My Little Robins

Loving and Learning in the Nest

Teaching Reading With Treadwell Readers

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When we teach children how to read through the Charlotte Mason approach, it is not meant to be a quick process. We can take our time (insert sight of relief). But even though we don't want to rush them from nursery rhymes to chapter books, it has to happen at some point. I often recommend the Reading-Literature Books by Free and Treadwell for making the transition to reading longer stories. These books were a part of our learning-to-read curriculum for Miss H, and we had great success with them. 

This is my final post in this Charlotte Mason Reading Series. You can go back to the beginning of this series here, and catch all the help I've shared, or save it for later. 

Reading Series


What are Reading-Literature Readers?

These readers, which are officially called Reading-Literature, were written in the early 20th century By Harriett Treadwell and Margaret Free. The books  start with the Primer, and continue on through volume eight, although the higher volumes are more difficult to find today. Treadwell was a teacher, principle, and activist who believed that children could be taught to appreciate good literature early on, and that teaching to read contained a few essential principles that are easy to grasp. 

The primer, meant for young children, contains repetitive folk tales that children might be familiar with. Level one includes rhymes, and level two contains fables and fairy tales. 

​Related: Phonics, Whole Language, and Charlotte Mason Reading 


Why I Like These Readers

Besides the obvious point that they contain real literature and get children appreciating literature, I think these are a great next-step reading material for several reasons. 

1. They Repeat Sight Words

No flash cards needed to learn sight words. Sight words don't necessarily follow phonics patterns, but appear often in text, so they're important to know. With the repetitive nature of the primer, sight words are introduced naturally, without needing to "drill and kill" them.  

2. The stories increase in difficulty

The first story in the Primer, the Little Red Hen, starts with 30 simple words. Some of those words are repeated throughout the book. The final story has close to fifty words, many of them that haven't been introduced yet in the book. This approach balances new words with familiar words, giving children confidence to keep reading. 

3. They keep classic stories alive

I love that new readers get to read real stories, even if they are familiar with them. It gives children a reason for reading, and gives them a feeling of accomplishment that they've read something real. And, it keeps classic, cultural stories alive. 

How to Use Treadwell Readers

If you follow Charlotte Mason's "reading by sight" approach, you can use it with these readers, too. Choose a few words that your child doesn't know from the text, and introduce them before reading. I like to take some of the words and write them in a Word Processing doc, to be able to move them around, as Charlotte Mason suggested. (It's nice that we don't have to chop up books anymore, like she did!) 

I recommend having your child read two or three pages a day to build endurance while reading. 

Check out My Little Robins'  reading lessons to use with Treadwell Readers. There are 9 weeks of lessons, with four lessons each week. A color-coded list tells you which words haven't been introduced yet, and each lesson introduces a few of the new words by sight. Two or three phonics lessons each week make sure your child has built a strong reading foundation. 

Charlotte Mason recommended that children keep a little journal of the words that they've learned. I like to organize this by phonics skill. This allows me to see if there are phonics skills that we need to review or that we've missed teaching altogether. My Little Robin's Treadwell Reading Lessons have phonics headings for your child to paste into a notebook to keep organized. 

You can find The Free & Treadwell Reading Literature series in the public domain or on Amazon. A free eBook version is also available from The Momma Knows. 

Home Education: Reading Lessons and Resources

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This post contains affiliate links. If you’re curious as to how these work, you can read more about them in my policies.

The first, and probably most exciting thing when beginning formal lessons, is, for many, reading instruction. In Home Education, as Charlotte Mason lays out her approach to education for 0-9, she also gives a complete, sufficient method for reading. I have written about this approach before, and how it compares to two modern approaches, phonics and whole language, but today I’ll focus solely on the method that she suggested for a child of six or seven. Since many Charlotte Mason families I know teach the alphabet and some beginning phonics through play during the early years, I’ll skip right to the first reading lesson and give you lots of resources for teaching your child.

In this series of posts, I’m digging into Charlotte Mason’s volume, Home Education, to explain how she urged us to teach each subject. It looks much different than many other Charlotte Mason curricula, but I trust that this volume was Holy Spirit inspired, and this curriculum will suffice for my six-year-old. This felt like a lot to me, especially in a season where I will teach a six-year-old and have two very young children to tend to. I’ve put together a booklist that we’re using, which you can download.

