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Befuddled mom trying to teach reading
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I know much is written about teaching children to read, but I am just not getting it. I have Delightful Reading, Alphaphonics, Games for Reading, and Reading Rescue 1-2-3 from the library. I have tactile letters to touch and move around. Our house is filled with books and we read a lot! But I do not know how to specifically teach MY son how to read. He is 6 1/2 years old, loves to be read to and to listen to audio books. Lately he’s interested to know what a word says on a page, so I feel like the interest is there. We’ve done a couple of the Delightful Reading lessons and they went well. We worked on word families several months ago and he did well some days but would often forget later on what he had learned. I don’t know how to help him retain what he has learned. I don’t know how to transfer learning words (sight or word families or the words from Delightful Reading) to “real life” reading. He learns a word, but then I don’t know where to go from there. How to practice? How then to move on to reading another book on the shelf?
I feel very scattered in how I’m going about this. If anyone can help me develop a plan, I would be so grateful. I will admit to being afraid and intimidated on how to do this and I don’t want to fail my son! All of our other lessons are going well, including math (which is so not my specialty but Right Start Math is great!), but this is one area I could really use some help with. Thanks so much in advance!
I needed a specific program I could follow, and for that Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons was great. My 5YO and I went through it this past spring and he is reading very well.
I don’t do well with manipulatives and programs that don’t tell me what to do each day. I’m not a creative thinker, so the 100 Easy Lessons was really good for us.
I know how you feel.
{{hugs}} and breathe, it’ll be OK. I promise. I went through at least 6 different sets of materials when I was first teaching my dd to read along w/ at least as many to check them out. I like a solid phonics approach w/ few sight words and prefer the blend ladder (ba, be, bi, bo, bu) vs word families (sat, cat, fat, hat, bat). Like jawgee, I needed something that would hold my hand and help me walk through each and every step, not just a guide to follow. Also, I found that my dc needed to work w/ the letters and sounds, so workbooks were helpful for reinforcement of the skills they learned along w/ keeping them practiced. I’m not one for workbooks just to keep them busy, but to use them when they need them is helpful.
Does he know his alphabet or at least each letter’s basic sound? In the sample of Delightful Reading, it said that this was a Baby/Toddler phase. IMO, this is just as much a PreK/K phase as well – depending on the individual dc. LeapFrog’s Letter Factory dvd is great for this. There are also 3 others for reading – Talking Words Factory, Code Word Caper, Storybook Factory. It’s OK to camp out here for a while, too.
I have a few that I really, really like; a couple more that I have found since my dc were reading which I wish I could look at more closely; one that has recently come out which looks GREAT; and another new one that looks good but. These are my recommendations . . .
MFW – K is a great one. It’s a nice mix of learning styles and is most like CM. A good combination of approaches. It’s very gentle in its approach, taking a week for each letter, but it’s also very flexible and can be done faster. I took a day or two for each letter because we needed to review while giving his brain time to develop. http://www.mfwbooks.com/products/M50/20/0/0/1
All About Reading is a new program, from the author of All About Spelling (which I LOVE). It is similar to RightStart in how it’s set up and utilized. There is a Pre-Reading level and Level 1, w/ Level 2 out soon.http://allaboutlearningpress.net/go.php?id=139
Pathway publishers is what I used for both my dc successfully. Mixed w/ Phonics Pathways, this is a gem. It’s not very CM, but it’s effective, inexpensive, uplifting and moral, and fairly easy to use. http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/list/Pathway_Readers_Grade_1/
My dc both started K at 6 and weren’t really reading well until 1rst grade. Also, both dc hit a wall – dd w/ was basic blending near the beginning of her learning; ds was when we added silent e and the long vowel sounds in the middle of 1rst. This is normal and OK. I just took my time teaching them and it worked out well. Dd10, in 4th, really improved last yr. Ds8, in 2nd, is finishing up what would be 1rst gr reading and will review the phonics sounds this yr. He hasn’t learned all of his vowel blends solidly.
I share this to encourage you and let you know that you’re doing OK. You are not failing your son and he WILL learn to read.
HTHK
Each child is different . Remember to always teach to the child and not the curriculum. It sounds like you have plenty of curriculum to use so I wouldn’t recommend buying another. It also sounds like delightful reading lessons worked well.
