A ? About Teaching Reading, please

[Wife_and_mommy]

I'm feeling like a failure lately and am hoping we're on the right track and I just don't know it.

DD knows all her sounds and can sound words out but hasn't made the connection on blending the sounds into words. Is this something we should work extensively on? Or will it click for her when she's ready?

Right now, I have her make the sounds and tell her to blend them(and have demonstrated it 1000 times) but she doesn't seem to get it. I get frustrated and feel like I'm not doing something right in teaching her so I'd love any thoughts or input.

Another thing that just came to mind is that maybe I'm giving her too much with 3-letter words. Should I back up to 2-letter words and go from there?

FYI, we have the first set of Bob books and The Ordinary Parent's Guide.

TIA

[KpbS]

How old is your DD?

[Wife_and_mommy]

Ack, sorry. She's 5.

ETA: newly 5, that is.

[kijip]

It will click at some point and then exponentially mushroom from there if she is anything like the 5 year old readers I know. I sure it is just fine. T knew sounds for a long time before he started reading, but we did not try to teach him actively.

[KpbS]

I am certainly no expert. DS1 is learning and I am not sure how he has learned to blend sounds/letters. I would guess that it is one of those things that does "click" at the right time and not stress about it. I think reading together, talking about sounds, letters, rhyming, etc. is great foundation work.

I've heard really good things about Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons but have never read the book myself. I was in an educational supply store recently and saw some materials geared toward blending sounds, word families, etc. You might find something fun/helpful there.

Will she start kindergarten in the fall?

[Wife_and_mommy]

Thanks, ladies. I guess I'm wondering if I taught her something incorrectly and that's why she's not able to do the blending.

I appreciate your responses. :)

ETA: I started out with 100 Easy but the school that DD will attend in the fall (yes, kindy) uses Ordinary Parent's so I made the switch)

[DebbieJ]

Does she watch any educational TV?

I think Signing Time DVDs and then later PBS shows like Word Girl and Word World set my DS up to thrive in the world of letters, words, and reading.

[caheinz]

For us, it just clicked one day. DS1 has known his letter sounds for a long time, but he was resisting blending until just a few months ago. All of a sudden, he decided that he wanted to sound words out for himself. Or that's certainly what it seemed like...

[squimp]

I would just keep doing it, eventually it will make sense to her. My experience was that I couldn't make her do it. I just kept reading to her and working with her on it. There were times when it was completely frustrating for me, because it seemed like she had all the tools, but it took a while to click. I went from one day banging my head listening to her try to sound out words to being completely amazed because she was doing it on her own and just growing by leaps and bounds.

Around here (highly educated PhD-rich college town) still only a small fraction of kids can read when they start kindy (less than 1/4 in the classes I've seen). Sounds like she's in great shape.

[HannaAddict]

Thanks, ladies. I guess I'm wondering if I taught her something incorrectly and that's why she's not able to do the blending.

I appreciate your responses. :)

ETA: I started out with 100 Easy but the school that DD will attend in the fall (yes, kindy) uses Ordinary Parent's so I made the switch)

We were told the 100 Easy steps book was the way to go, even if school teaches something different, by the Phd. who did our child's cognitive testing. She said it is a great plan and just to do 10 minutes a day and not push it over the summer if we wanted him to be reading by the end of summer. We bought it on Half.com but haven't done anything with it though. There were tons of copies in excellent condition very cheap a few months ago. We read to our children all the time and have tons of books all around (tons!) so we figure it will happen one way or another. I guess we are slackers since I just found out other children in his pre-k have been going to Kumon all year. I didn't even know you could go to Kumon, I thought I was doing great ordering the "How to Cut" book I read about on this board!

[egoldber]

It will click at some point and then exponentially mushroom from there if she is anything like the 5 year old readers I know. I sure it is just fine. T knew sounds for a long time before he started reading, but we did not try to teach him actively.

:yeahthat: As a new 5 I would not worry about it. Sarah entered K at 5 knowing nothing but her own name and maybe a couple other words. When she was ready, it was like a light switched on and she got it very quickly.

And around here, also lots of highly educated, highly motivated parents, most kids are not reading before they enter K.

[AngelaS]

I've used both 100 Easy Lessons and The Ordinary Parents Guide and I strongly recommend The Ordinary Parents Guide. I have taught two of my children to read with these books--the first learned with 100 Easy Lessons and the second with TOPG.

My first child, who academically is more driven and matured a bit earlier was still struggling to read at the end of 1st grade. She didn't like to read, she didn't want to read and it trying to read anything other than her 100 Easy Lessons book left her frustrated. My second child, I taught with The Ordinary Parent's Guide. This is my child who's a wiggly worm and was a bit younger when we started, is ending her 1st grade year loving to read and reading much better than her big sister did at this age. I also think she has a better ability to sound things out than her big sister does.

100 Easy Lessons teaches kids sounds in a somewhat random order. M, S, long e and short A are some of the first sounds. They also learn right away that TH and long e says Thee which they then convert to 'the'. Every time e is shown, they put the bar over the top (I can't remember the symbol's name this early in the morning) but it's the straight line that shows you that it's to make the long e sound. They print the words like that for a very long time. This made the transition to reading other books VERY hard because my dd informed me she didn't know what sound the E made if it wasn't wearing it's 'hat'.

A bit later they introduce double vowel words. EA for example. Instead of teaching the "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking idea", they print the first letter normal sized and the second one small. That's to help them remember only the first letter 'speaks'. Again, this makes the transition to regular books more challenging.

I do like that 100 Easy Lessons encourages the kids to read BAM as baaaammmm in one long word without stopping. They explain that okay and it does seem to help kids grasp the idea of not reading it as buh, aaaaa, mmmm.

