Just like reading, having competency with numbers will be a great boon to kids as they grow and are exposed to new things to learn and experience! A solid understanding of arithmetic and mathematics will help your child in almost every aspect of their life, but slow down! Before we get to the multiplication tables and fractions and trig, we need to start with the absolute fundamentals: counting, and an interest in numbers and how they relate to each other. This is the foundation that every other math skill is built on, and kids can start with this at a very young age. We’re no experts at this (or anything else *awkward laugh*), but we do have a three year-old who is excited about learning and numbers and an 18-month old that’s well on his way!
Here are some simple ideas to get your child’s brain working and growing without them even noticing that they’re learning!
9 Ideas for Introducing Math Concepts
1. Count everything. Seriously everything – legs on the dog, berries on their plate, or items in your shopping cart. (I love this as an easy way to distract a grouchy kid, too!)
2. Play. Whether its Mega Bloks, cars, stuffed animals, an abacus, or MathLink cubes, introduce numbers to your child’s play. You can ask, “How high can we build this tower? 10 blocks? 20 blocks?” or “What happens when we put these 3 yellow blocks and 2 blue blocks together? How many do we have now?” “This truck has 5 cars on it. What if one car falls off? Now how many are there?”
Have your child help in the kitchen. My three year-old loves to help me dump measuring cups or eggs into mixing bowls and count how many we’ve done and how many we have left for a recipe. As he’s gotten older, we have started introducing very basic fraction ideas with measuring spoons and food portions as well.
5. Talk about age. Beyond counting objects, talking about age can help a child compare numbers. They may get excited to talk about the following: “Dad is 28, and I am 3. 28 is bigger than 3, so Dad is older than me!” or “3 is bigger than 1 so I am older than my baby brother!”
6. Point out numbers in the world around you. Crosswalk countdowns, road signs, price tags, weight on a scale, etc. This helps bring numbers to life and helps your child grasp that numbers and counting exist in the world, not just in your conversations at home.
7. Board games. When developmentally appropriate, board and card games can be a great way to stretch your child’s quantitative reasoning skills. A great one to start is Candy Land! We have also played simplified versions of Yahtzee, Blockus, Splendor, War, and other games with our three year-old. He loves the one-on-one time and feeling “big” when he gets to learn games that were previously off-limits.
8. Make it into art. Have your child do a coloring book page, use dot markers, or make a collage to get familiar with each numeral.
9. Memorize a parent’s phone number. Beyond the very practical safety applications of this, your child will learn that numbers can be assigned to things besides quantities of objects and they will likely think it’s so neat when you let them dial a number on a phone and see that it actually calls someone!
There are so many ways to encourage learning about numbers and basic math that don’t require a single flashcard! Letting your child learn from the world around them will ignite interest and comprehension with less effort and more fun. So keep it simple! What ways of teaching your child about numbers have been successful and fun for you and your family? Share in the comments below!
The dread. The horror. I was so not excited to potty train our oldest because I always assumed it would be incredibly hard and never actually end. I expected there to be bodily fluids (and solids) on my floor 24-7. But I am here to tell you that it wasn’t as bad as I had feared! We got through it and so can you! Everyone’s experience and child is different, but I truly believe the method we use can help anyone.
Choosing the Oh Crap! Approach
At one of our well child visits, our pediatrician recommended the book Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Rightby Jamie Glowacki. He told us that he had used this method with his own kids and that it could help us be done with potty training in a mere weekend. We trust and value his opinion, so we started looking into buying the book. Within a short period of time, multiple friends of ours also recommended the book, saying that it had worked well for them. So we had no reason to doubt! And now we, too, can testify that this method worked for us.
*Note: We used the 2015 edition but a new edition is being released in 2024!
What is the Oh Crap! Approach?
To oversimplify it, Jamie Glowacki’s approach to potty training is a block (or level) system in which your child gradually learns to recognize the urge to go and independently uses a toilet. Each block can be as long or as short as your child needs to master that particular skill. The author recommends that parents start potty training when their child is 20-30 months old and really emphasizes that your child is probably ready before you think they are. The book discusses how potty training is something your child really deserves to learn for the sake of their own autonomy and dignity. And think about how much you’ll save on diapers! The Oh Crap! method is completely bribery-free, which helps kids develop intrinsic motivation to take this big developmental step. And you don’t have to wean your kid off of stickers or treats every time they pee!
Block 1
In Block 1, your kiddo essentially hangs out (ha!) at home naked, at least on the bottom half. You keep a close eye on your kid, periodically reminding them to use the potty (but not too often!). As you remain focused on them throughout the day (or days), you take mental note of their potty cues, or their physical “tells” that let you know they’ve gotta go.
In this block, you should be prepared to clean up a few accidents. It will very likely happen that your kid will start peeing, and you rush them to the toilet, leaving a trail in your wake. And that’s okay! You gently remind your child that pee and poop go in the potty. Your child will likely respond with some form of disgust at making that mess, which works to your benefit, because they will start learning how to avoid it happening again. As time goes on, your child will start to recognize their body’s cues and take preemptive steps to avoid accidents. We were amazed how fast our son started paying attention to his body and rocked this block!
Block 2
Once your child is proficient with block 1, (they successfully use the potty with reminders and rarely have accidents) they move on to block 2! Block 2 is similar to block 1, but instead of being naked, your child is now going commando (pants, but no underwear). This gives your child the opportunity to practice their new skills, but with the added complexity of removing clothing first. Going commando still feels a lot like being naked though, so that encourages your child to continue paying attention to their body’s cues and not get too careless.
Block 3
Time to take your kid’s new talent for a spin. Block three is when you venture out for small outings with your child. When I say small, I mean small. I’m talking 10-minute walk around the block or coming with you to drop off another child at school. You really need to work up to outings that are longer.
