So since really getting in to teaching my 1st grader to read, i have learned it is a slow process, and i cant expect big results overnight. It is testing my patience and the first time Ive ever thought "maybe i should put him in PS" lol. i think teaching my children to read may be the hardest thing i will ever do. kudos to you who it was easy for... if you exist please tell me im not alone in wanting to pull my hair out...
You are not alone. Teaching reading is the hardest part. Once they are reading and gain confidence, it DOES get a little easier. a little. Keep up....you're doing good Mom. Fight the good fight! We're in the trenches with you and you're not alone!
It was WAY harder teaching my grandson to read last year in first grade, and not particularly any easier continuing it into second this year. In fact, we continued first grade into second, starting second about mid-year, and we'll do the same with second-to-third next year. I hope he follows his daddy's pattern (as he has with SO many other things) and in a few months decides that reading can be fun. I'm going to blame it on the fact that DGS attended public school kindergarten, and they claimed to do phonics but actually did lots and lots of sight words (They promised he'd be reading by the end of the K year. He wasn't.) Samuel Blumenthal says that people who are started off with sight words (the old look-and-guess method like Dick and Jane readers), their brains actually get rewired by it, and have much struggle to change to learning by phonics. Hey, it's as good an excuse as any, isn't it???
Yep, I know what you mean. We started but it was so difficult we stopped, waited a couple of months and then tried again. And then it just clicked. You know it has to do with the cognitive development in the different cortex of the brain. E.G. the right side of the body (minus the thumbs) is controled by the left side of the brain and visa versa. There are certain excersices that can help. Do a google search on "crossing the midline". Once your child can touch their right hand to their left knee, and opposite, easily then they are ready to read. Keep trying, don't give up
Teaching Em to read was the easy part. In fact, all subjects were somewhat easy when we first started. It had nothing to do with me, Em just got it. It was around 3rd grade that schooling in general became more challenging and I had to keep tabs on my attitude. Now that she is in high school, it is a breeze. She is almost completely independent.
I can't even tell you how many things I have tried... and what has worked for this one has not worked for that one and such. Reagan started to get a little easier to deal with once he got his glasses, and Rylee is just now starting to show that she "gets it" but still struggles... I have noticed a big leap in her reading things when we are out like packages at stores and street signs. I do credit a lot of their learning to Leap Frog videos and Reading Eggs. For Rylee ETC and the Sonlight readers worked, for Reagan it's HOP with the DVDs. My biggest struggle homeschooling right now is Rylee and math, it's horrible, she just can not think in numbers, she can not make sense of any of it. As much as I love McRuffy Math, it's just too much and too fast for her, I think we may use Easy Peasy and get a simple workbook like The Complete Book of Math or Total Math.
Rachael was my easy one (not only with Reading, but everything else!). I taught her short vowel sounds, and she was reading novels in first grade. But before you starting kick yourself because your kids aren't doing that, let me tell you my other two are NOTHING like their sister! It's more having a "gifted" child, than my teaching!!! There really IS a "readiness" for reading. If you try to push it before it's there, you not only struggle, but build in the child a sense of failure. Reading is "hard", and they simply "can't" do it, and that attitude ends up being your biggest problem. I honestly think that's one of the main problems with the traditional school! But if you wait patiently until the child is ready, they take off and blossom. And it even out in the end. The child who takes off at four or five learns a great deal, and then plateaus. The child who isn't ready until he's nine all learns quickly and more than makes up for that "lost time". Soon he's right up there with the early reader. It has NOTHING to do with "intelligence"!!! So my advice is to back off from teaching a struggling reader. Do a little here and there, but make it fun. Lots of rhyming books that they can more or less memorize. That's what made the old Green Eggs and Ham style popular! And now there's the Real Kid Readers, which are great for beginners. And the other thing is to READ ALOUD to your child CONSTANTLY. Do picture books, easy readers, and full novels. And it will build in her a love of literature, which will help her along when she's ready.
Everything she said......of my five children, one son didn't take off reading until almost 10....and from that he TOOK OFF! I wanted to push and push because everyone else's kid had been reading since 6.....but one wise mom told me to not force it; keep reading fun however I could...he'd get there at his own time schedule. And he did. At 17 he finished "Under the Dome" in 3 days....over 1,000 pages!!
oooh you beautiful ladies have made me feel so much better!!!! we are done with all of our other subjects for the year so ive been doing 20 minutes of reading practice in the morning and the rest is just me reading to him for fun. that seems to be helping with our frustration!
im im being honest with myself i do have to admit i have a problem with wanting to push because he has so many PS friends and they are all reading well for the most part.. its hard when my DS was hardly reading at all.
I hear ya! We got to halfway through Reading 2 and LA 2, and quit for the year. For the rest of the year, I have him reading and answering one one-page story a day - to himself - in Spectrum 2 workbook. And the science and history, he gets read to him while he follows along or alternates pages/paragraphs. And every night, Papaw reads to him - they laughed SO hard at Pippi Longstocking and Hank the Cowdog that I thought maybe they shouldn't read those in bed... if you get my drift. He'll pick up. His daddy did, around third grade.
My oldest learned to read on his own. So yeah it's been a VERY different experience teaching my second to read this year. His confidence is building though and he's begun trying to read books independently of me even which isn't something he would have even tried two months ago. I really just tried not to push and anytime it got to frustrating we'd walk away. He does really love his explode the code workbook too and I do think that has helped some with connecting some dots in his brain.
Is he a young 1st grader or an older first grader? What do you consider reading well? Is he frustrated with his reading skills? I know it is hard to not compare. I know many kids half my children's age that can do what my children can't do. Every child has strengths. Celebrate that strength with him and if you have been formally teaching reading for awhile (like more than the last 2 school years) or if he is frustrated or sensing your frustration I would definitely back off for awhile or jump back to where reading instruction is at a very easy level.
He is a young first grader, does well in all other subjects but reading. When I say "reading well" when talking about his friends, I mean they are reading passages out of the Bible easily when asked in Sunday School, something DS is far from doing. We just started with reading last year and took a long break from it when i realized he just wasn't getting it. We've started back again over the last few months and it's been slow. I realized he may be feeling my own frustration (and perhaps even my own insecurities about teaching him to read) and I know that's not right, so I've been working on it for sure. I have just been letting him know how easy it will be for him one day and that he's a smart boy and is able to do it. Trying to be laid back about it and let him know it's okay.
Wow, reading passages out of the Bible easily is not something typically done in 1st grade. Sure, there are some kids who do that but most translations are 5th grade level or higher. First grade level is more like Cat in the Hat. Is he far from that? Add to that the fact that he is young for his age and a boy. I would try to put my expectations on him achieving solid Kindergarten reading skills this year and then build on that next year. It may click or it may go slow. I wouldn't plan on calling it an area of difficulty any time soon. I would work at a level that is mostly easy with a tiny bit of stretch. Build up his confidence and lower your expectations. It is okay for him to take some time here. You are a great mom and teacher! Keep on keeping on
I agree with Embassy! BTW, does the teacher have all the kids take turns reading out loud? If so, I would speak to her about it. Even with older kids, reading skills vary and I would never have a kid read aloud unless they volunteered.
