops!!...but he persevered. By the end of the day, he was a pro (ok, he was decent but on the way to being a pro :). A few weeks ago I ordered the Abeka series for my 4 year old grandson, Oliver (Clark can use it when he is older). I sent him 'I LEARN TO READ BOOK 1' in the mail. I sent him a video to tell him that when he learns to read Book 1, then I will send him Book 2. This will be a fun motivator, and another way to build our relationship. I don't just want to be the grandmother who buys toys, but I would love to be a part of my grandchildrens' academic, spiritual and physical education when possible. What can you say to your child when they want to give up, when they say, "I can't do this?'. Remind them that everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes do not mean failure. We actually learn more from our mistakes that our successes. I once read an article about how we remember the items we missed on academic tests longer than we remember the ones we got right. Challenges can feel painful at the moment, but offer them grace, encouragement and partnership. Try saying things like, 'Keep trying, you got this!', 'You are making great progress!', 'Let's try together this time'. So.... remember these 3 steps to help your child be a successful reader: #1. Recognize that reading has an impact on your child's future reading success #2 Provide them with an opportunity for a sense of accomplishment with small BUILDING BLOCKS #3 Help your child PERSEVERE when they stumble LORD, HELP US TO HAVE THE BEST SUCCESS WHILE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO READ!! - Laura Martin
5 Comments
Mike Frizzell
8/25/2019 08:57:17 pm
Our boys seemed to be late bloomers, so my wife and I found a great series of historical fiction, written at the turn of the century by G.A. Henty. We would read a page to them and then help them read a page to us. This made reading enjoyable as our reading a page was a relaxing reward after we helped them with the slow task of completing their page. As they progressed, we read less, and they eventually loved reading by themselves.
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Laura Martin
8/27/2019 06:33:34 am
Love it, Mike!!
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Linoy
8/28/2019 01:45:51 pm
Love this Laura! So encouraging and interesting ♡ thank you and keep up the amazing work ! Love how your personality is included in your blog ;) you make me laugh ! With your comment on Cole being a pro surfer :) love you! Ps your grandchildren are so cute!! Xo
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Laura Martin
8/28/2019 02:52:05 pm
Thanks, Linoy!!!! You are adorable!!
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11/11/2022 11:36:54 am
Place writer kid itself never method child. Southern building product industry.
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