How did you teach your child to read? - Page 2

[meemee]

just a word of warning.

totally depends on the age.

just because they learn the alphabets early - say by 2 - 2 1/2 AND show signs of being ready to read - dont expect it to happen right away. something about their brain needing time to process. there may be a waiting time of one to two years if not more before they read. it took my dd 4 1/2 years between knowing the alphabets and seriously reading both of which she taught herself.

seriously i would not teach reading - unless your child shows any interest. interest enough to sit down and willing to go through books. some may show interest in reading but its not really there yet. so they may throw the book down in frustration. you might be right and know they CAN do it. but dont force it.

seriously reading is like magic. once they really want to learn they can make HUGE progress in a month. its almost they understand things in superfast speed what they previously might have spent days over.

imho - children should not be taught to read unless they are hounding you - whether that is at 4, 7 or 10 years old.

in fact i think reading is one of those things that dont need to be taught. neither for that matter addition or subtraction. they just figure out the basics on their own.

[HikeYosemite]

Originally Posted by elizawill

my dd learned to read with a combination of "explode the code" workbooks, and www.headsprout.com, and "bob books" (then we switched over to other easy readers).

I also recommend Explode the Code. It is challenging and great for getting kids to really look at similar words and distinguish among them. It is also quirky enough to stay somewhat interesting, and it is based on teaching about the Orton-Gillingham phonograms as well. (Again, Orton-Gillingham is strongly backed by research; not every spelling and learning-to-read method is.)

For non-dyslexic as well as dyslexic kids, the phonogram approach to learning sounds in the English language is so much more accurate, so much more helpful with learning spelling, and makes so much more sense than standard phonics. For example, the O-G phonogram approach recognizes that the letter "i" makes three basic sounds when it stands alone: the short i of "it," the long i of "bicycle," and the e sound of the second i in "miniature." (The letter y, when acting as a vowel, does the same thing.) Even S makes more than one sound (think of miss, his). It also teaches things like when to know the letter C will sound like a K and when it sounds like an S (i.e., before the letters e and i), and when to use "ck" in a word instead of just K or C. With most basic phonics programs, kids learn a limited version of the sounds that letters make, and some spelling rules that are not always true and might have many exceptions, and then they are hit with the puzzlement of the many confusing English words (through, laugh, some, was, etc.).

It is good to learn from hearing other parents' experiences with their children. So many beginning homeschoolers are so sure or confident about theories or methods that they have read about, but they are later humbled when it doesn't work 100% for a particular child. I loved reading John Holt's books when my kids were young, and I'm glad many children learn to read the way he described, but it's also good to know what to do if yours is one of the 20% or so who don't fit that mold.

[DaughterOfKali]

My son loved everything and anything to do with the alphabet. He was the one who wanted to learn about it at a young age, so I followed his lead.

I concentrated on the sounds the letters make. After he mastered that, I would use a magnadoodle to write 2 and 3 letter words on it. I would then sound it out myself to show him how to do it.

[happydoulamama]

Originally Posted by meemee

just a word of warning.

just because they learn the alphabets early - say by 2 - 2 1/2 AND show signs of being ready to read - dont expect it to happen right away. something about their brain needing time to process.

ITA. My dd knew all of her letter sounds by almost 5 years old (later than most kids we know) and we started simple blends just after she turned 5 when she was ready. But we would have waited til 6 or 7 if she still wasn't ready.

[annettemarie]

I wanted to throw another book in the ring-- I can't believe I forgot it! It's called "Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books".

OP, how old is your child?

[LeftField]

Originally Posted by meemee

just a word of warning.

totally depends on the age.

just because they learn the alphabets early - say by 2 - 2 1/2 AND show signs of being ready to read - dont expect it to happen right away. something about their brain needing time to process. there may be a waiting time of one to two years if not more before they read. it took my dd 4 1/2 years between knowing the alphabets and seriously reading both of which she taught herself.

