Children Learning Reading

I recently was chosen to try out Jim Yang's e-book lessons Children Learning Reading. It's a program designed to instill early reading skills for children that can be started at an early age or used once they are school aged. Nolan and I have been trying it out learning basic letter sounds and phonics. I'm not in any rush to teach Nolan but like to explore whatever he is most interested in at the time. He loves books and asks questions so we thought this was a great time to start! I grew up loving reading (still do) and can't wait for both kids to find the joy of books too.

We've been trying it out for a few weeks now and while Nolan isn't suddenly reading Shakespeare, he is now more interested in letter sounds which is a start. He's gone through the first few lessons so far and we're working on putting together and blending a few letter sounds at a time. This program is .pdf file based so the tools you use (flashcards or letter drawings) need to be created by you the parent. There are .mp3 clips of appropriate sounds to help you out and also to use with your child. It's a hands on program that starts with you reading a pretty intensive description and instruction file. I've used an early reading program in the past that mainly involved videos and this is definitely not that. I loved that it gave me reasoning for each of the steps we were doing and was very thorough in describing what I should be doing. They recommend doing the short lessons a few times a day and only moving on once your child has mastered each step. This program is a time commitment but anything that has a chance of working likely is! 

Children Learning Reading focuses on phonics and Phonemic Awareness (PA). I wasn't familiar with what that actually entailed and really only remember phonics from grade school so I was hesitant as I started reading. Basically though, PA entails blending letter sounds and teaching the children to sound out words. No sight word memorization or rote memorization which is a plus.

If you're interested in starting a basic phonics approach to teaching your child to read, you should definitely check out Children Learning Reading!! You can see videos of children who have used the program here too. I'll post back as we continue trying out this program!!

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