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Learning to read, what to do next?


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This year I've been homeschooling my 4 yr old boy (5 this summer). We had a very productive first month of homeschooling. We did about 30 minutes every other day using Bob books, Saxon K and some cutting, coloring or mazes. In that time he sounded-out and read the first two sets of Bob books (he had played with starfall and knew most letter sounds). Once that first month had passed he started refusing to do any school. We stopped because he is 4 and I want him to enjoy school. 

 

Around the end of September when he was bored I'd ask if he wanted to do school. Sometimes it sounded like an exciting proposition so we kept on going with Saxon K (which he calls the fun homeschool) and occasionally he would read one bob book for a special treat.

 

Eventually we started with OPGTTR. DS was doing well. He was reading (sounding out?) the passages in the book, but his eyes would glaze over. He was doing it for the special homeschool treats. Once again, the time came when he did not want to read it because he thought it was boring. And to be fair, it is kind of boring.

 

Then my husband got transferred for his job. Between the craziness of keeping a house ready for showings and preparing for a cross-country move by myself and two kids, we did not do any formal school between January and March. He did play in the computer a lot with starfall (which is now boring) and abcmouse (which also became boring) and pbskids. This excessive computer use was because I had 20 showings in 6 weeks.

 

While unpacking after the move, I found a still wrapped set of new Dick and Jane books my MIL got the kids for Christmas. I was very adamant that I would only do phonics with DS based on OPGTR. But since it's been a while since we had done anything I thought, well why not? Let's see if he can read them. So I took book 1 out. All the "Oh, oh, oh." sounded hilarious in my head so I read it out loud in the funniest way possible with faces and voices and all. Then we discussed the pictures. Lo and behold, my child wanted to read it himself. With giggles. I know many of those words are sight words, but in the last two days he has chosen to read the first three books (granted, they seem fairly simple) but he went from sounding out Bob books to almost fluent reading. Since he is more amenable to reading Dick and Jane if I read them first (in my hilarious mommy voice) I am not sure if this is really reading or if he is just repeating. I didn't know he could recognize "yellow" and "blue" we never reviewed those words. Like I said before, he did a lot of computer time during the crazy move so maybe he picked them up then?

 

Should I just go with it? If so, we would move on to what? I feel a little lost since I've never done this before and the logical method (to me anyway) is to follow a curriculum in order rather than jumping around. We had done several OPGTTR lessons and he can sound out words like h-e-l-p and blend, but we never moved on to multiple syllable words. I am confused and I do not want to mess him up. It is likely DS will soon find Dick and Jane boring too, but for now he does like them and the pictures. Opinions and suggestions would be appreciated. 

 

 

I do not post often because my kids are little and I am very new. However, I've read several threads before posting this. I will therefore add this note which I think is unrelated, but perhaps will prevent replies such as "just read to your kids and don't worry about it" ?:

We do lots of reading using books the kids pick out from the library and if it's nice we will go to playgrounds several times a week. DS is a mini paleontologist (joking, he just loves dinosaurs) and recently we've moved on to obsess about planets. And yes, both DS and DD (3) play with Lego, blocks, boxes, dolls (action figures), cars and such. Plus we do lots of science (planting, weed pulling, looking at stars, talking about germs) and experiments. DS is not yet writing. I offer crayons, colored pencils and paints and he does a little "abstract" art which is fine. As of age 4, he cannot write his name and I'm ok with it for now because he can spell it lol. He does color in the calendar square for Saxon math. I am bilingual, so occasionally we do Spanish time. And all the other normal things ...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Honestly, DD learned to read very young with minimal direct teaching from me. We didn't use a curriculum. We tried 100EZ but it was also labelled as "boring" by DD. We went through the Bob Books in fits and spurts, sometimes with long breaks and sometimes zooming through. After she was done with Bob Books, we moved on to the Mo Willems books, especially the Elephant and Piggie series. Elephant and Piggie are awesome - the books are a lot of fun, they are written at K-1st grade level, and with two characters you can each pick one and read their part. With very few exceptions, I taught all the words phonetically as we encountered them.

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I had a similar situation with my older daughter. She recognized some sight words around 2 1/2 without being taught, and then when she turned 3 she asked me to teach her to read. I tried 100 EZ lessons and she lost interest quickly, so I dropped it. Then a couple of months later she picked up a book and read it without any trouble-- I later discovered she had been taught mostly by a 6 year old at the Montessori that she attends. The school used primary phonics with the older kids, but it seemed to me like a 6 year old would mostly teach sight words.

 

After worrying about it for a while, I just decided to let the READING part go (she loved reading and still does to this day) because I didn't want to kill the fun. However, it made ME feel a lot better when I decided to splurge on All About Spelling. I'd originally wanted something much cheaper for spelling, but using AAS has given me some peace of mind that she is learning phonics. 