Block 4
When your child has mastered going commando and small outings, it’s time to add underwear. Underwear can be tricky, because all of a sudden, it kind of feels like a diaper again, and that may mean your child reverts to old habits. This type of regression is one of the times you’ll be glad you got the book (please, please read the book!). The author walks you through a ton of different what-ifs, regressions, and resistance you may face during the process.
Block 5
This is when your child really is getting it down. They now recognize their body’s cues consistently, can hold it in for longer periods of time, and self-initiate using the potty–that is, they don’t rely on reminders from you.
Block 6
Oh, I didn’t mention naps and bedtime? That’s because that’s actually block 6. The book walks through different ways to approach this hurdle, and there’s a lot of variation in how kids handle it. You can start tackling nap and nighttime potty training on day one, or you can have your child wear a diaper/pull-up exclusively for sleeping until you’re ready to take this next step. One of my favorite things I read in this book is the author’s opinion to always prioritize sleep. For instance, if you’re waking up multiple times in the night to care for a newborn, night training may need to wait so that you can get the rest you need. Or you might just get lucky and have a child like ours that kinda-sorta night-trained himself.
Toddler Potty or Real Toilet?
We opted for having our son use the real toilet as opposed to the toddler potties that sit on the floor. My main reason was simply that I didn’t want to clean up the mess (which I think is a dang good reason). But I also liked that we didn’t have to transition from the baby potty to a real toilet or make extra space in our home for another big item. To make using the toilet easier, we purchased little toilet seats like this one to fit the toilets in our home. I even purchased a foldable travel seat that I brought with me in the first few weeks of potty training and I still bring on vacations. One of our toilets even has a toilet seat/lid with a toddler seat built in! This is definitely the most aesthetically pleasing option. If you go the toilet seat route, you’ll probably also need to purchase a small stool so your child can reach the toilet. I have no regrets with going with the toilet seats and plan to do the same thing with our future potty-trainers. One note though: don’t forget to wipe the toilet down before guests arrive! 😅
Our Experience
We were seriously so relieved that potty training went so well for us. We started our son at about 32 months, so actually a little bit later than the book recommends! But we found that he was totally ready and willing.
Potty training went pretty smoothly for us for the first three blocks. On the first day, we confined our son to one room that was close to a bathroom and laid blankets out over the carpet and furniture to contain any accidents. I followed the book’s instructions carefully and we had a great day playing together with only a couple spills. He learned so fast!
We started having some regression when it was time to put the undies on. The author was right – the tight, cozy feeling of underwear really does simulate a diaper and muscle memory kicks in. But with patience and some extra reminders, we got over this hurdle in a few days.
We had what I think is a fairly uncommon experience with nap and night training. We put a pull-up on our son the first few sleeps, but kept finding that the pull-up was still dry when he woke up. It only took a couple days for him to start asking to wear underwear to bed, and we let him. He had remarkable success, with maybe 2 accidents a week or so for the first couple weeks. From what I’ve heard from other parents, this is not the typical experience though! What I hear from my friends is that their kids (particularly sons) need to wear pull-ups to bed for quite some time after mastering the rest of potty training. The book has lots of information about how to help kids develop their ability to hold it at night!
For the couple months or so, we did have occasional accidents, even when our son had been doing well for quite some time. I think this is to be expected while your child learns to gain complete awareness and control of their body.
Now, our son is three-and-a-half years old and never has accidents. We’ve taken him on trans-Pacific flights, through Thailand, camping, and on car rides up to 4 hours long. He’s done amazing! We’ve gotten used to noticing where bathrooms are when we’re traveling or in public so that we can get to a toilet quickly if he needs one, but he’s gotten good enough that he can usually make it for a few minutes after realizing he needs to go.
Some Quick Tips
Kids can smell fear. If you believe they won’t succeed, they will manifest that belief. Keep a smile on your face and believe in your child. This is an exciting step in their lives!
Expect some setbacks, but don’t be afraid of them. On a similar thread, don’t lose your cool everytime something goes wrong. Setbacks are part of the learning process for both you and your child!
You really do need to watch your child like a hawk for the first couple blocks. If you’re not watching closely, you will miss their cues, and you’ll have more messes to clean. You’ll also slow down the process.
Be prepared. When you leave the house with your child, keep an extra change of clothes on hand, a travel seat, plastic bag, and you can even line the carseat with a cloth diaper!
Read the book for heaven’s sake! She knows what she’s talking about!
Now that I’ve shared my experience, here’s what I need to know: how have you guys gotten over the hurdle of wiping your child’s bum after number 2? One year after potty training and I am so afraid of what the consequences may be if I trust my child to do this himself, but I am so over doing it for him. Help! I want to hear your experiences!
I love toys. I think I love toys as much as my sons do. Toy shopping for Christmas and birthdays is so fun for me, and I have such a hard time holding myself back! But I am also pretty conscientious about what toys I choose for our boys, so I’m here to tell you what toys I feel have definitely been worth having around! None of these products are sponsored in any way, and once again – I’m not here to influence you to do or buy anything! But if you’re looking for gift ideas or just honest reviews, you’re in the right place.
What I Look For in a Great Toy
Promotes open-ended and imaginative play
Child psychologist Jean Piaget said, “Play is the work of children,” and I couldn’t agree more! I believe kids need toys that encourage thinking. Toys like blocks, dolls, vehicles, and role-playing props all promote healthy imaginative play and even help develop empathy and critical thinking. Toys that I feel don’t do this as well are ones that have buttons and such that give immediate audio/visual feedback – bright lights and songs. I’m looking for toys that are versatile and push my kids to be creative.
Sturdy construction and materials
There’s something so satisfying about holding a well-made toy. They bring back a sense of childlike giddiness in me! Toys that cheaply made just don’t bring me that sense of joy, and they have a significantly shorter lifespan than the good toys. I want our toys to have long, happy lives, so I typically opt for ones that are made from wood, metal, and/or high-quality (often recycled) plastic. I especially appreciate brands that make toys that are tough enough to handle the abuse kids put them through, and don’t have stickers or paint that chips and fades. I want my toys to be passed down when my kids are done with them, not end up in a landfill within a year!
