I am in no way an expert when it comes to teaching children to read.

I just know how overwhelming all the materials can be in the homeschooling community so I thought I would share what I have liked best.

First off, are these books.

I found “Teach your child to read” used on Amazon.com.

The little readers are A beka little owl books, found here.

I bought Teach your child to read because of this.

I thought it might help my oldest remember his letters and sounds.

It did help a lot but I have been using it for the word list and stories more.

I spent months teaching my oldest sounds with flashcards and then finally this book.

I had another Mom tell me about the leapfrog movie “Letter Factory” so I bought that for my youngest when he was three.

He learned his sounds in a week!

I recommend this movie to every Mom I know. It has cute little stories that go with each letter and sound they make.

For “A” a cute monster jumps out and makes the A say, “ahhh!”

My oldest (then four) was having trouble putting the sounds together until I got him the Owl books.

He loved how all the words were easy three letter words or less.

He also loved to play SuperWhy reading games on pbs.org.

My youngest (then 3) was proving to be a little more difficult to teach.

He had all the sounds down (thanks to the Letter Factory) but had memorized the Owl books while his brother read them.

He memorized faster then I could get him to sound out (I teach phonics).

So for him the break through finally happened when I would sit with him, grabbed a blank piece of paper, and wrote out word families.

We started with “at”, then added “c” for “cat” and so forth.

He did not have a book with pictures to help him remember what it said so he finally started reading.

He and my oldest both love Starfall.com, it has animated books, printable books, and phonic games.

That being said, I use everything around me to mix it up and keep them interested.

Blocks

Signs (My oldest read his first word on a STOP sign)

Writing in the dirt

Flash Cards (I spell out words)

My friend just made my youngest these awesome rocks for his birthday!

She was inspired from this.

So now we can spell bigger words.

Like Batman, Robin, and Joker.

We are full on into superheros right now.

I try to keep it interesting because the thought of my boys not loving to read breaks my heart.

They see me with a book in my hands every chance I get.

They know I can’t say no to “one more” book at the library.

I find good literature to read to them, not just picture books, chapter books.

We also sign up for the Summer Reading program at our local library.

I do not want my boys to just know how to read.

I want them to hunger for words like they hunger for food.