Tag Archives: Montessori

How I teach Reading: Real Help to Kids Having Trouble

I was asked to say something about how homeschooling moms can help children who are having trouble reading. This is my method. This is how I taught reading to my grandsons. One of them was being put back in Kindergarten for the 3rd time, during the October of his first grade year. My daughter appealed to me since she was getting nowhere with the school system. He learned in 4 hours! We worked with him in other ways and he excelled. Then, I used the same method on the second grandson who had different problems and then compounded with a serious brain injury from a car accident. He went on to a private Elementary with no one ever knowing he had had a problem. He was on the honor roll for the next two years.

Don’t let bad method be the reason that your child learns that he is stupid or that she is “learning disabled.” Of course, some problems may need some help by skilled professionals, but teaching reading in a sensible, organized, multi-sensory way is a reasonable place to start.

Here is how.

New Book Announcement – English Spelling Patterns


I wrote this first for my grandsons. I have never seen spelling taught in an organized, sensible fashion. Well, except once: my friend was teaching her preschooler at home and started with cat, rat, bat. So sensible. Never done.

Later, I discovered that many students could not intuit the rules like I could. Give me a word and I normally can guess how it is spelled. Many can not do that. So why not teach them the rules? I discovered that the Orton-Gillingham Method for teaching students with dyslexia does this, at least to some extent. So it was not until I was grown, with all my education, many degrees, and had a daughter in junior high and in a program for remediating Dyslexia, that I heard “when 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking, and says its name.”

I also realized that all Montessori teachers will need this, since all they have is the basic “what you see is what you get” from Montessori, who spoke Italian — a wysiwyg language.

Then I discovered that some very well educated ESL students appreciated the work. So now it is available on Amazon and Kindle for everyone.

Enjoy. Share.

Journey of Providing High Quality, Low Cost, Christian Preschool

Barbra Fidellow continues telling us her journey of faith and service. She and her husband founded two Montessori preschools in the Dallas area and subsequently one in El Salvador. They also founded the Christian Montessori Fellowship and are working to provide teacher education worldwide, beginning in El Salvador. Inspiring history.

We all talk about changing the world. We all have heard “it made a different for that one.” Here is a couple who have made a difference for many. Their lessons can spur us to greater service.