How did you teach your child to read? - Page 3

[applejuice]

I read to my children. Alot.

I used the MacMillan Phonics program.

It seems to me to be a maturation point at which children can "crack" the code and begin to read. All of my children began to read at age seven. Some start earlier, others later. It seems to me that children begin to read when they ask you to read the same book over and over. That was the clue for me.

Remember in the Colfax book, Homeschooling For Excellence, the oldest child did not begin to read until he was nine, and then only when he found a subject (arrowheads) he was really interested in learning about.

[Marsupialmom]

Originally Posted by alisonbr

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?

This was posted earlier....
http://www.dys-add.com/symptoms.html#sum
http://school.familyeducation.com/le...ing/42204.html

My dyslexic child wasn't rhyming. He got left and right confused. He also couldn't cross the mid-line. He still doesn't have a dominate hand at 14. I hate to admit it he still have to "think"about the oder of days and months. Even though he has an excellent memory and can remorize and recite pages of information....his "rote" memorization skill is definantly less than my non-dyslexic children.

If there a family member that has dyslexia or suspected. My sister, dad, and I all dyslexic.

[applejuice]

True dyslexia is found in switching words as saw and was.

Dyslexia as a term for reading and learning difficulties is tossed around too much.

Some parents panic when they see their child printing and confuse the s with a z and b with a d or even g, p and q. This should resolve itself when the child learns to do handwriting or teach your child handwriting first. Unless your child has a motor problem or hand/eye coordination problem, handwriting should not be a problem for a five year old or older. Handwriting was taught first in this country up to WWII.

And, ...for the record, I still cannot tell right from left. It is considered a learning disability.

[Mizelenius]

Oldest DD (almost 7): No program. These are things we would do:
-read
-write (in front of her-- then she started wanting to do it)
-teach sounds, not letter names, but only in moderation and in context
-read
-read
-read

Middle DD (almost 4): She is not reading yet. She's started, but her emphasis is more on writing. We've done the same thing with her that we did with older DD, but with much less reading to her.

I understand the need for wanting a program, though. I would say-- no matter what, follow your child's lead, even with a program. I am not a math person, so we got a program-- RightStart. My DD does not always use it the way it is intended, however. Her penmanship leaves much to be desired, so I had her trace numbers on a short worksheet. (Don't worry, this is a minute part of the program.) Instead, she decided she was going to multiply the numbers in each row. Oh well, at least it's math!

[natashaccat]

We've had kind of a rough road with reading. I started formal teaching a bit too early I think. At 4 my dd seemed mechanically ready. She'd learned from Starfall and leapfrog the letter sounds and she understood the concept of blending sounds to make letters BUT she was soo not emotionally ready to accept the burden of practice and repetition that so many reading programs seem to require.

Things we tried that didn't work and my dd's age when we tried:

*Hooked on phonics (too much repetition, dd got bored and frustrated by all the punctuation in the readers, and it turned out that she was not able distinguish between b,p,d when these letters were adjacent to other letters ) age - 4 1/2

*Headsprout Dd played the games successfully but could recall nothing after the lessons were complete, age 4 1/2

*Dick and Jane Readers We had some success with this but the sight word memorization really exhausted dd, age 5

* BOB books, we worked on these after completing Books 1 and 2 of Explode the Code, dd could read them but didn't like the stories. 6 yo

Things that worked:
Explode the code This was our first successful approach, these readers are designed such that kids can work work through the lessons independently. This was a huge pro for us because dd didn't like me to see her work through the learning process. 6 yo

100 Words Kids Need To Read by 1st Grade this one is working and seems effective but it requires lots of parent help to work through the lessons, which my dd doesn't appreciate. 6 yo

Dr. Fry's Instant Word Practice Book This rather homely book is quite a bit like Explode the Code in that the kids can work independently through the lessons. My dd's always so proud to show me her completed work that she did all by herself. 6 yo

Pathway Readers
These look seriously lame and old fashioned but these are first books that my dd has gotten excited about reading independently. We discovered these coincidentally when working on a Social studies unit about the Amish way of life. Since we live in a rural area, dd can really relate to characters and lifestyle and I really appreciate that the books reinforce our family's values about cooperation and participating in household chores. The link above makes it seem like these stories have a strong religious message but they actually could be used in any secular program. I started with the first grade readers but I'll from the beginning with dd2. Age 6

[natashaccat]

And, ...for the record, I still cannot tell right from left. It is considered a learning disability.

Do you have vision problems in one of your eyes? I can't do this either and my optometrist says it's a common trait of folks with folks who have unbalanced eyes.

[kaireece]

Originally Posted by Mizelenius

I understand the need for wanting a program, though. I would say-- no matter what, follow your child's lead, even with a program.

Yes, it's true - the program is more for me I have decided against any 'program' for now. My son saw me looking at this the other night and begged me to play.

So I downloaded the free trial and he did the sample lesson and part of the first lesson. Well, for the last two days he has been obsessed with the program! So he is moving thru the levels rapidly, but I question his retention and TBH I don't know if I like the way they 'teach' reading. The word building and blends start at lesson five and they seem so advanced (he is just working on letters and sounds).

It has been a great eye opener in terms of what *I* need and what he needs.

Originally Posted by natashaccat

We've had kind of a rough road with reading. I started formal teaching a bit too early I think. At 4 my dd seemed mechanically ready. She'd learned from Starfall and leapfrog the letter sounds and she understood the concept of blending sounds to make letters BUT she was soo not emotionally ready to accept the burden of practice and repetition that so many reading programs seem to require.

