Before homeschooling, I had never taught a child to read. In my experience as a teacher I had several low-level readers, but the ground-work had already been laid for them before coming to me.
You can imagine that I was nervous to take on the task of teaching my child to READ! Reading is like huge, right?! Not going to lie, I felt a bit overwhelmed at times with such a big responsibility on my shoulders. So balancing the task of teaching AG to read along with teaching the other subjects as well was quite difficult for me--especially in the beginning. Tears were shed, tensions ran high, and I did no favors for myself or my little beginning reader. Instead of knowing when to stop for the day, I barreled through and it wasn't good. It didn't help the situation that I was newly pregnant with Joy and not feeling so great.
This year, I'm working on being more balanced. I'm learning to stop and break or move on to something else when needed.
Prior to homeschooling, I read The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education At Home. This book gave me tools to help balance the task of teaching reading along with the other subjects. Plus, it offers helpful resources for teaching your child to read.
Resources and Books We're Reading:
I've had to force myself to stop comparing my child to her public school friends. She is learning a different method than most of them and so it seems that they are ahead of her, but she will catch-up or pull-ahead once the foundations are down pat...or so I'm told!
For a well-balanced day of learning, chores, and play, I've designated our reading lesson for first thing in the morning. Since it's such a new concept, AG and I are both more alert and focused and I'm more patient--gotta have patience to teach a child to read!
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Up next: Chasing Rabbits
For more posts in this series, 31 Days of Balance as a Homeschool Mom, click HERE.
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For our joy and His glory,
Leslie