No Batteries / Low Noise
Mostly for my own sanity, I try to avoid toys that require batteries. I don’t want to hear the loud noises they make, I don’t want to go through the trouble to replace dead batteries, and I definitely don’t want to keep buying expensive batteries! I also just believe that the loud, bright toys don’t require as much mental exercise to play with, so they aren’t doing my kids many favors when it comes to brain development. There are some toys that are cool enough to make exceptions to this rule. For example, I wanted to get my kids a toy cash register to promote imaginative store play, but I opted for a register with batteries this time to allow the toy to function as a calculator and encourage an interest in math.
Aesthetically Pleasing
Let’s be real – these toys aren’t always going to be tucked away discreetly in beautiful bins like we see on pinterest (and they shouldn’t, because I want them to be played with!). They’re going to be out and about, and I’m going to be looking at them all the time. So while I don’t buy toys for their aesthetic appeal, I stay away from toys that look tacky, cheap, or just plain ugly.
Easy to Store / Not a Lot of Small Pieces
This is mostly just a bonus. I love toys that are self-contained so that they’re easy to keep track of and put away. One example is this shape sorter from Green Toys – I love that the shapes all fit inside to clean up easily! Plus, with a baby around, I try to limit the choking hazards we have in the house, so tiny pieces are a no-no unless they can be played with in a very isolated environment (eg. Legos that stay out of reach of babies).
Favorite toy brands
There are so many good brands out there. These are just a few that we have experience with and have loved!
Green Toys – This is my all-time favorite toy brand. All of their toys are made from 100% recycled plastic that is extremely durable, and they have minimal, frustration-free packaging. The toys never have paint, screws, or stickers, so they are incredibly safe for kids of all ages and still look brand new after years of heavy use. We especially love their vehicles! Not a day goes by that my boys do not play with Green Toys.
Melissa and Doug – They make such a wide variety of toys that encourage learning and imagination. They are typically high quality materials, battery-free, and very aesthetically pleasing.
Hape & Manhattan Toy – again, these brands just tend to make good, simple toys out of good materials.
Fat Brain – These can be pricey, but I find that they are just delightfully simple and fun toys that are very well-made. When they design a new toy, knock-offs show up pretty quick but they are never quite as good quality.
We love to buy from local toy stores and artisans when we can! We’ve bought little wood trucks and even 3D-printed toys from local markets. We love how unique and special they are, and supporting small businesses is an added bonus!
Our favorite toys for 3 and under
Train table and wooden train tracks – we got ours second-hand (which I highly recommend) but having seen how much our boys love it and consistently play with it, I’d buy it full price if I had to. The only hard part about it is how much space it takes up! Right now, that’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make since it gets so much use, but I imagine that once our boys get older, we’ll part with the table and just keep the train set itself and store it in a bin. Ours is Imaginarium brand, but there are lots of great alternatives!
Mega blocks – so versatile and great for kids of all ages. An absolute staple in our toy collection.
Green Toys trucks (and everything else) – see my raving review of this brand above. I seriously cannot overexpress how much we love these toys! I highly recommend buying them on Amazon when they’re on sale–you can get them for really cheap if you keep your eyes open!
Ball slide – this is not the most ‘high quality’ toy as far as construction and materials go, but it has been a hit at our house for 3 years straight and has lasted this long. Our boys started playing with it at around 6 months old and have never stopped.
SpinAgain – this is a Fat Brain toy, but we opted for a significantly cheaper off-brand. Our 3 year-old and our 1-year old both love it. It looks cute on display and is absolutely mesmerizing to play with.
Matchbox cars / hot wheels – Obviously these are pretty ubiquitous, classic toys, but I’d be remiss to leave them out. We have a bin of these, and they end up all over the house because they are played with constantly. I keep some in the diaper bag, and they go everywhere with us. They get pulled out at restaurants, church, everywhere.
Tonka dump truck – we made sure to get a sturdy metal one, and ours stays in the garage / outside. T loves to use his garden tools to fill it with dirt, rocks, snow – everything.
Water Wow books – These are great for at home or traveling! The well-designed water brush reveals fun pictures in the book, which dries and can be done over and over again with no mess!
Alphabet / number puzzles – Our three year-old is already reading, and I think that we can attribute some of that to the early exposure he had to the alphabet thanks to these puzzles! They really helped foster a love of learning the alphabet and numbers.
Magnetic tiles – We went with an off-brand on this one and have no regrets! These are so fun for kids and adults. We love the train cars that come with our set.
Abacus – I absolutely love how this toy looks on display in my boys’ room. I also love that it can be used as a more of a fidget toy/rattle for babies and can actually be used for learning about math with older kids!
Cash register – I have this one wrapped under the Christmas tree right now, but I am so excited for the boys to play with it! I can’t give a full review just yet, but I love that this one functions as a calculator and has an item scanner attached.
Beach balls – a simple toy, but so important in our house! I bought a big pack off of Amazon and my boys just love throwing, kicking, hitting, and chasing them around inside the house. I keep two of them out at a time and replace them as they get popped with rough play. Beach balls are the best for not wrecking your house while the kiddos play!
This cardboard box. It’s been sitting in our family room for months, and the boys are always playing in it. They build magnet tile creations in there, fill it with pillows, use it to build forts, pretend it’s a car, color on it with markers… the list goes on.
We don’t have a huge house, so we take our choices of the items we buy seriously so as to not waste space and money. We have absolutely loved these toys and would recommend them to anyone. What toys have you loved for your kiddos? Leave a comment below!
