ps she may know a word one day and have forgotten it the next day, or one page it will say 'i can see a cat' next page 'i can see a dog' so she will pressume the next page will say 'i can see a ...' so she says something with out looking at the words!!!!!!
This is why I used Hooked on Phonics. I like the "hand holding" approach. It guided me though the whole process. I had never tried to teach anyone to read before so I wanted something that explained how to do it. I was worried I could not do it so I wanted something that would help me teach him. I am a worry wart though and freak out easily if I dont know how to do something and wind up with lots of videos, tapes, and CDs so I feel more comfortable in teaching a subject. Thats exactly why for writing I am spending a small fortune on IEW, and also buying the $100 dollar Latin curriclum because I want to be sure I am doing everything right. I will loose sleep if I dont know if I am doing everything right. I know I probably worry for no reason but I cant help it! Sorry for rambling.
All normal and all important in learning to read. Sounds like she's developing her own workarounds which is great because it means she got the motivation needed to learn to read. By playing up did you mean acting up? I've generally found that if a kid is acting up, it doesn't matter why (hungry, tired, frustrated, mischeivious) it's the signal to drop the book or lesson. There's a great quote: “Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If he’s not interested it’s like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating.” - Barbara Lamping
Yeah sounds like me, i really dont want to screw her life up!!! so thats why i bought everything i could!
dawninns - thank you for reasurring me i was not sure if i was going mad or not! she is an angel normally and i hate to see her upset and frustrated! i have gone back to basics and have done vowels again just hope it sticks this time. when is a good time to start teach your child to read and do i start at lesson 1?
Really, I never did. I just read a lot to the kids, did some odd phonics stuff, etc. They get it eventually when it's always going on around them, much like language.
My kids learned to read at different ages. One dd learned to read well by her third birthday. The other dd by 4 years old. My ds is 7 1/2 and would still be considered a beginner. I wouldn't worry. The range is approximately between 4 and 11 years-old for reading mastery.
Just a thought. I'm researching some classical writing and progymnasmata programs and one thing some do at a younger age is use Aesop's Fables. They're very short and interesting. What if you read one at the beginning of the week with her and she read it back to you. Next day pick a few sentences for copywork. Next day read and edit the copywork. Last day she could tell it back to you in her own words or after substituting silly nouns or verbs (catherine did something like that here and here). She could spend the whole week getting familiar with the words in the fable through different activities.
If you are going to use Teach your child to read in 100 Easy Lessons, I would start with lesson 1 and then if that's too easy do 2 lessons a day until you get to a point where it is challenging her and then slow down to one lesson a day! We use this with our boys and both are reading very well right now, we are on lesson 50 and the just started reading without the dots and they are doing just great. They are even reading some little readers on their own!
One Step At A Time My DSD (7) has a problem with giving up as soon as she is frustrated. She wants to throw the book down and quit. I admit that I want to quit too and move on to something else but I make her go back and find the part she didn't understand. I tell her she can quit as soon as she finds the part she didn't get. When she finds it I explain it and the light bulb ALWAYS goes off and she smiles or laughs. Then I'll offer to put the book down and she'll usually grab it back. I haven't started HS her in all subjects but we've been working on reading all summer. I'm glad we're HS her this year because she is slow and she needs that one-on-one and someone to push her. I'm hoping by teaching her to calm down and look again she'll become more persistent in other things. So YOU can do it! Just one step at a time I like that Jordin Sparks song where she says "One step at a time, no need to rush. It's like learning to fly, or falling in love. It's gonna happen when it's supposed to happen and we find the reasons why, one step at a time." It'll happen!
thank you, i will try some of those tips, she gets so frustrated that she pulls her hair which gets very upsetting for us to watch! i have bought bob books, which are so good but again she does look at the picture or ask me to read it or get into the flow of repeating a pattern of words and keep going then it catches her out!
Didn't read all the posts but what helped my ds' learn how to read was consistency and repetition with the Abeka reading program. It really gave them a concrete foundation for learning to read, reading well and comprehending what they read, so they LOVE to read! I can't speak for any other reading programs as we only used Abeka.
Spelling and syllables help A Beka is great, it uses syllables. I used Webster's Blue Backed Speller with my daughter, the work with spelling and syllables really helped cement the information in her brain. With Webster, you learn syllables first: ab, eb, ib, ob, ub and ba, be, bi, bo, bu, by. You learn how to read and spell these syllables first. It then moves on to longer words and then words divided into syllables: ba-ker, ab-stract. Working with a white board helped hold her attention. I also find Webster's Speller helpful for my remedial reading students. You want to stay away from sight words and anything that encourages the habit of guessing at words.
We did a restart with 100 lessons after a break of a couple months. We just glanced over the lessons starting at about 25. We did not do all of the scripted stuff, and mostly just read through the words as we went. We breezed through until we hit a slowdown and then restarted there.
