Pre-Reading Skills
I hate ice cream.
You may wonder how this is relevant to pre-reading, but it is so relevant. Hang with me for a moment.
Think about how we teach phonics. We buy puzzles. We buy magnets. We buy flashcards. We play matching games.
When any of these show /I/ as ice cream for pre-readers I want to tear up that flashcard. I want to junk that toy.
Ice cream contains four different phonetic “rules” that a pre-reader has no way of understanding.
I_e pattern where the I is forced to sound by silent e.
C says S instead of K because it’s next to I and E.
CR is a consonant digraph that a pre-reader won’t yet be able to pair
EA is a long vowel rule or a vowel digraph, depending, and it’s an inside vowel pair.
These rules are all important, and have zero place in a pre-reader’s world. Nor should a parent feel like their kid should be able to read the words ice cream when they haven’t learned all the rules surrounding it.
Let me tell you a secret: I was terrified of teaching my kids to read. Tools like those mentioned above did not help.
I trust my children and their ability to learn. I doubt myself all the time.
Ultimately, I’ve taught three of my children to read, and have one left to go. I’m not worried about it because I know the skill building needed along the way. I also know I might get impatient so it would be smart of me to chill out and be consistent and disciplined with the process while being flexible. Some kids like games way better than drilling. I say some, because some kids like the drill and kill method and that is okay too. It’s not popular in the homeschool world right now, but it’s a proven and effective method.
Reading isn’t a speed game. It’s about mastery. Let me break down the first three steps of reading below and I believe you will think, “Hey, I can do this.”
Step 1: Master the short vowel sounds
Step One is defining a vowel, and learning all five short vowel sounds. The vowels A,E,I,O,U are easily learnt in their short form (formally, a breve or smile goes over the top of the letter to show this), and many songs and rhymes are available to help with learning the vowels.
Step 2: Master the consonants
Step two is defining a consonant, and learning the 21 consonants in the English language. A consonant is easily defined as any letter that is not a vowel. That’s mostly what our kids need to know. Consonants and vowels eventually join to form syllables, and build words. Some consonants are sneaky and weird, but that’s not our concern just yet. One weird consonant is your concern - Q. This poor letter cannot utter a sound without the letter U adjacent so teach Q as QU, then the short vowel that follows makes it’s short vowel sound.
Step 3: CVC words
We’ve arrived at the final step of the first three - CVC words. That’s short for consonant-vowel-consonant. You know CVC words: bug, rug, hug, mug, etc. Now that your child knows short vowel sounds and consonant sounds, they can learn CVC words now too!
Stay patient
Be patient. No matter where your child is in their reading, it’s easy to freak out and believe they will never read when you have reviewed the difference between short /i/ and /e/ and they still confuse the two sounds for several weeks, possibly months, possibly years. When your mouth hurts from the contortions you are going through to over-enunciate vowels and consonants without a /u/ attached (because, heaven forbid) you will want to throw in the towel and believe they won’t read because it’s easier.
Don’t give up the good fight. You can teach your children to read. You can do it in 100 easy lessons, or with an all-in-one kit, or a workbook you bought at some store, or with free resources offline.
A freebie for you!
I’ve made a worksheet sample set for you.
Vowel and Consonant identification coloring pages
Color your own vowel puzzle
Short /a/ and Short /o/ coloring worksheet, with answer key