How do I manage to find the time to teach ?

My boy, now 4 years 9 months old, is reading from book 11a, Mystery on the Island, from the Ladybird Key Words (Peter and Jane) series. He is reading very fluently, he can read a page shown in the photo in less than 5 minutes.

I have also started to let him read The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl. He can now spell more than 100 commonly used words correctly, checkout this page : Spelling.

My 6 year old girl has read Charlotte's Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She is now reading the Little House on the prairie.

It may seem like I have spent many hours a day teaching my kids to read. But the fact is that I am a full time working mommy. I return home at about 7:30pm everday. I can only afford to spend 15 minutes or less teaching each child (my girl and my boy).

Here's my advise :

1. Stay focus. Teach one most important skill : reading in English. Once the child can read fluently, he can read any book and the world is at his fingertips. From the age of 3 to 6, acquiring the ability to read very well should be top priority. In primary schools, the child needs to be able to read well in order to do maths and science. I only teach the kids maths once a week during the weekend, and I am very happy with their progress. For Chinese, I send them to Berries Chinese enrichment class since they were 4 years old.

2. Use the most effective methods

The best resources are :

a. Leapfrog DVDs : Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory, Code Word Caper. Children can easily understand the basics of phonics simply by watching these DVDs every day. Both my kids learn all the 26 letter sounds simply by watching the Letter Factory DVD, I don't need to do anything at all.

b. Effective use of words cards. Click here: How to teach phonics to read about my methods.

My boy thinks that he is playing games while he is learning phonics. By giving him the cards to "play", I make sure that he is paying attention and really applying what he has learnt before.

c. Ladybird Key Word Reading Scheme (Peter and Jane)

I only teach my boy to read one page from the Peter and Jane series everyday. After about one year, he is reading very well.

d. www.starfall.com : excellent and free website to learn phonics and reading. I just turn on the computer and let my kids play with the website on their own.

4. Learn consistently. 15 minutes a day, everyday for more than 1 year can work wonders on any child.

5. Start early. I think that 3 years old is a good age to start to learn to read books. Between 18 months and 3 years old, the child should focus on learning on the 26 letters and their phonics sounds.

6. Don't do housework during weekdays. I am fortunate to have a good maid, so I don't have to do any housework when I return home from work. For mommies with no maid, try to get your hubby to help out, if not then invest in automatic machines (floor vacuuming and washing robots, dishwashers, clothes dryer, etc). Otherwise leave all housework till weekend. Remember that your priority is spending quality time with your kids. It is important that your child reads consistently everyday.