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Twaddly reading program
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So we tried and tried again to use How to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons and it just did NOT turn out easy for us. It was working, but my dd was miserable. I had a VERY old version of Sing Spell Read Write and I started using that with her and she LOVED it! When we got to the readers I put it away because they were SO “dick and Jane” and again tried How to teach and she was learning, but again would get VERY frustrated, so I pulled out SSRW and she is doing SO well. The books are very “boring” for ME, but she has such a sense of accomplishment because she can read the whole book and just being able to read it makes her want to do it again and learn more. So my three year old has been sitting in on all of this and was picking up the songs and lessons from SSRW and she’s been learning how to read too now! I just wanted to post this to encourage other moms that might be struggling to keep it “pure”.
Blessings,
Rebekah
Thanks for the encouragement, Rebekah! Sounds like your older dd’s joy of reading is contagious!
Blessings,
Heather
Rebekah,
I had the same experience with the same programs! My DD loves SSRW, and we’ve had great success with it. I think the key is to find what works for you, and still read as many living books to them as you can. That way, they have that sense of accomplishment, and they are also hearing good literature.
Faith 🙂
Faith- I’m so glad that I’m not the only one! 🙂 My oldest dd LOVES great literature from the read alouds we’re doing to the audio books we get from the library (She LOVED Anne of Green Gables = I think because she could relate to Anne’s inquisitiveness!)
My oldest son learned to read at an early age – we went through the Hooked on Phonics workbooks (skipped the tapes, and some of the activities – basically I modified it) and books as well as some Bob books and Dick and Janes – I agree that those books are very boring and can fall into the “twaddle” category. However, that sense of accomplishment really fueled his reading flame and he kept begging to learn more. He is now reading very well and reads a lot of the books I had been reading to him. I wouldn’t get too hung up in the early readers and maybe view them more as a tool and not literature. I think if you can help them to enjoy learning to read and not have them feel that it is such a chore they will be eager to learn and look forward to having that door opened for them. They will have many years ahead to read good books!
I have taught several children to read using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It was not working at all for my current 5yo. I have switched to Explode the Code and it is better, but I find has a huge amount of busy work and a lot of letter writing which my 5yodd is not strong in at all, so we skip a lot of that.
I think some twaddle in early readers is unavoidable. I agree that the sense of accomplishment is important and a child will certainly get that from finishing a WHOLE book. I look at it this way: In our family, we think of twaddle as junk food for the mind. We can have a little bit, but too much and our minds (like our bodies) will become unfit and mushy. However, twaddle for little ones in the form of easy readers is more like soft and simple food, as opposed to unhealthy food. We can’t have our babies jumping right into eating popcorn and carrot sticks! They start off on something their immature, learning systems can handle and eventually, when they stop gagging, we move them onto more challenging food. We try make the food healthy, even though it is simple. The same goes for early readers. In our family, I draw the line at early readers that are really just TV propaganda (Barbie, Dora, etc.) It doesn’t take long before they are past the stage of needing contrived stories (where they have to make a story/plot from a very limited range of words — short vowel sounds, for example) and can move onto simple stories which broadens our horizons a lot.
So, for me, I don’t stress it too much. While I realize that children used to learn to read using the King James Bible, I’m personally thankful for early reading programs and simple books for children to start off with. 🙂
we are having the same problem with teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. He thinks it is torture, so we are going to use Happy Phonics. I’m not sure I’m going to ETC, because of the amount of writing. we love the fun stuff, but the writing is just ouch! He’s not ready, but really is ripe for reading. We’ll probably use it alongside the Noah Webster Reading Handbook – for reference for me. Hmm, I may do ETC and then just skip some of the writing stuff. I really want to teach him italics.
oooooh, have you seen ETC Online? Only available from books 1 and up. I’m not sure that this is really CMish. But what about doing ETC writing with just a finger? Tracing with the finger, so they get some of the movements, but don’t have to write with an actual pencil if they aren’t ready. I think we are going to try it this way. The activities he can do with a pencil or crayon.
We have used Explode the Code online for a few months now. We bought our subscription from http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=896 . I agree it is not CM and we don’t usually have our dc on the computer, especially for schooling. We did the entire book of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and then went straight to Pathway Readers and he has done just fine. I like the ETC online becasue it is fun for him and not all the writing that the books have. The only problem I have with it is that it gives an “award” at the end of each little activity and it is either a paper airplane, butterfly, ladybug, or bee (the airplane being the best and the bee being the worst). My son has figured out that the bee is when you don’t do so well so he sometimes gets frustrated when he earns a bee. I sit with him while he does it and I tell him I am his teacher not the computer so just ignore the bees and Mommy thinks you are doing a great job! This usually helps.
Blessings,
Danielle
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