What do you do when they don't want to read? My 6ds refuses to do his reading. We sit down and try going through one lesson in 100 Easy Lessons and he just starts goofing off and pretending that he can't sound out the letters that are in front of him. I have tried everything from rewards to punishment, from changing books to easy readers to playing games. He supposedly does have a problem with phonemic decoding so I have been trying this book again for that purpose. He has some good days where he will sit down and just do it and get through it so I know he is capable.. But 90% of the time it is like pulling teeth. He just refuses to do it. It has gotten so bad that I just stop because I can't handle it. I know that isn't the best but I can't stand the conflict anymore. Help! I don't know what to do anymore! I'm pulling my hair out. Thanks!
Is he a young 6 or an older 6? I might consider backing off for a little bit and spend lots of time reading picture books to him as a way to help him see the value in reading. Also, I might consider approaching phonics in a more fun format like videos or a computer game for now especially if he is a young 6.
At six I would leave them be. I would continue reading class with them but i woudl stop occasionally in a really exciting part and ask them to hold the book for a moment while I ran off to the kitchen or whatever ... to do whatever... then let them wonder what was going to happen next. this measn pick library books that re insteresting. MY ds oldest found the joy of reading a couple of years past your ds by reading captain underpants and the talking toilets but I belive there is a book for your child that wil grab his attention and make him want to learn to read. MY ds had stated he was NOT goign to learn to read because then he would have to read all (that stuff) pointng to his school books. Have patience and let him go.
I agree with Embassy. We're laying off reading with my 6 year old right now, we're just doing read aloud where I read to him. He's really excited cause we're reading 'How to Train Your Dragon' We're using readingeggs.com with my 6 year old right now, come Aug we'll be switching to clicknkids.com for our online phonics program and spelling. He loves computer games, so he thinks he's just having fun, not learning or doing schoolwork. Also check out http://www.starfall.com/ and http://www.abcfastphonics.com/ both Free sites.
I'm ordering clicknkids phonics now for my 7yo who is having difficulty but doesn't want to go back and relearn phonics so I'm getting that for him because it's computer based and I am getting a good deal on it right now through homeschool buyers co-op!
I used to work ok the multidisciplinary team in ps for twenty years. That's the team that does evaluations on kids to see if they qualify for special services or not. I wish I had a dollar for every boy who was initially referred to the team because of reading - and then after all the assessing and testing and intervening and whatever and report writing and such, it was found that there was nothing wrong with him - no LD. THEN, about age 8 1/2 or midyear of what should have been his third grade year (but was actually second grade because he'd already been retained in grade a year, either in first or second), suddenly it's like the lightbulb went on and he "got" reading! If I had a dollar for every boy like that, I'd be a richer woman today. It is so true that some kids just aren't ready yet at age 6 or even 7. I have no way of knowing whether your child is really ready to read or not. My dgs said he was ready at 4 (he was living with us at the time), but we tried 100EZ and he was so not ready! We got about as far as Lesson 12 or 14 or so, and he just quit trying at all. But he still liked playing with www.starfall.com and being read to and writing his name and stuff like that so we had to let it be for now. (He's not staying with us right now.) If a child's brain hasn't matured to the point of readiness to read - and some get to that point at an earlier age than others, and some later -- it doesn't matter what curriculum you try to do, or how interesting you try to make the lessons, he's not going to learn reading. When he really becomes ready, there's not much you can do to stop him! Keep presenting books, fun games and videos, and reading to him, and be patient. He'll get there.
I have let my kids choose their own timeline for reading. My oldest 2 learned to read when they were 7, nearly 8. I have a nearly 7 year old now that can read most things, and I have a 5yo that says she wants to but she isn't ready. I wouldn't push until he reaches 8.
Just another chiming in with the advice to wait. Seriously, you will do him no harm by backing off for a while! My oldest was pressured so hard in school to read before he was ready. He pulled it off enough to get by, but he hated reading. Hated it. It took a long time homeschooling to get him to enjoy reading, but thankfully, he does now. So when I started hs'ing my second son after pre-K, I just followed his lead with regard to reading. He's wrapping up second grade now, and is probably reading at an early 2nd grade level. Last year, he was really behind where "they" said he should be in first grade, but I was not going to push it. This year, he's made huge progress, and I am certain by this time next year, he'll be reading chapter books on his own. He's never lost his love of books, reading and learning and that's what's important to me. I totally agree with the others to not push at all until he's older.