Things we tried that didn't work and my dd's age when we tried:

*Hooked on phonics (too much repetition, dd got bored and frustrated by all the punctuation in the readers, and it turned out that she was not able distinguish between b,p,d when these letters were adjacent to other letters ) age - 4 1/2

*Headsprout Dd played the games successfully but could recall nothing after the lessons were complete, age 4 1/2

*Dick and Jane Readers We had some success with this but the sight word memorization really exhausted dd, age 5

* BOB books, we worked on these after completing Books 1 and 2 of Explode the Code, dd could read them but didn't like the stories. 6 yo

Things that worked:
Explode the code This was our first successful approach, these readers are designed such that kids can work work through the lessons independently. This was a huge pro for us because dd didn't like me to see her work through the learning process. 6 yo

100 Words Kids Need To Read by 1st Grade this one is working and seems effective but it requires lots of parent help to work through the lessons, which my dd doesn't appreciate. 6 yo

Dr. Fry's Instant Word Practice Book This rather homely book is quite a bit like Explode the Code in that the kids can work independently through the lessons. My dd's always so proud to show me her completed work that she did all by herself. 6 yo

*my bolded quote*
Yes, after watching my son this week learn and practice letters and sounds I question how ready he is for repetition. He has loads of time to learn to read and so right now I just want to focus on the fun games - not repetition and practice.

thanks so much for the links - I found your post very helpful!

[~PurityLake~]

I'm using the starfall website and reading to them a lot.

We also have magnetic letters they play with.

[kaireece]

Originally Posted by ~Purity♥Lake~

I'm using the starfall website and reading to them a lot.

We also have magnetic letters they play with.

I need to look at this website more. The only thing I saw was when you clicked on a letter and it made the sound. My DS was bored. Are there games to play?

[Nousername]

Originally Posted by natashaccat

Pathway Readers
These look seriously lame and old fashioned but these are first books that my dd has gotten excited about reading independently.

My ds also enjoyed these--at least, the 2nd grade readers. The stories often have a moral or ethical lesson, but they are not evangelical in tone. (Amish and Mennonites tend to be simple or "plain" spoken, honest, and not forceful with their faith. They let their deeds show their faith.) Someone who specializes in reading told me the readers are about a year ahead, however (2nd grade is 3rd).

ETA: You can get these at a discount (and many other HSing items as well) at Book Peddlar.com. BTW, we did not like the primer in this series--too boring.

Anything published by EPS is generally very well researched, no frills, and good, also. They teach all the sounds that certain letters make (e.g., U makes three basic sounds, as in the words cute, cut, and put). So unlike most phonics programs, their materials are complete, cover spelling and phonics rules comprehensively, and are thus less confusing to kids.

At least one of my children seemed ready to read at one point then experienced a period of stasis, after which she just exploded in her development and reading ability. It seems not to be slow and steady for many kids, but more like jumps and starts.

[mamaUK]

I have had INCREDIBLE success teaching my LO to read that I just had to share it with you, she is only 3.5 and this morning she was reading this sentence:

'the bug on the nut on the bun in the tin'

She has only began 'proper' reading about 8 weeks ago.

So this is how I did it:

From about three years old (Of course you can start this anytime) she learnt her sounds phonetically with these amazing books:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Finger-Phoni...1504573&sr=8-1

They are beautiful books and my DD adores them. These books went hand in hand with the matching jingle CD to help them learn there sounds. Great to listen to in the home on car trips etc:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jolly-Songs-...ref=pd_sim_b_3

This really cemented her learning of her sounds and again she had so much fun with the songs, she knows all of them and will often sing them simply for the pure pleasure of it. This took her about 6 months but I have heard the learning can be alot quicker than that! So after she knew most of her sounds she was ready to move on to these high quality decodable books:

http://www.jellyandbean.co.uk/

These books are seriously incredible, I am a Primary school Teacher and this is the best reading scheme I have seen IMO. Basically your child will be able to work out what each word says through phonics (the sounds) and the books also contain 100 high frequency words which cannot be read via phonics. The web site may look a little confusing but basically to give your child an amazing start you would only need to buy 'The A series' and 'The B series' which are 20 books in all. There are way more you can buy, and I will be in the future b/c I am amazed by what this reading scheme has done for my DD.

Hope this helps.

[mamaUK]

Originally Posted by kaireece

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).

Just read what you had written here and wanted to add, that even though I am teacher ( well was, I am a SAHM now) I was confused about the best way to teach my LO to read, I think it is such an amazing gift you can give to your LO that I wanted to do it to the best of my ability. I wanted a scheme to 'hold my hand' LOL and explain everything to me, the links I posted will do just that and on the Jelly and Bean website there are teacher/parent tips with details about EACH book that you do with your child (They just point a few simple things out about how to explain stuff to your child and what they might get stuck on in the book) So I don't feel alone now, and she has learnt to read sentences in 8 weeks and that is with 5 minutes reading together a day on the scheme. She literally does one or two sentence and then I will read her stories.

[kaireece]

mamaUK - they look great - thanks

I am going to see if I can find them in the US or Canada.

[mamaUK]

Just had a look and the Jelly and Bean website and it looks like they definately ship internationally. You should be able to find the jolly phonics books on amazon.com. Let me know if you decide to get any or if you have any questions!