I've started to teach my 3.5 year old daughter to read using "Teach Your Child to Read in 10 Minutes a Day" by Sidney Ledson. I've been using the book as a guide for the past month or so. My daughter is doing quite well and has learned about half of the alphabet (names and sounds) and she can also sound out a good many three-four letter words. The problem, if it's fair to call it a problem, with the book is that there is no defined lesson plan. We are also very close to finishing the letters for the first 100 words and after that the book begins teaching the rest of the letters in a more indirect way. This departure from the way we have been doing things seems like it could be very daunting for my young student. The book is also slim on details on overcoming obstacles. It is that last reason that brought me to this forum as I can't seem to find a support forum for the book. Can anyone suggest a good phonics based program/book for a Pre-K student? Do any good phonics sites exist?
After seeing the book and knowing how it teaches would you be able to come up with something yourself? That can be scary and time consuming but very rewarding in the end.
Yes, I think I probably can but prefer to use something that is proven and that is well laid out. My daughter has shown that she can do it, I just need to find something that will guide me. My wife will be giving birth to our second child any day now so I kind of need something that will hold my hand as all my 'free' time will be going towards helping my wife with the baby.
I like www.starfall.com for a free phonics program. Otherwise, we used Bob Jones K5 to teach our kids phonics/reading. What I liked about the Bob Jones program was the way it added in letters gradually to form words. Then, the little readers built on those. The first readers are just pictures. Then, they add the small words while parents read the bigger ones. Then, they gradually work up to where the child is reading on their own. They start with the letters 'i', 'n', 's', and 't.' Then, they give one sight word per week. The first one is 'here.' So, a child can read sentences like, "I sit here" or "It is here" by the end of the first week.
Thanks for the guidance. Maybe it's just me, but both the Abeka and Bob Jones programs appear to be multiple books. Where do I even begin?
Bob Jones has a phonics workbook; I did a page a day. Then, it comes with a series of little readers. You do one reader per week, if I recall correctly. So, you'd do the workbook pages during the week and then do the reader on that Friday. The reader would incorporate the sounds and the sight word you've learned for that week. You can move more quickly or more slowly, depending on your child's needs.
We recently fell in love with "Talking Word Factory" by leap frog, and the prequel to it(which I've now ordered from amazon) the "talking letter factory." then there are a few more in the series that take the kids all the way to reading. at $10 or less per video, I don't mind the expense. I used to think Leap Frog was a bunch of money sucking bologne, but now I'm starting to 'get' it. Even my girl who is turning 2 in a few days has learned the sounds for A, O and C, just by watching the word factory. She will know all of them by the time she watches the letter factory a few times. She can't even recognize all her letters. My 3 y/o has known his letters for over a year but I haven't till now found a way to teach him phonics, especially since I didn't learn by phonics myself. There are some good deals on the DVD's on ebay.
