Okay I am so confused right now on which phonics program to use with Grace who is 4. She has begun asking me to teach her to read. She is beyond preschool on other things and we will be working on K stuff in the fall. I want to give her the best! I have never taught a child to read before. Samantha learned in private school when she was 3 so teaching someone to read is so new to me and I don't even know where to start!!! I have heard of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons and even saw a copy of it at the Christian bookstore. I didn't have anytime to really look at it though because I had Grace pulling on my arm to see something else. I plan to go back this week and take a better look. I also plan on going to our local hs store this week to check things out. So before I go I need suggestions and recommendations from those of you who have done this before. What did you use?
http://www.progressivephonics.com/index.htm (Free printable phonics books. They also have books for purchase) http://www.starfall.com/ Starfall Phonics (this is useable online and you can print out free worksheets. They also have many items for purchase) http://donpotter.net/PDF/Word Mastery - Typed.pdf (Word Mastery Phonics for the first three grades, 128 page printable) You can also purchase Explode the Code books, start with A and go from there.
I have heard wonderful things about the book you mentioned...though I have no experience with it. Abeka is awesome for phonics and reading.
My cousin who is a retired resource teacher recommended Explode the Code too. I bought it at the book fair last week. Beth
You will either love or hate Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. I think Explode the Code is bland and for the younger kids I like a bit more color and "fun". I like the Steck-Vaughn Phonics books. Looks like SV is changing them and I haven't used the new ones. I found the K Phonics here for $3 not written in http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=875533324&searchurl=isbn=0817283757&sts=t&y=0&x=0 K - ISBN 0817283757 Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading is good and easy http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ind...inary parents guide to reading&_encoding=UTF8 Get or make some sliders use card stock paper and then cut slits to let the moving paper piece go up and down or make a circle shape wheel that turns. So..then you have the vowels on the moving piece and then The use your word families b _ d f _ d l _ d etc...
Well I've worked with dd all along and here's what I used http://www.letteroftheweek.com/site_map.html she has some excellent lesson plans on there and endless ideas and resources. I also used starfall and other worksheets and workbooks. I have a friend using Explode the Code with her 4yo right now and he likes it. We did a lot of reading aloud, a lot of games with making words and sounds, ect. This is also another good site http://www.adrianbruce.com/reading/games.htm I think I've printed out just about every game on there and even made my own from those.
Thanks for the replies! Now I have a lot of links to check out. I heard of Explode the Code but didn't know if it was for a preschooler. Is the letter of the week site for letter recognition or teaching reading? Seriously I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm very worried about my ability to teach Grace to read. I mean I know I can do it but this is something new I've never done so I'm nervous about doing a good job.
Totally seconding www.starfall.com . GREAT program. Both my older kids learned to read using starfall and are GREAT readers now. My 2nd grader reads 5th grade level, and my Kinder reads 3rd grade level. It's AWESOME. and it's free. And even if you decide to purchase the items, it's REALLY REALLY cheap....no one can touch their prices.
I wouldn't stress too much. Just start with the basics- letter sounds. Then add in the blends, then the vowel sounds, so on and so forth- that's how I did it anyways. Dd was actually in preschool at 3 and started in ps K this year but we pulled her back in Dec. But I'm the one who probably had the most to do with her learning to read because we worked on it at home. Leapfrog has some good videos too- letter factory and word factory are the two we have.
Grace and I just spent some time at the starfall website. She really liked it for a while. Short attention span and all. She went through letter sounds a - h and was able to remember a and c sounds. I guess it is just going to take lots of repitition before she gets stuff like that to click in her head. She really wants to learn to read so I hope I can do this. She is a very wiggly 4 yr old and never sits still.
At four going through a to h is pretty good. Honestly, all I do with Starfall is put a mouse in my child's hand and walk away. I've found with both that there's no need to help or hover as they'll explore it on their own and have a pile of fun while they're at it.
Okay so you don't sit there and go though it with them? I wasn't sure if there was a method to this or not! LOL! She went to H but didn't remember them all.
Another thing I did with dd is find different words- memorable ones for her and we'd say the letter sound and then the word like this A a, a, a, a, apple B buh, buh, buh, buh bear and so on we started when she was around 3- that's when she got the leapfrog videos. By 4 she was reading small words like cat, bat, ect. Anything with a short vowel sound she could sound out. Then we added the blends, and we're almost through the digraphs and dipthongs and she's 6. One thing at a time. If she's a mover- mine is, don't make her sit. Make up a song or the letters and words like I sad above and have her jump while she says each one or act out each one.
You'll do great! I have a VERY wiggly 5 yr. old and here's what we've been using. I can't believe her progress! Many of these things have already been mentioned, but I wanted to tell you EXACTLY what has worked for us. First - she couldn't remember letter sounds, LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD from Target fixed that. (There are even flashcards you can get that match the DVD. These helped us!) Then, we got the BOB books. They all use hard consonants and short vowels so she could manage them w/what she learned from Leapfrog. Finally I got "Learn to read in 20 Lessons". I looked at the 100 lessons book but liked this better. We sit and read about 4 pages every day. It is very slow and repetitious, so she doesn't get frustrated. For worksheets we use the "Code" books. They have all levels of books starting with the most basic letter sounds. She does starfall by herself for fun. You CAN do this.
I am not using it- but Scaredy Cat reading system by Joyce Herzog looks really good, I may go to it next year as my son doesnt like what I have for him. It is bland. www.joyceherzog.com I have seen this presented and talked with a few people they will send you a free DVD demo explaining the system so you can see it before you buy. I would at least get the DVD and check it out! Jill
