My daughter told me that she wanted to learn to read and she wanted to read now!  Being on our to-do list anyway I agreed to get started. She already knows her letters and the sounds they make so I figured it would just be a matter of getting to it.  I looked on the internet for any advice I could find and everything and everyone wanted me to buy something.  Some were just books claiming to teach my child to read in however many steps and others were huge programs with huge price tags.

My husband, ever so reasonable, pointed out that thousands of people learned how to read before there were “systems.”  It was with that in mind that we set out to teach my four year old to read.  Cheap as always, we went to our library and found some level one books.  You can also find them at Target or Walmart.  Then we sat down, and we read a book.  Pointing at each word we sounded them out for her, showed her how that process works.  After about five minutes she got the hang of it and was willing and able to try to sound out her own words.  I cannot tell you the amount of pride that swelled within me and daddy when she succeeded. 

This was it, she was learning how to read.  We had struggles, but just kept trudging through.  Her word recognition has grown, and she can recognize on sight all the common words.  It was fantastic to see her catch on those words with an “S” at the end meant plural, and how the “ed” meant something happened in the past.  Not bad for her first day.  I can’t wait to see what we are reading tomorrow!

-Stephanie Wright