Good Reads
One of my goals just as a mom, was for my kids to love reading and to have really great books under their belts! As a homeschool mom, it proved to be even more important for my kids to have a really good range of literature being read to them and being read by them. We do reading in a variety of ways- the majority of our reading is done as SSR, or Silent Sustained Reading. This is an hour a day for my two older and a half hour for my third grader and 15-20 minutes for my first grader. They each have their assigned book, they take their assigned time and go find a comfy place to read silently. Another way we get reading done is with Read Aloud Time. We have times during our day where we will all sit down together and I will read a book out loud to everyone. This is a nice time to read something that would be a little harder for my kids to read and comprehend on their own, something that would be considered above their "grade level." Another way we "read" is with audio books! We ALWAYS have audio books playing when we are in the car together. This is also a great way to have them listening to more advanced literature. Last year we all listened to "The Odyssey" and it was awesome!
There are some crazy stats about literacy and how it effects our entire lives! 33% of U.S. adults can't read! Thats one in every three people that you walk by on the street that cannot read- its astounding! Reading is one of the hardest things our brains do, and it is so important for us to exercise that muscle. There are many opinions on when to start our children with learning to read ( Ruth Beechick is the author of some really great books on literacy and when to start kids) but one thing we can all do is to just let our kids at least hear really great literature!
For young, early readers there are lots of good options for them to start their own reading journey- this can start as soon as they are able to start putting sounds in order and getting their decoding phonics skills sharpened. Easy readers are a great place to start, these usually will start out working in word families and have the child learning to put different sounds at the beginning of a familiar ending blend alongside all their great sight words. Some good ones would be anything you would get from a boxed curriculum that is for the child's age (Abeka, Sonlight) BOB books, Dr. Suess, and Biscuit the puppy are some great examples!
For your beginning readers who are through their sight word lists http://printables.atozteacherstuff.com/1103/printable-dolch-word-lists/, Little Golden books, Little Critter books, and even starting on some bigger story books will be a good challenge for them! Remember that almost 85% of what we read are sight words!! Getting your child started with sight words will be the BIGGEST boost to their confidence when starting early reading! If your child gets really comfortable and can easily get through picture story books, you can transition them to reading smaller chapter books. The goal is for them to be challenged, but not where they struggle through most of their reading. We want to build confidence and comprehension skills once phonics and decoding skills are mastered. Chapter books are a great place to start. They will have to be able to really read the words and take contextual cues from what they're reading instead of using picture cues for help.
For your more matured readers, really looking at specific places for ideas is good, but at this point, you can start letting your child take the lead on what is interesting to them. We as adults, of course mostly choose to read what we are interested in and your older student will too! I choose to do this with our read aloud- I let my kids pick what they want me to read to them so its fun and interesting for everyone. For their SSR reading, its usually something assigned by me from one of the Sonlight reading lists. For my two older children (ages 11 and 13) We have worked through a few of the classics when they were younger but with the abridged versions. This is a great way to introduce really rich, beautiful writing in a manageable way for younger readers. We have started now getting into the real full length versions and they are making their way through with mostly no problems except to say that some of them are boring! I just remind them that we have read aloud time and they have their own free time to read whatever they want, and that usually helps.
Hopefully these tidbits have helped with how to decide to do reading in your home. I feel like if there is nothing else I get done with homeschooling my kids, as long as they know how and enjoy reading, can do basic math, and know how they're country and government functions, they will be really great adults! There is so much we can do and enjoy with great stories and teaching kids at a young age to escape into that world is such a gift!
Here are some helpful resources for great literature suggestions:
Boxed curriculums are a great resource when looking for good books:
Abeka- abeka.com
Sonlight- sonlight.com
Bookshark- bookshark.com
Google will give you tons of great suggestions for reading lists, usually listed by grade. If you don't have a technical grade level for your homeschool student, just do some research and read some reviews and you may have some hits and misses, but that's no problem- what they can't do now, they will be able to work toward for later!
https://thegreatestbooks.org/ Is a list I've used many times- even for myself! A list of all the greatest literature of all time!! My kids have each read a few on this list and honestly, they have made for such good discussions in our home! Reading really opens up a whole world for our children!
There are some crazy stats about literacy and how it effects our entire lives! 33% of U.S. adults can't read! Thats one in every three people that you walk by on the street that cannot read- its astounding! Reading is one of the hardest things our brains do, and it is so important for us to exercise that muscle. There are many opinions on when to start our children with learning to read ( Ruth Beechick is the author of some really great books on literacy and when to start kids) but one thing we can all do is to just let our kids at least hear really great literature!
For young, early readers there are lots of good options for them to start their own reading journey- this can start as soon as they are able to start putting sounds in order and getting their decoding phonics skills sharpened. Easy readers are a great place to start, these usually will start out working in word families and have the child learning to put different sounds at the beginning of a familiar ending blend alongside all their great sight words. Some good ones would be anything you would get from a boxed curriculum that is for the child's age (Abeka, Sonlight) BOB books, Dr. Suess, and Biscuit the puppy are some great examples!
For your beginning readers who are through their sight word lists http://printables.atozteacherstuff.com/1103/printable-dolch-word-lists/, Little Golden books, Little Critter books, and even starting on some bigger story books will be a good challenge for them! Remember that almost 85% of what we read are sight words!! Getting your child started with sight words will be the BIGGEST boost to their confidence when starting early reading! If your child gets really comfortable and can easily get through picture story books, you can transition them to reading smaller chapter books. The goal is for them to be challenged, but not where they struggle through most of their reading. We want to build confidence and comprehension skills once phonics and decoding skills are mastered. Chapter books are a great place to start. They will have to be able to really read the words and take contextual cues from what they're reading instead of using picture cues for help.
For your more matured readers, really looking at specific places for ideas is good, but at this point, you can start letting your child take the lead on what is interesting to them. We as adults, of course mostly choose to read what we are interested in and your older student will too! I choose to do this with our read aloud- I let my kids pick what they want me to read to them so its fun and interesting for everyone. For their SSR reading, its usually something assigned by me from one of the Sonlight reading lists. For my two older children (ages 11 and 13) We have worked through a few of the classics when they were younger but with the abridged versions. This is a great way to introduce really rich, beautiful writing in a manageable way for younger readers. We have started now getting into the real full length versions and they are making their way through with mostly no problems except to say that some of them are boring! I just remind them that we have read aloud time and they have their own free time to read whatever they want, and that usually helps.
Hopefully these tidbits have helped with how to decide to do reading in your home. I feel like if there is nothing else I get done with homeschooling my kids, as long as they know how and enjoy reading, can do basic math, and know how they're country and government functions, they will be really great adults! There is so much we can do and enjoy with great stories and teaching kids at a young age to escape into that world is such a gift!
Here are some helpful resources for great literature suggestions:
Boxed curriculums are a great resource when looking for good books:
Abeka- abeka.com
Sonlight- sonlight.com
Bookshark- bookshark.com
Google will give you tons of great suggestions for reading lists, usually listed by grade. If you don't have a technical grade level for your homeschool student, just do some research and read some reviews and you may have some hits and misses, but that's no problem- what they can't do now, they will be able to work toward for later!
https://thegreatestbooks.org/ Is a list I've used many times- even for myself! A list of all the greatest literature of all time!! My kids have each read a few on this list and honestly, they have made for such good discussions in our home! Reading really opens up a whole world for our children!
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