http://www.we-teach-reading.com Learn to Read Software for Homeschooled Children en-us http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A1.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A1.html Reading Buddy 2.0 is not a program based on phonics. Its fundamental premises and its application are significantly different. The term phonics has mistakenly become a catch-all term meaning the study of all letter sounds. Phonics is also a method of teaching a child to read by learning the sounds of each letter and sounding them out to form words. The underlying simplicity of phonics as a teaching method is also the basis of its great shortcoming as a tool to teach beginning readers. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A2.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A2.html Part 1 of this article introduced the distinction between other phonics reading programs and Reading Buddy 2.0 that are now available for teaching beginning reading at home or in the home school. This article provides greater depth to the distinctive features of Reading Buddy 2.0 that set it apart from typical phonics reading programs. It also provides answers to some important questions about the innovative approach taken in Reading Buddy 2.0. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A3.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A3.html Phonics is a method of teaching a child to read by learning the sounds of each letter and sounding them out to form words. The method has been widely adopted in the United States for decades to teach beginning readers. The term phonics has mistakenly become a catch-all term meaning the study of all letter sounds. The simplicity of phonics as a teaching method is also the basis of its greatest problem as a tool to teach the reading of English. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A4.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A4.html Although it may seem quite automatic to us as adults, reading English requires a high degree of coordination among several, independent skills. Once these skills are learned and then practiced repeatedly, we can perform them without our being consciously aware of it. At that time, cognitive scientists say that we can perform them automatically. What are the necessary skills that anyone (child or adult) attempting to learn to read (or write) English must have? http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A5.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A5.html Many parents are confused as to when their homeschooled children should learn to read. There are many experts that insist that early reading is not advisable, and just as many experts that insist that children should learn to read as early as possible. The reality is that children learn to read when they are ready. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A6.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A6.html According to the University of Florida News, children who have mastered certain reading readiness skills are better prepared for scholastic success than children who have not mastered the basics of reading. But what, exactly, is reading readiness? http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A7.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A7.html While teaching your child to read is something that should not be taken lightly, adding a little bit of fun into the activity can really make things go a lot smoother. It is important that your child learns how to read efficiently. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A8.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A8.html Reading opens the door to a host of tools and adventures for every child. However, the relative importance of reading is often judged differently for the homeschooled child than it is for the traditionally-schooled child. Traditionally-schooled children are regularly tested on their reading skills because traditional teaching methods rely heavily on a child's reading ability as a way for children to learn other subject matter. Actually, teaching reading is so vital to the traditionally-schooled child that such children rarely achieve academic success without first mastering basic reading skills. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A9.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A9.html Much of a child's early reading success depends on the level of support given at home. Those children who are given the opportunities and the tools to learn to read both at school and at home have the best chance of success. The following are ten tips that can help home-school parents know when they are on track helping prepare their children for reading success. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A10.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A10.html Some reading authorities suggest that there are four methods useful in teaching reading: phonics, look and say, the language experience approach, and the context support method. A newer method, syllabics, might be gaining ground as a viable alternative method for teaching children to learn to read. Each method has some strengths and weaknesses. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A11.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A11.html One of the biggest concerns of secondary school teachers and college instructors is that students are failing to learn the critical reading skills that they need to progress satisfactorily through the upper levels of their education. The prevailing concern is that students who do not learn these skills sufficiently in the lower grades will be unable to properly process the academic information they are presented with in the future. Commercial reading software developers have worked hard to create software that gives learners real opportunities to read critically and develop critical reading, and critical thinking, skills. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A12.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A12.html There is hardly anything better than reading to open the doors to the entire universe of experiences. There is hardly anything more valuable that a parent can give to a child for the long run than an appreciation of reading. It is even better for the parent to show a genuine love of reading and expresses this while teaching the child to learn to read. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A13.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A13.html Computer software can be a significant expenditure for homeschool educators. The problem is often made worse when times are tough, such as in the current global recession. As a result, it can be important to identify the features, flexibility, ease-of-use, robustness, teaching effectivness, as well as costs involved before an actual purchase is made so that you can decide on the optimum products for your homeschool environment. Here are 10 major factors that you might want to put on your checklist. http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A14.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A14.html In the last decade or so, computers became omnipresent within most traditional school classrooms. Yet, even as school districts dedicated an increasing amount of their technology capital to funding classroom computers, educators wondered how to use this new technology to teach. Teachers already had books, visual aids, and tactile materials specially designed to teach students all they needed to know about just about everything. What good was this new technology that promised to help teach an expanded curriculum to children that already had everything they needed to learn? http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A15.html http://www.we-teach-reading.com/A15.html Teaching children to learn to read at home can be much like teaching them to learn to read in the classroom. The key to success is developing a reading program that takes advantage of all available resources and one that is geared toward the learning style of the child. The good news is that there are many reading resources available to help homeschooling educators present fresh and interesting material to new students while they learn to read.