Learning to read and read

Reading is necessary for life. I am reading almost constantly. I read the Bible in the morning to my daughter Rachel since she has dyslexia. I read her textbooks to her. I read the math problems to her. As I help her with the phonics and reading tutoring session I read the teacher's manual on how to tutor properly. I read my mail and then I read my e-mail. I read about the news on various web-sites and sometimes I even read The Salina Journal. I like to read interesting books to Rachel but sometimes I am too tired to do much reading aloud. I do struggle with teaching reading to Rachel. After all my other five children learned to read! Jason learned to read by the third grade, Gary by the first grade, and Paul by the fourth grade. Sara and Josh were reading by the first grade. Rachel who is fifteen is still not reading first grade material. I am using the Barton Reading and Spelling System with her. We are on Level 5 which introduces prefixes and suffixes. We do have up to five syllables words but there are many phonic patterns in the regular first grade readers that we have not studied yet. So Rachel mostly just reads material from the Barton Reading and Spelling System, which is an Orton-Gillingham based system that research has demonstrated to work best for people with dyslexia.

This is challenging for me. I learned to read by third grade. I liked reading so much once I learned how to read that in the fourth and fifth grade I was known as a book worm since I turned in the most book reports to the teacher. Reading has been my favorite activity. My aunt encouraged my mother to get me more active in other activities but I prefer reading whenever I could. I did my farm and household chores but whenever I had free time I would read. Reading helped me through high school. I probably would have been valedictorian but I did get a "D" in P. E. so that did hurt my grade point average. By being a good reader I was able to get scholarships. I took the C.L.E.P. test when I entered college and was able to quiz out of 15 college credits. All that I credit to being a reader. As a Christian, reading is very important to me. As I read and reread the Bible and other Christian books God's Word becomes part of me. God's Word gives me life, strength, healing, and hope. Reading is very important to me. This is why I have served as part of the S.V.H.E. library committee for the past ten years. My goal is to pass my love of reading on to others.

This blog is created for the purpose to encourage you and your children to read and even to help in learning the mechanics of reading if necessary. I do plan to blog on dsylexia but I will spend more time and energy on other topics. The S.V.H.E. library at the present time does not have any practical helps for dyslexia. We do have one book that does explain dyslexia and lists many sources that are helpful. That book is Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. M.D.

The learning to read books we have are mainly for readers who have no difficulty with reading. They are the graded readers. The S.V.H.E. library does have the Pathway readers from first grade through 8th grade. They are basal readers. Sara and Josh had used these to learn to read. We did use the workbooks along with the readers. The workbooks do teach phonics and spelling rules. The library does not have a copy of their workbooks.The library also has a graded set of Christian Light Publishers readers. Both set of readers are Christian based. The Pathway readers are Amish while the Christian Light Publishers are of Mennonite origin.

Another set of readers I do recommend are the ABEKA readers. The library does not have a copy of these readers to check out. Many homeschoolers do use the ABEKA curriculum so many families have already purchased these readers. For time to time the Salina Christian Academy, which uses the ABEKA curriculum, will update their books and usually will give us their used books for homeschooling families to use. There are often ABEKA readers on our free give away shelf at the homeschool library.

Once your child has learned to read the library does have a good set of biographies called The Childhood of Famous Americans Series. It is one of the most popular series ever published for young Americans. These classics of childhood have been praised alike by parents, teachers, and librarians. With these lively, inspiring, believable biographies - easily read by children of seven and up - today's youngster is swept right into history. (Taken from the back cover of one of the books.) We do have over 50 different biographies in the homeschool library. At the current time there are several families reading this series of biographies. Included biographies are people like Clara Barton, Davy Crockett, Albert Einstein, Babe Ruth, Henry Ford, John F. Kennedy, Davy Crockett, and many others.

Ruth Beechick's books are helpful for many new homeschool teachers that are just starting to teach reading and math to their children. The titles that we have include: Easy Start - Arithmetic, Home Start - Reading, Strong Start - Language, Teaching Preschoolers, Teaching Kindergarteners, Teaching Primaries, Language and Thinking for Young Children, and The Lanuage Wars. You Can Teach Your Child Successfully by Ruth Beechick is very helpful,also.



More to come . . .