"They Laughed When My Daughter Opened Her Book" But When She Started To Read They Were Amazed She Could Read So Well At Such A Young Age. Dear Parents: Is your child struggling with reading? Is he or she a very slow reader? Is your child's reading ability affecting the other subjects your child is learning at school? Then you are not alone. Schools nowadays are very competitive places. Kids are there to make it, but some get left behind. Actually quite a large number get left behind. Is your child one of them? According to the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2009 (NCES 2010-458). Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. "Thirty-four percent of 4th graders cannot read a simple poem." Is your child one of them? Even the later Reading Assessments didn't show any remarkable improvement. It has basically remained the same over the years. No serious improvements at all. If your child is having problems with reading then you should step in and help. Because if your child falls behind in reading, then all subjects will be affected. Reading is the weakest link in the learning chain. When your child is struggling with reading then your child struggles with all subjects. You Can Raise Your Children's Self-esteem And Self-confidence By Teaching Them To Read You will find the children who are good at reading are also good at other subjects. The good readers are usually always in the top of the class in all subjects. But the number one difference between the good readers and the bad readers is self-confidence and self-esteem. One of the biggest benefits of helping your children to improve their reading skills. Is the increase in self-esteem and self-confidence they will experience. And this flows on to other subjects. You will see the difference in your child. As your child's reading improves you will see their self-esteem increase also. And they will become more self-confident as their grades improve over all their subjects. Teach Your Children To Read And Write And Give Them A Head Start At School If your child has trouble reading exam papers then they will have trouble answering the questions. So helping to improve your child's reading ability flows over to all subjects. Then your child is not so worried about sitting exams or handing in written assignments. In today's world your child's attention is competing against computer games, internet, TV, and play stations and what ever else is out there to distract your child from learning. So today's kids are just not interested in spending too much time on learning to read. Teach Your Children To Read And Write Using A Time-Tested Reading Method That Has Been Teaching Children For Over One Hundred Years So in my quest to help struggling readers get up to speed in reading I turned to a system that has been successfully teaching children to read for a 100 years. This teaching method has always been around but it never really took off in mainstream schools. It is a hands-on approach to teaching reading. You, the parent, have to be there to help teach your child. It is not a teaching system where you sit your child in front of the TV or computer and leave them to it. No, with this system you have to be there, making up the phonic sounds and words your child is learning. Then helping your child trace the sandpaper letters the same way you would write the letter. And while doing this, your child has to say the phonic sound. I'm talking about the Maria Montessori method of teaching reading and writing using phonics sounds and sandpaper letters. Children Will Learn To Read Using All Three Senses This teaching method uses all of the 3 different modes of learning - seeing, hearing and touch. If you learn using the three modes of learning you will learn faster.