My well-loved copy of Home Education.

Reading Words


"But example is better than precept, and more convincing than the soundest reasoning. This is the sort of reading lesson we have in view. Tommy knows his letters by name and sound, but he knows no more. To-day he is to be launched into the very middle of reading, without any 'steps' at all, because reading is neither an art nor a science, and has, probably, no beginning." Home Education, page 217 

Charlotte Mason beautifully described the process, not steps, of reading lessons using a nursery rhyme that had been cut up word by word. You can do this easily with a computer and a printer. Just type out a rhyme, print it, and cut out each word. I've done this for you, as well as wrote out specific lessons, in my reading printable packs. 

An interesting word from the poem is introduced, and the child's interest is sparked. The word is familiar and he wants to know more about it. The parent then instructs the child to write out the word with his set of letters (I prefer wooden letters!) and then identify the word from the little cut-up rhyme. This is repeated with a clause until the child knows several words, sometimes over the course of a few lessons.

Instead of just identifying and building each word, the child is encouraged to really keep the picture in his mind. Allow him some time to concentrate on the shapes and order of the letters. 

Read Home Education, pages 214-218

Reading Sentences

Using the same words from the reading lesson, your child can rearrange them into new sentences. Charlotte Mason used the example: 

I like little *kitty,

Her coat is so warm. 

The child starts by putting a sentence together, finding one word at a time as it is told to him. 

I like little kitty. 

Now he can read a sentence! Then, he can make different sentences based on the words he has recently learned-

Warm little kitty. 

I like her coat. 

Kitty is little. 

*I used a modern word instead of the original. 

The words can also be arranged in columns, so your child can practice reading them at random. 

Read Home Education, pages 218-219

Word Building Lesson

Now that the child can read words as a whole, he can experiment with the smaller sounds. Today, this is often called word building. Using the wooden letters, he can spell a word in the rhyme, such as coat. 

By changing the first letter, he can make several other words. 

Moat

Boat

Float

Read Home Education, pages 219-220


Rhyming Words

After learning so many new words, your child actually knows more than he thinks. On a chalk board or white board, he can write rhyming words that he knows. 

Little

Brittle

Spittle


Reading for Older Children

Once your child has learned how to read, he or she should have practice reading aloud.

"He should have practice, too, in reading aloud, for the most part, in the books he is using for his term's work. These should include a good deal of poetry, to accustom him to the delicate rendering of shades of meaning, and especially to make him aware that words are beautiful in themselves, that they are a source of pleasure, and are worthy of our honour; and that a beautiful word deserves to be beautifully said, with a certain roundness of tone and precision of utterance." Home Education

Therefore, the selection of their first lesson-books is a matter of grave importance, because it rests with these to give children that knowledge is supremely attractive and that reading is delightful. Once the habit of reading his lesson-book with delight is set up in a child, his education is--not completed, but-- ensured, he will go on for himself in spite of the obstructions which school too commonly throws in his way."   Home Education, page 229 

My biggest surprise while creating this curriculum for my daughter is the usage of poetry for reading practice. I previously viewed poetry as a completely isolated subject, but I appreciated that it could also be used to help my new reader grow. 

Home Education Curriculum: Reading

All that to say, these are the things I took into consideration when planning a curriculum based solely off of Home Education. Miss H and I have already addressed those first reading lessons, but this is what he did, and will continue to do, for reading.

First Reading Lessons:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star lesson

Donkey, Donkey lesson

​Little Robin Redbreast lesson

Continuing Reading Lessons:

Reading Literature, The Primer by Harriette Taylor Treadwell

Reading Literature, The First Reader by Hariette Taylor Treadwell

Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobe

Little Bear by Else Holmlund Minarik

Little Pear by Eleanor Frances Latimore

Favorite Poems Old and New: Selected for Boys and Girls by Helen Farris

Additional Poetry for Practice:

​A Child's Garden of Verses

When We Were Very Young by AA Milne

When We Were Six by AA Milne

I'm thankful that you're joining me as I share our Charlotte Mason curriculum! 