Ditto ditto ditto. Mine knew the alphabet and the sounds early but it still took (thinking) about two years from the point at which he could sound out 3 letter words until he could do it strongly. And then about two more years until he could read fluently. He now reads very well. We did not use a program. We answered questions, read aloud, etc. He had to work it out himself. Although I should say that he turned out to be a whole words reader so our brief attempts at explaining phonics kind of went over his head. Phonics instruction is not the best method for all children; it wasn't for me either.

IMHO, age 4 is an extremely common age for children to ask to learn to read. For many of them, maybe even most of them, their desire to read is not equivalent to their ability to read. At this age, I reassured my son that he WAS learning to read (that starts with letter recognition, really) but that it takes a lot of time. I reassured him that I also had to learn to read and that it took time for me too, that I didn't read at 4, etc. I'm just saying this because I think that if we hear our child expressing a desire to read and we immediately follow up with a program, it could cause immense frustration for that child if the child is not developmentally ready and able to read.

Anyway, that's just my two cents. What Meemee wrote struck a chord with me. The path to reading can have big twists and turns in it when we don't expect it. My child appeared to be ready early but apparently wasn't ready until average or even late and now he reads above level. FWIW, I did sit down with him at one point with "100 EZ lessons" but after the first lesson, it became very apparent that this wasn't going to work for him AND that it was causing both of us to feel frustrated. We ditched the program at that point. He learned to read when he was ready, because he lives in a print-rich environment with parents who are avid readers. HTH!

[kaireece]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

I wanted to throw another book in the ring-- I can't believe I forgot it! It's called "Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books".

OP, how old is your child?

He's four and a half. I am not too worried about him having to read anytime soon - I just want to begin the process and go at his pace. He is not interested in letter formation/printing too much and I am not even thinking of spelling at this point. I am just looking at letter sound/recognition and helping him to sound things out.

I don't think I am going to follow a program per se - more so I want a program for me so that I understand what comes next. I am already running into 'difficulties' when explaining some letter sounds b/c I don't 'know' the rules (or how to explain them).

thanks everyone for your opinions. I don't know that I totally agree with some of you but this is my first so what do I know

[Nousername]

Originally Posted by meemee

seriously reading is like magic. once they really want to learn they can make HUGE progress in a month. ...in fact i think reading is one of those things that dont need to be taught. neither for that matter addition or subtraction. they just figure out the basics on their own.

If all of your children have no dyslexia, you might tell yourself that is the case for everyone. But there are some people who have never learned to read (a relative of mine, e.g.) because they were severely dyslexic and lacked proper instruction. So, if a child is having any difficulty at the "usual" reading age, it is good to familiarize yourself with the signs of dyslexia so that intervention might help the child prevent later frustration. A good site for learning more is http://www.dys-add.com/symptoms.html#sum .

(Susan Barton also has a tragic story about her nephew, a gifted but dyslexic child, who was in high school and stuck at the 2nd grade reading level--after trying every intervention they could find--before they found the proper reading instruction method for him.)

[meemee]

Originally Posted by Nousername

If all of your children have no dyslexia, you might tell yourself that is the case for everyone. But there are some people who have never learned to read (a relative of mine, e.g.) because they were severely dyslexic and lacked proper instruction. So, if a child is having any difficulty at the "usual" reading age, it is good to familiarize yourself with the signs of dyslexia so that intervention might help the child prevent later frustration. A good site for learning more is http://www.dys-add.com/symptoms.html#sum .

yes yes mama v. true. v. true.

another reason could also be vision issues. tracking problems.

[MommyMichele]

I wrote about how my first daughter learned to read on my blog HERE. She continues to devour books with enthusiasm.

My second daughter, just turned 5, is taking a much more leisurely path toward becoming a reader, but I can definitely see progress which makes me believe even more in unschooling. My 2 year old son may be following his older sister's footsteps as he is already excited about letters, pointing them out and trying to name them.

[momo7]

First i taught her to recognize the ABC's, and then 100 lessons. We read two lessons a day, starting with reviewing the previous day's lesson and going on to the next. There were a couple of times when she got frustrated, but we just pressed on. She's reading on a second grade level now she is on lesson 87 in 100 lessons.

