A teacher’s secret to teaching your toddler to read (hint: it’s not phonics)

Manisha Snoyer is the CEO and founder of Modulo.app, a company that supports families with all aspects of supporting their child’s education and healthy social-emotional development, as a replacement or supplement to traditional school.

Note: for parents looking for a more conventional approach to reading, “Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” is the golden standard for parents teaching their child to read and will surely get the job done.

For those curious about a more alternative approach to teaching reading, “read on” :)…

At Modulo, one of the most common questions I get is “How can I teach my child if I’m not a teacher?” Having taught over 2000 children of all ages in 3 countries and worked closely with their parents, I have come to believe this exposes one of the most common misconceptions about the way learning works. A good teacher does not teach. A good teacher supports a child’s natural learning process. And having personally observed hundreds of parents build confidence and start taking a bigger role in their child’s education, this (supporting a child’s learning) is something I passionately believe that any motivated, caring parent can do.

Every parent’s dream is to have a kid who knows how to read before every one else. And who can blame you, an early reading ability not only is a nice boost to any parent’s ego but, more importantly reading is the key to the world.

Once a child can read, they are able to study any subject that is of interest to them, fulfill any curiosity and fall into the beauty of new worlds hidden in the great books of our time.

They no longer need a teacher because they become their own teacher and they are able to follow their natural motivation to learn to its full expression. In many ways, reading is the purest form of self-directed learning.

I discovered this secret to teaching toddlers to read when I myself was a child in 4th grade. As a youngster, I was lucky to attend a Montessori school where the older children, if they so desired, were invited to go read to the preschool children every afternoon after nap. Being a baby crazy lady then as I am now, I leapt at this opportunity every day.