Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: 8 yo, auditory learner, phonics, reading, sight words, son

This topic has 5 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 3 months ago by Rachel White.

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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January 19, 2011 at 2:12 pm
dcilmom
Participant
I’ve looked through other posts that I thought would be helpful and haven’t found any. My oldest son, who is 8 years old, he is an auditory learner and has a hard time looking at words to read them, whether they be sight words or phonetic. I will place a word in front of him and he’ll look at it for a few seconds and then look away and guess as to what the word is. Since he is also an active boy he doesn’t sit well to do these lessons (we are lucky to get 5-7 minutes done). He loves to be read to, we are reading The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis and loves it, plus any other picture books to read during the day. I loves to look at books, my husband and I love to read, so he sees us reading. I feel some pressure from my mom to compete with what he would be doing in 2nd grade at public school (she is a school librarian). We have limited resources and I cannot go out and buy any curricumlum for a while. I downloaded “Word Mastery” by Florence Akin from donpotter.net. If there are any posts that would benefit me, please let me know. Any help right now would be wonderful. We started homeschooling last year in January and a big reason was the over stress put upon reading (he was “reading”, more like remembering, something new every night, it would take forever and we would both be very frustrated in the end), and I have just taken the past year to unwind from public school, get used to all of us being at home together, figuring out curriculum, and other things. I get frustrated with him, I’m a visual learner who never learned phonics. I’m not worried if this will take a while to get down, just need advise to make it easier and more enjoyable for both of us. Thank you, Beth
January 19, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Richele Baburina
Participant
Hi Beth,
You may want to pick up Raymond and Dorothy Moore’s books from the library to help make you more comfortable with a society-termed “late reader.” According to the Moore’s, “Late readers” often have a higher level of comprehension and reasoning skills. Sonya’s cd “Looking Past the Fear” is also a great help in dealing with pressure from outsiders.
In the meantime, continue to read to him and enjoy great stories together (this will keep your frustration level down). What a great bond you have and are continuing to strengthen that way. With Charlotte Mason, I still do all the reading for our third-grader – together with his brother. I love Carol Barnier’s suggestion to pop some popcorn and — rather than a dvd — put a book on CD in or read a book to your child. Even better if you have the book that goes along with the cd. Hopefully you have a great library or inter-library loan system.
Also, if your son is primarily an auditory learner, do you see any kinetic leanings?
Much peace to you, Beth.
Richele

January 19, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Rene
Participant
My 8 yr old daughter has had so much trouble learning to read. She could not remember her letter sounds from one moment to the next, or one day to the next.
We started doing these video phonics lessons, as well as playing the phonics game, and she has now started to “take off” with reading. We’ve only gotten to about lesson 12 in the videos.
http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/phonicslsnslinks.html
http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html
I also combined this with cursive lessons. Very short, just a letter or two each day.
January 19, 2011 at 5:55 pm
Richele Baburina
Participant
Hi Beth,
I just wanted to add to my reply but wasn’t able to edit it.
Really educating myself on the benefits of reading “late” and on my son’s learning style together with arming myself with the Word has really helped me. I have to meet with our deputy superintendent of the local school system yearly to review our childrens’ portfolios (ie show progress). The first year, before I even got sat down, she wanted to know where they were in reading. Being able to confidently talk with her about my “late reader” showed her I wasn’t just a slacker that didn’t care or an inept teacher (sorry for the informality).
She then confessed to me that her youngest son struggled with reading, was miserable in school and then went on to excel at university in engineering.
It is too bad we have the pressure to get our kids reading at a younger and younger age. Be strong, do your research, and enjoy all the gifts of having an auditory learner!
Richele
January 19, 2011 at 7:36 pm
dcilmom
Participant
Thank you to both of you, Richele and Rene. I don’t feel so alone on this. Another issue, is his younger sister, she is 6 yo and ready to tackle reading, I don’t know how to best go about it. I do not have to record her hours until she turns 7 yo which will be in July. She is a visual learner. I don’t know if waiting a bit would be best, for him to get a foothold or just let her go and let him when he is ready.
Richele- his next learning style would be kenistic, and visual last of all. I have read “Better Late Than Early”, and I should read it again.
Rene- I’ll look into that website, sounds like it might help me and him, he likes to do things on the computer.
Thank you again for you replies.
Beth
January 20, 2011 at 2:05 am
Rachel White
Participant
My dd is auditory, kinesthetic, then visual, too. I just read to her a lot and she listened to a lot of audio books, just as I had done with my visual, early reading son. However, I added in the Jim Weiss AbaDaba Alphabet CD/Book set and magnet letters on the floor. While I gave her a sound and words, she could be on the floor, providing her own sensory needs and spelled the words on the easel.
Another site, Sing n’ Learn,has a lot of music for use in teaching, which I do for my dd in several subjects to reinforce what I’m teaching.
Keep at his pace, his love of learning is what you don’t want to squelch, then learning through his entire life will be a struggle. Be patient, he’ll get it. My dd, at age 9, just finished a Louisa May Alcott book; CM’s methods work for a child like yours, too. The narration will strenthen him, too. Stand firm against pressure against an arbitrary level of expectations. Remember, Thomas Edison was kicked out of school by the teacher and his mother told he would never learn or amount to anything! Try to patiently endure your mom as long as she doesn’t become overbearing or crosses any lines; she’s reflecting a ‘system’ mentality; appeal to her trust in you and G-d to do what’s best for your children.
Rachel