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Reading for an 8 year old girl – phonics and chapter books
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Last year my youndest dd enjoyed reading science books about animals…the National Geographic first reader fact books. We took a break off for summer, she read a very small amount. When we started back, she was really struggling so I signed her up for a Reading Eggs trial. She really enjoys it, but it says she has a 6 year old reading level. That didn’t seem right to me, so I got Little House in the Big Woods from the library. She read some of it to me today and did great! Is there something I’m missing?
Why would she be going so slowly on the phonics site, but be able to read early chapter books?
Should I continue the Reading Eggs or just have her read? Any suggestions at that level for a girl who enjoys animals?
Thanks!
Well, not everyone reads using phonics….
not sure what I’d suggest. I’d lean towards just having her read – but it may or may not affect spelling later….
Thank you Suzukimom. I never thought that maybe she is just reading whole words. I wonder if Sonya might chime in?
Despite my mom’s best efforts (I was homeschooled) I did not read using phonic rules. I just learned patterns and read the words. I read very well. Spelling was always a struggle because phonics just did not “click” like it did for my siblings. My mom went to more of a “pattern” type list. So I could start to understand patterns in spelling.
I can see that already in my ODS. Phonics trip him up when reading, but when he notices the pattern he does much better. My DD on the other hand did very well with phonics.
I have 3 who are graduated. Two were sight-readers and one was a phonetic reader. The sight-readers were great spellers. The phonetic reader struggled with spelling. My youngest, whom I am homeschooling now, has dyslexia, so it’s hard to compare to how the others learned, but she really struggles with spelling. She wants to spell everything phonetically, but she doesn’t necessarily read phonetically. I think she does a little of both. I had her in the Barton Reading System for her dyslexia. Once we got to level 3, it was all about spelling rules. It drove her crazy, trying to remember all the rules. I did use some other phonics programs for a little while, but once her reading got to a certain point, I ditched the phonics. When she comes to words that she can’t seem to figure out, I may point out the phonics rule for that word. What I have been doing for a little phonics and spelling is to choose a ‘rule’ and have her write some things in a notebook. For example, right now we are working on words with the soft ‘c’. I have her write a word in her notebook (sometimes from our history/storytime reading) and then we find the word in the dictionary and she writes the definition. So, she’s getting a little phonics, spelling, vocabulary, and dictionary skills, but it is light.
Personally, if your daughter is sight-reading (whole words), I’m not sure a formal phonics program is totally necessary. Some may have a different opinion. I’m going by my experience with my youngest. Even with her dyslexia, I think she does sight-read a lot. With all the different rules and all the exceptions to the rules, it just makes it more confusing for her. Just keep letting her read real books. If you see she is having a hard time with certain types of words, you can show her the rule. My daughter has made significant progress this way.
I should clarify about my daughter spelling phonetically. She does not follow rules. She spells how they sound. But, following all the rules for spelling is overwhelming for her, and I think once a child has had enough phonics to learn to read well, phonics just becomes spelling rules. I have heard it said, even from those with college degrees in this area, that the best way to learn to spell is by reading and writing. That is why some homeschool curriculum (namely, a unit study program I had used with my older girls) does not go heavy on doing ‘spelling’ words. That author is one who stressed the reading and writing to learn to spell. I know your post was not about spelling, but I always think of spelling rules when I think of phonics. We were using Plaid Phonics after Barton. I thought that I would just keep my daughter in phonics for a long time, as PP has so many levels. I could have had her in phonics until jr. high. But, I realized that her reading was not so dependent on all these phonics rules, since much of her reading is now by sight. I know they want kids with dyslexia to be able to break words apart, because they will read by the shape of the word and then guess. But, my daughter could not remember rule after rule. So, now she just reads real books to me and I help her with the sound and tell her why it makes that sound. She is basically memorizing and reading by sight. And she has made significant progress.
My dd8 learned by sight mostly. She reads wonderfully but would probably look like she belonged in Kindergarten on a phonics test. She does have a lot of trouble with spelling, and also reading some large words that she hasn’t seen or heard much before. We started All About Spelling with her this year after learning to spell words the CM way completely flopped for her. Hopefully that helps we those couple issues.
DD really enjoyed the Millicent Selsam Science readers. Way better than most early reader twaddle. There is also a whole collection of “I can read Science books” that are early readers.
http://belovedbooks.net/Articles/I-Can-Read-Science-Books.html
This discussion has been extremely helpful! I had her read from the Little House book today and she did wonderfully. I took time to point out phonetics or rules for the words she had trouble with, but those were few. I believe I will just continue with having her read. The Reading Eggs trial is almost up, so you’ve all just saved me $50! 🙂
Thanks again!
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