Ok it is supposed to be NUTS! And she totally is driving me NUTS! Delaney is doing kinder. She is flying through math like a crazy bird. Science has her giddie. Social studies even is keeping her interest. Give her a map and she is in her glory! Reading...phonics.....sight words........OMGoosh I swear she is out to frustrate me! I noticed she is completely a memory and worksheet gal. The hooked on phonics I got her went out the window. It just didn't interest her and she hated it. So I hooked her up with Reading Eggs online and Time 4 Learning. I then take the learned words and letter sounds and do worksheets, flash cards, games, sentences and such with them. This is more to her liking. But I can tell language arts just isn't her thing! Math she is going though the work fast and you can see she enjoys it. When I do language arts/reading with her...I think she would rather be at the dentist! LOL! She is rolling around in her chair. She is playing with her socks. 1/2 the time she isn't even looking at the work! And her mind is totally NOT there. She will tell me a sight word is 'car' when it is 'lap' or 'cat' when it is 'dog'. I know she knows these words! One day she gets them right. The next she gets them all wrong. She will get the site word wrong and yet turn around and read it in a book! Or visa versa! She knows letter sounds! How in the world do you get 'car' when it is 'lap'!!!!!!!!!!?????????? :roll: I know it is because she is simply not paying attention. So...........does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep this girls attention!? If she tells me 'pig' is 'cat' one more time while she is picking lint off her shirt ........I swear I might go bonkers!
I am going to say something that addresses a whole different way of looking at this: You have just finished saying how wonderful she is doing in at least 3 subjects. I would urge you to balance out this with the frustration you are feeling with the reading, etc. She is in kinder, so I am thinking 5yr. old or so. She may truly not be ready for reading. A great many kids in homeschool (and ps) have difficulty in this subject. My son did in private school. When it clicked it clicked and he did fine. I don't know if she is trying to make you upset. Maybe, just maybe, she is so frustrated with the whole thing that she doesn't feel she can do it (and maybe she can't at this age) so she just blurts out whatever. There are many testimonies of kids not learning how to read until much later, and not suffering at all for it. How is her behavior in general? If it is good. I would urge you to back off the phonics and enjoy the rest of the stuff. If it is bad. I would work with the behavior issue before working to hard with the phonics.
I'm going to say something here as well... but please understand it comes from MY experiences, and isn't meant to mean ALL children are like this. In ps reading with my dd was a complete bust. She was guessing constantly. Sometimes, like your child, she would get it right. Just as often it would be totally wrong. For us- sight words were the problem. My dd didn't know to read a word from left to right. She didn't know all the letter sounds, let alone how to sound out a word correctly ('phonics' kids and 'sight words' kids make totally different mistakes with reading. Sight words kids tend to guess a word that has the same basic shape- cat for dog for instance.). I had to change how she was taught COMPLETELY before I even pulled her out of ps. She still struggles, but so much is just her confidence level. She was convinced she couldn't do anything at all except art, so we have to take everything with reading really slowly. Please don't let your child get to that point, as well. At 5, the big thing is really letter sounds, and feeling confident with them. I know ps pushes the 'dolch words' list, but if it isn't working for you no matter how hard you try, it very well could be your CHILD rather than the method. Not all kids can learn with sight words. Work on letter sounds, and work on making it fun. There is no huge hurry here. At the end of the day, you want your child to LIKE reading so she goes on to read for enjoyment later.
I think she hates the method, not the words. Drop "reading" altogether. (So SHE thinks, anyway. ) Get level 1 or 2 readers from the library, and let her pick the topics. (Or for that matter, get ANYTHING at the library... and let her choose the topic.) Use books on CD. Use music or videos that have the words (like Scholastic DVDs or Leapfrog). Encourage with sticker charts, or x-number of books = reward, or whatever suits her fancy. Do "everyday" reading (like ToysRUs catalogs, cookbooks, watching Jeopardy, etc.). Tell her when she's ready to read on her own, you'll buy her a little book light so she can read for 30 minutes in bed each night. (My son LOVES THIS!) Make it fun so she'll see what she's missing out by not reading. Maybe she realizes Dick & Jane is baby-ish and she wants something more grown-up?
cabsmom40- Oh I know she isn't doing it to be bad. She just doesn't care. I think she finds it boring. The fact that she is intense with the other subjects and then is more interested in rolling around in her chair during lang. arts tells me that. I am the one who gets frustrated! I find myself saying something like "Do you SEE an L there? Why are you saying lap?" And I know I have to take a step back at that point. Meghan- We already tried phonics. As I mentioned, she seems to rather pick up on the sight words better I don't want to stop completely. I don't think she HAS to read a chapter book at this age but she should be in the ball park of simple reading. Even if it is only 2-3 word sentences. What I am asking is if there is any suggestions or approaches that might be good for her? Tricks that worked for 'your' kids? Games....lessons....computer games/lessons........curriculum......whatever. I want to keep her interest moving forward. Even if we have to slow it down some. But I want to make it fun. KWIM? If that means mommy has to do a jig in the kitchen I will try it! LOL!
Leapfrog taught my youngest. Not sure how my oldest learned, but I followed up with Explode the Code (workbooks, not computer), and he loved it. I'll be using it again with my youngest in 6-12 mos. I know there are a handful of kids out there who really can't learn with phonics, but for 99% of the world, that's the way to go. Figuring out how letters go together will open a child up to any word. Learning sight words is very limiting, because they don't always follow the rules, and then you have to re-teach spelling. Phonics and spelling kinda go hand in hand. I haven't had to teach very much spelling, either. She might not be ready. She might simply hate language arts. If either are true, there's nothing you can do to change it ... at least not immediately, anyway. My oldest hates math most of the time, but there are days when I wonder who replaced my child with a math whiz. Kids learn in spurts, it seems.
LOL!!!! Try www.starfall.com My kids loved it at that age. Of course, i never did anything formal other than that to teach them to read (I tried a bunch of different things with my oldest, but this is the one that stuck).
My younger daughter taught herself to read with www.starfall.com, and she still likes playing with it. She's a sight reader, too.
Sorry- I misunderstood. I agree with starfall. My dd has a reading phobia (getting better) and even she loves that site.
another vote for starfall.com here! Also focus your reading skills right now on the subjects she is interested in only. Being only 5 she has plenty of time, if you focus on what she likes the rest will fall into place.
