Using Reading Worksheets as a Homeschooling Resource

It's just another one of those anxieties that can eat away at the confidence of the homeschooler and keep them awake at night. It can be difficult to judge how well your child is reading if you've no one else of a similar age to compare them with.

That's when the doubts start to creep in and you begin to question your homeschooling methods;

• How do I know if my child is at the right reading level for his age?
• How can I tell if my child is falling behind with his reading?
• What can I do to get my child interested in reading?

At times like these, using Reading Worksheets as part of you daily homeschooling routine can really help.

How do I know if my child is reading at the correct level for his age?

Firstly, there is no right or wrong answer here. Every child will learn to read at their own pace, so trying to push them to go faster than they are able will just end in frustration for your child, probably a tantrum or two, and, at worst, a point blank refusal by them to read anything at all.

Don't panic if your child is showing signs of being a late developer when it comes to reading, they are not going to be digesting the complete works of Shakespeare just one week after they've tackled their first primer. Reading is a skill that needs to be nurtured and developed over time.

If you are worried about your child's reading age, try downloading a selection of Reading Worksheets that are age or level specific to them. See how your child gets on, if they struggle go down a level, if they breeze through then challenge them at a higher level.

Secondly, and although mainstream schools are reluctant to admit it, girls and boys learn to read in a completely different way from one another. If you homeschool one of each, you will have noticed how your girl loves to pick up a book and read, but your boy? He isn't so keen, he'd rather solve a few math or science puzzles than read out loud to you. It's not because he is any less capable than she is, put simply, it's because boys are notoriously lazy readers!

So how can you get around this? Well you know how your daughter actually likes to read out loud to you? It's because she finds the texts interesting, they engage her. And your boy? Well he's just not into pony stories or princesses. Look at dad, what does he read at the weekend? The sports newspaper, a car magazine perhaps, but not the latest Pulitzer prize winner--men (and boys) prefer to just dip in and out of texts that interest them. I'm not saying they don't read books at all! They just don't read as often or as many as women do.

So when downloading your Reading Worksheets keep in mind what your son or daughter is interested in. If the subject matter is attractive to them they will be far more prepared to read for you. As an example, I have a friend whose 9-year-old son was put into a remedial reading class because his teacher thought he wasn't reading well enough. She couldn't have been more wrong, he just didn't want to read the books the school thought he should! At home he was a fluent reader, devouring World of Warcraft gaming manuals and writing his own fan fiction. As you can imagine, his mom was quick to put teacher right!

Reading Worksheets are a great help for assessing if your child has understood the book they have just read. By using Reading Worksheets you can test their level of comprehension and make sure they haven't just read a few disconnected words out loud to you. Check to see if they can summarize what they've just read. And, don't forget, (we are in the business of teaching after all), to make sure the resources you are using challenge your child's comprehension. Don't give them an easy ride all the time!

What sort of Reading Worksheets are there available?

If you search online you can find hundreds of Reading Worksheets available for downloading free, and they aren't all classic text extracts with a few questions tacked on at the end. You can find crosswords or word-search puzzles, games and even some cooking recipes, these all make great worksheets and are a fun way to learn new words. There are plenty of non-fiction as well as fiction Reading Worksheets, in fact there is a whole heap of stuff just a few clicks away.

How do I know the Reading Worksheets I'm using are good quality?

Like any good quality reading book, what you are reading has to make sense, and it will only make sense if it is well written. Always read through the print out first, before you hand them over to your child--you will need to do this anyway to check the content is age appropriate. Then ask yourself: Do I understand this? If you can answer Yes, then you're OK. Any Reading Worksheets that appear to have been translated from ancient Greek into broken English and back again you can trash, and any with spelling and grammar errors should also be discarded.

Have confidence in yourself, we all instinctively know a quality book when we read it. And quality Reading Worksheets will be the same. They will have all the professional elements to them that you get from a top book, e.g. the text will not run to the full page measure; the reading order of the text will be easy to follow; if the book is aimed at younger readers then an infant font and characters will have been used, compound fonts and characters can be introduced once a child is more confident at reading.

Pictures can speak a thousand words--its true! The best books have artworks or photographs that complement and add to their text. If your child can't grasp a difficult word it is useful to be able to point to a picture of the word. This visual reference will reinforce learning and help the child recognize the word next time he sees it on the page.

Read, Read, Read!

Don't just leave it there, you can adapt anything to become a reading resource. Read the labels on tins at the store, the signs on the freeway, movie posters, comics, magazines, the flyer from under your windshield wiper--read EVERYTHING! Read it out loud with your child and you will soon see the results. Introducing your child to these different fonts and styles of text is an invaluable (and free) resource that can turn your child from a hesitant reader into a competent one.

So, whether you are making use of single word flashcards, or multi-paragraph Reading Worksheets with difficult concepts requiring high comprehension levels, then that's fine. Non-fiction is just as good as fiction--the secret is in the subject matter. Find something that interests your child and you'll be amazed at how fast they will progress onto the more difficult Reading Worksheets.