“From the beginning, God enlightened the learner with truth.” (The Noah Plan Reading Curriculum Guide, p 41)

Reading is the most important skill to be taught and to learn. All through history and even in today’s world, what sets people apart more so than money or any other divider is LITERACY. Nations are distinguished by their literate or ill-literate masses. Our nation is no less so. How powerful is the person with whom reading is no mystery!!

Reading must be taught in stages.

1. Reading Readiness
1. This involves teaching phonics, reading out loud good books, basic writing, memorization of poems and scripture and historical facts, correct enunciation, etc…
2. Reading Learning
1. At this time the student is taught alphabet skills and writing, decoding of those phonograms, vocabulary and comprehension, reading aloud, listening and thinking skills, early composition, appreciation of literature, independent reading, notebook work, and a continuation of memorization
3. Learning by Reading
1. Here is where reading is refined and improved to include expanding vocabulary, composition work, comprehension and speaking skills.
4. Independence in Reading
1. During this phase, the student analyzes and enriches their vocabulary, tackles more difficult texts.
5. Reading with Reason
1. This is where discussion and debates begin as well as a more in depth reading to understand and reason through the text.

Following this outline will instill a lifelong love of learning and reading good books.

According to Webster’s 1828:

RE' ADING, ppr.

1. Pronouncing or perusing written or printed words or characters of a book or writing.

2. Discovering by marks; understanding.

WORD, n. [G., L., to speak. A word is that which is uttered or thrown out.]

1. An articulate or vocal sound, or a combination of articulate and vocal sounds, uttered by the human voice, and by custom expressing an idea or ideas; a single component part of human speech or language. Thus a in English is a word; but few words consist of one letter only. Most words consist of two or more letters, as go, do, shall, called monosyllables, or of two or more syllables, as honor, goodness, amiable.

2. The letter or letters, written or printed, which represent a sound or combination of sounds.

12. The Scripture; divine revelation, or any part of it. This is called the word of God.

UN DER STAND', v.t. pret. and pp. understood. [under and stand. The sense is to support or hold in the mind.]

1. To have just and adequate ideas of; to comprehend; to know; as, to understand a problem in Euclid; to understand a proposition or a declaration.

2. To have the same ideas as the person who speaks, or the ideas which a person intends to communicate. I understood the preacher; the court perfectly understand the advocate or his argument.

3. To receive or have the ideas expressed or intended to be conveyed in a writing or book; to know the meaning. It is important that we should understand the sacred oracles.

9. To know another's meaning.

UNDERSTAND', v.i.

2. To be informed by another; to learn.

I understood of the evil that Eliashib did. Neh. 13.

Reading is decoding letters and words to know, comprehend, and learn what those letters and words are communicating to the reader. Reading increases knowledge to include what was before unknown and to add to what is known.

Through the Biblical Principle Approach, reading encompasses the Word of God – the Bible. The foundational text for this skill must be the Bible. In it is instruction for life and liberty. The Bible is for the Christian the textbook for all subjects studied. To know God’s thoughts or His mandates, one must reason through His Holy Text. How important is this book and the responsibility for teaching this liberating skill of reading!

I have just spent the weekend going over this skill for my children. The Lord has impressed on me the magnitude of this so powerful of skills. I am currently reading the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and other writings”. My husband bought it at Borders, but I have also seen it at Barnes and Noble. As an aside, I highly recommend reading this very inspirational and moving narrative. Fredrick Douglass was a slave and ran away to become “his own master”. Very gripping. This man understood liberty in Christ – not the church. But I digress. Fredrick Douglass realized that one of the tactics the white man used to keep the black man enslaved was the ability to read. If the masses were kept ignorant of this precious gift from God, then they could easily be overcome. This is seen in history as well as other countries even today. (Look at those nations who do not allow their women to read! Oh, the injustice done to those women and their children!) I do not desire this ignorance of the written word to allow my children to become enslaved to whims and desires of those who wish to keep them ignorant of Liberty. As John 8:32 states, “You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.”

My goal is to rework our reading time so that the Bible, the life giving and freeing words of our Creator, are its foundation. For Dub (he is the baby) this will simply be reading from the Bible (I don’t have a kids Bible, so he will have to endure the hearing of NKJV or KJV or NIV Bible readings). For Pilot that will include simple copying of short verses and memorization of those verses. For newly Teen Daughter that will include copying of verses or passages, key words studies, paraphrasing, and memorization of those verses and phrases. It would be prudent to work on one verse or phrase a week. I will let you know of our progress. This will be a change, but a very important one.

Psalm 18:28

For thou wilt light my candle: The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.