Why are you teaching a 4 year old to read???

In case you missed my previous posts on Charlotte Mason methods for reading instruction and my hope to teach Punkin to read using those methods, let me bring you quickly up to speed. My older two daughters learned to read fairly early (4.5 and around 5 years old) and they now read exceptionally well. So, when Punkin began asking to learn several months back, I noted her interest. However, she was not even four yet, so I also did my best to distract her and basically stall. That worked for a little while. But, the time has come :) Punkin is ready to learn and I am eager to try out Miss Mason's reading methods for the first time.

If you are familiar with Miss Mason, you might immediately question the legitimacy of beginning so early on with reading instruction. CM lessons cannot begin until the child reaches age six, right? That's right. Well, sort of ;) I'll quote the following passage from Home Education:

Time of Teaching to Read, an Open Question.––Reading presents itself first amongst the lessons to be used as instruments of education, although it is open to discussion whether the child should acquire the art unconsciously, from his infancy upwards, or whether the effort should be deferred until he is, say, six or seven, and then made with vigour.

I at least see a window here. On the same page, Mason holds up Susanna Wesley as a pattern we might consider following, and she began reading instruction on each child's fifth birthday. Just something to consider :)

If you're interested, here's a play-by-play of our first lesson.

Gearing Up to Teach Reading... Charlotte Mason Style

This post is the first in a series detailing the Charlotte Mason method for teaching reading to children.


As I mentioned yesterday, Punkin has been asking for some time now to begin reading lessons. I almost hate to call them reading lessons - it goes against that "not before 6!" rule ;) But having been largely unsuccessful at stalling and completely unsuccessful at appeasing her with indirect, bits-and-pieces learning (she's had enough fun and games - she wants to read already), I suppose we're starting down the road of reading instruction a little earlier than originally planned. Part of my stalling strategy had been to give her a relatively far off date. I think it was last summer that I told her we would begin learning to read after Christmas. Well, you and I both know full well that it is now officially after Christmas. Guess what... Punkin knows it, too ;)

Last week, SweetP and Shug began their third term of the school year. Punkin was chompin' at the bit. One final stall - I told her that we would begin next Monday. I said that last Monday, though, so this Monday is the day.

SweetP and Shug already know how to read fluently. SweetP learned before I knew much about Charlotte Mason at all, and Shug learned with a combination of Phonics Pathways and some CM-flavored sight reading instruction. I just couldn't take the plunge and really follow the methods that Miss Mason outlines in Home Education. Not, yet. Now, having taught the two older girls and having a better (we hope) understanding of CM reading methods, I'm ready to try it out. Punkin is ready to learn to read, I am ready to learn to teach, so... purist Charlotte Mason it is!

In reading through the portion of Home Education dealing with reading instruction, though, I quickly realized that there are at least three different options for the first lesson. There is the first example, given on page 202 where Miss Mason writes:

"The first exercises in the making of words will be just as pleasant to the
child. Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the power of the letters,
will be better to begin with than actual sentences."

She goes on to explain how to teach the child what we modern readers know as word families and also how to introduce nursery rhymes as sight word reading lessons. Then, several pages later (in Section V.) she gives us another example of a first lesson, but this one is different from the one given previously. This example is from a Parent's Review article and it recommends going "plump into words of three or four syllables" and gives an illustration of using a box of cut out words to learn the poem "History of Cock Robin". Still later (in SectionVI.), there is another example of a first lesson in which a little boy named Tommy learns to read in much the same way only using a poem about a kitty instead of Cock Robin and also utilizing slightly different methodology.

So, practically speaking, there are three different starting points. Where should we begin? Here, I think, Punkin's very young age helps me out. The latter two examples strike me as being a bit more demanding of the little people. They seem like they take more mental discipline and ability than the first. The initial example is the most game-like and, because of that quality, most likely to suit the age of my little girl :)

We have decided, then, to begin on Monday morning with some review of letter sounds and then continue on, using the outline Miss Mason provides in pages 199-207 of Home Education. (That's Section IV). We will eventually get to the next two sections and the word boxes, but for now we will start with the simplest option. My hope is to begin with Word Building lessons and then alternate with Reading at Sight lessons. Translated, that would be alternate days of phonetic word families and sight reading :)

For the sight reading lessons, Miss Mason recommends using nursery rhymes. Specifically, she illustrates the use of "Twinkle, Twinkle" for a first sight lesson. She also mentions that well-written prose is desirable for early lessons in reading by sight, and she recommends Parables From Nature by Gatty. Have you ever taken a look at Parables From Nature? It would not have jumped into my mind as a natural choice for reading lessons. It's a tricky little book for the younger crowd. I do not envision Punkin doing well with the Gatty book (perhaps with an older child it would be fine). I do want to stay quite true to Miss Mason's methods, though, and take her warnings seriously: "Even for their earliest reading lessons, it is unnecessary to put twaddle into the hands of the children".