Children transition from reading words to “real reading” at their own individual pace. In my family, that has ranged from 6-10. You cannot rush it. Your child is 6.5 and has an interest, enjoys you reading to him, and is having some success with reading lessons. You are on the right tract. Keep working on it.
I keep a log so I can see progress in my slower to “transtion to reading chapter books” children. Some children move so slowly through this phase that it is difficult to see progress. Write down everything you can about your child’s reading ability today. Spend the next 6 months working with Delightful Reading. Then compare. There will be progress.
I don’t know how to help him retain what he has learned. I don’t know how to transfer learning words (sight or word families or the words from Delightful Reading) to “real life” reading. He learns a word, but then I don’t know where to go from there. How to practice? How then to move on to reading another book on the shelf? – Lots of practice. Re-read stories. Re-read word lists. Play the reading games. Most important…..give him time.
I keep up reading lessons until my children are reading Narnia with minimal help. For my children who transitioned slowly to this level of reading, I found Pathway Readers to be invaluable. You are not at this point yet! Keep up the Delightful Reading lessons. Re-read stories and word list and see where you are at when he turns 7.
FWIW, my adult child who didn’t read chapter books until 9/10 is doing quite well in college. In fact, her reading ability surpasses the older brother who was reading chapter books at age 6. Don’t let the “my child is reading the Hobbit at age 6″comments stress you out in anyway!
HTH
I agree with the above posts. I am in the beginning stages of teaching my 6yo to read as well and one thing I discovered (about myself) was that I needed to choose one program and stick to it. I don’t mean changing programs, if necessary, I’m saying that I had about 3, or so, programs to choose from, readers, online resources, etc., and was making it too difficult on myself to just use that one program, kwim? I have Delightful Reading, and although I really wanted the program, it’s a bit different than the one that I used for my middle ds. I really liked/loved the one I used but I sooo wanted the DR, so I finally bought it. I realized when I opened the box and started with lesson 1 that my son did not know all of the basic sounds our letters represent, so we had to put the box aside for awhile to focus on the sounds. We did that for about a month then went back to the lessons. I have seen improvement/retention/enjoyment since he has more skills to draw from. We are doing very quick lessons (he bores easily and is much more active than my other dc) and the manipulatives (me doing some, him doing some), along with me writing what we have covered, is a good mix for him. He has read a very short/easy reader recently, which really surprised me…don’t know why, but it did. We only do one oral game for letter sounds and no other games/programs at this time. I will let him play Starfall on my computer but that’s without me or my help, so I don’t really count that one.
I’m not suggesting that you need to eliminate any programs, but just wanted to share our experience. What’s funny is that I did teach my middle ds to read so when it was time for my youngest I thought, “No problem.” Huh, I was wrong…I could barely remember what I did, what we used, the process, etc. It seemed it happened on its own…well, it didn’t. I really have to sit with my 6yo daily, even if it’s just 5-15 minutes, to get this going and keep it going.
HTH
In addition to whatever reading program you are using, I like to give the child the feeling of ‘really reading’ by using a team reading approach. We do it particularily with our family Scripture time, but also with other books sometimes. Starting even before the children learn to read (basically when they start to talk), we read together. I say each word and have the child repeat it. As they start to recognize words, I let them say the words they know, and then provide the rest. As they then start a reading program, we start to incorporate what they know. If they have learned short vowel words, I pause at every short vowel word to see if they will make an attempt. If not, I give them the word and continue. It’s amazing how many words they’ll pick up. When my son was at the short vowel stage in our reading lessons, he could also recognize words like “multitude” and “disciple” and “kingdom” and “temple”, because we’ve been reading the Gospels, and those words come up a lot.
It helps them to feel like a ‘reader’ and part of an important family activity. Just yesterday my 6yo DD asked if her 2yo sister could start to read scriptures with us too. My 2yos speech is still mostly unintelligible, but we’ll just find her the shortest verse in the reading for the day, and she can participate too.
You could also do this with favourite picture books. The children love to be able to read their favorite books, and will be amazed at how much they know, since they often have the book memorized anyway.
Joanne
Thanks to one and ALL for taking the time to share your tips and experiences with me. I’m going to take a deep breath, relax, and just keep plugging along. I appreciate your encouragement, and God bless you!
