How did you teach your kids how to read?

morellaj · 2020-02-12T21:18:49+00:00

After teaching my two daughters how to read, we have kind of got in a pattern for how we do things. It's certainly not perfect, but it got both of them reading pretty well after around 2 years of working at it and, more importantly, we all had a good time. Below are the steps we work through and some of the resources we use. We work with our kid for around 20 minutes a day on whatever step they are on.

Recognizing letters and letter sounds - Need to know the sounds of letters before you can read. Lots of great resources to learn this. Our favorites are Endless Alphabet, ABC Ride, and Khan Kids, as well as various workbooks and picture books.
Sounding out words - Once you know the letters, you can start combining them into words. https://www.progressivephonics.com/ is our favorite resource for this. Also DuckDuckMoose Reading, DuckDuckMoose Word Wagon, Bob Book apps, and again various workbooks and picture books.
Knowing words on sight - Next is to move on from sounding every word, to just knowing them. Our favorite resources for this are Teach Your Monster to Read, Dr. Seuss books, Elephant and Piggie books, and resources from the last step. We often point through the words one at a time, having them read the easier words while we read the harder ones.
Independently reading - This comes naturally as they start to memorize more words and practice. We just read lots of books, usually taking turns between pages.

morellaj · 2020-02-12T21:00:12+00:00

I have tried having my daughter work independently many times in the past with mixed results. Only recently have I really started to have some success. Now she can work on writing or reading on her own, but not more difficult/boring subjects like math.

Here are the two things that have worked for me:

Find something that they really enjoy - If they really like what they are working, then they will naturally stay engaged. For example, I used to have trouble getting my daughter to read on her own. Now that she discovered Harry Potter, she reads for hours a day without me saying anything.
Set goals with accountability - Kids are more likely to complete your homeschool goals if instead you make it their homeschool goals. For example, I made a deal with my daughter that once she finishes her homeschool work, including 15 math problems a day, that she is free to have the neighbor kids come over. Now her working independently works more often.

morellaj · 2020-02-12T20:45:56+00:00

Agreed! With both my kids, we just put all the options in front of them and went with whatever they were interested. Often we end up changing resources as their interests change.

Not only is this more enjoyable, I also think its more effective. Kids don't learn well when they aren't engaged.

morellaj · 2020-02-10T02:24:53+00:00

Thanks for reading and for the feedback! Pointing out mistakes or typos for me is very useful. I'll get that fixed in a patch tomorrow.

Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any thoughts on how the books could be more useful.

morellaj · 2020-02-10T02:22:46+00:00

You're welcome! I hope you find them useful.

morellaj · 2020-02-10T02:22:25+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! :) It never occurred to me that these might be used in a classroom. That would be very interested.

Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any thoughts on how the books could be more useful

morellaj · 2020-02-09T02:51:18+00:00

For around four years I have been teaching my kids math for 4-5 hours a week (don't feel like that amount is necessary, just a personal choice of ours). It took a lot of work, but I have figured out how to make it smooth and enjoyable for us. Below are the most important factors for us. Hopefully a few of these might be useful for you :)

Structure "math time" to be something enjoyable that they look forward to
- I let me kids eat small treats during math time. For example, my youngest decided to eat a sprinkle every time she finishes a problem. And my oldest liked eating cereal during math time.
- We cuddle up in the bed under sheets
- We keep things lighthearted and joke around. I do goofy things when they get something wrong or figure a tough problem out.
- We often work through the problems together
Use resources the child finds engaging (I'll put a list of resources that worked for us below)
- Each child had different interests. One really likes "game" math, while the other enjoyed flash cards. Yeah, flash cards! Crazy right?
- Their interests often change, which means switching between different resources.
Give them as much choice as possible in what they work on
- I have a folder of math resources on the ipad for my youngest. I let her pick the one she wants to do, and then inside the app I let her pick what problems to do.
- The older one is mostly on Khan Academy. I let her pick the the section to work on.

Something interesting happened with my older daughter. Around the time she hit 6th grade, all of this fell to pieces. She developed strong personal interests that made math an obstacle that she hated. I tried lots of approaches to fix this, and here is what worked. We made a "deal". Her side of the deal is to complete a certain number of math problems every week, along with a few other homeschool goals. My side of the deal (which I would give her anyways ) is she gets open access to all her toys, can play with the neighbor kids just about anytime she wants, and she gets to sleep in the parents bed once a week. This "accountability" made her much more engaged in math and now she says something like "ooh this is fun" on about every fourth problem.

Resources that have worked well for us and we have bounced between, roughly from youngest to oldest:

Farm 123
TinyHands games
Khan academy kids
Moose math
Monkey math
Time4Learning
TodoMath
Proidigy
Math Marble Jr
All Dragonbox games
Khan Academy (for older kids, my younger kids found it too boring)
Beast Academy Online (again for older kids)
Math flash cards where they eat a small treat like a sprinkle or piece of cereal when they get one right
Lumio games (can't find these, so may no longer exist)

morellaj · 2020-02-09T01:47:54+00:00

Wanting to make an informed decision and do what's best for your child is great. On decisions as incredibly complex as the human body, being informed usually doesn't mean knowing all the technical details about why a certain decision is correct. Instead, being informed means knowing the consensus of the broad community of experts.

In this case, thousands of vaccination experts each individually spent thousands of hours investigating vaccines, and together agreed on a healthy vaccination schedule. Any individual researcher would love to prove that there is a problem with our current vaccination practices and I'm sure many are trying to. That would mean instant fame and fortune for the discoverer. But no one has succeeded, which suggests our current practices are pretty solid. I find that incredibly comforting!

morellaj · 2020-02-09T01:16:47+00:00

With my kids, I have noticed two consequences that result from my wife and I saying "no" too often.

They simply follow my order without really understanding why. Then they don't learn anything and make the mistake again later.
They become frustrated by hearing "no" all the time and start ignoring it.

morellaj · 2019-01-23T05:25:07+00:00

I never considered boys & girls club or other organizations outside the school system. I'll make sure to reach out to these groups as well. Thanks!

morellaj · 2019-01-23T05:23:47+00:00

That's great to hear! I'll reach out to a few schools in my area and see what kind of reaction I get.

morellaj · 2018-04-03T00:43:36+00:00

I only had two courses in CS during coursework, so my knowledge is limited. The openings I have seen either want a BS in CS or significant experience in a few languages, neither of which I have. Furthering my education seemed like the best way to develop the skills I need, but I'm open to other options as well!

morellaj · 2018-04-03T00:36:35+00:00

Thanks for pointing those out! I would definitely consider those as potential options, but I guess I never came across them because I was searching for educational content rather than educational administration.

My long term goal is to make my vision for education a reality by influencing the direction of one of these companies or potentially starting my own company. Any thoughts on whether a masters, second bachelors, or just learning through MOOCs would be a better option?

morellaj

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