Click here to see our post about our favorite baby toys! (coming soon)
If we communicate anything on this blog, we want it to be that kids are always learning as long as you give them opportunities to do so, and it doesn’t need to be complicated! Recently we went on a trip to Iowa and Illinois to visit family and were amazed at how many new things T was exposed to and learned about while we were in a place some may not consider particularly exciting. We really didn’t go through any special effort to make this a “field trip”, but it definitely became an age-appropriate learning experience nonetheless!
Not-so-Everyday Sights
Where we live, there are no water towers (thanks, mountains!) and we don’t see a lot of large-scale agriculture, so something as simple as pointing out all the water towers we passed became a fun game for T. He had so many questions to ask about what they were and how they worked. He loved seeing all the big farm equipment too – proof that all the books he loves are talking about real vehicles! We also had the opportunity to see a bunch of (adorable) windmills, another cool thing he’d never seen before.
Helping in the garden
One of T’s favorite things about this trip was helping out in our family’s abundant garden. It was time to do autumn chores, so he got to help plant some fall seeds, put yard waste in the compost bin, and harvest sunflower seeds from the giant flowers! He likes to work in our little garden at home, but these were new and exciting tasks he had never done before! He didn’t want to come in when the work was done.
Nauvoo, Illinois
We took a day trip to Nauvoo, Illinois to see some historical sites significant to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the pioneers who lived there. On the drive there, T got to see his first swing bridge (in action!) and watch a tug boat pass it. There were so many cool activities to do in Nauvoo, and they were all free! In our short time there, we and the kids learned how the pioneers made rope, candles, bricks, barrels, and textiles, and we got to participate in making some of them too! We also rode in a wagon pulled by oxen (which we learned are actually just well-trained cows), visited some grave sites, and barely scratched the surface of all there is to see and do there. We spent a little bit of time inside the Nauvoo Temple and told T about how this was one of the first temples built. Then we headed to Carthage to see Carthage Jail, the place where Joseph Smith (the first president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) was martyred. While our littles couldn’t really appreciate the significance of these locations yet, doing some hands-on activities was great for them. T is still too young to understand why this particular temple is so special, but we could still use the opportunity to let him see our love for temples and help him see that people worship in temples all around the world, not just where we live. This was something we talked about on our recent trip to Thailand as well!
Always Learning
At only 3 and 1, our kids can only digest so much information, so we didn’t feel it was necessary to do much preparation or lecturing. We loved watching them discover and try new things and just see more of the world! They pick up bits of knowledge and experience everywhere they go. Keep doing fun things and keep talking to them, and you’ll be surprised how much they are learning!
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (TYCTR) is a wonderful curriculum for teaching young children to read. We have also heard that it is sometimes used to teach reading to adults who are learning English as a second language or are coming from a low-literacy background. We stumbled upon it by chance when my mom happened to read about it and decided to give us a copy. Overall, we have had a great experience with it and find it to be very effective! I wrote more about our overall experience with the book so far here.
In this post, I want to cover some of the less-than-ideal experiences we had with our three-year-old while we’ve been teaching him to read using this book and strategies we used to respond to those challenges. Some are specific to this program, but most are just side effects of trying to get a little one to focus on anything, period! We will give some specific tips that helped us, but the biggest thing to remember is attitude–none of these strategies will work unless you’re keeping the reading experience light-hearted and positive.
Attention Span / Distractions
This one isn’t surprising at all… three year olds have short attention spans. Lucky for us, T seems to have a pretty impressive attention span for his age, but it’s still a challenge. Failing attention is what has turned many of these 20-minute lessons into upwards of an hour. When a child’s attention is failing, there are two general approaches to take: 1) use focus strategies, or 2) take a break.
Focus Strategies
Use a stopwatch. This has been working magic for us! T loves to see how long it takes him to read a set of lines or words. We will even set goals to beat, like, “Let’s see if you can read these three lines in two minutes!” It helps gamify reading the stories and keeps him focused and motivated. He loves to push the green button on my apple watch to start the stopwatch.
Invite your child’s stuffed animals or toys to read with your child or watch him read (Disclaimer: we found that this works about half the time for us, and the other half it is actually more distracting)
Ensure that your time and environment are not hindering focus: choose a time/place away from other family members and distractions like toys, TV, etc. We do our lessons at the kitchen table, which is usually great, but occasionally something so small as Dad coming in to get a snack can make T lose his train of thought.
Use a sheet of paper to cover up the rest of the page or reading passage. We found that T often gets distracted by seeing words/sounds on the other side of the page and has to tell us all about them while we we’re trying to get him to focus on the task at hand. Covering them up helps a lot.
Switch things up. Sometimes a simple change of scenery or routine makes a huge difference and adds some variety. For example, we’ll occasionally do the lesson on my bed instead of at the table, or we’ll do a list of sounds/words backward.
Take a break
Rather than fighting to get your child to regain focus, sometimes it’s better to just give them a couple minutes to get their wiggles out. We will often take a two minute break to get a drink, eat a snack, jump on the trampoline, or play before we jump back in. This usually makes a big difference.
Some days, the attention span is just GONE and/or the parent is losing patience. These are the times it might be good to take a longer break and finish the lesson later in the day or just wait until the next day. You may need to backtrack a little, but that’s way better than losing your cool and allowing your child to get upset and associate reading with negative emotions.
Motivation
We want our kids to be intrinsically motivated to learn, but rewards definitely have their place. This is true at any age, but especially for littles. We’re asking a lot of them! So sometimes some deliberate motivation programs can be helpful. This includes praise and rewards. Here’s what’s been working for us.
Praise
Praise your child. Use specific compliments like, “You’ve been working so hard to learn that sound!” or, “Wow, you have been focusing really well today!”
Praise publicly. Take opportunities to praise your child to others, such as a grandparent. Make sure your little one hears you! “I love watching T learn to read. He’s making great progress with sounding out words!”