The Ordinary Parents Guide on the other hand, does not do the 'errors' I see in 100 Easy Lessons. The first 26 lessons of the book are an introduction to learning the letter sounds with a cute poem. I skipped that part. My dd had already learned the letter sounds from The Letter Factory DVD and the fridge Word Whammer. When I teach my next child, I plan to teach the basic letter sounds w/out the poem.

The book moves on to three letter words right away. The only thing I wish they did differently is explain how to get your child to not pause as they're sounding out words, but to make each word continue into the next one. Honestly that's the ONLY flaw. It's possible that they did explain it but I skipped over that. It's truly easy enough to teach w/out the coaching.

Both books are designed to build on what they learned the day before and you're constantly practicing which is very good. Both will eventually teach your child to read. If you want your child to only read from the 100 Easy Lessons, then go with that. If you want your child to be able to transition to easy readers and other things with a good phonics base so they can read other things more easily, I highly recommend The Ordinary Parents Guide by Susan Wise Bauer.

[sste]

Would it make the both of you feel better to take a break from sounding out words for a while? Perhaps focus on asking lots of open-ended questions when you are reading together (which has a measurable impact on language skills though not nec. reading skills after as little as a month). And maybe some of those math measuring block things?

I know its not popular today in a time when literacy has crept up earlier and earlier into the curriculum. But, in my mind reading is a mechanical skill and therefore its low on my list. If you feel inclined to work with your DC, I would focus far more on logic, spatial reasoning, creativity, critical thinking skills. Truly, I believe there is a reason that every other developed country is exceeding us in educational outcomes and I think that part of the reason is the overwhelming focus on literacy as opposed to numeracy, logic, etc. in the early years (and beyond).

OK, off my soapbox! Hoping this offers a different way of looking at this . . .

[Wife_and_mommy]

I would just keep doing it, eventually it will make sense to her. My experience was that I couldn't make her do it. I just kept reading to her and working with her on it. There were times when it was completely frustrating for me, because it seemed like she had all the tools, but it took a while to click. I went from one day banging my head listening to her try to sound out words to being completely amazed because she was doing it on her own and just growing by leaps and bounds.


Thanks for the encouragement. I needed to hear this. My experience has been exactly as yours. I'll be patient as she gets there.

HannaAddict, I guess I'm overcompensating. I've always been more focused on character than academics believing that the academics would come but the school she'll attend seems to be a slightly ahead of where she is so I feel like I'm playing catch up. I started last summer with her but it's been very sporadic w/re: to reading. Right now we work together about twice a week for 15 minutes or so. Believe me, I'm the queen of slackers. I have a friend whose DC was writing his name at 2yo among other skills beyond his years. That is so not me.



They explain that okay and it does seem to help kids grasp the idea of not reading it as buh, aaaaa, mmmm.


Angela, This is exactly why I'm worried I've messed up. I only did a few lessons with her in 100 and her reading ever since has been the buh aaa mmm-type. It's encouraging to hear she'll get it when she's ready. I feel so ill-equipped to part-time homeschool in the fall!

sste, We only do it a couple times a week. I had slacked off on the numeracy and she's really picked up on that as we've worked on it the last month or so. Bonus is my 3yo is catching it too. All the others you mentioned are well-represented considering my slacker-mom status. :) I appreciate your input.

I appreciate everyone's responses. I've told my DD a few times that I didn't even speak English at her age so I know I'm doing a-okay. It's hard to keep that in mind when I'm feeling discouraged about my lack of teaching skills.

Thanks again, everyone! I really appreciate your time.

[kayte]

I am a former Kindergarten teacher.

It happens when it happens. Everything from hearing individual phonemes to blending sounds can be encouraged but not actually taught. It's a switch in the brain that has to turn on. If it's not on and you push it (repeatedly) you'll impede the process by interjecting emotions into it.

Just read with her. Everyone once and a while stop and sound out a word (make sure it's actually phonetic-- there are bunches in our language that are not). Also make sure she can identify Phonograms/Digraphs not just sounds of letters. Play games by having her point out the phonograms in new words (I used to do it with nonsense letter grouping). It encourages them to realize they will hear that sound when the word it said and they begin to internalize it.

Eventually it will come.

[brittone2]

I agree that it is totally normal that she's not ready to take the jump yet to the next level. It will come.

Honestly, my DS is 5 and has been reading since he was 4-4.5. However, I don't think it was anything *I* did. It just clicked earlier for him. I'm actually a fan of delaying a lot of formal academics a bit.

I honestly would probably drop trying to read for a few weeks/months. DS started a little reading between 4-4.5. He got into it really quickly. Then he rather suddenly had no interest for a while. I went with it. When his interest circled back around, he took a huge jump in what he was doing (with no direct instruction happening in the meantime). At this age, I think keeping reading fun, varied, and having her feel positive about the whole literacy experience is far more important than the mechanics of reading. You can play word games, you can read all kinds of interesting and varied literature together, etc. but I'd probably back off from actually trying to teach it for a bit. Listening to you read, listening to books on CD, etc. are all helping form vocabulary and reading comprehension. THey are still working on "reading" without actually doing the act of reading on their own IMO. We also do a lot of making things available but without instructing directly unless he asks. For example, DS liked doing things like Boggle Jr. and was learning without me having to *teach* him directly. I think sometimes that suits his personality better. He's very much a perfectionist, and I think he sometimes enjoys working things out for himself.

Don't judge your ability to "homeschool part time" based on her reading or not reading (at age 5, which is still so early). :hug:

[MamaKath]

I think you have gotten some great advice. 100 Easy Lessons is a great book to start with even if your schools curriculum is different. Most schools are not expecting your child to come in reading, so teaching from their curriculum just means she will learn it twice in the same way.

Anyway, she sounds like she is on track! :)