HOW TO TEACH YOUR CHILD TO READ WITH THE MONTESSORI READING PROGRAM
in three steps
Blue Sentence books 1-30

blue story books 1-30

Step 1
How to teach the letter sounds.
Step 2
How to sound out phonetic three letter words like cat, dog and fun.
Step 3
How to teach sight words – frequently used non-phonetic words like I, you and does.
After these three steps your child will be able to sound out and read the 30 blue sentence books and 30 blue story books.
Step 1
How to teach the letter sounds.
Teach letter sounds in the following sequence:
s m t a p f c o
r b l i g n d h j
k w u v y z x e
Together with the child find words beginning with “s”. Letters are pronounced phonetically, i.e. by their sounds, ‘s’ as in snake, ‘m’ as in monkey. Teach the first two letters ‘s’ and ‘m’ with the Three Period Lesson using flashcards. Note: there is no ‘q’ at this point as it is taught with the double letter series as ‘qu’.
“Three Period Lesson”
- Hold up flash card ‘s’.
“This is ‘s’.”
“This is ‘m’.”
The child repeats each sound after it is said.
- Quickly drill the sounds by using such statements as:
“Show me ‘s’.”
“Where is ‘m’?”
Note: Keep this lesson moving quickly from one sound to another. Carefully mix and repeat the lesson using other questions or statements, always using the sound of the letter. The child clearly sounds out each letter as he points to it.
- When the child knows the sounds point to each letter and ask:
“What is this?”
[Not mentioning the sound.] The child will answer, saying the sound.
Gradually introduce one new letter at a time, making sure the child knows the letters first presented before giving new ones.
Use fun games to practice letters until they are mastered. Keep checking the letters the child can remember and tick them off on his progress chart. Make sure the child knows all the letter sounds before reading phonetic three letter words.
Step 2
How to sound out phonetic three letter words like cat, dog and fun.
Phonetic Three Letter Words [Flash Cards]
Make phonetic three letter words starting with ‘a’ words: cat
“Let’s make ‘cat’.”
“What does cat begin with? ‘c’.”
“What comes next? ‘a’.”
“What sound can you hear at the end? ‘t’.”
When reading phonetic three letter words DO NOT break up the words as in c-a-t but rather blend one sound into the other as in c a t, slowly saying the whole word in a sliding fashion.
Help the child initially by saying the word for him or with him. This is a crucial stage as the child must not fall into the habit of breaking up the word into individual sounds.
Make three letter words in the following sequence:
‘a’ words: cat cap hat bat rat
‘o’ words: cot pot top dog fox
‘i’ words: pig pin lid six kid
‘u’ words: cup jug bus hut nut
‘e’ words: net hen pen peg leg
Check progress chart and tick off three letter word books which the child can read. IT IS IMPORTANT to keep a record of the child’s progress regularly.
Step 3
How to teach sight words.
Sight Words
Only start introducing sight words when the child can read the three letter words fairly fluently.
Sight words are not phonetic hence they are not to be sounded out! The whole word is shown and remembered as such. Most children learn sight words with repetition.
Teach the first three sight words by the Three Period Lesson using flash cards. Also use fun games to give the child lots of practice to remember these words.
As soon as the child can read the three letter word books and knows three sight words he can read his first sentence book. Each consecutive sentence book has a new sight word added, e.g. sentence book 6 contains the first six sight words, sentence book ten the first ten sight words etc.
The child will get ample practice reading the thirty sentence books and remembering the Blue sight words so that she will be looking forward to reading the blue story books.
PRINT IT
PRINTING THE DIGITAL EDITION
Real Books
While apps and reading on the computer have their place, there isn’t anything quite like reading an actual book. Printing, binding and posting 120 books turns out to be expensive. If you have access to a printer though, you can print your own. You then get the best reading experience but at a low cost.

How TO PRINT
To get the best looking books print on A5 paper and buy a small booklet stapler. This will make all the difference.
You can buy these at any office supply store. If you are happy to buy on Amazon click on the images below to see good options.

Swing Stapler
Swing the stapler arm around to staple neatly without having to fold pages of the book.

A5 Paper
Print books at just the right size for little hands. No cutting and less printer ink to get the perfect book.
Instructions on how to print booklets are provided with your digital download or you can click on this link [Print Books]