I'm about to start a more regular phonics program with a 4 and 6 year old boy. I purchased The Reading Lesson, its supposed to be a more simplified version of the 100 lessons book. You might want to give this system a try, I got the e-book version so I could print what I need and let them color the pages. You might take a break from the whole thing, I think boys tend to get reading later anyway. I plan to do one lesson a week from the Reading Lesson, but I'm not going to freak out if it doesn't work out, I dont mind taking 10-14 days on a lesson....I think... Would you like to try The Reading Lesson? They have a couple chapters as samples...I like the layout, its clean and not cluttered. I preferred it over the Teach Your child to Read in 100 lessons book...
I might be interested in looking at the Reading Lesson. Where do you find it? Thank you for all your suggestions. I think my oldest son read so well and so early that I try to push that on him. He went through cancer and had chemo for three years so they recommended testing him due to his age and the length of his chemo. He was really strong in every area except reading. I guess that is why I am working so hard on it. I want him to succeed. Sometimes I think I forget that he got off to a rough start in life and I need to let him enjoy what he is doing and learn at his own pace. Thanks for helping me to understand that it is ok to wait ! Rhonda
Count me in as another person who recommends starfall.com. In addition to doing the letters [and every time you click on the picture, it does something different], the site has little interactive books as well. Also, have you looked into Disney's digital books online? We also used a Leapster pen reader for a while.
well you said yourself that you know he is capable, he is just goofing off and won't do it. That is called defiance, and at my house it gets you in big time trouble. No way would I 'lay off' and let him get away with that. Now what to do about it, is the issue, it depends on what kind of punishments work for him individually. Find something that he loves, and take it away! My daughter is a people person, so when she gives me bull, I tell her she can't have friends over, or play outside, keep her indoors. That is a big motivator, for her. She works hard to avoid being kept in. Simply tell her she is not going out, til its done, and done right. Now for your son, it will vary according to what works for HIM.
The reason we put our kids in public school was that my daughter (the oldest) had a huge problem reading. I was an early reader (4) and so I assumed that when I started with her on simple things like sounding out the word hat at 4.5 years old, we'd be off and running. She knew all of the letter sounds, and had for quite a while. But when I tried to get her to put them together it was ridiculous. I felt like I knew that she knew how to do it, but didn't want to. I felt like it was proof that she and I would never work as a homeschooling mom/daughter, so I put her in our local pre-k. It was really upsetting, but I thought I just s*cked as a mom, as a homeschooler, etc. But I didn't want to keep up with the fighting with her to do something that was supposed to be so easy. I figured she must not respect me enough to do even the most easy, fun, one-page little homeschooling activity. It was when she was in kindergarten that the teachers told me that she just had a hard time with phonemic awareness and not to worry about it. She'll get it eventually. In first grade it was the same thing - phonemic awareness, don't worry about it. But lots of pushing it of course because so much of school is reading. Second grade - two reading intervention classes, and she started to do what I would actually call reading, where she's reading spontaneously and automatically, midway through the spring. She still doesn't really like reading though. And I'm sure that it's because it was pushed so much. I have a homeschooling friend whose daughter didn't read spontaneously until she was almost 9. She left her alone about the "reading" part. She read to her a lot. Now at 10 she reads chapter books all the time. I should also say that my daughter may also have something called auditory processing disorder, which she should be officially tested for sometime this summer. Basically she hears fine - sound volume entering her ear is completely normal. It's the connection between the ear and the brain is where the problem comes in. You can google for more info - I'm new here so I'm guessing I can't post a link yet (?). So because she has a problem processing auditory information (either because of APD or because being a poor auditory learner), and phonemic awareness is an auditory language skill, she had to slog through all of that without being able to make much sense of it for a long time. It wasn't until she was in the reading intervention class - lots of individual attention, very little ambient noise, that she was able to figure it out. Nancy
Birbit-that's why I'm using clicknkids too LOL my son learned basic phonics in PS, but he does need more help and he LOVES video and computer games, it's not 'schoolwork' to him, it's fun. So that's one thing I won't have to fight him to get him to do LOL Lindina brought up a good point, I've heard from several professionals that boys are later readers than girls naturally. AS mamamuse said, my son was forced to read in public kindergarten and got to where he hated books, he didn't even want to be read to, much less be forced to read. so we're not pushing the issue that HE reads right now, but just doing read alouds, he's starting to show more interest in being read to now, I have no doubt that when he's ready he'll show interest in reading books himself. I have noticed he's starting to read in the real world a bit, which is new for him (signs and labels and such) My fear is forcing him (my son, not yours) to read at will make him hate reading for life. I LOVE to read, and want to pass that on to my children, so I'm not stressing that he's not into reading at such a young age. I'm quite sure, like lindina said, in year or 2, he'll get it and it won't be forced.
