Giving children a strong foundation in reading is one of the greatest gifts you can offer them. Much of future learning depends on reading skills.
Lately there has been much made of the so-called reading war in which proponents of phonics (teaching sound-letter relationships) and whole language (immersing children in words) have squared off. In my 12 years' teaching experience I have found the greatest success using a blend of the best of both systems.
As far as teaching phonics skills, I have never used a better product than Saxon Phonics. It is very comprehensive and designed be incremental, which means skills are mastered a bit at a time and added on to as you go. The phonics system uses coding to teach phonetic rules and includes spelling, vocabulary, and fluency as well. Saxon is a bit pricey, but a true value considering how user-friendly it is for parents and children; the homeschool kits include everything you need.
So many studies have proven that explicit phonics instruction is the most effective way to teach children to be strong readers and spellers. However, maintaining a literature-rich environment is essential to help children love to read. Reading to your children is a wonderful way to help them. When children hear someone reading with expression, and they are immersed in literature far above their own reading level, their fluency and vocabulary increase. Here are a few of the favorite read-aloud books I have collected over the years:
Young Children (2-6 years)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr and Eric Carle
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett
The Mitten by Jan Brett
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey and Don Wood
It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
Good Night, Fairies by Kathleen Hague
As They Grow (4-7 years)
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Sleeping Beauty by Mahlon and Kinuko Craft
Cinderella by Mahlon and Kinuko Craft
King Midas and the Golden Touch by Charlotte and Kinuko Craft
The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Marianna Meyer and Kinuko Craft
Pegasus by Marianna Meyer and Kinuko Craft
Rotten Teeth by Laura Simms
Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
From Dawn til Dusk by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock and Mary Azarian
The Poetry for Young People Series are beautifully illustrated poem collections from many famous poets.
Ready for Chapter Books (4-20 years)
The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
The Time Quartet ( A Wrinkle in Time is the first one) by Madeline L'Engle
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien
The Dear America Series from Scholastic--great historical fiction written in a journal format
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Another wonderful way to maintain a literature-rich environment is to play story tapes. You can often borrow them from the library or rent them from the bookstore. Some of my favorites are:
Any of the tapes by Jim Weiss.
Any tapes by Odds Bodkins, especially The Odyssey for older kids.
Learning poetry, beginning with nursery rhymes, is very helpful for developing phonemic awareness, long-term memory, and vocabulary. The What Your [Kindergartner, First Grader, etc] Needs to Know series by E.D. Hirsch has a great collection of age-appropriate rhymes, poems, and sayings at a reasonable price.
Once your child is reading fairly fluently, consider the wonderful Junior Great Books program. Although this would be harder to do with a single child because of the shared inquiry discussion component, I highly, highly recommend it for homeschool groups. Each grade from 2-8 has an anthology of short stories that cost $14.95 each. The teachers book with all the activities and questions in it is $23.95 per grade level, and there is also a companion writing workbook for $6.95. The program has 5 days worth of activities for each story. The first day the teacher defines vocabulary and reads the story out loud as the students read along. This is to model fluent, expressive reading, and to allow children to access text that might otherwise be too challenging. The next day the students read the story to themselves, and as they read they mark passages according to a direction from the teacher, such as when they feel sympathetic toward a character. The third day is a shared inquiry discussion (this is where the group becomes necessary). Students and the teacher together explore a question about the story with two or more possible answers, depending on how the reader interpreted the text. Students are asked to reference what they read in the story that supports their answer to the question (On page 23 the tailor told the giant that). The last two days are for writing activities connected to the reading. It is a wonderful program that really helps children to think critically and become comfortable expressing and supporting their ideas. You can find more details at:
http://www.greatbooks.org/programs/junior/index.shtml
Don't be surprised if some children, especially boys, go through a period of only wanting to read non-fiction. Its a typical stage, and doesnt mean he will never enjoy fiction. Magazines are a terrific motivator during this time, and I recommend these, which might be found at your library:
Muse Magazine (from Smithsonian)
National Geographic for Kids Magazine
Some good websites for finding discussion questions and activities to support books your child may be reading are:
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/
http://teacher.scholastic.com/
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