“Can I teach my child to read?”  Yes, you can!  Countless thousands of other people have done it, and given the right resources, you can too. 

There are numbers of wonderful, complete learn-to-read programs available for purchase to speed a child’s progression towards competency in reading.  However, there are an extremely limited number of incremental decodable books available which will make reading skills second nature for your child.   Practice makes perfect, but decodable books are needed to provide that practice.    

Most of the books that are marketed for beginning readers that you find at your library or local book store actually hinder, not help, the learn-to-read process. While they may use large print and have few words on a page, these books most often introduce words that are not decodable at a beginning level. This encourages the child to guess – and, that is exactly what you do not want your child to do!  Guessing slows down or stalls out the learn-to-read process.  Homestead Readers complement several learn-to-read programs (see the chart below) thereby giving your child the opportunity to experience repeated success.  And, your child’s success encourages you, as a parent.   You CAN indeed win at this homeschooling journey!

Homestead Readers is unique in that each of the progressive fifteen books gives very simple instructions for how to help your child decode the words in that leveled book.  This makes it easy for Dad or Grandma or Grandpa to sit down with your child and be of actual aid to you in cementing what you have been teaching – how helpful is that!  You certainly do not want those that desire to help you, to actually hinder your efforts by encouraging your child to guess rather than decode the words on the page.  With Homestead Readers, an older sibling or adult can just pick up and reinforce what you are doing.

Homestead Readers uses photographs of real kids doing real things.  This resonates with children.  Mostly set “down on the farm”, Homestead Readers informs urban children of what it is like to grow up on a farm – how children their age help around the farm, the excitement of kittens being born, making their own fun, lambing, shearing, as well as helping fix and build things.  They also learn things like how grain farmers use their big machinery to seed in spring and harvest in fall, and what happens on a dairy.  Mishaps, adventures, and fun are all intermingled in these decodable stories.  And, while many of these things are novel to an urban child, these stories resonate with the rural child – this is their life!  And, while both the urban and rural child are enticed with the stories for different reasons, one thing remains the same, they CAN read these books!  And as a parent, that is exactly what you want.  Success breeds success.