This is my very first post! But I wanted to share the program I have been using with my 5yo and 9 yo (who has had some difficultly learning to read) Its called Funnix. We have been using the program for about 6 months and see consistant improvement in my 9 yo skills. He is now in the middle of Funnix 2. It was developed by the same folks that developed Teach your Child in 100 Lessons. It was $25 for both Funnix and Funnix 2 including the reader and workbook. (You have to print them at home.) It is easy to use. The mom/teacher controls the program and works next to the child. The lesson takes about 30 mins. It begins after a child knows letters and takes the child to a begining 3rd grade level by the end of Funnix 2. If you search Funnix on the web, I’m sure you’ll find it. I don’t know how to post a link. Hope this helps some.
I only skimmed through the above posts and I am no expert, but my children are good at reading. Here is what I used: grade K was a free printout each week of a letter each week with a coloring page and sign language. They could write the letter in various play like a pan of rice or soap crayons in the tub, etc. and read literature focusing on that letter and sound and make a poster with objects starting with that sound. It focuses on learning that one letter sound each week. http://www.letteroftheweek.com
Then for grade 1, I was going to start the I Can Read It! readers from Sonlight, but they were a bit too hard yet. A great transition from the letter sounds was the short vowel VERY EASY reader books from the Hooked on Phonics program grade k. I think the BOB books are like this, too. It builds their confidence since they are reading an actual book from the start. It is books with stuff like, “The fat cat sat on the rat.”
Then we went to the Sonlight readers set of three books and the word list (I Can Read It!). The word list has all the rhyming words so they can see the similar patterns. Example is a list of: at, cat, hat, rat, sat…
Each week the list would match the words in the reader. Then I added in appropriate sightword cards I made on 3 X 5 notecards and would review those a few times per week before the reader story. I would alternate the word list and the sightword cards each day and the daily reader story would make use of those same words. Also, we used Explode the Code which taught the same words and patterns as the Sonlight readers and wordlist. We are still using and enjoying Explode the Code. It is one of ds7 favorite subjects.
For grade 2, we kept up with the ETC books as they go from level 1 to 8 and he is on level 5 now. I picked readers from the Sonlight catalog for grade 2, but did not purchase their language arts program as we did not care for it. (We use Queen’s LL instead which is gentler.) But we did enjoy those readers. I also added Bible reading in the mornings from the Rod and staff Bible readers. So he started reading twice: once for “Bible” and again for “reading” of the Sonlight readers.
His greatest interest is dinosaurs and he found some level 4 readers and his reading level really picked up because he was reading some pretty difficult words for his age/grade, but his high interest in it motivated him to read it and he was familiar with hearing those difficult dinosaur and science terms already. So interest in topic has something to do with learning to read as well.
My dd5 learned reading early because she picked up the letter sounds I taught her older brother from the letter of the week. She also read hooked on phonics readers and now her favorite books to read are the Biscuit stories about a puppy. She reads them now with no help from me and at times when I don’t tell her to read!
I also want to add that in the middle of the Sonlight grade 1 program, we took a break from reading for about a month because my ds did seem to be struggling with progressing further in that program. When we came back to it from the break, his reading really took off for him.
This was my own experience and it has worked well for my family. I hope you find what works for your family and you might want to try one of the resources that helped us.
I also thought of some more things we did to reinforce his reading skills.
For copywork, his sentence came out of his reader. So he was seeing the same words again and writing them.
We used bath letters at bath time. I would spell a word for him to read (that would match his reader/word list/sightword card) and then he would make up a silly “word” for me to say using all the correct letter sounds. That was fun.
We also used http://www.starfall.com a few times per week. I purchased a reading board game from there. One side taught letter sounds and the other side taught words in levels: short vowels and sightwords.
So there was a lot of repetition in various resources throughout the day/week.
We too have a 6.5 year old boy who loves to be read to. We’ve tried a few reading programs and attempts at reading instruction, but he really shows no interest in learning to read himself. Though this is the same kid that refused to write and couldn’t make any letters, or so I thought. Then one night, he got a piece of paper and started writing the alphabet totally on his own. We were shocked!!
In the meantime, I’ve been doing some research on brain development and how we learn. I was blessed to be able to attend a conference with a wonderful speaker regarding this topic, which I didn’t even realize was going to happen until I was there. Anyway, I posted some thoughts here http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/2012/01/rambling-about-reading.html regarding what I’ve been learning.
There have been some great tips on this forum as well. I’m soaking up all you are sharing.
Blessings,
Melissa
{{hugs}} and breathe, it’ll be OK. I promise. 
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