PrincipledMom™

1. The section starting on page 153 begins with the problem of illiteracy in America. He states on p. 155 that "Literacy is one of the keys to liberty and freedom."
2. Then move on to the paragraphs on p. 155 about the enfluence of the Bible on early American education. He quotes Rosalie Slater, "The HOLY BIBLE has been documented as the single greatest reason for the reading, writing, speaking, and reasoning ability of our American colonists..."
3. You may recognize his History of the Look-Say Method of Reading (p. 156). A lot of today's parents were taught to read this way and struggle with reading (or like my brother, you might hate to read because it was difficult without a phonics foundation).
4. Now it's time to get into teaching reading the PA way (p. 157). This includes intensive phonics (the building blocks of reading) and quality literature, the Chief being the Bible. "Reading is not merely a basic subject in school; it is the basic subject (p. 158d)." He recommends the Little Patriots series but I don't believe they are still in print. You may find them at an auction or rare/OOP book store. He also recommends The Writing Road to Reading, which uses the Spalding Method (p. 160).

I have used Hooked on Phonics and the Writing and Spelling Road to Reading and Thinking from Riggs Institute. The latter is very labor-intensive and a little dry for my taste, although I did like their 70 phonogram cards. They break down each sound in the English language and give rules for when each sound is used. That is really great. It's set up more for a classroom so you must wade through a lot of useless teacher instruction. Overall it is an excellent program and it works well.

With Princess S (now 4yo) I plan to use McGuffey Readers. I may throw in some WSRT too.Some other moms have had success with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The obvious key here is to find a program that works for your family that is phonics-based.

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