struggling with reading

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  • October 13, 2013 at 10:01 pm
    jill smith
    Participant

    Help, my daughter is struggling a bit with blends. She is 8 and not sure where else to go with the teaching. Ive done “How toteach your child to read ina 100 easy lessons”. SHe still having trouble. SHe can read some and then all of a sudden she forgets the word or words. I am nervouse she is going to be behind. Any suggestions? I dont want to keep spending money and it doesnt work or she gets frustrated.

    October 13, 2013 at 11:56 pm
    ServingwithJoy
    Participant

    We used some pictoral flash cards along with 100 easy lessons (I think from MFW). It has helped my little ones to have a catchy ‘name’ for the blend. You can make these simply by drawing a picture of an object on an index card that starts with the blend sound (like: “sh” with a picture of a ship). Then you just review these every day before she reads.

    Writing the sounds helps to ‘cement’ them in the mind as well. How is copywork going with her?

    Is she reading transitional books yet (like the early readers or Pathways readers)? If so, what I do is keep a notebook handy and jot down the blends they are having trouble with. After the reading, we go over those words or sounds they have trouble with.

    Don’t panic :).

    October 14, 2013 at 1:06 am
    Karen
    Participant

    I have a daughter for whom blends were hard – still are hard, by times. One thing that I found helped her was to teach the Dolch word list using flashcards. She still doesn’t “like” to read – she fusses about having to read aloud – but I catch her with a book in her hands frequently. The Dolch word list flashcards gave her enough common words that she can read some of the very easy books. And that has boosted her confidence.

    I still have to help her with some words (always giving her the phonics rule, if I can) and I often have to tell her if she can sound out the word or if she just has to memorize it.

    October 14, 2013 at 1:34 am
    Angelina
    Participant

    Very un-CM (but also very inexpensive), you may want to consider the Explode the Code workbooks. For blends you would start at Explode the Code 2 and then do 2 1/2 for even more reinforcement. These exercises really built the confidence for my kids at age 7-8, and the speed for blending and sounding-out just all of sudden clicked about halfway through the first book. The blends are repeated and repeated, yet the exercises themselves are varied (at least, by chapter) the child doesn’t really “feel” the repetition as he might if were drilled on flashcards or having to read the same chapter in a reader over and over again.

    I might also suggest you partner ETC with the previous poster’s suggestion to do some memory work with the Dolch word list. You could do flaschcards for Dolch, or you could do the Dolch words via Spellingcity.com….they call this a “spelling” website but it works just as well during the early reading stage because new words are read aloud to the student, repeated during memory games, etc.

    Hope this helps some! Angie

    October 14, 2013 at 3:00 am
    hmsklnflybaby
    Member

    My daughter had trouble with blends too, and was just slow to read in general.  She also had some minor speech problems which played into diffuculty reading too. I just decided not to stress.  Things started to click a little at about 8 1/2, (which is about the time the speech problems cleared up on their own) but it really was not until 9 that she actually “got it” and now she is reading all the time.  I just kept reading to her, which she has always loved, and the desire to read more than I had had time to read to her really motivated her to want to read chapter books which was probably the best motivation for her. Now she reads to me while I make dinner, do dishes etc. It is like suddenly everything clicked and it all made sense. I didn’t use flash cards, I just had her try to read a little of everything we read. That was just more meaningful to her. Every kid is different. Even though she was slow to read, she has quickly caught up and is one of the best readers in Sunday school. Your daughter will get it. Try not to worry too much about it. It is easy to think our kids should be reading by age X, and so-and so’s kid has been reading since he was 4 so what is wrong with my kid etc.  Just give her the time she needs and it will come together in the right timing for her. 

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