Welcome! If you’re here then you are about to embark on the most rewarding journey you will ever take. Whether you are new to homeschooling or trying to boost your child’s learning at home, I hope that you will find this post about reading readiness informative and helpful.
When you are teaching your child, especially if you are at the beginning of your homeschooling journey, you might be feeling a little lost right now; not sure where to start and wondering if this homeschooling thing was a good idea after all.
Well, Mama, I’m here to tell you to take a deep breath and don’t panic. You can, and will, teach your child to read. I’m going to help you do it!
What is Reading Readiness?
Reading readiness is exactly what it sounds like. It describes how ready your child is to learn how to read.
People often use very broad or general milestones to decide that a child is ready to read, e.g., They’re 4 now, they should read or they’ve just started school, the should read or my friend’s child is reading now so mine should be too.
These generic and external factors do nothing to show us that a child is ready to read. In order to assess how ready they are, we must look at each individual child.
Why is Reading Readiness Important?
Checking your child’s reading readiness is the easiest way for you to figure out if YOUR child is ready to read. You will be able to tell if they are ready based on the skills they already have, not on some irrelevant external factor.
If your child is reading ready, they will find the act of learning to read both enjoyable and easy. If they are fully ready to read, learning to read will be a fun challenge instead of an uphill battle.
For the sake of your child’s future attitude to reading, and learning in general, always ensure that they are ready for the next step. Don’t skip steps just because of their age or what your friend says their child is doing.
How to tell if your child is Reading Ready?
The quickest way to check if your child is reading ready is to have a look at their pre-reading skills. These are the five skills a child should have a good grip on before they begin the reading process.
You want to have a look at their: print awareness, phonological awareness, motivation to read, letter awareness and narrative skills.
If you want to learn more about the pre-reading skills; check out this post or download my pre-reading checklist.
Tips for success in Pre-Reading Skills
Pre-reading skills can sound very intimidating but they’re not at all. They are the skills that your child will pick up through interacting with you, being around books, singing nursery rhymes and all the other usual preschooler activities.
When you are looking at your child’s pre-reading skills, especially if you are trying to help them along with them, make sure you do it in a fun way.
At this age, you are laying the foundation for how they view learning and education. You want to make it enjoyable, creative and just a little challenging. Encourage them to explore different areas and skills themselves. Set up fun stations or activities but then let them lead the way, even if it doesn’t turn out as you had planned. Trust me, my control and OCD side struggles with this part!!
If you’re looking for some inspiration, you’ll find some fun pre-reading activities here!
Frequently Asked Questions
The last thing you need to know about Reading Readiness
Don’t rush your child. We all learn at different rates, it doesn’t make anyone better or worse than anyone else. The best thing you can do when teaching your child is to follow their pace. If you try to push them further than they are able for, you will knock their confidence and that is difficult to come back from.
Children love to do things that they enjoy doing. When you are teaching a child something new, you want to incorporate lots of what they already know and then challenge them, push them just outside what they are able for now and watch as they light up every time they acquire a new skill.
This is true for all areas of learning. The more they get that feeling of achievement, the more they will want to continue learning and exploring.
Don’t compare your child to anyone else. They are on their own learning journey and you are the best person to be guiding them on the way.
Tell me about your child, are they reading ready? If you have any questions around this, please pop them into the comment box below and I’ll try to help!