ok to do both phonics and sight words?

[xanandali]

Just curious if the HS'ers out there typically recommend doing only one or the other or combining both? I lean towards doing phonics vs whole language myself, but wasn't really sure about doing a combo of phonics and sight words. My DS is really wanting to learn how to read and I'd like to help more than harm! Thanks!!

[treemom2]

We've had great luck with a combination of Teach you Child to Read in 100 easy lessons and the Bob Books. My DD wasn't interested in learning to read until she was 5, but my DS really wanted to start learning around 2 1/2 and we've used these methods with both. Teach you Child uses the Distar program and is a combination of both phonics and sight reading.

[Jennifer Z]

We do both. It is good to have the ability to sound out words you don't know, and phonics is good for that for most things, but even with phonics, there are some words that can only be learned by sight. Ds' learning style tends to lean more towards whole word learning, but phonics helps him try out words he isn't familiar with.

[elizawill]

we do both here too

[dawningmama]

We do/did both, really casually. I mean, that's how most adults read, right? Most words to us are now "sight words" and newer words we learn phonetically or by word roots. So, makes sense to use a combo of those techniques when teaching reading.

[Aeress]

When I think of whole language, I think of everything from phonics to site words, great books, lots of practice in writing, invented spelling, story telling/retelling. Of course some children will do well with one approach over another but after watching my dd struggle in PS with there version of reading, I still prefer whole language.

[xanandali]

Thanks all! I was just looking at the Bob books so I think I'll get a set of those and see if he likes them. We used to do Starfall but hadn't for a while so I reintroduced it today and he really seems to like it more and understand a bit better.

[JeniferS]

Actually, you should do both. It gives your child a more balanced way to attack words when reading.

[Copper]

We do both and she is a very strong/good reader.

[phathui5]

We also do a combination of both.