Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: delightful reading

This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 4 months ago by Doug Smith.

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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January 11, 2015 at 9:29 pm
kellywright006
Participant
Hi Everyone:
I know I am supposed to be doing short lessons with my 1st grader. We are doing DR. In ONE lesson you are to: write between 5-10 few new words (from a phrase), one at a time, on the board, and spell each one of them out with tiles, have her take a picture in her mind, have her write them all out, and then do various forms of the same word (sat, cat, bat…), for EACH of the 5-10 words…… which is all in “one lesson” from what I can tell. By the time you go through each step, for 5-10 words, at least 30 minutes has gone by. Is the way it is written on a 2 page spread intended to be done at one sitting? It seems like all those skills go together and it IS a lesson, but why is it set up for SO MUCH, when lessons are to be short?
Also, this is very frustrating to me. They introduce a word, let’s say ‘said’ and then they introduce a bunch of different words with the same ‘ai’ in the middle.Like ‘maid’ >>>They don’t make the same sound even thought they are the same word. CONFUSING There are several words in the list that go back and forth with the different sounds, it’s not JUST those 2. Now, maybe it’s me, but I can’t explain WHY they both have ‘ai’ and say different sounds. My thought is: either put in there how to TEACH why the look the same and sound different, or leave out the words that don’t sound the same. How can I fell like I am *teaching* this better? Have the computer right next to me with the rules so that I can explain when they ask, “Why does the ai say this sound in this word, and that sound in this word, if they are the same letter?” I sit there stunned, looking in the answer book for a reason, and nothing…..Then I feel *stupid*>>
It seems like she is more successful and is more excited to read BOB Books. My FIRST SCM product I am disappointed in. If someone can help me figure out the above 2 statements, I am so wanting to like it…….
Thanks.
January 12, 2015 at 10:51 am
Jordan Smith
Keymaster
Is the way it is written on a 2 page spread intended to be done at one sitting? It seems like all those skills go together and it IS a lesson, but why is it set up for SO MUCH, when lessons are to be short?
Each lesson in Delightful Reading is designed to cover the piece of the passage your child is learning to read. For example, in Lesson 1 “The rain is falling all around”, you are taking the first line of the sentence, giving the child context for the words that are learned. If a lesson takes longer than 10-15 minutes, you can split the lesson over more than one day, or take a break after the time is up, then come back and do another 10-15 minutes later in the day (see the sidebar on page 40 of the teacher book). Remember that you’re moving at the child’s pace for these lessons.
When you come to a word that sounds different from the others, remember that English is full of inconsistencies. Charlotte trusted the child to discover the phonics rules naturally on her own, rather than expecting the memorization of every rule. In Lesson 4 (page 46), there’s a sidebar note explaining that wand will sound different from the other words that can be made from and. The child should be allowed to notice this and realize that wand doesn’t follow the rule. If she asks why this is, you can explain that some words just don’t follow the rules. That should be all the explanation necessary.
January 12, 2015 at 2:16 pm
anniepeter
Participant
I am using this and love the method. Used it for my last child without having DR, and now I’m using DR with the next child. I have to say that I have chosen to just skip the works that don’t fit the “rules”, and we’ll just learn those as sight words as we go along (i.e. we’ll just learn the word, but not attempt to teach any word pattern to go along with it. Just my way…but I guess I didn’t take note of those teaching notes Jordan mentioned. I could see doing that as well. I do have to confess that my son hasn’t loved the reading selections, so I have chosen to add in some of my own choosing and just use the same method to teach…to give him some variations I know will catch his interest more. I want him to love reading lessons, so this is important to me. However, I’m sure that every child will be different in the preferences, and I am still happy to have the format to guide me. I still use the teacher book and just use my own phrase to teach. It is still useful to me in this way. We NEVER complete a whole lesson in one day. I have divided mine to learn the phrase in one day if it is not too long, then the word patterns the next day or more. Maybe that will help…
Actually, I have NEVER owned a curriculum that I haven’t adjusted (and I’ve owned quite a few :-). I want it to fit just right, and I’ve accepted after 15 years of HSing that it never will. I just use it as a guide/tool and ad lib as soon as I get a little confidence in the method!
January 13, 2015 at 6:37 pm
Doug Smith
Keymaster
We just posted a new video that might be helpful.
http://youtu.be/blF1JyI9TWU