If you are wondering what is a good way to teach your children to read, you should consider phonics. You can start teaching phonics once your children hit the kindergarten age. By giving your children effective phonics instructions at an early age, you are building a foundation for successful reading later on. It will greatly impact their future education and even their life. Here are some ideas for teaching phonics lessons at home.
- A letter a week You want your children to be able to connect letters and their corresponding sounds. You don’t have to teach the alphabets in sequence. A good idea would be to use the letters found in your children’s name. So if you child’s name is Sam, you could first introduce the letter “S” and the /s/ sound. For one week, do a variety of activities that relate to the letter “S”. Together you could create a lapbook, cut out pictures of things starting with the /s/ sound, learn an “s” song, move like a snake, cook sausages, decorate the letter “S” by gluing sequins and learn how to write the letter “S”. I’m sure you can come up with many more fun activities. If not, you can search around the internet for ideas.
- Play Bingo Create a bingo card with the different alphabets. As you call out the different letter sounds, they have to check if their card has the corresponding letter. If they do, they can cross it out, color it or place an M&M on it. The goal could be to complete a row or the entire bingo card.
- Fun Worksheets There are lots of fun phonics worksheets out there. You can find some that are free. However, they don’t usually cover the all the phonic skills. So it might be more advantageous to invest in books or a program that will help you teach phonics in its entirety.
- Online interactive games and instruction Children love to play on the computer. There is no denying this. So instead of denying them this pleasure, why not make the best of it. Find an online program that will help build their phonic skills. They can learn and have fun at the same time.
When you teach your children phonics, you are giving them the tools to read unfamiliar words. This is one of the main advantages of learning to read with phonics. No doubt there are many ways to learn how to read. However, you want to make sure your children are given proper instructions from the beginning so there is no need for intervention later on.
Teaching phonics lessons at home can be fun and effective. There are lots of resources that you can utilize. Let your children’s interest guide you. Be creative. When children enjoy their phonics lessons, they will learn quickly.
