Montessori Language: Learning to Read

Once your child has made it through the sandpaper letters, the beginning sound object boxes, and the moveable alphabet, they are ready to begin learning to read. Yay!!!!!

This is the easiest step, and the one where Montessori dovetails into traditional reading. Basically, you’re going to pick a set of early readers, and make your way through them, step by step, book by book.

Which Early Readers to Choose?

Oh my goodness, there are about a million options out there for early reading books! It can be daunting to choose one. Below you’ll find some that I’ve worked with in the past, along with pros and cons for them. Hopefully that will help you choose what will work best for your family.

Please know though, that once you choose a set of readers, you are certainly not locked in forever. If you find that what you’ve chosen doesn’t work for your child (or the next child in line down the road), please choose a different one. Used book sales at churches or schools and facebook swap groups are great places to find used sets if you’d like to try one out without committing to the full cost, or to sell the one that didn’t work for you. Every family is different, every child is different.

Primary Phonics

When I worked in a Montessori Children’s House, this was the early reader we used with our students. It’s solid, and moves slowly. A big pro for it is that there’s a set of workbooks to go alongside it, which is helpful if that’s a way that your child learns. For me, the downside of these is the pictures.

Bob Books

The Bob Books are probably the most well known of the early readers. You can find them everywhere (even at Costco- at discount rates!). Pros: they also have workbooks, which are very well done, you can purchase Kindle versions for less than paper books (and they don’t get ripped), and they are definitely tried and true. Con: The reason we switched from Bob books after the first two sets was because the text is too predictive. After awhile G could figure out the exact sentence from looking at the illustration, which meant she wasn’t learning to read any more.

Now I’m Reading

This was the set that we switched too after Bob Books, and it has been working so well for us. Pros: the illustrations are in color (which most early readers aren’t, and is kind of a bummer), the text is creative and funny (no guessing words!), you can get copies on Kindle if e-readers are your thing, and there are multiple sets at each level, which means that if your child gets stuck, and isn’t quite ready to move on to the next set, you can stick with the same skills in new books (this can be HUGELY helpful). Con: there are no workbooks that go alongside it. This has not been a real problem for us, since G isn’t really a workbook kiddo, and I’m not a huge fan of them myself, but worth noting because some kids really do find them helpful.

Tips for Early Reading Practice

When you’re teaching a child to read for the first time, it can be a daunting process. Here are a few tips I’ve learned over my years of teaching and homeschooling that I hope will help you.

First, when you open a book, it’s a good idea to preview it with your child. G loves to look at all the pictures before we start reading. This helps get her interested in what’s going to happen in the story and making guesses helps build her comprehension skills.

If we’re about to read a new book, I’ll tell her about the new sounds it contains. Most early reader books will have a parent guide that will help you with language for this if you feel self-conscious. We may pull out the moveable alphabet to practice making words with this sound, or verbally make lists of words she can think of. This way she is prepared for new words, and doesn’t get stuck right away.

While we’re reading, I make sure to give G lots of time (like 3 or 4 breaths more than I think she should need) to figure out a word. If she’s really struggling with a word, I might remind her of a time she’s seen it before or to sound it out. If she’s really, really struggling, I may help her sound it out. I also encourage her to sound out words slowly at first, then go faster and faster until she hears it.

If G has had to stop to sound out a word (or words) on the page, I have her re-read the page aloud until she is able to do if fluently. Only then do we move on to the next page. This aids in her comprehension of the text- stopping to sound out words is very necessary but the choppiness of it means that she loses her place in the larger story. When we’re learning to read we are learning both decoding skills and comprehension skills.

At the end of the book, I check G for comprehension. Ususally, I ask one or two questions about the book to see what she understood. Most early readers will have pre-written questions at the end for you to us, but even a simple, “can you tell me what happened?” will tell you whether your child was able to understand or was just decoding.

We re-read the books until she is able to fluently read every page consistently. She reads at least one book a day, once a day. Most days I have her choose one of the books that she has already mastered and read aloud to either Gram or one of her siblings. She and I will read together the book that we are currently working on.

Learning to Read Sight Words

Typically, I begin introducing sight words alongside our early readers. There are just some words that your child is going to come across that don’t look like they sound, and some words that use language rules (long vowels for example) that they won’t encounter for awhile. Being able to recognize these words by sight will make reading much easier.

I use the dolch sight word lists, which are the lists most schools use. I’ll write each word onto a notecard, punch a hole in the corner, and then put a binder clip through the set. This makes a cheap and easy flip book of sight words, and allows me to add new words and take out already mastered words.

Check Out These Other Montessori Posts . . .

If you liked this series on learning to read in the Montessori method, you might enjoy these posts on some of our family’s favorite works. . .