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Should I skip formal reading lessons?
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My 6 year old is reading easy readers even though she has never had a formal lesson.
She has watched me do formal lessons with her older sister and hs been read to a lot. As I’ve read she has asked questions and had a strong desire to read herself, so one day she just started doing it. She asks me to listen to her read and I point out things to her, like rules and letter blends, etc. She knows her sight words. I was thinking I should begin reading lessons with her at this age, as I did with my now 8 year old, but when I use the program I have she is beyond it and it makes me feel like maybe we don’t need to go through an entire program.
On the other hand, I feel “weird” about not doing a reading curriculum.
Any thoughts?
What reading program is it? My dd did the same thing with her older brother. I did go through our Sonlight program with her still. But I did not do as much with it as I did with my son. You may be able to skip through to where she is.
Now I am finding that she does not spell as well as her brother did when he was at the same level. I find she reads the first part of a longer word, but makes up the rest. So I am having her slow down and use some phonics to read it correctly. I still have her read aloud to me daily so I can help correct these words and she is still doing Explode the Code.
mamakof4, I had two sons who taught themselves to read and I had to figure out what to do with them. So I tried a test. I gave each of them difficult words they could not yet read and asked them to tell me what they said. One of my sons looked at the word, sounded it out, compared it to a word he already knew, and then confidently read it. I did not do any further reading instruction with him. 🙂 The second one looked at me blankly and said “I don’t know” He was reading well at about a 2nd or 3rd grade level, but he didn’t yet have the tools to tackle a tougher word like the oldest one seemed to pick up without trying. So I did a quick run-through of a simple phonics program with him. I think we just did Phonics Pathways. By the time we were done he had it all figured out and could read whatever he wanted. I think this check on skills is a good way to determine whether a child has really internalized enough phonics and strategies on his own to continue to do well and not “hit a wall” (many people will tell you ALL kids who teach themselves to read will eventually “hit a wall”–I did not, and neither did my oldest. My second one might have–so we spent a little time.) I think taking a bit of time to check will help, so you can make sure your child has all the skills needed for higher level reading, but also so you don’t frustrate a child who does not need the further intervention. (I distinctly remember announcing to my mom that I was not going back to first grade one day–the teacher kept making me do endless phonics workbook pages and I had HAD IT!!!! I was reading, I think, Pilgrim’s Progress on my own at the time 🙂 and those workbook pages were making me NUTS! I was in the “Gold” reading group, but still she kept making me do stupid phonics. My mom spoke to her, and she decided to let me skip to upper grade readers and left me be after that.)
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