It does to me, too, and I’ve got two kids who are fluent, voracious readers. But now that my toddler wants to read, I’m back to evaluating the best way to teach her.

The book on the left is the tool I used with my first two. They knew their letters and the basic sounds. So this book worked really well. What I loved was it told me everything to say. As someone who stayed far away from elementary education in college, the thought of teaching them to read — such a critical skill — was daunting.

I’ve just discovered All About Spelling, a curriculum that is working well for us in the spelling area. I may actually use it to teach my toddler to read because it’s all about learning the sounds for the letters and then a phonetic approach to spelling. It’s also a very easy to use program, truly designed with the homeschooling parent in mind. The developer has a reading program as well, but I think I can use the spelling level one to accomplish the same thing.

Another product I have that is another great way to reinforce the concepts of phonics and reading is Rocket Phonics from the Critical Thinking Company. It’s got some fun games and is pretty well laid out. It wasn’t as intuitive as I would have liked — I think it would be tough for a mom whose unsure to use it effectively. But it has some great supplements.

So what about you? What have you used to teach your children how to read?