We are using Teach your child in 100 lessons now and it's working great. We are on lesson 52 and the boys are already reading some beginning readers on their own...actually they read us their bedtime story tonight.
thank you i think the main problem is she guesses a word, so obviously something somewhere along the lines has not clicked, but have no idea where or why, any ideas? thanks
I'd try some nonsense words and start with syllables, you can't guess those! Also, if you use Webster's Speller and teach her to spell every word that she reads, they will be so firmly in her memory that she won't be need to guess at words when seeing them later. (Some example nonsense words: nat, lib, mep, labe, meep.) Syllables also appear as nonsense words in isolation: ba, be, bi, bo, bu, by, ab, eb, ib, ob, ub, but are actually parts of real words such as ba-ker, ab-stract, and ob-struct. I have a lot of experience with remediating students who guess, and have found that the best way to break the habit is to overlearn the phonics skills and work on words in isolation before allowing them to read stories. When they have enough phonics learned well, they'll be able to read just about anything! (The only thing I've found that my daughter now has trouble reading is the ingredients on a mountain dew can. Some of them are challenging for me!) When we were using a bit of conventional phonics programs, mostly A Beka and Phonics Pathways, although I occasionally supplemented with a few others, my daughter would still occasionally guess at a word or two. After switching to Webster's Speller, she has not guessed at words at all. We spent 10 minutes a day on Webster's Speller, that was all it took for us. You don't have to spell every word, they just have to be able to get the concept of spelling the words in each table. I generally had her spell from 2 - 8 words for each table and read them all. For a few concepts that she had trouble with, I had her spell all the words in the table over a period of a few days. I would make sure your daughter has spelled every syllable, they are the foundation of the program. If you need any more help, or need more detailed instructions, you can send an e-mail.
thanks thats great, at least now i know what the problem is 'the guessing' if a word begins with p she automatically thinks it says paint! or d is dog etc. i ordered that book yesterday so should be here by the middle of next week. once you started using the book, for 10 minutes a day, did you use it mon-fri or everyday? how long did it take to start to stick in her mind? i also have phonics pathways, did you give her a page a day or more? sorry to ask so many questions, its just so new to me, and when she had those 5/6 weeks in school, they said dont worry if she guesses or if she knows the book off by heart!!!! (hence how glad am i to have her out of there )
I use this with my ds. When we started it, he was all for it & enjoyed doing it everyday, sometimes more than 1 lesson a day. Then he just stopped wanting to do it. I think we were in the 20s.so, we stopped using it for a while. I ask him if he wants to do it. If he says yes, we do it, if he says no we do something else. We go starfaal.com, do Explode the Code, Leap Frog Phonics kits, regular LeapPad books, plus lots of reading together. When we read together, I ask him if he wants to help me read. Most of the time he'll choose one word that he wants to read & will read that word every time it comes up in the story. Sometimes, he'll read a sentence every page or two. Every once in while, he'll read most of the book to me, but that's pretty rare. I know he can do it & is making progress, but I won't force it because then he won't enjoy it. He also enjoys listening to audio books while looking through the book. I agree with eveyone else, don't push it. It'll come to her. All kids get reading at different times. Some start reading really early, and others don't really get it until they're 9 or 10. At 5.5 I wouldn't worry too much. She has plenty of time. I would make sure there's a variety of reading related activities she can do, and just let her choose which ones to do each day. If she knows that she can choose what she wants to do, she'll enjoy it more.
I just wanted to add that we are using 100 easy lessons. And my son hit a road block on lesson 50 as well. He did pretty much the same thing your daughter does. We stopped for several months, then picked back up around lesson 30. I randomly chose something around there and then "tested" him to see how well he did. He flew through it, so we just started there and worked until now we are on lesson 55. There were several things that I think caused the problem. 1 he just wasn't ready mentaly. 2. the structure freaked him out. Lesson 50 is where the "read it fast" comes in to play in a major way. I have noticed that there are really a ton of kids who balk at this lesson. I feel it must be that part of the guide that freaks them out. 3. The strict structure, i.e. the way I was teaching it. How I fixed those was I stopped and rested until he asked me to teach him to read again. Which was about 5 months. 2. I stopped telling him to read it fast, or anything other then just read the words. I don't even read the read words at all anymore. 3. is we look at the picture first, then take it easy and if the day is not going well we will stop and pick up the lesson the next day, or later in the day when he is ready to try harder. I have also bought the bob books. I use them not as a teach him to read book. But a book that he can read to everybody so he gets kudo's for being able to read. He loves it and reads them to everybody who comes over. I do make sure he reads the words and not the pictures, sometimes I cover up the pictures so he can't guess. One last thing is that my son seems to go in cycles sometimes his brain is really focused on math, and he picks out and talks about all the numbers and math things around us, that he sees. Sometimes he just wants to read, and be read to, and notices words, and ask about them. I don't really know if they are "ment" to learn each subject at the same time. Especially when they are so young and their brains are forming and growing so much.