Rewards
Use a progress chart. This can be as simple as a 10×10 grid like the one you find in the TYC book, or you can use a chart like this. Just find a way to visually convey to your child how much progress they’ve made! This is also a great way to help your child understand what is required to meet a benchmark and help them work toward a specific reward.
Small rewards every day/lesson. For us, this varies. But generally, we let T play on the tablet for a bit after he finishes a lesson (or half a lesson if that’s how the day’s going). We also frequently let him choose a piece of candy if he’s been working hard that day.
Larger rewards every 5 lessons (or however many suits your needs). We told T at the beginning of the program that he had two choices each time he completed 5 lessons. He could either pick out a donut at the grocery store (which we buy at night because they’re discounted!) or pick out a toy at the dollar store (which always ends up being a car/truck). He looks forward to these so much, and we like that it works out to being a reward about once a week (and is super cheap!).
BIG reward when he/she hits 50 lessons (or some other significant benchmark). We let T pick out a bigger, nicer hot wheels truck from a different store. He was so excited about it and felt so accomplished.
For a child who is really struggling with focus or motivation, smaller, more frequent rewards might be necessary. On hard days, we have gotten out a lollipop and let T lick it once after every word he read successfully – works wonders!
Discouragement / Frustration
I really feel for the littles on this one. I can relate to the feeling of working so hard at something and suppressing the absolute rage that accompanies repeated failure, criticism, or setbacks. We know how hard this can be to handle, so let’s do our best to be supportive and patient when our kids feel this way.
Giving Correction
Always mix correction with praise and enthusiasm. Soften the blow however works best for your child. They need to be corrected sometimes, but they also need to feel that correction isn’t a big deal or a negative thing.
Sometimes T handles correction really well, but other times he melts into a puddle of sadness, no matter how nicely I do it. It’s best to correct at the moment of error (and the book gives tips about how to do this effectively), but sometimes a kid’s mood may indicate that you should delay correction for a more appropriate moment, or in some cases, just withhold it and correct it another day if the mistake recurs.
Choose wording that your child responds well to. The book has helpful scripts, but you can always adjust to fit your needs. Some phrases we use are “Can you say that one again?” “I couldn’t hear that word- can you read it for me again?” “Close! Let’s sound this one out together.” “Do you want help on that one or do you want to sound it out yourself?” “That one’s tricky! Let’s try it again.”
While correction is essential to build a strong reading foundation, I have found that there is no need to worry about your child mastering a particular exercise/task the first (or even second and third!) time around, so there’s no need to press it to the point of frustration. The structure of the TYC course includes a lot of repetition over multiple lessons and many chances to practice, master, and apply skills. I can recall no instance in which a new skill had to be mastered in one lesson in order to succeed in subsequent lessons. There’s also a lot of value to letting the concept sink in and process while your child sleeps. So give yourself and your kid a break and wait a few days before you start to drill something.
Help Them See their Progress
Show your child words they can now read in picture books, etc. This is a great way to let your child see how far they’ve come and the fruits of working hard and sticking with it!
Refer back to their progress/sticker chart. Help them see how much they’ve already accomplished! (Warning: stay away from this if your child is really discouraged, because they might see the proverbial glass half empty instead of half full.)
Remind them that at the beginning of their lessons, they probably didn’t know how to read any words at all! Consider flipping back to the beginning of the book to show them what they used to find challenging and remind them that they overcame that obstacle and can continue to accomplish difficult things.
Some Specific Issues We Ran Into
Guessing Words
This one is so incredibly frustrating. Mistakes are easy to correct compared to this. T went through a short phase of guessing/assuming words a lot, but he does it only occasionally now. I guess that’s a natural side effect of starting to read faster and learn sight words rather than sounding out every little thing. I found that a lot of reminders, combined with prompts to “keep your eyes on the page” and “use your finger to point to the word you’re reading” were helpful.
Whether the child is guessing or just making an error, one dialogue that has worked for us is: “I didn’t see mmmmm in that word. What sound is this? [point to the sound] … Yes! Now read the word again.” You can also just underline the word with your finger to hint that they need to try it again, rather than correcting vocally. I think it can also help to kindly reassure your child that it’s okay to slow down, sound it out, or ask for help if they’re not sure about a word, rather than guessing.
Going Painfully Slow
Here, I am not talking about when a child is struggling to figure something out and needs time to think. I am referring to when a child, for whatever reason, is just dragging their feet and taking what feels like minutes between word, sound, or task. You can usually tell when it’s just a behavior rather than when your child is having a hard time with a skill. If you’re a busy parent with limited time to knock out a lesson, this one might grind at your gears like it does to me.
Since T is usually motivated to learn and finish his lessons, sometimes I will tell him something along the lines of, “Look, T. I have other things I would like to get done while E is napping, so if you’re not ready to focus and get this done, I’m going to go do XYZ right now and we can do this later.” Usually he’ll say, “I want to do it!” and his speed and focus pick up significantly. This wouldn’t work on every child, but it works great for us.
Another thing I’ve found is that sometimes validation that he read the previous word correctly helps him move on faster to the next word. Simple words like, “good” or “right” can do the trick, but I found it more effective to repeat the word he just read. This assures him that he did it correctly and can move on, but it’s also a great way to give him opportunities to hear proper pronunciation.
Refusing to Do a Task
There are tons of ways to handle this one, but as a parent, you’re most equipped to predict what will work best for your child. One phrase that worked for us was, “Okay, we can come back to this after the next task.” Make sure your child agrees to this arrangement before you move on. Usually this doesn’t upset the flow of the lesson too much.
Like mentioned before, we’re not above bribery. I will offer a tiny reward (such as a lollipop lick) after small accomplishments, such as every word T reads in a task that he doesn’t want to do.
