Reading...

I just got, and have been thumbing through Home Education by Charlotte Mason. I was, and am, particularly interested in the section on reading. I have decided to go ahead and try the approach outlined with Cassia - I'll let you know if it works. So here is the process as I understand it... just a quick note: I am using this with The Elson Readers Primer...

Pre-work: I typed up the entire first story in a large simple font to be cut apart word by word. I already have alphabet "tiles" I made on card stock.

Step 1: I introduce one word by writing it on a whiteboard and reading it.

Step 2: Cassia studies the word until she is comfortable enough to make it with her letter tiles, without looking at the whiteboard.

Step 3: Cassia finds the word in her pile of cut-apart words. She also finds the word on the page in the book itself.

Step 4: We repeat the entire process with the rest of the words in the first sentence, and then she can read the whole sentence to me.

Step 5ish: As we go, she puts the cut-up words into a column, and then toward the end of the lesson, she can play with them, picking out sentences I dictate, or making sentences of her own.

Step 6: The next day, we review the first sentence (or two) that we learned the day before, then follow the whole process again for the next line or two. We can also introduce spelling the second day, by using one of the word families present in the story and our letter cards (and the whiteboard so she can see the word first.)

Supposedly, this process takes very little actual time. It will be an interesting trial at least! There's more to it than that, but I think this is a good starting place.