Ladies, I need some help. :cry: My nine year old daughter is having trouble with reading. I started her off in kindergarten with Abeka phonics and she was doing great. We continued with Abeka for 1st and 2nd grade and then switched to Bob Jones. Now she will not sound out the words and says it is too confusing. She can read, but not at her grade level. She is very frustrated and I am feeling like a failure. Can you all recommend some reading helps for us? I want to help her get past this frustration and on to enjoying reading, but I am stuck. Please, any ideas and suggestions are appreciated!!
My 9 year old used Hooked on Phonic Master Reader last spring to help boost her reading level and confidence. She loved it! I got it at Wal-Mart for $80. It has 4 levels included. Part of it is a computer type game, part is a reading article per lesson. At the end of a level, there is a book...my daughter re-read the books...she liked them that much. It's for grades 2-6. She was reading probably at a 3rd grade level when she started but had a weakness with phomenic awareness...she learned to read by sight words at her other school. She reads much better but even more encouraging is that she has MUCH more confidence to try to read things that might previously have been too hard to even try. You might take a look at it and see what you think. I easily sold mine to a friend when we were done with it.
I haven't used Abeka or Bob Jones phonics, but if she was doing well with Abeka then maybe go back to Abeka. I've noticed some phonics programs word things differently and it may be confusing for a child to go from one program to another. I plan on using Explode the Code online with my son this year. Right now he is using Starfall.com.
Try not to get too hung up on the 'grade level' part and try to focus on books that intrest her and let her enjoy reading. I've found many second hand Abeka readers on e bay and they have been great for my reluctant reader.
I let my kids pick what books they want to do as read-alouds, so long as they're reasonably close to, at, or above grade level. Then, we share the reading. I'll read a paragraph, then they read a paragraph. I've found that has really helped my daughter, who HATES to have to sound something out, feel not so frustrated with reading. In fact, she actually demands to do her reading first. We've been doing Judy Moody books here lately, but we go to Half-Price books often so the kids can look through the chapter books and see if there's something that sparks their interest.
She loves to read when we read together, usually I read a page she reads a page, but she won't try to sound out the words. She told me it makes her sound funny when she has to sound them out. I try to tell her that it's part of the learning process, but she won't budge. Rhonda, I just looked up Hooked on Phonic Master Reader at Walmart and found it for $59! I am going to get that asap. I really think that a boost in confidence will do her a world of good. Thank you for all of your suggestions, it is so helpful to hear what others have done in similar situations! Thank you all!
We have been using Hooked on Phonics Master Reader for two years and it is really helping. We also have Read, Write, & Type and Word Qwerty by Talking Fingers. They teach typing skills and phonics at the same time. My daughter thinks she is just learning to type so she can email friends, but I know that it is teaching her phonics too.
Try to play lots of games that involve reading - ones where you have to read a card to play or something like that - the teacher's stores usually have a good selection, or look at a local game store -- there are SEVERAL fun games that use a lot of reading!
Have you tried Explode the Code? Maybe she doesn't want to sound them out because there are so many exceptions to rules out there? I don't know. I love ETC, though. It's very easy to use. If you see a lesson about something she already knows, skip it and go to the next. I may be wrong, but it doesn't seem to "build" on itself all that much (I mean, other than getting progressively harder). You don't have to learn "their way" of reading something before understanding the next lesson and the next and the next, KWIM? Abeka is a great curriculum, but it seems to me that so much is built on its own system that it's hard to move to something else? I don't know. I have the reading stuff (came in the kit), so I've looked at it, but we haven't actually used it. Maybe it's just me, but it seemed more complicated than it needed to be?