Rhyming
At first, the concept of a “starting sound” and a “rhyming sound” didn’t click. This was an instance that we ad-libbed the instructions sometimes to help the idea sink in, plus lots and lots of practice. This is one that seems to be easier to show by example than to explain. If they see you doing the exercise, they’re more likely to comprehend what you’re asking them to do.
Reading the Fast Way (Sound it out in your head)
Most of the time, I feel that the suggested wording/script is really effective and following it (more or less) helps me avoid common pitfalls in poor explanations. However, when reading words rather than sounding them out was introduced, I quickly found that this was one instance that using my own wording was more effective. The book suggests phrases like, “Sound it out to yourself before you say it out loud” and “You figure out the word. But don’t say anything out loud until I tell you to read it fast.” T couldn’t figure out how to sound things out silently at first, until I realized that the concept of doing something “out loud” or “in your head” didn’t quite click yet. So I started saying things like, “Keep your mouth closed while you figure out the word, then say it once you know the word.” Whether it was the changes I made, or just practice, I don’t know. But within a few lessons, he was proficient at this skill!
Reading Long Passages
When passages started getting longer (more than a short sentence), T started to resist a bit. I knew it wasn’t because the words themselves were too challenging because he could read individual words just fine. I quickly realized that the long passages felt intimidating and time-consuming to him, even though he was completely able to read them. I started to use a sheet of construction paper to underline the line we were on and hide the rest of the story. It really helped prevent overwhelm and intimidation from looking at a long passage all at once.
Other times, his attention span and willingness really has been pushed to its limit and it’s time to take a break. We will stop before the story, midway through it, or after he’s read through it the first time. We just pick up where we left off when we come back to it and everyone is a lot happier that way.
To Summarize
Attitude is everything! Kids pick up on your mood and tone so easily and will reflect your frustrations back at you.
The script works!… except when it doesn’t. Change the script, your strategies, and your routine as you see fit and as your child develops.
Don’t be afraid to take a break.
Find meaningful ways to recognize, praise, and reward your child’s progress in small and large ways.
We hit a big milestone this week with T! He is officially halfway done with TYCTR (more details on the book here)! Here’s how it’s been going.
For the first 10 lessons or so, the book took some getting used to. In the very beginning, it focuses on practicing some basic skills that are fundamentally important for mastering the rest of the lessons. We had some resistance with learning some of these basic skills. For example, it asks the adult to say a word very slowly, and the child needs to say the same word fast. I might say: “mmmmmmmaaaaaaatttttttt” and T needs to respond, “mat”. But once he got the hang of little skills like this, he started cruising along!
From about lesson 10-40, things went smoothly most of the time. We were so impressed by T’s intrinsic motivation and his love for learning. For the most part, he was willing to do the lessons almost every day and even asked us to teach him the lessons a lot of the days. Our biggest hurdle in this phase was keeping his focus as the lessons got a little bit longer and more involved. During these struggle periods, T would get resistant and frustrated sometimes when a lesson would start to drag on a little bit or if he ran into a task that was a little challenging or less intuitive for him. I wrote a post about how we’ve dealt with setbacks like this. Find it here.Another recurring issue was occasionally guessing words instead of sounding them out, which we just had to keep reminding him not to do until he (mostly) broke the habit.
Here are some tasks that he found frustrating at first, but then conquered just like everything else:
rhyming tasks. These tasks are great for teaching kids to hear sound patterns in word families, but it’s an abstract concept at first, especially since the entire word isn’t written out for the child to sound out. For T, I think he didn’t always comprehend what I was asking him to do in these sections. But with some practice, he got it! And this skill has been really helpful later on in the book, especially when introducing irregular words.
reading a word fast without reading it slow first (sounding it out silently). T was becoming a champion at sounding things out vocally, but learning to do this in his head caused some significant resistance and confusion at first. For this, we found that practice and small adjustments to the script were helpful: “ Keep your mouth closed while you figure out the word.”
having to read longer stories twice. After going through all the work to get through a lengthy passage, T inevitably gets upset when I ask him to do it again (for speed and reading comprehension). We’ve found that taking a break at this point is usually helpful.
From about lesson 40-50, our pace slowed down a lot. It started taking us a couple days to get through each lesson, and T’s excitement to sit down and work on a lesson waned significantly. I think this is largely because the stories got quite a bit longer around this point – up to about 10 lines per story. While he remained totally competent and able to read these stories, they started to overwhelm him a bit and the time they took was a little more than his attention span allowed for. So I’ve adjusted my expectations a little bit and accepted the slower pace. I found that pushing him through a lesson when his attention and mood are failing is rarely helpful to either of us. In these cases, we still reward him (in whatever way works for your family) for working on the lesson, even if we didn’t get through the whole thing. But we do expect him to finish the whole lesson(s) to get his sticker and his major rewards. And then we pick up where we left off later that day or the next day.
To celebrate finishing fifty lessons, T got to pick out a really cool Hot Wheels truck from the store. He has been over the moon about it. Achieving something like that is a big deal for a small child, so we wanted him to feel really accomplished and do something for him that felt really special.
If you’re using this book, we’d love to hear about how it’s going and any tips to keep kiddos going strong!
We had been talking about the possibility of homeschooling for a while when my mom randomly bought us a book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The book had been on a good sale and had great reviews, so she bought it and asked if we were interested in using it. We looked through it, and it looked pretty dry, like a textbook. Now that I think about it, most of my textbooks actually looked more exciting than this book. But we figured we’d take it and give it a shot when the time was right. Well, as it turned out, that time came sooner than we expected.
Our T didn’t seem ready to read at the time we received the book, but he LOVED the alphabet; he loved any book or puzzle that had to do with ABCs. A while later, around the time T turned 3, my husband picked up the book and started to read the introduction. I decided I should know how to use the book too, so I read all the introduction pages, and realized that it didn’t seem unrealistic after all. I asked T if he wanted to learn how to read, and he was enthusiastic about it, so we jumped in.
