by Abbi Sharp

Created on: January 01, 2011   Last Updated: January 06, 2011

Reading instruction in the home can be beneficial for all members of the family. When homeschooling a child it is important to know that there are 5 basic components to reading. They are 1) Phonemic Awareness, 2) Phonics 3) Fluency, 4) Vocabulary, and 5) Comprehension. Scientifically based reading programs and curriculum will have effective elements of all 5 components. The Put Reading First Pamphlet was put together by the National Reading Panel. It contains details about what must be part of a research based reading program. Even though all of these components are separate entities, they are elements that reach into all of the other components of reading. The end result is that you want your child to enjoy reading enough that he or she will want to read anything that they get their hands on.

Phonological Awareness

Oral language skills are the first skills that develop in children. As soon as your child is able to carry on simple conversations they are ready to manipulate sounds in words. If your child has a hard time understanding and speaking in complete sentence, it will be difficult to understand why you are practicing the skills you are practicing. Before a child ever views text or learn about alphabetic principles, they must be able to manipulate sounds in words. This can include rhyming, clapping syllables, etc., but according to the research the two skills that will children need most are segmenting and blending. Segmenting is the ability to take a single syllable word such as "cat" and be able to say each sound in the word, i.e. c-a-t. Blending is the ability to take those individual sounds and blend the together. This can be practice by reversing the method in which segmenting is practiced. After they practice segmenting and blending sounds in one syllable words, they can practice similar skills by segmenting syllables in words with more than one syllable. Nursery Rhymes and poetry are tools that help improve phonological awareness. They play with syllabication in a way that is very entertaining for a child. Understanding Phonological Awareness leads success in next component of reading, phonics.

Phonics

Research says that phonics should be taught explicitly and systematically. This means that alphabetic principles are taught in a specific order. It is important to remember to practice phonological awareness skills along with these phonics skills. Effective phonics instruction builds knowledge about alphabetic principles in the same way phonological

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