“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Fredrick Douglas
Teaching your child to read is an incredibly daunting task. Learning to read is one of the most important things your child can learn, making it a huge responsibility to have when you homeschool your kids. But when you do, it is the most rewarding feeling.
My daughter (almost 5 1/2) learned to read this year and just recently her reading started taking off. She has begun reading harder books and impressing me everyday.
In teaching my daughter to read I began with learning alphabet letters, learning the sounds of each letter (short sounds for vowels) and basic sight words. Check out my post HERE for fun ways on how I teach sight words.
Today I wanted to share our favorite early reading resources. These are the resources I used in helping my daughter learn to read and even some she chose herself.
- Emergent Readers from The Moffatt Girls: I shared about these in my Teaching Sight Words post. We use these to learn new sight words but also for reading. Each book builds off the previous so she is constantly reviewing and reading all the words she has already learned. My daughter loved these! You print them yourself and she loved coloring each one.
2. Dash Into Reading: These books are my favorite! They are an early phonics program with beautiful stories crafted to build reading skills. There are 10 books in the first set (2nd set releasing soon) and also a parent teaching guide. At the beginning of each book is a page telling you what sight words and beginning sounds/blends the child should learn to be able to read that book. The stories are so cute and the pictures are beautiful! Written and illustrated by a fellow homeschool mom herself! The first book in the set was the first book my daughter read all by herself. 💕
They also have activity packs that you can get to go with each of the books. These have fun activities such as bingo, tracing, matching, coloring, etc. 
3. Bob Books: These small books are great for beginning readers and we used some here and there. However, they aren’t my favorite. In my opinion they are very basic and a little boring. The pictures don’t excite my daughter but she still read them for good practice. They have 5 sets of readers, as well as a sight words book and a pre-reading book. 
4. Flip-a-Word book series by Harriet Ziefert: After learning sounds and some sight words I also introduce some beginning word families (-at, -it, etc.). These books are great for focusing on word families and there are many different ones.
5. Elephant and Piggie books: My daughters absolute favorite! I am always catching her reading these books or carrying them around the house to read to someone. We started off with my daughter reading Piggies lines and I would read Elephants. Now she can read them all to herself. She was the one who chose these from the library and I have been so impressed with how they have built her confidence and ability to read larger words. My daughter thinks the stories are so funny and there are so many different ones.
6. Usborne- My First Reading Library: This set has 50 books to guide children through the first steps of reading and to build confidence. The first 22 books include learning phonics methods, the next 12 books are short stories they can enjoy as they are learning to read and the last 16 are stories to review and build confidence. We have read many of these books but do not have the full set. I would love to get it one day!
These are all great resources for beginning readers and there are many others out there. The most important thing is reading together and reading to your child everyday. Picture books, read alouds, anything helps them develop their phonics, vocabulary and imagination. Also, every child is different and learns at their own pace. Some books may excite them and others not. Finding out their interests and their favorite books definitely helps in cultivating a love for reading.
“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax all you need is a book!” -Dr. Seuss
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