The process of a Charlotte Mason reading lesson is pretty simple to follow. I've set out the process here for you, so you can create your own reading lessons, or to simplify, you can pick up my reading printable packs.

Phonics, Whole Language, and Charlotte Mason Reading Instruction

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One of my main motivations for wanting to homeschool in the first place was the sheer joy of teaching my children to read. Getting to watch my child's face light up with recognition when he or she reads their first word. Getting to help pick out a book when they build enough confidence to read on their own. Witnessing these things is a huge blessing! 

I've used Charlotte Mason's approach to reading lessons for several years now, and it has helped my children enjoy reading lessons and eventually fall in love with reading. But these methods have been under fire lately, as voices are rising up and saying phonics, and only phonics, is the way to teach children to read. So, does this make Charlotte Mason's approach to reading illegitimate? I personally don't think so! 

This post was updated October 2021

What Style is Charlotte Mason Reading Instruction?

There are two main styles of reading instruction:

Whole language- The whole language approach surrounds the child with print, meaningful stories, and opportunities to write. Children aren’t taught the specific sounds that each letter makes, but are presented with whole words and are expected to make meaning of them gradually. This method was especially popular in the 1980’s. I remember being taught to read this way, and as a young child, it stressed me out when the teacher asked me to read the words in the large book she held up. I told her what was happening in the picture, and she said, “You’re supposed to read the words, not tell about the pictures.” I remember replying, “Oh. I can’t read.”

Besides leaving some kids utterly confused, experts also worried that at-risk children or those with special needs would be harmed by this approach. And, as you can probably imagine, this approach didn’t make for super great spellers.

The whole language approach started to fade in name but the mid-2000's, but many people think that it just began using a different name. 

Phonics– A phonics approach teaches phonemes, the distinct sounds in the English language. Children who learn phonics tend to understand spelling patterns. Some argue that since reading isn't a natural process, direct instruction in phonics is the only way to teach reading. 

There are some downsides. Sometimes, meaning is stripped when children learn nonsense words for the sake of figuring out a phonics pattern. This could make reading for meaning seem like it takes a backseat to reading to decode. Comprehension may not come naturally when there is so much focus on letter sounds. Not to mention, this approach can take the joy out of reading for many children since there is so much “drill and kill” involved.

Related: The Mindful Alphabet Preschool Literacy Lessons

Related: Teaching Reading With Nursery Rhymes

A Balanced Approach

My very first year of teaching, I filled in for three maternity leaves, which means I had to do three interviews in order to be hired. The majority of my year was spent in first grade. I remember sitting in the interview for the first grade position, a nervous, just-out-of-college girl, my knees jumping up and down and desperately wanting to bite my nails. The principal asked me, “Which do you agree with: a whole language approach or a phonics approach to reading?” Oh! What a tough question! Which one was I supposed to prefer? I remembered learning about whole language in college, but once I started student teaching, it was ALL about the phonics approach. In a meek little voice, I said, “A balanced approach? Balancing phonics and whole language?” The principle boomed, “Exactly!! You have to balance them both!”

And all this to say, my friends, that Charlotte Mason understood the balanced approach long before whole language and phonics even existed. She recommended that children learn their letter sounds as early as the age of two, or when they become interested. She gave recommendations for simple word building to understand phonics patterns (she described word families, sets of rhyming words using the same phonics patterns, long before this was put into a teaching textbook) that could be worked on before a child officially starts reading lessons. And when a child was ready to learn to read, she used Reading By Sight lessons.

Her method, Reading By Sight, is not to be confused with sight words. She introduced whole words, interesting words, one at a time, in the context of nursery rhymes. After a word was introduced, she drew attention to the phonics pattern that made the word. In short, both of the popular approaches were used. 

Related: The Complete Charlotte Mason Preschool Guide

Be Okay With Slow Progress

Charlotte Mason’s guidelines for teaching reading are wonderful and thorough. But they aren't as quick as a purely phonics approach. She said that we should be content to move slowly, and that by the end of the year moving at this pace, a child should learn a few thousand words a year. Little by little, this adds up, all while your child learns to love reading

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