Home schooling

There are many reasons why you may be afraid to teach your child to read at home. If you are home schooling your child, you will naturally experience this fear.

Undertaking your child’s education and thus balancing their future in your hands can be a very daunting experience for any parent. However, this fear doesn’t have to paralyze you and can in fact be a good thing.

By addressing your fears one by one you can empower yourself and succeed in your most challenging undertaking to date – teaching your child to read at home.

To begin with, the first fear you will probably encounter is:

I’m not qualified to teach

Well, in most instances this claim is absolutely true. Most parents who choose to home school their children, or even home school preschool their children are not “qualified” teachers.

However, contrary to what many may say, there is no-one more qualified than a child’s parent or guardian to teach them things.

Firstly, you have taught your child everything they know to date.

Secondly, there is no-one in this world who knows your child better than you. You know their temperament, their learning style and what motivates them.

And thirdly, no-one cares about what happens to your child, or has as much invested in your child’s future success, than you do.

These three things alone make you more qualified to teach your child to read than anyone else out there.

So, the first idea to think about is this:

“If one person can do it, then anyone can do it.”

There are thousands of parents around the world who are at this very moment home schooling their children, and all of them have at some stage had to teach their child to read.

Most of these parents are not qualified teachers, yet they have been incredibly successful in teaching their child to read. In fact I know of many parents who have no formal education themselves, who have successfully taught their children to read.

You too do not need a lot of teaching ability to teach your child to read. Learning is a natural process for children and they do it easily. All they need is a little guidance along the way.

The second fear you will probably encounter is:

I don’t know where to start

The first place to start is to make the decision that you will teach your child to read.

Next, set a goal for you and your child, that you want them to be able to read a book by themselves within a set period of time. This can be any period from 1 to 3 months (it generally shouldn’t take longer than this).

Next, set a time for you and your child to have a reading “lesson”. Choose a time when you know that your child’s energy is highest. You want this to be fun for your child, so choose a time when they are most energetic and are not busy with anything else (don’t call them to read when they’re playing their favourite game for example).

The third fear you will probably encounter is:

I don’t have a system

This one is easy to resolve.

Find a step by step method that will guide you through this process. There are endless systems available on the Internet.

My advice to you would be to do your homework and find a system that suits you and your goals. The system you choose does not have to be complicated either, the simpler the better.

My personal preference is always to get information from someone who is in exactly the same position as me. For example, I am a mother who is home schooling her children, running a business and a home, and I am also a wife who loves to spend time with her husband. I also have a number of personal interests that I prefer not to neglect either.

When I am looking for a system to assist me in some area of my life, I look for a system created by a person who is similar to me. In this way I feel that I am getting a system that will suit me because this person completely “gets” where my needs are coming form.

They have gone through what I am going though and they completely understand my needs.

Of course your preferences may be very different from mine, and this is why with a bit of research you can find exactly the system that suits both you and your child.

My recommendation is to try out a system that is not time consuming, will be easy for you to implement and incorporates a holistic approach that encompasses both phonics and sight reading for maximum results and benefits