So DD has expressed an interest in reading and has some sight words down, etc. etc. Grants she is 4 yo and 3months I decided to try it out. We use 100 Easy Lessons and the BOB Books. We are really not doing any handwriting because she struggles with it. She does well with the majority of each lesson in the 100 Easy Lessons book and has pretty much memorized the BOB Books. However, even with the short lessons she fidgits and does not pay 100% attention. I figured this was a sign she wasn't quite ready - would you agree? If this is the case but she is still interested should I try doing a sight words approach and worry about phonics less for the time being? Just trying to look at a way to approach this and still have her feeling a sense of accomplishment.
100 Easy Lessons and I didn't get along, don't ask me why! You might want to put it aside for a while. Get some beginning readers (I like Real Kid Readers! They rhyme, concentrate on a particular phonetic sound/pattern, and have "real" pictures). Do "real life" reading...give her your shopping list and have her cross off the items. ("Here's the bananas. What letter does it start with? Can you find the BANANAS with the "B" in front?") I would also make Word Books with Phillip. Go to your Word program, get into the Clip Art, and print out lots of words that start with a particular letter. Cut them out and make a little "book" with them. "Phillip's B Book", with a book, bunny, ball, boy, etc. One per page. She can copy the word, or you can write it for her. And, of course, she can "read" it to Daddy when he gets home. Teach her color and number words...you can get lots of worksheets for that. Also, you can make a chart of color and number words; if she's not sure what the color word on the paper is, she find the matching word on her chart. Help her become aware of words she DOES know...like the name of stores (!!!) and signs (STOP, WOMEN, EXIT, etc.)
We used to write simple notes to each other. Ems loved it. She didn't even know she was learning to read. We would put them in the fridge, under her bedroom door, or wherever. She would also write us simple notes as her writing improved. Sometimes Handsome would leave a short, simple note for her before he left to work.
For my ds, we use 100 Easy Lessons, ETC, and lots of reading together. He also really likes the Leap Frog DVDs. I let him choose which one we'll do each day. Sometimes, he'll go weeks (or even months) without wanting to do 100 Easy Lessons. Sometimes, he'll want to do multiple lessons from it in one day. I leave it up to him, so he doesn't become bored with reading instruction & still enjoys it. Starfall.com is free & is a fun, interactive way for them to learn phonics. My ds really loves reading the books on that sight. My suggestion would be to offer some variety in what you use for reading & phonics instruction. That way, she can choose what to do each day. She's less likely to get bored with one, if she has a few to choose from.
I definitely think I should not be so insistent about having her do it every day. This is really our first couple weeks homeschooling so I am trying to get a sense of where she is at and what she is capable and willing to do on a daily basis. I think I am going to back off a little bit. I really like the Dourch (spelling?) method someone mentioned above. I think that might be more her speed so she can focus on one thing while we read.
My DS#1 didn't do well with 100 Lessons, either. There was WAY too much on the page for him - it didn't matter that he only "had" to look at one or two things. It was just too much. He did much, much better with Teach Your Child to Read in 10 Minutes a Day. It's basically the same approach, only you only use cards or blocks or whatever with letters - no big ol' book. The author also gives ideas for "games" that both my oldst & middle child enjoyed for practice. Also, no lock-step script like 100 EZ Lessons. Also, my boys just didn't/don't have the motor skills for writing, either. With my oldest, we just skipped it, but my middle child enjoys spelling words with foam letters, blocks, etc.
If you plan on homeschooling I would use the curriculum you intend on using in the preschool version. It is hard to un-teach a child to read a particular way and then introduce a different curriculum and have them re-learn new concepts. My ds learned to read at the same age, he to was antsy, comes with the age. Kids that age have a short attention span and you have to be aware of that by only doing it for about ten minutes per day. I taught my kids to read that way I was taught. For example, "cat". C-a-t! Well, when we started the Abeka reading curriculum in K they taught ca-t. I had a difficult time re-teaching that it was ca instead of c-a-t. It's worth the extra expense to buy the preschool curriculum.
