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Delightful Reading with Classical Phonics???
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Good Morning! I am considering using Delightful Reading and am thinking about putting Classical Phonics alongside for a little more phonics instruction. Has anyone done this or something similar? I have children in the following stages:
DD10-Natural reader. Learned to read using 100 Easy Lessons and took off from there. Devours books but has a hard time with more complex words. Does okay with spelling, but I can tell she would really benefit from actually knowing the phonograms. I am wondering whether to do Spelling Wisdom with her, but I guess that may be another discussion!
DS7(8 in Nov.)-Learned to read using The Reading Lesson. I would still call him a beginning/sometimes struggling reader. This is my guy that I am sure I could have diagnosed with ADD, possibly somewhere on the autism spectrum, if I desired a label for him. Loves to read; wants so badly to read, but still struggles. Once again, I am thinking some phonics instruction could really help him.
DSalmost4-This little guy REALLY wants to read. He knows some letter names and sounds and wants to know what EVERYTHING says.
There’s a baby in the mix. Maybe I’ll get things figured out by the time she wants to read. 🙂
Anyway, I am thinking about starting DS4 with Delightful Reading, placing DS7 in DR where appropriate and using Classical Phonics alongside for the older two especially. Classical Phonics looks gentle and easy to implement, and I think it would help me see what they know and what they could use help with.
Any input/ideas/additional suggestions? Would DD10 benefit from spelling in addition to this, or would that be overkill? Thanks all!
I use Delightful Reading and Alpha phonics for my ds who just turned 7. We don’t have any problem doing both at the same time. He is able to read a little more by adding the phonics since he has some trouble with remembering the sight words. He was diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum so it takes him about a week to memerize one word so we are going very slowly through Delightful Reading. By adding in phonics he is learning sounding words out and some “rules” as well. I can’t give much advice about the older kids since this is my first child and my first time teaching reading. What you have written sounds good to me though. HTH.
Thanks Ruth; that does help! I was partly wondering whether a phonics program of any kind alongside DR would be overkill, but it sounds as though you have found it both doable and helpful. I think I am going to give it a shot.
Delightful Reading only uses basic phonics. We do believe adding intensive phonics is overkill and can actually make it more difficult for a child to learn to read fluidly. I explained this in much more detail on another recent discussion on reading and phonics.
I have a unique perspective I think in that I’m teaching our 12YO son to read. His first language is Chinese Mandarin, which is very different obviously from English.
He could NOT learn to read with a gentle approach. He NEEDS to learn the sounds and the phonics of English.
However, I think you can do this gently. I spend about 5 minutes a day with him on phonics, while he reads for more than an hour in English and more time in Chinese. We have had to set down a rule b/c of character issues, and our son knows if he is defiant on English work he will lose his Chinese books for that day.
My point though I I believe for some kids a gentle approach is not going to work. Our youngest son has congnitive delays, and he is VERY VISUAL. Oh my. He has really started glowing now that we have an Al Abacus. It is like a light bulb has gone off in math. Not there yet in reading, but we will use phonics instruction with him, but we are delaying.
He is not ready and hasn’t shown a natural interest (he is happy to still listen while we read to him; he is 7), so I think part of a gentle approach to reading can also be waiting until the child shows readiness.
An interesting read for anyone who might find themselves like me teaching a child who doesn’t fit the “norm” whether cognitive delays or learning English as a second language:
Thanks for your perspectives Doug and LDIMom. I am seeing with my two older children that is is time for further phonics instruction. I like the look of Classical Phonics, because I think it will help me to add gentle phonics instruction in without overdoing it. I do agree that intensive phonics for beginning readers is too much, which is why I loved The Reading Lesson for my son. He was allowed to simply start reading without having to memorize a bunch of rules. That was a great confidence booster for him, but now he becomes pretty frustrated with some of the words he cannot read for himself. I can tell that memorizing even a few phonics rules would help him greatly. I actually do stop and consider phonics rules myself on the rare occasion I come across a word I haven’t seen before, so I do think giving my older children this option will be helpful to them. Thanks all!
Do you already own Classical Phonics? It can be used in a gentle way or intensive way. Basically, it has lists of words that fit a particular phonics pattern. Each page builds on what the child has previously learned. There are no surprise blends or vowel combinations. The few teacher instructions at the bottom of the pages do mention a rule here or there, but suggest not requiring the child the learn the rule, but rather learn to use the rule by practicing words that fit it. I cannot locate my copy at the moment because we are reorganizing our school room, but that is what I mostly remember about it. You could even use it simply as a reference. That is what I did with my first child. When we learned a particular word family/pattern, I used words from CP for practice. I will probably do the same with my second child. We will build the words with magnet letters, write some words, and I will have him read some words. The only thing I wish Classical Phonics included is sentences or short stories. With my daughter, I would let her create a sentence with one or two of the words. I would write it. Then she would copy it and illustrate it. I taught capitalization and punctuation through these exercises. I hope that is helpful!
one more thing – I really jumped around with phonics instruction with my first child. I wish I had just stuck with something. She is reading well now, but I think constantly changing material and changing our approach hindered her progress when she was so eager to learn to read. I hope I’ve learned that lesson well enough to not repeat the same mistake with my son.
Hi Jennifer-I own Classical Phonics in that it is on its way to my home! 🙂 I purchased it from another mama at a very discounted price, which made it worth it to me just to be able to get my hands on it and see it in person. I was able to see enough of the sample pages to see that it is a gentle approach and also saw the rules at the bottom and the suggestion to not force the child to learn the rules. I think it will be a great help to me in finding out what my children do and do not know. I don’t want to drill them or make it a chore. Thank you for your tips on implementing CP. They will be very helpful! Oh, and the jumping around! I agree! I think that is why it has taken me so long to figure out what to do! I don’t want to get them started on something just to keep changing! Thank you!!
Oh sometimes we must learn from our mistakes. I am throwing my phonics book out. As we get into more “rules” my ds(7) is getting more and more confused. NO MORE RULES! I am sticking with DR only from here on out. Thank you SCM team for creating this awsome program.
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