It took a few lessons for T (and me) to get the hang of the book’s teaching approach, but I could tell very early on that the program was genius. It doesn’t look flashy or fun, but it was proving to be so effective that T got a lot of joy and a sense of achievement from it. Before long, he was begging ME to do reading lessons. He sincerely enjoys learning how to read and is very self-motivated. But we did establish a reward system at the beginning of the program that we think helped jumpstart his interest and re-motivate him when necessary.
We’re still working through the book (T just finished his FIFTIETH lesson!), but I’d love to tell you a little bit about it so you can consider whether you’d like to give it a shot too!
First of all, the cover of the book states, “This remarkable step-by-step program teaches your child to read in just 20 minutes a day–with love, care, and joy a parent and child can share!” This 20-minute timeframe is pretty accurate at the start, but as passages have gotten longer and more complex, we have found that lessons usually take a little longer. That’s been fine for us, as T has a pretty impressive attention span for a 3 year-old, but we’ve also found it helpful to split lessons into two parts as needed (or even do two in a day sometimes if he’s feelin it!).
The book has a wonderful introduction that you shouldn’t skip! It explains the how and why to everything from the “funny print” and the teaching script to giving correction. As I read the introduction and started doing the first few lessons with T, I was floored by how well thought-through this program is. These people have seriously done their research on what works and know what they’re talking about.
Skills your child will Learn
In the first 16 lessons, you will begin teaching your child the following:
new sounds (m, s, a, ē, t, r, d, i, th). There’s a handy pronunciation chart that tells you how to say each sound, in the order they appear in the book!
blending sounds together
saying words slowly and saying them fast
rhyming
guided word and story reading
picture comprehension
irregular words (“is”)
As the lessons progress, your child will learn more complex skills:
more sounds and irregular words
reading with expression
word finding / whole word recognition
quotation finding
story reading and comprehension
“ed” and “ing” endings
long vowels
As the lessons go on, the special aids the book provides are slowly phased out, such as the special script. Things like upper case letters are also phased in.
Some Things I’ve Loved about the Book
the print! It’s so intuitive for kids. For example, the “silent” letters are in smaller font, so they know not to sound them out, but they are exposed to seeing the words spelled correctly so it is an easier transition to regular print. Sounds like “sh” are introduced as one connected character, and then gradually transition to the traditional type.
the script. While it is encouraged to read through and practice each lesson before you teach it, you can absolutely get by without doing so, because the book clearly lays out everything you need to do and say on every page in clear, distinctive type. No prep time necessary!
It teaches skills that are sometimes overlooked. Specifically, sound blending and reading comprehension. So many kids know their phonics but have a hard time combining them into words, and then combining words into ideas that actually mean something. This book teaches those skills from the very beginning so they become second nature.
no fluff. There’s nothing in the book to distract from the task at hand and you don’t waste time doing anything nonessential. But don’t worry–if you teach with expression, it is still fun! And I would always recommend pairing a reading program such as this one with “real-life” reading such as road signs and cereal boxes, as well as picture books. Here are some of our favorites right now.
I have very few negative things to say about this book, but I have noticed a few very minor typos; you would totally miss them if not reading carefully. There have also been a couple occasions in which I felt a word or sound was introduced for reading before it was adequately taught. For example, we came across the word “kitten” before the “eh” / “ih” sound at the end of the word was introduced. Occurrences like this are rare and pretty easy to ad-lib and move on when they do happen.
All in all, we would absolutely recommend this book to anyone with a child who has a happy temperament, a decent attention span, and a desire to read! For children who don’t fit that description, we still believe it’s a great program, but I would probably expect to make more adjustments to fit your child’s personality!
We have tried to instill a love of reading in our kids starting pretty young. From the time we moved T into his own bedroom at about 4 months old, we’ve been reading at least one book to him before every nap and bedtime. We’ve loved seeing T develop a love for reading, so we’re trying to do the same thing with little E, who is 1 right now. Here are some of our favorites – ones the kids like and that mom and dad can enjoy too! These have varying length and complexity, but they’re all beloved by our kids ages 3 and under. You may notice that our boys have some favorite topics, ha!
Adorable little story that teaches that little kids can be helpful and important, even if they can’t do all the things that big people do. We love that it’s a quick read with really well-done illustrations!
To the little tot that’s obsessed with trains, this one’s for you. I remember reading it as a child and my mom would always encourage us by saying, “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.” Such a cute, classic story! We have probably read this one to T 100 times, no joke. He can’t get enough of it.
This classic book didn’t win a Caldecott medal for nothing. I find the words, pictures, and story to be mesmerizing, and every time I read it, it gets me thinking about different ways to interpret it. Kids just think it’s fun!
We love that this Dr. Suess book is simple, repetitive, and silly, but our favorite thing is that it encourages kids to try foods they assume they won’t like!
These are so simple, they seemed kind of boring to us at first, but T went through a long phase of being obsessed with them. What 2 / 3 year old cares to read about general relativity, Newtonian physics, organic chemistry, and electromagnetism (to name a few)? Plus, they’re super fun to display on a shelf so all your guests assume your kid’s in MENSA or something.
This one by P.D. Eastman is fun for teaching prepositions, and kids that are pretty little can use the pictures to figure out which words are coming next!
This has a bunch of cute poems about different vehicles, from backhoes to ambulances. If you read it all at once, it’s a tiny bit lengthy, but you can always choose to read only a few poems!
I like to read this book to T when a) he’s had a naughty day, b) I’ve been impatient with him, or c) both. It’s a good way for us to bond and remind each other how much we love each other, especially on the rough days.
Another oldy, but goody! Okay, so the mom crawling through her adult son’s window is pretty weird. But the overarching sentiment is really sweet! This is another great bonding book. T loves it when I sing the song to him as we read.
This one is just super silly. We love to laugh about it with T, and we like normalizing some talk about underwear for kiddies that will be potty training soon!
