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advice for me on my son and his decoding skills
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I think I titled this correctly. My son (8 1/2) reads well beyond his years, he reads much throughout the day, every day and has excellent comprehension. He picked up reading very early on. However, my concern is in his pronunciation of words.
I don’t quite know what the problem is. I can’t tell if he is going to too fast so he’s missing letters in the word, causing a mispronunciation, or if he doesn’t know/remember the rules of phonics. Was I incomplete in my teraching of phonics since he took off so esily in his reading capabilities?
I think I should backtrack alittle with him to review phonics rules. However, if I try a typical reading program he’s going to be bored silly. I have McGuffey’s Speller already and would like to utilize it. We’ve started going over the rules at the beginning to get them memorized. Should I just continue in that direction, slowly reviewing and reinforcing the words that fulfill those rules?
Eventually, I’d like to use Spelling Wisdom, but he’s not firm in his phonics yet.
Any suggestions would be most helpful, esp. those that will allow me to use what I already own. I want him to be able to decode any word he comes across.
Thanks,
Rachel
I thought I’d repost since the board has been so busy, it’s easy to overlook questions. I could really use some assistance in this area.
Thanks,
Rachel
Rachel, can you give some examples of the mistakes/mispronunciations that he’s making? That might help others in answering your questions.
Check out All About Spelling’s website and even if you don’t want to buy the curriculum you can read lots of articles(over 20) on there and subscribe to the newsletter (tips each week). Spelling is a great backdoor to get them to slow down in reading and be more careful pronouncing because they are focusing on learning pronunciation to spell correctly. My DD will get to reading and mispronounce if she reads aloud for a while as she gets more into the story and careless.
Website: http://www.all-about-spelling.com/
Articles section of website: http://www.all-about-spelling.com/teaching-spelling.html
Are you spending plenty of time reading together? Even though he can read on his own it’s helpful to hear words read out loud and pronounced properly. That helps cement them in the mind in a different way than just seeing the text.
We still read together as a family even though our kids are all teens. It something that we’ve all just learned to enjoy sharing.
His mistakes come in the form of skipping over vowels, sometimes a whole syllable! Other times it’s not knowing how to handle vowel blends. For example: Columbia-he left out the ‘i’. That sort of small mispronunciation is his most frequent. He’s also the one that is not as good with spelling after looking at a word. But he’s my best communicator, deep thinker, questioner and narration king! To me it doesn’t make sense.
As for reading aloud, I haven’t been doing it at all lately due to being so tired after gardening, harvesting and preserving activities. But prior to July, I had dwindled to 1-2 times a day over the past 6 mths. There’s been alot of health related stress since April. My husband can’t pick up the slack for me in the late afternoon and evenings due to his losing his vision for details after a medication stopped being metabolized in his body and he lost his sight; except for a blob of color. Most of it came back, but he can ‘t read details still. When I sit down, I’ve been too tired to read aloud.
Rachel
Hey Rachel, sorry to hear about your DH I am glad he is getting better.
I have the same sort of “problem” my 8.5 yr. ds taught himself to read and reads at a high level with great comprehension..all like your son. He also does the same thing with vowels or blends once in awhile. I figured it was because we didn’t do a lot of phonics instruction also. We have started ALL About Spelling as someone mentioned above. We both love it..even though it starts our really easy it covers things that DS never really had any instruction in and because it is a more hands on approach he doesn’t feel like it’s a burden like a phonics wkbk.
We do read aloud as a family and love that but it makes me more confident that he is also getting some instruction with phonics. Actually I am really excited about AAS since I am a horrible speller..we are only in level 1 but I have already learned a few things I didn’t know or hadn’t thought about. I am thinking to use AAS with my K to teach him to read also.
Just wanted you to know you are not alone and that I recommend AAS if you were wanting to do some spelling, phonics instruction..oh and I am planning on using Spelling Wisdom also..but after we have done Level 2 of AAS. I really like the CM way of doing things so I don’t want to venture to far away from it. So my plan is to work each day through AAS level 2 and then after that use Spelling wisdom one day a week and AAS two days a week.
HTH,
Shelly
I like what AAS has to offer; it’s just so expensive. And when does it ever end? Looks like you could stay going through the levels for years.
Rachel
I should add I requested the 20 Spelling tips booklet from the AAS website, so hopefully that can help me help him. I just don’t know if I’m going to be able to afford the program. I’ve always been a good speller, so the whole situation with him boggles my mind.
Thank you for your encouragement, Shelly.
Rachel
Hey Rachel,
Yes, AAS is more expensive..more expensive then I realized when I first bought it..but the way I can justify it or make it less expensive..I don’t buy a set for each child at each level…I am doing both my 4th grader and 2nd grader together..since most of the first level is review anyway (BUT GOOD stuff to know) ..and then when we get to the 2nd level..I may just keep on going with my first child and wait until we are finished to work on the second level with my 2nd grader. I haven’t purchased the other levels just 1 and 2..but I just looked and AAS has 6 levels.
The other thing I have to keep in mind is that I have 5 children so far, hopefully more and since this is a nonconsumable program that is good for all types of learners.. it will pay off in the long run.
I’m not sure how much other phonics programs cost but I also justify it as this is phonics, spelling, and hopefully reading instruction for my little ones. So I am getting three different “curriculums” in one..BUT I have just started using it so I might be alittle to optimistic ( which is my personality with everything).
I haven’t tried other phonics or spelling programs..so I don’t know how AAS compares to any other programs. So I am not a good judge. I just know I like what we are doing and my dc have responded well to AAS.
HTH,
Shelly
I wanted to throw in a great free resource at http://www.thephonicspage.org. We used this last summer as a review for everyone. It is a great way to get practice and it is not intimidating without being babyish. She is a really nice lady too.
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