Of course, the reading adventure continues and my investigation also continues. After a parent teacher conference I’m told my daughter can read “J” level books, but because most of the students in the class are not on “J” level there are not many of those books in the class. I asked my daughter if she reads in class. She is in a Montessori school, and so she chooses her work. She stated that “No, Mom I don’t choose reading at school I would rather do that with you at home.” I had been waiting for school to take over the reading instruction, turns out that is my job. I didn’t know. My daughter says she likes to work on Math at school, but she likes to do reading at home. I thought at the beginning of the year that my job was done and that school would take on reading instruction. I guess in first grade they will, but in kindergarten I’m still my daughter’s main reading instructor.

Next: So what have I learned?

The next technique we used to learn the sound system was music and rhythm. We tapped out the letter, sound and key word to a beat she made on her leg. Last technique and the most successful for my daughter was a technique where I used letter people and created letter relationships. I used this to help her remember vowel combinations. For example, “aw” and “au” look lovingly at each other because they love the one sound they make together. However, the “I” in “igh” is angry and glares at the “g” and “h” because he has to drag them around. In his opinion, they do nothing. My daughter loves these stories and can recite all of them. My daughter is a social person so the relationship of the letters helped her to remember them. Even though she benefitted from each technique, it was easy to see her learning preferences and in the end using all the techniques proved to be the most helpful.

While helping my daughter learn to read, I have explored the world of literacy in a much more personal way. Pre-reading activities such as reading together everyday, rhyming, story telling etc. have always been apart of our regular activities. I tried four different approaches to teach my daughter the sound system. First, we started with just basic memorizing, no tricks. The results were okay, but not memorable. The second approach included creating a deck of sound cards. She drew pictures of the key words that we decided on together to represent each sound. After making the deck of cards, we did drills with the deck. For each sound she got right, she had to jump on a mini trampoline. She wrote the sound in the air and provided the key word. My daughter loved this activity, and we both had some great laughs, not to mention we were able to put a little exercise into the mix. She loved jumping on the trampoline. I am beginning to explore her learning style. She loves to use her body, but is not totally a kinesthetic, visual, or auditory learner. What should I try next?

So now it is April, I just got my daughters progress report, and she says she is able to read “D” books. In September, she was reading “D” books. What are “D” books? Its part of the leveled rating series Cambridge uses that progresses readers in a systematic way. Therefore, from September to April my daughter has made no progress. Of course, I began to investigate. Partly because she brought home “D” books and she read higher books at home. School it appears is not helping me in my struggle to make my daughter a reader.

Reading at home has sometimes become a struggle. Um, I wonder why? Could it be my determination? My daughter starts to read and then circles her finger around losing her place or does not remember simple words she had read a moment before. Why cannot she read that word she read a moment ago? Was she doing this to make me angry? No, tracking memorizing words and gaining confidence to read text that is more difficult is all part of the learning process. Oh, I sound so knowledgeable now, but working with my own child has been a challenge.