Teaching your preschooler to read can be easy and fun with this homeschool reading curriculum
I received access to the Reading Better Together curriculum in exchange for my honest review, but all the opinions expressed are my own. This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you purchase through the links.
Teaching your preschooler to read is a daunting task if you’ve never done it before. Having the right tools and training can make all the difference. This homeschool reading curriculum has made it so easy and fun to teach my children to read.
Does teaching your child to read feel daunting?
Ever felt completely overwhelmed and unqualified for a task. (Besides you know, all of parenting, am I right?)
I was always in awe of those first grade teachers who can, in one short year, develop confident little 7 year old readers.
To be honest, it’s one of the things that always put me off the idea of homeschooling my littles.
How on earth do you teach a child to read? Where do you even start?
If you feel the same way, then, I’m so glad you’re here! Because we found a resource that has totally changed that for me and I know it can do the same for you!
How to prepare your preschooler for reading success
The Reading Better Together Curriculum is a fabulous way to prepare your preschooler for reading success.
It’s a homeschool reading curriculum that provides you with all the tools and training you need to foster a love of reading and teach your child all the principles they need to become confident readers.
Reading Better Together includes weekly lessons that walk you through teaching each concept, printable tools like flash cards, side-by-side readers for every week and a number of additional resources to boost your child’s learning and equip you to feel confident to teach your child to read.
How we’ve been using this homeschool reading curriculum
We’re not a homeschooling family, at this stage. But we’ve been using Reading Better Together to get a headstart on reading and as a supplement to all that they learn in preschool at the moment.
I was so happy I had this reading curriculum when my eldest started showing readiness to read. She had learnt her letter sounds from school and had an interest in reading and writing simple words.
And she started asking when she could learn to read!
We’ve been working through the curriculum little by little and she’s improving all the time. She’s confident with blending simple cvc words and is learning the sight words as outlined in the curriculum.
And more importantly, she’s LOVING it! She’s so confident and excited when she gets to read the words in the side-by-side readers that Reading Better Together includes in the curriculum.
We spend maybe 10-15 minutes, 3 to 4 afternoons a week doing reading. We practice the sounds for that week using the flash cards. And then we go over the words to practice blending and putting all those sounds together.
And we end our time with one or two side-by-side readers where I read the left page and she reads the words on the right. As we have progressed, I encourage her to read some of the words she knows on the left pages too, and her reading is improving beautifully!
I’m starting all over again with my second kiddo now too as her reading readiness is starting to emerge as well!
Why we love Reading Better Together
I’m not sure if you consider teaching preschoolers to read as a skill in your wheelhouse? It definitely was not for me! Until now. So let me sum up why we love Reading Better Together.
Reading Better Together is so easy to use!
Just like you, I’m a busy mama! And I’m sure you can relate to needing everything you do to be as easy as possible!
And that’s one thing I really love, as a mom, about the Reading Better Together curriculum. It’s really easy to work through and use.
In fact, it’s so easy, when I started I caught myself thinking, “but this is too easy, shouldn’t this be harder or more work!?”
Once you’ve printed out the week’s work and folded the side-by-side reader, you’re ready to go!
My kids actually enjoy learning to read
If you’ve struggled to get your child to enjoy reading, if they find it to be boring and hard work or if, every time you sit down to teach reading you’re met with conflict. It can be really difficult to find your way through it!
When children enjoy something, they learn WAY more effectively!
I’m fortunate to have started our reading journey with Reading Better Together. So if you’re just starting with an emergent reader, this has been something my kiddos have really enjoyed learning with.
If your child has struggled to get going with reading or absolutely hates it – there’s still hope, Mama!
This was exactly why Sarah created Reading Better Together. Her son hated reading and every reading lesson was a battlefield, until she introduced this type of learning/teaching reading and it changed everything! Read her story here.
If you’re there, know you’re not alone!
It’s a homeschool reading curriculum that equips you to teach your child to read effectively
Let me tell you, even as a teacher, sometimes I see curriculums that are all about the content but do a really poor job of equipping the person teaching it!
Reading Better Together is not that!
This homeschool reading curriculum not only provides the tools but walks you through every step of teaching your child how to read.
The weekly lessons literally guide you as to what to say when and how to teach sounds and blending and so much more. Plus there is access to videos so you can hear and teach the sounds too.
There is also so much training on things like how to know when your child is ready to learn to read, how to teach blending and sight words effectively, and how to foster a love of reading, to mention a few.
I am a teacher, but I’ve never taught a child to read. Til now. And for the mom who knows nothing about teaching, this homeschool reading curriculum will equip you and make you feel completely confident in your role as your child’s reading teacher.
It’s SUPER flexible!
The final reason we love the Reading Better Together Curriculum is how flexible it is!
We’ve used it as a tool to supplement to what our kiddos learn at preschool and as a headstart to learning reading. So fitting it in to 10-15 minutes in the afternoon has been completely do-able.
And yes, even 5 – 10 minutes is enough to teach your child a new reading skill and give them the opportunity to practice it. In fact, sometimes that’s even more effective than spending longer periods of time on a task!
Because my first child already knew her letter sounds and she grasped the concept of blending fairly quickly, we went through those first few weeks of the curriculum quite quickly. But with my second, who started a bit younger, we’ve taken a bit longer on those first few weeks of the curriculum, because she’s needed more time to grasp the concept of blending.
And that’s what’s so lovely about this curriculum, you can adjust it, and the speed with which you proceed through it, to your individual child. Need more time with something? Spend more time on that. Have a rough week with sick kids? Just do what you can and jump in again next week. Flying through a section? Go for it and move right on.
Every child is unique and their “reading readiness” and capability is unique too. Being able to adapt to that is such a gift to your child!
The greatest benefit of Reading Better Together
The most important reason I love Reading Better Together is that it gives me special quality time with each of my kiddos every day.
One of the most significant ways to get your child to love reading is to have their brain attach happy memories and feelings to reading. No child loves reading because they love putting letters together. (Well, let’s say the vast majority at least.) They love reading because it makes them happy to do it!
My kids SO enjoy the quality one-on-one time I get to spend with them learning something new and fostering a love of reading which will set them up for success in so many areas of their lives in the future.
Interested to find out more about how you could use the Reading Better Together curriculum with your child? Grab this FREE Sample to test it out!
