The best method Ive found of teaching reading at home (Key Words With Ladybird Series)

Member Name: Mick-Gray

Product:	Key Words With Ladybird Series
Date:	09/10/06 (346 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use and repetative without being boring. Very reasonably priced

Disadvantages: Not always easy to find.

Due to the lack of time that teachers seem to have to read with children individually, it would seem that for children to become fluent readers many of them need help from their parents.

Now I know that for many parents this is a normal thing to do anyway, but for those parents who don't read with their children, I can only emphasise that to be able to read is to be able to learn, those children who have slipped through the net and who cannot read very well, will struggle with the rest of their school work throughout their school life.

With this in mind when my children were young and before they started school, I searched around for books that would enable me to teach them to read early and therefore give them a reasonable start.

After a few tries I came across the Key Word reading scheme by Ladybird.

This is a scheme that starts off with the look and learn method. This allows children to look at a word and remember it as a whole word. The books are well illustrated and this also adds interest for the child whilst learning.

The books are in stages and there are three books in each stage 1a,1b,1c, then 2a,2b,2c, and so on up to level 12.

The scheme works on the premise that 12 key words make up a quarter of all the words we read and 300 key words including the first 12 make up 3 quarters of all the words we read.

In book 1a the first few of these Key words are introduced and tell about Peter and his Sister Jane, their family and friends. Book 1b re-introduces exactly the same words but in a different context and in a different order. This makes sure that the child knows the words before moving on. Book 1c again has the same words but introduces a couple of extra words and also starts the child off with a little writing as well.

This carries on, with each stage introducing a few new words, but also using every word from all previous stages. So at every stage the child is progressing but also reinforcing the words already learnt.

when the child reaches book 4c Phonics are introduced and they start to learn to sound letters and groups of letters that make particular sounds. From this stage the a and b books carry on with the look and learn system whilst the c books teach phonics.

By useing these books all 3 of my children were reading well before starting school and my seven grandchildren have all been taught by the same books and were all fluent readers by the time they started.

There are also small story books that accompany this scheme called read it yourself. these are all well known fairy tales and are also in levels 1 to 4

These books have been in print for at least 40 years now. They have been updated and the illustrations changed over time and still remain in my opinion one of the best methods of teaching reading at home. They have helped countless thousands of children to learn to read and I would recommend them to anyone who is looking for a method of teaching their own children.

They can be bought or ordered from Waterstones or Kendricks and can be ordered online from Amazon.co.uk

Mick- Gray

Summary: Learn to read and you can learn anything