Make Reading Your First Priority for Home School Success

Home schooling families know that if a child develops good reading skills early in their lives, they have the opportunity to be better learners which leads to a better educated child. Reading is the key to success in any learning process and should be first priority when it comes to your home school curriculum.

Reading is Key

I am a reader and so are all my adult children. My smaller children love to read as well, and that is because I have stressed that if you can’t read you can’t learn; therefore, our home school curriculum follows along the lines of the Charlotte Mason way of teaching; it begins with reading.

My daughter went to public school this year for fourth grade, she will be back to home schooling next year. She doesn’t feel really confident in some areas of study at public school because we hadn’t gotten to certain subjects yet. When she feels like she is not as smart as some of the other kids, I remind her that there is probably no other child in her classroom who read and actually studied Moby Dick. Those kids probably don’t even know the book exists.

Because of her reading skills, she does get caught up with the rest of the class on the subjects that we did not go in depth on. And she catches on quickly!

With that said, you should make sure that your child develops these necessary reading skills to ensure a life of learning:

1.  Teach your child to use language and vocabulary properly.

2.  Have your child recite back to you what they have heard after you have read a few paragraphs to them.

3.  Help them learn the alphabet at an early age. The easiest way to do this is to associate a letter with something your child loves that you have around the house. Place the letter on the object so the child can see them together.

4.  Read to your child every single day, then it becomes part of their daily routine.

5.  Add a new word to your child’s vocabulary everyday. Make sure your older child knows what it means, how to use it in a sentence and how to spell it. This helps build vocabulary quickly.

I always have my daughter discuss what she has read in her studies, and now she comes and tells me what happens after almost every chapter in the fun books that she reads.

Reading does not come naturally. It is a skill and the younger they learn to do it, the easier it will be to for you to teach them in other subjects. If you home school, then reading should be top priority. If your child attends public school, then you need to make sure they have extra reading time at home; thirty minutes a night minimum.

Library Cards

Get your child a library card at an early age and teach them how to use it. As they get older have them join book clubs. My daughter just joined her first “tween” book club at our local library. They meet every Monday for various activities. The first day of the month they are given a book to keep. They must read it throughout the month and then on the last Monday, they discuss the book. By making reading a social thing, it makes it cool.

The keys to successful homeschooling and to life-long learning are being able to read. Not only to read, but to understand what you have read and being able to apply it to your life somehow.

Encourage reading at the earliest age possible and you will give your child the right skills to learn throughout their lives. Some even believe reading to your baby before it is born is a learning process. It sure couldn’t hurt.

So make reading your top priority before your child starts school and after. You will find that they will be more successful with their homeschooling programs if they have knowledge at their fingertips. The easiest way to do this is by reading.