Don't you love her?

I need, then, to find a non-twaddly book for sight reading instruction. I had thought that I was going to use the Free & Treadwell Primer available from Yesterday's Classics. It is better than the BOB books and similar resources I used with Shug and SweetP, but it is certainly a far cry from the recommended Parables From Nature. I looked for something that seemed to be a happy medium, and eventually decided on using a book we already had on the shelf - For the Children's Hour, also from Yesterday's Classics. There are several simple (but, well-written!) fairy tales and folk stories that should work well with this method. Those won't be needed, though, until Punkin first learns "Twinkle, Twinkle" and, possibly, one or two more nursery rhymes.

Honestly, even after all my stalling, I'm looking forward to this now :) It's such great fun to see the enthusiasm and joy on your child's face when those first words join together to make sense! And, I admit, I'm looking forward to testing out Miss Mason's reading methods and giving them a fair chance. All of the "sight reading" business scared me off last time, but now I'm not as wary. I could see Punkin really taking off quickly this way.

It should be fun to watch her :)


Update: You can read all about our first lesson here

Trusting Charlotte Mason (teaching reading with CM methods)

Update: Two years after writing this post, I took the plunge and began full-fledged CM reading lessons with our 3rd daughter in January 2009. If you'd like to read more, here's more about our first lessons.

I'm almost finished reading Home Education! I cheated and read A Pocketful of Pinecones as a little "break" of sorts. Very good. Quick read. I also cheated a bit more and started A Charlotte Mason Companion already, too :) Anyway, the last few chapters of Home Education have been very practical. They deal mainly with how to approach the various school subjects. I've enjoyed these chapters a ton, and I have been really encouraged by the gentle, yet challenging methods she suggests. One topic that really took a few reads and rereads, though, was that of teaching a child to read. I just kept thinking it seemed scary. LOL, not that I thought CM's way of teaching reading wouldn't or couldn't work; I just didn't want to make Shug my guinea pig.


The "scary" thing about CM's reading method is that she utilizes both phonics and sight words - equally. At first I thought she meant from the get go. After further reading, I understand that she introduces sight words after a decent amount of headway has been made phonetically. For instance, the child would most likely be able to decode simple short vowel, four letter words before the introduction of sight words. I felt better after that was clearer to me. But still...

We've been using Phonics Pathways (PP) for our phonics/reading. In PP, the child learns a sight word only after three letter short vowel words are thoroughly learned. Even then, only a few sight words are introduced at a time. I gradually introduced sight words with SweetP, ending up with about 60 sight words after the first year. She caught on really quickly. Many of the words are technically decodable, but were words that PP wasn't going to get to for quite a while. Considering the frequency of these words in children's books, it seemed like a good idea to familiarize her with them. Again, this is after her phonics were already well underway, without trouble.

In Charlotte Mason's method, a child begins with short vowel sounds and the beginning hard consonants. Learning at this stage is often done in the way of a game. "Can you bring Mother the card that says 'ah'? Very good!" After a certain amount of success, the child is introduced to "real word" 2-letter blends like "at", "am", "an", etc. Then, the three letter words that can be made from them. The focus here is on the blending of the sounds and the smooth "sounding out" from left to right. Then word families are learned, still largely by games, until the child is skilled at beginning phonics.

Then, out of nowhere, she advises alternating days of continued word family/phonics lessons with days of sight word reading. Her reasoning is that learning to read interesting, whole sentences is motivating to the child at this stage. He may still get the phonics training for all of these words later, but at this point, sight words offer a sense of accomplishment and an element of pleasure. It seemed precarious to me to add so many sight words at what I considered a fairly early stage of reading . We hear so much these days (especially in homeschool resources) about the dangers of sight word reading instruction. Sight word = scary! ;)

Well, Shug is well underway in early phonics. She's able to read words like "best" and "pulp" - short vowel, single syllable, 4 letter words. Charlotte says it's time for some significant sight word vocabulary building. Eek! I took a gulp on Friday morning, made note cards, and began. Within 10 minutes Shug could confidently read (both in and out of context) "Away in a manger no crib for a bed". She was beyond excited! She was thrilled! Ecstatic even. She was able to read not only a whole "real" sentence, but a sentence that she knew and loved. When I first taught her the words, she didn't realize how they were all going to go together. I wish y'all could've seen her face when I lined the cards up in order. She read them aloud to me, and I literally got teary eyed from her sweet, childish joy.



We are still continuing to go through Phonics Pathways, of course. We will now be adding a degree of sight word sentences to our lessons. Although, they hardly feel like lessons :) I am truly looking forward to teaching her to read the next line of the children's hymn. Nothing scary or educationally devastating ;)

I am so glad I trusted Charlotte on this one.