[sebrinaw]

But I am having truble teaching him. I wonder if I would be better of using a curriculum or program for this. Can anyone reccomend a good program. My son has a very short attention spam (except for video games and computers).

I have tried just teaching him the letter and the sounds they make, but 5 minutes after telling him "b says buh" he says he cannot remember...

Any help would be great

Sebrina

 

[Wilhemina]

You might check out the free/sample lessons online at Study Dog or Headsprout.

 

[elizawill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebrinaw But I am having truble teaching him. I wonder if I would be better of using a curriculum or program for this. Can anyone reccomend a good program. My son has a very short attention spam (except for video games and computers). I have tried just teaching him the letter and the sounds they make, but 5 minutes after telling him "b says buh" he says he cannot remember... Any help would be great Sebrina

hi sebrina,
i highly recommend the leapfrog DVD's called "the letter factory" and "the word factory". the letter factory will teach basic phonics sounds and the word factory teaches how to blend the sounds to make words. they are cute animated cartoons that my children both find very entertaining. my dd learned her phonics from these videos. you can buy them at walmart or target. you can also check out www.starfalls.com, which is a free game approach to learning phonics. my dd wasn't in to it....but most kids have great success at this website. after he has mastered basic phonics, i recommend bob books for easy reading that will make your son feel he is really reading, but they aren't too hard that he will be frustrated. i also use "happy phonics" which is a game approach to learning phonics. it was made by diane hopkins at www.lovetolearn.net she created these games because her son had a very difficult time learning to read, and this is the only thing that worked for him! i found it used for $35. hope this helps you!!

 

[LilyGrace]

We used Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Englemann(?). It's good for a first time teacher, but I would strongly recommend supplementing with Starfall.com and Fuzzy Lion Ears on pbskids.org. About halfway through we deviated from the lessons, alternating between basic readers and the lessons without the script.

 

[Kontessa]

My DD is 7 as well and wants to read. Finally after trying everything free I could get my hands on I broke down and got her the Spell Write Read program. It is intense but covers it all. We are doing well with it so far!

 

[blessed]

It's all about the consistency. My dd didn't remember that 'b' sounds like 'buh' for the first 800 times she heard it either. But she's heard it 900 times now, so she's got it down.

All of the resources cited above are good and would help. Starfall is fantastic and is free.

But the important thing is just to expose him every single day to reading and letters and phonics. Even just for five minutes. Get through one small lesson, if that's all he has the patience for. But just do it, every day. He'll get it.

 

[frogguruami]

We use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I do not read the parent script. DS just goes through it and reads his part. I help with the sounds if he needs it.

 

[tigerseye]

Another vote for Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

 

[elizawill]

if you choose teach your child to read in 100 lessons - just read reviews first to find out more about it. i own it and it sits on my shelf collecting dust. i'm hoping it will have better success with my son than my daughter...that's the only reason i keep it around.

 

[chfriend]

If you google teach read visual learner

you'll get lots of good ideas.

 

[Hera]

www.starfall.com is great, both my girls enjoy playing it and I credit it with getting my older dd started. (the younger one is 3 and doesn't read yet.) a pp mentioned it, but her link is misspelled.

 

[RiverSky]

I have definitely heard of numerous children who learned to read in a very advanced manner after doing the 100 days lessons. I know the book is fairly cheap and there are numerous copies in our library system. Personally, I didn't like it, but it's a cheap investment and would resell very well.

My DD taught herself to read on her own, but we are huge bibliophiles here and read to her 1-2 hours a day her entire life and we have a pretty huge in home library so there are always books around. But I think that the Leap Frog DVDs actually really helped her to put it all together, while we weren't even paying attention. She surprised us by reading one day, we had no idea she could do it.

Anyway, here's a link:
http://www.leapfrog.com/Primary/Pres...ndergarten.jsp
Chances are, you can borrow the DVDs from your library and see how your child reacts to them.

I agree that Starfall.com is a really good site for the children. I think Studydog rescinded their free program but both my children LOVED it when it was free. I would suggest checking your 7 year old's eyesight with a real optometrist to make sure that your DC can really see the letters well. Both of my children could actually read and I had no idea that they had extremely poor vision until we got real vision exams at an optometrist. Supposedly children can squint and change the shape of their eyes to help them see better but it's not so good for them to do that. (even if you don't see them squinting) I can't help but wonder if your 7 y.o. could have a vision issue that might make it harder and more tiring to try to read.

Good luck!

 

[homeschoolingmama]

My daughter really wanted to learn to read so we got the BOB books for her. She LOVES them!! We have the Leap Frog letter and word factories that we would put on and she really learned a lot from that. We got 100 Easy Lessons and we put it aside. We are going to stick with the BOB books.

 

[True Blue]

Headsprout has been wonderful for my son. It builds confidence fast, they read their first "book" after only 5 lessons.

 

[Satori]

Headsprout is pricey but sooooo worth it! My dd just wasn't getting it until headsprout and its fun for them. She went from total non reader to 1st grade level in about 2 weeks if I remember right and begged to do the episodes. One thing I really liked in the beginning was money was tight and I couldn't afford to waste any money on a program that would probably not work but they offered a 30 day money back guarantee so I figured what the heck, I could at least get my money back if the program sucked. It didn't take long before I found myself wishing they taught math and every other subject! Its an awesome readying program. The key though is to sit with the child while they do it. For my dd I found I had to not only sit with her but do most of the clicking while she touched the screen or did the verbal exercise or else she would fly right through it and not get the material.

 

[RiverSky]

Where's a link to Headsprout?

 

[Satori]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RiverSky Where's a link to Headsprout?

www.headsprout.com

 

[SleepyMamaBear]

we LOVE starfall.com its fabulous for early reading!

 

[sebrinaw]

Thanks everyone, we are going to try the Headsprout I think

 

[mrsalf97]

Subbing for ideas! I'm really glad you started this thread. My 7 year old ds is upset that he can't read or write yet. He excels in other areas, but just can't get reading and writing. Makes me feel like a failure at homeschooling.

We've tried TYCTR and it didn't help. We also read to him daily. I'm going to check out everything else mentioned.