I was at a complete loss how to to teach reading but with the 100 lessons it's worked better than I could have ever hoped.:

[Nousername]

Originally Posted by meemee

yes yes mama v. true. v. true.

another reason could also be vision issues. tracking problems.

Maybe some children truly have vision issues, but it is important to know that vision therapy will not cure dyslexia. See this list from http://www.bartonreading.com/research2.html#wont :


What Won't Work

Most parents have tried one or more of the following products or treatments, and know they do NOT work for children with dyslexia.

• Hooked on Phonics or The Phonics Game
• Reading Recovery
• Vision Therapy
• Fast ForWord
• Brain Gym or other neurodevelopmental exercises
• Special glasses
• Medicine
• Special diets
• Accelerated Reader
• Most commercial learning center chains, such as Sylvan, Kuman and Score

For research proving these methods don't work, buy the Summer 2001 issue of Perspectives, from the International Dyslexia Association by calling 800-ABCD-123

[Niamh]

Originally Posted by meemee

just a word of warning.

totally depends on the age.

just because they learn the alphabets early - say by 2 - 2 1/2 AND show signs of being ready to read - dont expect it to happen right away. something about their brain needing time to process.

I want to second (third, fourth and fifth by this point, I think ) this. My oldest daughter -almost five years old - knew her letters by 18 months. We'd be waiting at a light and I'd hear her spell out WalMart or 'couch' and turn to see a huge truck with those letters on the side of it. She was just reading the letters one by one as they were parked by us. I was sure I'd have a very early reader. She's just now (within the last two months) showing TONS of interest in not only reading, but writing. I encourage all letter play since they tie together so well.

I was sure that I was going to have very early readers. My mom had all ten of us reading by three years old. It wasn't fun, it wasn't pretty, but she got 'er done. It was very important to her. Books and the knowledge and escape you could get from them were very important in our family, so all of us children read voraciously.

When I had my daughter, one of the first books I bought was '100 Lessons'. It's still sitting on my shelf. I have let go of the need to prove I have a very intelligent child who is reading by age three and am following her lead. As I said, books are very important to me, but my husband would rather watch The Simpsons. My daughters, both of them, so far are taking after me and are constantly asking me to read books to them. There are very few things I won't put down immediately when asked to read a book, so that has encouraged their interest.

With my daughter's current interest level, she could very well be reading by age five. Or she could absorb the information she needs right now and let it sit for some months or years to process and come back to it later. I have a large window of time before I get worried about learning to read now. It's such a normal part of life to my children that it will happen and they have the opportunity to do it when they are ready.

Ramblings, ramblings.

[phathui5]

We use The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading, the Pathway Before We Read workbook and the Explode the Code workbooks. Along with lots of lots of reading together and learning words in the books by sight and sounding some out.

[cottonwood]

We read to them and answered questions. Pretty early on I explained that the symbols correspond to sounds, and they asked how to write their names and then (much later) other words. Questions mostly took the form of, "What does that sign say?" or "What do these letters spell?" They play video games and read comic books and graphic novels where words correspond to actions, so they were picking it up there too. It's been a very life-relevant organic process. We tried to do formal instruction (phonics-based) and prompting with our first child and it was a disaster -- he just wasn't ready and it made him extremely frustrated and angry. For a few years he'd get interested for a while and work on reading for several hours, then show no interest for the next several months. It wasn't until he was 10 that he started reading on a regular basis, and he became fluent very quickly, which is in line with a lot of what I've read about how learning happens when the child is truly ready, i.e. quickly and easily. His first book that he finished (in about three days) was Ender's Game, which is adult-level fiction. My younger son started reading this year at nine years of age (though I know that he was making connections for a long time before that.) He's currently whipping through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

[PGTlatte]

It is currently a work in progress here. DS1 is 5.5.

We started with The Reading Lesson but he lost interest quickly and we dropped it for about six months. During that time he watched all of the Leapfrog DVDs. Now he is using Click n Read Phonics online and doing really well with it. I also have all the Bob Books but he doesn't want to use them yet.