Probably one of the most precious, must-read books for kids. It makes me cry every time. An incredible allegory for children (and adults!) to internalize their relationship with God and recognize their self-worth.
T loves this book, but frankly we’ve never read the entire thing to him. It’s pretty lengthy and intended for kids that are a little bit older, so we abridge it. T loves opening all the little envelopes and reading the letters, as well as learning all the landmarks on the world map. Thanks to this book, he knows about the Eiffel Towel, Pyramids, Tower Bridge, and lots more!
Some books we love for babies – but older kids love them too!
T loved this book when he was little, and now E is obsessed with it too! We read it to a little tune we made up, and they love when we touch their ears and nose and tickle their toes!
I love this book’s illustrations! It also has such a nice rhythm to it and does a great job incorporating train sounds into the bedtime poem. Our kids have adored it since they were tiny.
I just am obsessed with his artwork! And definitely have an attachment to his classics like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?. Kids love them all!
I think kids’ books are so dang fun, I have a hard time not buying them all. If you’re like me, ThriftBooks is your friend!! And don’t forget to utilize your local library 🙂
Since my oldest was about two, my husband and I noodled a lot on the idea of homeschooling. We know a few families who have had a lot of success with it, notably my sister-in-law and her four kiddos. Hearing their experiences is probably what got us interested in the idea, but we feel like the universe (read: God) keeps pushing us in that direction. What started out as interest grew into an idea that we just couldn’t let go, so we felt that we should give it a shot.
Before I go into more detail, here’s what you need to know about us: we’re a fairly conservative Christian family. There’s a lot of variety in what “conservative” and “Christian” mean to different people, but here’s what it means to us:
We firmly believe that true happiness comes from keeping God’s commandments and striving to live a Godly life.
We aim to have “eternal perspective”, meaning we live our lives with eternal goals in mind, not just worldly pursuits. Our primary measures of success are the strength and love within our family and our efforts to follow and trust in Christ.
While the world is complicated and there aren’t always clear answers to every question, we believe that absolute truth does exist, and we want our children to learn and internalize those fundamental truths.
My husband and I both grew up going to public school, and both of us had great experiences (for the most part). We were privileged to live in wonderful school districts and each of us had lots of support at home. However, in the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of indications that public schooling is heading in a direction that might not be the right fit for our family right now.
Values-Aligned Education
First, we grow increasingly nervous, not that our kids will be exposed to ideologies that contradict our beliefs, but that they’ll be taught those ideologies as undeniable reality rather than as ideas which individuals may accept or reject based on their own discernment and morals. This practice is becoming too common and is particularly dangerous at such an impressionable age, when kids may not realize what’s happening. Therein lies our primary motivation. To take it a step further, something my sister-in-law said once stuck with me. She said (paraphrasing): “The way I see it, God created everything and is the author of truth, so education that doesn’t include God is incomplete.”
Lifestyle Flexibility
My husband is self-employed and works from home with one remote employee. While the business can’t run without him for extended periods of time, he does have the flexibility to take time off for family responsibilities and traveling as needed. We realized that if we put our kids in public school, their school schedules would be the thing holding us back from traveling the world with them. Free from that schedule, we can travel as we wish without worrying about missing too many days or falling behind in school. Plus, we can incorporate travel into our kids’ education and hopefully inspire passion for cultures and areas of study they might not otherwise have been exposed to.
Time
This may seem like an oxymoron, but we believe that homeschooling will be a way to protect our most precious resource: time. We firmly believe that success in public schooling requires support at home. Our hopes and expectations for our kids’ education mean that we would undoubtedly be spending hours every week helping our kids with homework, reinforcing new concepts, and talking with our kids about school. From the stories I’ve heard from homeschoolers, you can get through the same amount of material in half the time at home with one-on-one attention. This higher efficiency means that we will get to see our kids at their best – not just when they’re exhausted from a long, tedious day, and then need to be prodded into completing additional homework, which they will often need help with. There’s more time for play (!), self-guided learning, family bonding, helping around the house, exercise, church activities, and developing passions and talents.
Personalized Education
While I have great respect for teachers and their expertise and abilities, I have much less faith in a system that expects 20-30 (or even more!) kids to learn in one room, at the same pace, from one adult. Inevitably, some kids get left behind, while some kids don’t have adequate opportunities to achieve at the level they’re capable of. Both outcomes are a failure of the public school system, and we want to avoid them. We look forward to being able to teach our kids at their pace, give them one-on-one help, and focus on what interests them most.
The other side of the story
Even with all these great reasons to homeschool, the prospect still seems incredibly daunting. Every day I wonder if I’m making the right choice. I have my concerns and hurdles I know I’ll need to overcome. For one – homeschooling means that I’m having to accept a delay in continuing my own professional career or furthering my own formal education. That is not to say I won’t find meaning, fulfillment, or passion in this season… but significant financial contribution – probably not. I also know that the work of teaching my kids will be tough. We plan to have a couple more kids, so juggling all of their educational, emotional, and physical needs will undoubtedly be a major challenge. For quite a few years, there will be babies and toddlers around who demand attention constantly. We’ll have to navigate that as we go, but I have to believe it’s possible! I will need to develop a lot more patience. I’ll have to (re)learn a lot, especially teaching/parenting skills and strategies. Another worry is that my kids won’t get everything they need- my biggest concern being things like socialization and fun cultural experiences like school sports. I do think though that this stems from wanting my kids to experience what I experienced, even if that’s not necessarily the right path for them or our family.
I am no super mom. I honestly feel that my capacity, energy, abilities, and motivation are severely lacking in comparison to the awesome parents I see around me. It seems like some people can do it all. I’m over here, probably biting off more than I can chew, but praying that God (and my family) will give me grace as I try. Maybe you feel that way too. If so, we’re in this together!
