Having fun teaching reading

[Oakblossoms]

What are some things you did to make learning to read fun? My 6 year old is starting to "get" it. But, he is very active, loves to draw, and really loves to write out the letters and words.

 

Any advice?

 

We are both starting to get frustrated.

 

We are using Phonics Pathways, Bob Books, starfall.com on the Wii, Between the Lions, and we tried OPGTR.

Edited August 12, 2009 by Hausunterricht

[lgm]

Make and illustrate his own books.

Set up a library of same, organized as he wishes.

Have story hour where he reads to younger sibs or stuffed animals.

[Chris in VA]

Play games.

I like the Montessori Command Game--I've written about it many times here, but it's basically writing silly phrases on small slips of paper then having him pull one out of a basket or container, read it silently to himself, then do it while you applaud, laugh, make a big deal, etc. We used mostly short vowel words and a few sight words.

Here are some phrases we used:

 

Kiss the dog.

Hug Mom.

Jump on the rug.

Jump up!

Get the mug.

Put the dog on the rug.

 

I had some stuffies around and a few objects so dd could use them in the commands.

[Radish4ever]

This blog has lots of fun ideas:

http://thesnailstrail.blogspot.com/2009/05/whats-in-workbox-handmade-word-family.html

 

 

Also, we make a lot of "word books" or "letter books" - generally it's just a sheet of construction paper folded in half... then DD either narrates what she wants to draw about for the book and I write it down or sometimes she will write the words if they're within her grasp and then illustrates. It reinforces what she is learning in a fun and nonconfrontational way. :)

[Alice]

Play games.

I like the Montessori Command Game--I've written about it many times here, but it's basically writing silly phrases on small slips of paper then having him pull one out of a basket or container, read it silently to himself, then do it while you applaud, laugh, make a big deal, etc. We used mostly short vowel words and a few sight words.

Here are some phrases we used:

 

Kiss the dog.

Hug Mom.

Jump on the rug.

Jump up!

Get the mug.

Put the dog on the rug.

 

I had some stuffies around and a few objects so dd could use them in the commands.

 

I did this I think after reading Chris post about it once. :) Ds loved it. I used very active things like "Run up the steps. Kick the ball. Jump two times." etc.

 

Another thing my ds LOVED was treasure hunts. I would hide a treasure which was usually something like a special snack or occasionally some little toy or temp tattoos or stickers or something like that I had saved for this purpose. Then would write 6 or 7 clues that he had to follow to the treasure.

 

Another game he liked was something I called the Fast Game. I had words we were working on on index cards. Then he had to see how many he could read in one minute. If he beat his previous record or got a certain number right he'd get a prize...again usually something like a few M&M's or I'd let him put on a temp tattoo. He liked the competitive nature of this.

 

A variation on it was to do a game called Zip/Unzip that I got from Peggy Kaye's Games for Reading. This one has the words on index cards. You then hold it up very quickly and put it down (maybe they see it for a second or two). He then had to say what it said. If he got it right it was zipped, if wrong it was unzipped. (Don't know why those terms, that's just what she called it and I used the same terms.) This helped a lot with fluency when he was going through a phase of sounding out every single letter every time. I would do it with words that were easier than what we were currently working on in OPGTR. So we'd play zip/unzip with words like cat, dog, bed, pig, etc but he could sound out much harder blends. I usually also did a small prize if he beat whatever his previous record was or if he was able to zip a certain number of words out of 10 or 20. (You do have to make sure with this game that they understand that you don't expect them to get them all right. I'd usually say something like 13 out of 20 for the prize. )