Welcome Back to School! This Year, Learn How To Read
Welcome back to school! This is such an exciting time for you and your kids. Over the course of the new school year, your children will learn many different skills, grow in different ways and develop an assortment of curiosities. In the next few years, your children become early readers, mastering how to learn to read, building vocabulary skills and writing on their own.
As you can imagine, learning how to read is extremely important, but with all the other tasks children have to complete and with all the excitement that comes with school, learning how to read can be challenging. That is why it is crucial children receive help everywhere they can. This means that, maybe, school alone will not be enough, especially in the early stages of reading education.
To ensure that your children succeed at learning to read, keep track of what they learn and provide additional fun activities that help them exercise their reading powers.
How To Learn To Read With Your Teacher
When children enter the classroom, the teacher is in charge of lesson plans. Ideally, your child’s teacher will use a phonics-based approach to teaching reading – but this is not always the case. For this reason, it is very important that you speak with your child’s teacher and learn for yourself how they plan to teach reading skills.
Ask your child’s teacher about:
- How to learn to read
- Learning goals for the year
- Reading projects and activities
When you take the time to ask teachers about their teaching methods, you know what your child is – and isn’t – learning in the classroom. This will help you decide which learning activities to offer your child at home to ensure that they have all the tools necessary to learn how to read.
Why is a phonics-based approach important? Figuring out how to learn to read can be a confusing and overwhelming process for children, but a phonics-based approach makes it as simple as possible. The reason phonics works so well is because it has organized levels. It begins with the smallest and most basic parts and builds up.
The phonics system does not treat reading as a natural skill, but as a skill that must be taught in a straightforward and logical way. Through this system, children learn to read in an organized manner and much more quickly than without phonics.
Can you trust phonics? Yes, you can! Science supports phonics and finds it to be the most effective way to teach reading skills. A teacher who has a strong understanding of phonics instruction helps children develop essential skills for reading success. With a phonics program in place, children learn:
- The sounds that make up words
- Letters as symbols
- How to decode
- How to read smoothly
- New vocabulary words
- How to spell
- How to write
- Reading comprehension
- Language comprehension
On the first day of school, or at the first chance you have, speak with your child’s teacher to see what method they use. Note that some teachers will mention phonics as a part of a “balanced literacy” program. This means that the teacher will sprinkle some phonics throughout the curriculum, but phonics will not play a central role. If the teacher does not prioritize phonics as a major focus of their curriculum, you’ll need to build a plan outside of class to help your child learn to read.
How To Learn To Read With Mom Or Dad
If your children’s teachers do not use a phonics system to teach reading skills, it is a good idea to do some additional exercises at home. These do not have to be difficult or confusing at-home lessons. In fact, phonics helps children how to learn to read in easy and fun ways. There are several ways to help your children develop reading skills outside of class without any extra materials.
- Reading Out Loud and Together
Read out loud with your children. Reading aloud is an excellent way to keep children engaged while developing reading skills. Reading together teaches how to learn to read by building vocabulary and comprehension skills.
First, choose books that your children want to read. Make sure that it matches their reading level. Then, read together. Read out loud so they can hear you pronounce words. As the story progresses, stop and ask, “What do you think will happen next?” or “Why do you think character X did that?” Then, go on to the next page of the book.
If they run into a word they do not know, take the time to sound it out. This is a good time to use blending and segmenting skills to learn to read new words. Then, look up the word in the dictionary to learn what it means. Reread the sentence and ask your child to explain what the sentence means.
When your children have a good grasp of the story, have them read the story out loud the next time. This may be after reading the book several times, so do not be worried if your child cannot read on his or her own right away.
Why is it an advantage to read the same book over and over? If the story is predictable and your children know what will happen, they feel more comfortable to try reading without feeling like they failed. Guided reading helps children how to learn to read without worry and with encouragement.
- Conversations
One of the best ways to help children how to learn to read is through conversations. Speaking to your child helps them understand the cadence and rhythm of speech. It helps them learn new words and how to use those words in sentences. It helps them develop logic and critical thinking skills, too.
What should you talk about to help them learn to read? Talk about a variety of subjects. You and your child can talk about family history, future plans and goals, their friends and their favorite memories. Be sure that you are not the only one doing the talking. This time is for children to also practice speaking and pronouncing words, using complete sentences and expressing their ideas aloud.
- Word Recognition Games
There are a variety of ways to play word recognition games. Word recognition games are important because they help young children with memory and spelling while also introducing new words. To play this simple word recognition game, use an even number of flashcards. Then, write very clearly different reading words. For example, you might want to use words like present, bicycle, math, sister, astronaut and rabbit. Take this time to get creative! You can create different themes and make flashcards sets around sports, family, art or school vocabulary words.
After choosing your words, write it twice, once on two different flashcards. Then, mix up the flashcards and lay them out facedown on the floor or table. Have your children gather around the flashcards. Then, have each child take two turns flipping one card over. Have them read the word aloud. If the two cards they choose match, the child collects the card. If the two cards chosen do not match, the child flips the card back facedown. Then, the next child takes a turn. The goal is to collect pairs of words. Word recognition games teach children how to learn to read by strengthening vocabulary and spelling skills.
This game is very flexible because you can customize the vocabulary words yourself. After your children learn simpler vocabulary, add more challenging words.
How To Learn To Read With Professor Pup
There is a huge sense of freedom and power that comes with the ability to read, which is why phonics teaches how to learn to read in the best way possible. At Professor Pup’s Academy, we do just that.
Professor Pup’s Quest for Phonics is our program that teaches children how to learn to read with phonics. It is the perfect way to help your children develop reading skills, especially if they are not receiving phonics training at school.
The best part about our program is that you do not need to do any research of your own to have immediate access to quality phonics instruction. Professor Pup guides children through the process of learning to read, offering encouragement and correction whenever needed. Children enjoy games, songs and cute characters that help them to build their foundation for reading success.
Our apps are designed for tablets, but they work just fine on smartphones too! Help your children learn to read through phonics and prepare them for total reading success. Download Pup’s Quest for Phonics for $2.99 on the App Store.
Pup’s Quest for Phonics will be available on the Google Play Store this fall.