Three Ways to Read a Book | The Road to Reading

What if I told you that “learning how to read” doesn’t just happen in a single moment, but rather it’s a road we walk with our children over time. As a former kindergarten teacher, teaching hundreds of students “how to read,” I’ve seen the immense pressure society places on when a child should be able to “read,” but what if we rather than coming under society’s timeline, we walked in the freedom of a totally different “framework” in what it looks like to support our early readers in exactly what they need right now. What if rather than pushing them into the “level” of reading we’ve been told they should be at…we instead slowed down to seek understanding, come alongside where they’re at in their journey and and walk this road of reading hand in hand.

As you begin this road to reading with your child, the most impactful thing you can do to support early readers is to read. Now, I know that sounds obvious, but when we model these three ways to read with our children, they will grow in fluency and comprehension, as they delight in learning how to become “independent readers” at an early age. Our goal is not to create children who are simply “good readers,” but rather, the hope is that our children would become lifelong readers who delight in the joy, wonder and curiosity of reading good books. Reading is the most beautiful lifelong gift we can give our early learners, and the beauty of the way God created our brains is that there will be a time for every child when the synapses of their brain are reading to “read…” but until then, it’s our invitation as mamas to enter in to where they’re at right now and support them in all they ways they need.

Three ways to read a book

1. read the pictures.

Did you know that you can actually begin building a foundation and teaching your child “how to read” in the first year of a child’s life? There is great power when we surround our children with beautiful literature, invite them into the world of read alouds and create a habit of reading to our children every day, even before they truly understand the narrative of the books we read.

The first step in learning how to read is helping our early learners to read the pictures. This is an important part of their reading journey, as the pictures will become clues in the later years of learning how to decode words, reading with fluency and prompting their brains to understand and remember what’s happening in a book. Before you begin a read aloud with your child, start by taking a “picture walk” through the book, discussing the pictures on each page as you cultivate ideas of what the story may be about. As you read through words that fill the pages of the story, slow down and allow rich discussion to flow from the pictures associated with the words on the pages to build your child’s critical thinking skills. And lastly, when a story is over, ask your child about the pictures in the story to increase comprehension skills for the later years of reading to come.

As we teach our children how to read the pictures in a story, we are giving them the tools to become independent “readers,” even in the early years of learners and ignite the joy, wonder and curiosity of reading good books.

2. read the words.

Did you know that reading the words in a story actually happens when a child’s brain has developed the synapses, or pathways, necessary to decode words? So often, children are pushed to “read” long before these neural pathways are formed. If you begin teaching a children how to read and are met with frustration, discouragement or a lack of interest, it could be a signal that your child’s brain is not yet ready to walk the road of learning how to read the words in a story. If this is the case, take heart…the time will come when your child is ready to “read” in this way, but until then, continue reading aloud to your child, delight in the joy of reading together and discuss all that you read, as the time will come when their brain is ready to take off in reading the words of a story.

The next step in learning how to read is helping our early learners to read the words. To begin preparing your child for this step in their reading journey, start by focusing on yours child’s phonemic awareness, which is a child’s ability notice, identify, manipulate and break down the phonemes (or individual sounds) in a word. For example, as you are on a walk with your child, discuss what you see in nature and then press into noticing and breaking down phonemes those words. “Look, I see a bird. B-b-bird, hmmm I wonder what the word bird starts with?” By letting these simple conversations fill our days, we are building a child’s phonemic awareness foundation, which prepares a child to enter the world of phonics. Phonics is the process of teaching a child how to read the words by correlating letter sounds with written letters. As you support early readers, building a strong phonics foundation is important, as this becomes the catalyst to help our children build fluency as readers. By setting up a “daily phonics routine,” practicing letter names and sounds at an early age, a child’s strong phonetic awareness helps a child begin to decode the words in a story with ease, as the synapses in their brain are ready to read.

As we teach our children how to read the words in a story, let us remember to slow down, come alongside them at their development level and build their reading fluency over time. There is no set age that a child should “know how to read,” but rather, the journey of reading will look different for each child. Until then, keep reading out loud, build your child’s phonemic awareness foundation within the ordinary moments of your day and set up a daily phonics routine that will cause them to become successful readers in the years to come.

3. retell the story.

Did you know that the most common struggle children have when they become readers is comprehending what they read in a story? Comprehension, which is a child’s ability to understand what they read in a story is one of the most important parts of reading, and yet often forgotten about in teaching a child how to read. While it can be easy to put much of our focus on reading the words, retelling the story is the key component of a child’s reading success.

The final step in learning how to read is helping our early learners to retell the story. The beauty of this way of reading is that we can actually begin modeling this when our children are young. For example, upon finishing a story with a child, stop to reflect out loud about what you read in the story and dialogue about the narrative of the story, where the story took place and who was in the story…which also begins to set children’s minds on the elements of a story (including plot, setting, characters, point of view, and conflict). We can also pause after reading various pages while reading and think out loud or ask questions about the part of a story that we just read. As our children see us modeling this way of reading, they will begin this practice on their own as independent readers, even if that means simply looking at the pictures and discussing what they notice is happening in a story.

Comprehension is the key component to a child’s success in reading, so as we come alongside our early readers and teach our child how to retell the story, we are helping them to process through and remember what they are reading, more than simply reading the words in a story.

If there’s one big takeaway I could give you, it’s simply this… read, read, read.

Your children will love to read because they learned how to read with you. As we model these three ways to read with our children, reading the pictures, reading the words and retelling the story, our children grow in the skills of both fluency and comprehension, as they delight in reading for all the days to come. May we prioritize reading with our children as a rhythm within our homes, cultivating lifelong readers and filling our children’s hearts and minds with the joy, wonder and curiosity of good books.

So mama, take a deep breath and simply join them on this road to reading, trusting in the process as we watch our children become incredible readers in the days to come.

For more homeschooling tips, encouragement for supporting early learners and advice for teaching your child how to read, follow along with @clairemariahmurray and stayed tuned for the launch of my book, “The Magic of Childhood: A 52 Week Christian Homeschool Curriculum for Preschoolers” available April of 2025.