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My son JUST turned 5! So we are in a similar age :)

 

He could also "read" books back to me verbatim, he had that ability for years. Maybe test out your son's prowess on a book that Mommy has NOT read in a fun voice? If BOB books have been (rightfully :p ) labeled as "boring" maybe get some Nora Gaydos books from the library or online? They are similar, very phonetic, with different difficulty levels, but more interesting than BOBs. Or any other books, but you know, gauge his understanding by presenting an unread book.

 

My son is at the same stage, he can read and blend, "crab" "green" "help" etc but we haven't taken it further yet. He just learned to read last month though (like a light switch!!) so I'm in no hurry. We use Happy Phonics and other games and ideas.

 

I would continue giving him some kind of phonics instruction while at the same time not discouraging his Dick and Jane. Feeling the success of reading is oh so important! He can read D&J but then you guys can have short, more mechanical phonics lessons right? There is SUCH a wealth and variety of program and ideas for phonics, you would know which one your son would like best, right?  :)

 

Hope this somewhat helpful, lol! DS5 is my oldest as well and the first kid *I* have ever taught to read :D

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He might be a kid who learns faster with sight words.  Mine both did.

 

May I suggest books by Margaret Hillert in the JUST beginning to read (or maybe now they are "I'm Reading") series?  These are easy stories built on the Dolch sight words.  They are well-illustrated and not obnoxious like Dick and Jane can be.  ;)  I'd let him play with the books but don't read them to him first.  Let him try to read an easy one on his own if he is interested.

 

As others have mentioned, you can teach the phonics rules of the sight words so he doesn't miss phonics instruction.

 

Another series to try at this stage, which is not obnoxious, is the Rookie Reader series.  These have a word list at the end of each book.  You can work on the words phonetically before he tries to read the book.

 

Both of these series are likely to be available at your local library.

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I would do both.  That is what I am doing with my younger DD.   She made a big jump lately sight word wise and sounds quite fluent reading (new to her) intro level books in her favorite area (big and small cats) -- but at the same time she is not fluent with Bob and other purely phonetic reading. So I just slip in a 5 minute phonics/phonics reader lesson here and there while enjoying the huge amounts of practice she is getting with the books she is motivated to work on.

 

note: I did not teach her the sight words she has learned at all -- all the teaching I have done is phonics.  She picked up these words naturally as we read these types of books for reading time.    Watching her makes me understand how people could start believing that whole word was the way to go.

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First of all, don't ever be defensive for teaching your almost 5 year old to read. It's time (as it sounds that, developmentally, he is more than ready). Secondly, I would just read real books with him. What he has not intuited, he will likely pick up very quickly as you read-aloud to him and assist with his independent reading. None of my girls really enjoyed learning to read. They've all been pretty independent spirits and very motivated self-learners. My youngest DD, turning 6 soon basically refused any attempt to teach her to read, yet she is now a fluent reader. She would begrudgingly play the LOE phonogram app and will do a bit of ETC when she's in the mood. She loves to play Reading Eggs, and most of all, she just likes to read real books and be read to. It will all work out and you'll eventually find and fix any holes he has in his phonics knowledge.

 

You've gotten some good suggestions above for early readers; the Elephant and Piggie books were THE thing that got youngest DD reading with enthusiasm. Good luck and have fun with it. 

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I wouldn't worry too much about him picking up the sight words quickly.  IMO, that's inevitable with a kid who is eager to read at a higher level than he has actually been taught.  I would still continue with phonics instruction, though.  Even if you just do something like The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading for 10 minutes a day to make sure you're covering the rules of phonics.  That way he'll have the tools he'll need later on for reading more challenging words.

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I wish that this blog post existed when I was beginning to teach mine to read....Joyful Shepherdess's Reading Post    

 

 

Read it.  Print it out.  

 

 

When he is "bored" of Dick and Jane, start him on the Treadwell Primer.  Learn the words via word building exercises as described in that blog post, and read.  Yes, he is probably just parroting back (mostly) with Dick and Jane.  

 

 

He sounds very bright and eager, but maybe he's not so much a "sit down with a curric and drill" sort of learner.  When he gets "bored" I would translate that as he has mastered all there is to master within that program/book.  Time to move along.  Within the process described in the blog post above, there is room to maintain consistency in teaching reading (through word building exercises), yet keep things fresh for him (Do not let those eyes glaze over!) by utilizing interesting books.  

 

The Treadwell Readers are a good place to start b/c they are real stories, not constructions made up for phonics practice.  Yet the vocab is very small in the Primer and grows gradually, making them perfect for learning to read.  That said, you can use the technique with ANY book...so learning this process, you can truly follow his interests and learn to read with books about dinosaurs and planets...and whatever gains his favor next. 

 

 

 

Because he's had some success with computer programs, check out Read, Write, Type by www.talkingfingers.com   

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