Hi! My name is Chriss and I am currently a stay-at-home and/or work-at-home-mother (WAHM). I reside with my family in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines.

I've been a part-time tutor of grade school children since 1995, until I went back into college to continue my psychology course studies. In my tutoring sessions I usually guided the pupils in their homework. I would occasionally teach a struggling reader, though, because I believe that a child who can read independently has a vast opportunity to learn new ideas.  

Plenty of write-ups have helped me in teaching youngsters to read. I got ideas from the teachings of Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget who dealt mostly with kids ages 3-5. Parenting magazines from the US also featured tips and tricks to teaching reading. Teacher's journals published in the country were also a great aid. All these helped me improve my basic methods and develop this material.

Ironically, it was only when my eldest child entered nursery that I had a different problem in teaching reading. He struggled with his reading and writing skills, had difficulty copying from the blackboard. After such time that I guided him in his homework, I was surprised that he learned to read anyways.

Until one evening while we were having a reading drill, the lights went out and he still continued to say the words written on the book. I then realized he was just reading from memory then and not from decoding! Because of his regular practice in reading it turned out he merely memorized the words! I felt defeated and my efforts did not bring improvement. I think I was pressured and in turn pressuring him to comply with the standards of the school he went to. 

So I thought of other simple ways to present reading. I thought of how I learned to read when I was 5 years old. I remember I could really read the words on the "Snow White" book when my yaya would read them out loud for me. I could already read then when I entered kindergarten and met the teachers having folder-sized Alphabet cards for us pupils. How easy was it then?

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