Hi I don't have much advice, but I understand what Mamabear is saying. I started teaching my son how I learned "c" "a" "t" is cat. My son started memorizing words by sight before he entered kindergarten. In public school kindergarten he was taught phonics. He easily learned the phonics program (sounds of letters and actions that go with them), yet he had a hard time decoding words by sound. He still struggles with this. I wish I would have started my son off with a phonics program when he was preschool age. I am now doing a phonics program with my newly turned 5 year old daughter.
I knew it was for sight words and not spelling - I was questioning my own spelling of Dolch (which was wrong). :lol:
So I think I am going to shelve 100 easy lessons for awhile and try a more site word approach. We also are going to start building an alphabet binder. She already knows the majority of her letters, but I think I will make a book that is colorful and interactive and build as we go along.
sight word approach.. Is it better than the phonics approach or is this the best way to START them on reading?? My daughter just turned 5 and she wants to read so bad. I'm stuck now. She knows the first sounds of the letters. And she has read a few words like cat. But now I'm stuck. I don't have a CLUE what to do. I ditched the curriculum we had and I'm looking for something else. She watches the leap frog videos and we read the bob books and I have explode the code that we haven't got to yet. I don't know what else to do with her.
So many of the Dolch words MUST be taught as sight-words, because they are EXCEPTIONS to phonic rules. Even THE has a short U sound, rather than a short E sound. As stated before, the kids need to have a basic sight vocabulary before they can read even the very first readers.
From my personal experience, my girls were taught at school using probably 90% sight words and 10% phonics. My son was taught using the reverse and he is a MUCH better reader than my girls' were at the same age...but it could be his natural ability as well. My oldest now reads well above grade level but still butchers new word pronounications. My middle DD is a decent reader but struggles with long words and her spelling is horrible. I think a healthy balance of both is important but if the sight words don't come initially, keep going on the phonics. My son wasn't quick with sight words but the more phonics he did, the better he got at both. It just clicked for him at some point. He's 6 (1st gr) and reads about 2-3rd grade (about Magic Treehouse level). And he spells better than my 8 yr old Rhonda
Well, for where we are at in the process this Dolch site word process is SO MUCH BETTER. We made it into a game and read three books with her finding "the". She would have gone on forever - she really liked it. I will do "the" for a couple days before moving on, but this was such an improvement and so much more fun for everyone.
I think a combination of the two is best, too. I tried 100 Easy Lessons with my eldest and ditched it. Then tried Scaredy Cat reading, ditched that. Ended up using www.starfall.com to teach reading. Worked like a charm. I'm planning on starting my youngest just playing around on it probably after Christmas (she'll be 4 in March). And I think I'm going to start being more purposeful about including her in our schooling time - while still not making it a HAVE TO. I know some do not like starfall at all, and others adore it. It's FREE, which was my favorite part about it!
Exactly! Youknow, I have fabulous readers. My third graders as STILL learning phonics rules in the third grade. We do BJU Press Reading 3rd Grade. The lessons, when not about contect, and such and so forth, are all about phonics... word families etc... tion ing th ph sh wh and so on... So, my person experience has been that sight words get the kid going... kind of like training wheels on a bike... they get the feeling for it... they discover it is fun...., then, slowly, you take the training wheels off and let them try a few on their own... This is where Nonsensical words come into play.... When you and I, or your children, anyone, comes across a word we have never seen, we have to DECODE it... THAT is where phonics comes in. Phonics is really just memorizeing CHUNKS of word parts.... Anyway.... One way to see how well your child is at decoding words, is to assess them with some nonsense words... We work on this every now and then.. maybe twice a year I try to see where they fit in... Here is an example of nonsense words that test a child's ability to "Decode" words based on their sounds... http://www.aimsweb.com/uploads/pdfs/SampleNonsenseWordEL.pdf
