- Decide exactly what you want. Set clear and exciting goals with your child. The goals should be written as wishes. Exciting and achievable wishes that you both want to happen. You can both get excited about what interesting books they will soon be able to read and how easily they will read them.
- Reading goals are written briefly and simply and sound clear and exciting to both of you.
- Decide together how you will achieve your wishes. This includes how many times you will coach your child on reading, when you will coach, and what skills you will coach.
- Be ready to work with your child for a long period of time. Make the reading coaching times achievable as though you are going to work with your child’s reading skills for longer than a few weeks and so need to pace yourself. Those families who pace the reading coaching succeed in walking steadily towards the reading goals they want for their child.
- Put the important things in life first. Teaching your child to read is vitally important! Teach them reading skills before that vacuuming, the phone-call to a friend, your social media, and anything else that can be attended to at a later time. When you put helping your child learn to read first you will find the other things get done anyway.
- Teach reading skills in regular short bursts. 3-4 times a week for short periods (15-20 minutes a time) will mean your child makes rapid progress with reading skills. Short, regular burst of reading skills coaching from you help your child remember reading skills you have just taught, and use them in the next coaching session.
- Keep teaching reading skills when the going gets tough. Keep coaching reading skills to your child when it becomes more difficult to.
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Warmly,
Anne Marsh
Families as Coaches 