[Marsupialmom]

I used HOP---my son is dyslexic but-- I didn't use it completely as instructed. My son was memorizing tapes. Not looking at the words or letters. One of the issues he was having in school. He could recite pages and pages of words but couldn't point out simple words.

I didn't realize it until later testing did how I modified it was very much like Orthogillian. I had a speech teacher accidental teach me to read. Guess what her "made" up speech lessons were like?

I used Phonics Pathways. I encourage you to learn the rules so you can pass them on.

With my HOH dd It was Phonics Pathways and hop readers (I didn't have money for any other readers). And some creativity since she doesn't hear all the sounds.

My youngest learned by osmosis. LOL But she did have Explode the Code work books because she wanted workbooks.

I really hated people that told me just read they will learn. My first two didn't, wouldn't, couldn't. I had kids that wanted to read. Ask me to teach them and were frustrated things didn't go easy. My son would cry tears because he couldn't read a book.

I do think some people push reading to soon but some times waiting isn't good either. Learning signs of reading/developmental issues helps.

[fadedgirl]

Originally Posted by meemee

just a word of warning.

totally depends on the age.

just because they learn the alphabets early - say by 2 - 2 1/2 AND show signs of being ready to read - dont expect it to happen right away. something about their brain needing time to process. there may be a waiting time of one to two years if not more before they read. it took my dd 4 1/2 years between knowing the alphabets and seriously reading both of which she taught herself.

seriously i would not teach reading - unless your child shows any interest. interest enough to sit down and willing to go through books. some may show interest in reading but its not really there yet. so they may throw the book down in frustration. you might be right and know they CAN do it. but dont force it.

seriously reading is like magic. once they really want to learn they can make HUGE progress in a month. its almost they understand things in superfast speed what they previously might have spent days over.

imho - children should not be taught to read unless they are hounding you - whether that is at 4, 7 or 10 years old.

in fact i think reading is one of those things that dont need to be taught. neither for that matter addition or subtraction. they just figure out the basics on their own.

IMO, kids learn to read just like they learned how to speak: by being exposed/immersed in it, and having it correctly modeled for them. When their *brains* are ready biologically, it happens (assuming they are exposed to it and there are no development issues). There is scientific research that says when parents push reading and force kids to memorize sounds and words (which is what most extreme early readers are doing, instead of organically reading words), they are actually hurting the child's brain development and sacrificing comprehension ability down the line. Meaning: a "coached", memorization-reader might not be able to readily understand the meaning a simple paragraph when in 3rd grade.

I've since learned (through observation) that if I have to try to force or work diligently for my child to learn something, that its too soon developmentally for the brain (even if not to soon for their maturity level, personality, etc). When you see this in action, it really hits home. When I don't push things whatsoever, just expose casually and expand on what DD expresses interest in, and then it just magically occurs at some point, its amazingly easy and simply: amazing. The way it should be. Trust the brain!

Also, for anyone concerned about late reading (again, assuming there are no developmental challenges such as dyslexia and the like), take a look at some of the Waldorf threads about late readers. Might surprise you. Some of these kids don't read until age 9 or 10 but then just explode into reading coherently & cohesively, and many have the comprehension and reading ability FAR beyond their contemporaries who learned to read at ages 4-6. Fascinating!

[alisonbr]

But how do you know if they are dyslexic?

How do I know if my late reader is dyslexic? I'm currently using the "wait for interest" method of teaching reading, but according to some people, I'm missing the boat if he turns out to be dyslexic. Any words of wisdom?

[hippie_mommy]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

I wanted to throw another book in the ring-- I can't believe I forgot it! It's called "Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books".

This is what I have used with both of my older two, and we adore it. I blogged about it - http://www.hippiemommy.com/2007/07/0...ildrens-books/

We tried 100 Easy Lessons with my oldest, and found it so B-O-R-I-N-G. My second has actually enjoyed it, but we're using it as a supplement to Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books rather than as the spine of our curriculum.