Montessori Monday: Strides in Reading

"Mom, come here! I wrote "won!"(She thinks she wrote "one.")

These days, Koko is suddenly interested in writing and reading. The Montessori method on teaching reading is a little different than standard practice. You start out teaching the phonetic sounds and with the lowercase because it's easier to write. So the first sequence of sounds are for the letters, "a", "b", "f", and "t." You would present how to trace the letter correctly in the sand paper letters for these sounds and then then you would say the sound. For example "aeh" as in apple for "a."

After learning all the sounds of the alphabet, you start teaching consonant and vowel blends like "ca" as if it was just another letter in the alphabet. Then you start teaching vowel sounds, and etc. It all has a definite sequence and because it's so systematic, it's painless to learn. Maria Montessori was able to teach many supposedly mentally deficient children how to read with this method and they were able to pass the state's exam! However, it's hard to present when the child is not interested. I started teaching some of these sounds with the three-period-lesson, but Koko lost interest so I stopped.


This is our moveable alphabet. You can use it to make words and teach phonic sounds. I always had this out, but she wasn't interested in this for a while and preferred her Melissa and Doug See and Spell. Initially, she didn't like the "t" in this moveable alphabet because it looked too similar to "f" but now she calls it funny "t" and is okay with it. You start with only one letter in each compartment to not overwhelm the child, but later, you can put more letters per compartment.

Koko likes to make up nonsense words and surprisingly, she can usually read them correctly though sometimes she still reads from right to left instead of left to right.

Shannon was sweet to lend us the beginner Bob books but while they're still too hard for Koko, she still insists on reading them. She knows all the beginner phonetic sounds of the alphabet so she can sound out words, but it is a laborious process. She acts like each time she sees the word, it's a new word and she sounds it out each time. This has been going on for some time and I figured in time it would click. But after another long and tiring Bob session, inspiration struck.


I first did the three-period lesson for the two main sounds in Bob book 1 ("ma" and "sa") and I recalled how I managed to teach her all the phonetic sounds of the alphabet--through music and a beat, I sang a familar melody while pointing to and singing "sa" and "ma." For example, "sa sa ma ma sa sa ma" to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." It worked like a charm. And we ended the lesson by writing out the sounds reviewing how to do with the sandpaper letters.

These are some cards phonic cards I made from Maja Pitamic's book Teach Me to Do It Myself. I really don't like the italicized font she used for her cards, so I rewrote the words in my own handwriting. She's not too crazy about these activities. I think using miniature objects to correspond with word cards would be better. But bah, I am a lazy gal.

Koko likes to put the words on top of the pictures.

I have a lot of friend whose children learned from leapfrog toys or just naturally after having been read to so often. I actually couldn't grasp phonics and learned later than everybody else in my class how to read through word recognition. I remember feeling so bad that at first grade I couldn't read at all or understand any of the phonic worksheets while everyone else could. My parents hired a reading tutor for me and somehow it slowly clicked. By second grade, I was an excellent reader, but it wasn't until I started learning about the Montessori way of reading that I understood phonics for the first time in my life. It's amazing. So while I don't think Montessori is the only way to learn reading, I still think it's a great method!

Don't forget to visit Shannon for her Montessori Monday!