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Reading coming to a halt....


stephanie
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My dd6 has been progressing fairly well with OPGTR. Before Christmas she didn't feel like reading for more than 5 minutes or so. When we started back after Christmas she took off in her reading. I've been able to get 10 minutes of reading out of her lately,and I've been pleased with that. Now she is starting to slow down again. Some of our lessons are taking us 3 days to do b/c she gets stressed at the new blends she's learning. She's having trouble with st, nt, ft's. I understand those are more difficult to learn,but I'm wondering if I should just back off and keep reading what she can with ease or just keep pushing forward, taking days for only one lesson. If it were up to her she would just play all day. She is still very much into hanging out in the dirt, coloring, and she loves to journal with us. She actually draws her journaling story out for us then narrates the pic for us. So WWYD? BTW, she was 6 in November so she's more of a new 6. Thanks

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My ds is the same way. He is 5 (almost 6) and we have very similar issues with blending. I think it is quite normal for them to take 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. It is all about consistancy and relating reading to things they enjoy. I look for opportunities to point out moments that it would easier once he masters more reading skills. My older dd9 was reading the comics in the car yesterday and he was quite upset that she would not read them to him. I encouraged him that as he works harder with reading he will too be able to read the comics on his own. It helps him see the importance.

 

All in all; I say take a break from new concepts whenever needed. I use TOPG to teaching reading by Jessie Wise and I like what she says... 1 new 2 review.

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I'd say back off. Dd7 was in that place a year ago. We put the book away. I read to her a lot and so did her brothers. We had her read some easy readers. We played word games. When we picked it up this year, we have been cruising at 2 lessons a day. She will finish the book this spring. For her, some of the maturity elements just weren't there. She has some vision issues that needed to mature before she was ready for that much close work. The optomotrist told us that her vision issues would clear up on their own ... and it did.

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This is exactly where we are now but my ds just turned 7 three weeks ago. I didn't want to take a break because we already took a big one at Christmas. I figured at some point you have to just plod on. What I did, though, was take a break from the curriculum but keep on with reading the words through games.

 

I made a word wall in his bedroom. I wrote words that had blends on index cards and put them in wall--style on his wall. Every morning we flash on a word with his flashlight and he has to "crack the code of the secret message." I also made a game by drawing a ladder on a piece of paper. There are words --hard and easy to read-- on index cards. For every word that he reads, he climbs up a ladder rung. I also laid the index cards on the floor and told him to jump on the word that I call out.

 

We have been stumbling around with blends for a month. I have been so discouraged. Miraculously enough, though, when we play games, he gets the words. He can read these words now. We have moved on to long vowel words and he is sailing through them.

 

I agree with the others about taking a break. Your dd is only 6. If you don't want to take a complete break, though, maybe you could play some reading games similar to the ones I described. This would give her practise on the words that she is stumbling on.

 

 

Julia

mom of 3 (8,7,5)

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Two separate responses. First, I went through this with my daughter when she was about 5. It wasn't necessarily that she got to a difficult place, but she just really started fighting against reading. I spoke to a few homeschooling teacher friends of mine and they both suggested to just back off for a few days and read aloud to her. When I went back to it, she was much more receptive. My son, however, is doing blends right now. I found something called Progressive Phonics (http://www.progressivephonics.com) online and they have extensive amounts of free downloads. One of the free downloads are books teaching blends. The way it works is that you introduce a blend, then you read a few pages of short stories including words with those blends. There are words for the parent to read and words for the child to read, so it's not a ton of reading, but it really stresses the words with the blend. My son really likes these stories! And I've noticed that he'll say the blend and then sound out the rest of the word, so he's really getting it. We do regular reading out of an old reader afterwards and he's translating that knowledge to his other reading. Hope this helps some.

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When my oldest was learning to read, she really plateaued a few times - I really didn't think she was ever going to move on, but eventually she did and now is totally fluent. Don't push it, you'll both get frustrated, but don't stop practicing either. I think it's part of the developmental process, that they have to really absorb some parts more than others, and can't move on until that is done.

 

One thing that helped here was that I picked up on her concern that once she learned to read I wouldn't read TO her anymore, and once I promised that I will read to her at least until she is 12, she was more willing to move on with her own reading. Now she loves having the option, so if I am not available she doesn't have to wait around, but I think she was worried about missing that time together.

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Hi Steph,

 

Just wanted to let you know that I'm having the same start/stop reading progression with my 5-year old. He really wants to read like his big brothers. I started with 100EL which worked well with both of the other boys, but not him. I've moved to OPGTR, and he's doing much better. The blends are tricky and require a lot of review. I plan to do OPGTR over the next 2 years. I'm also going through Phonics Pathways to help reinforce the blends.

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We were at this point about 6 weeks ago. Ds knew his blends, but they were a lot of work and reading was getting to be too much of a chore instead of a joy. We switched to First Steps (Pathway readers preprimer) and have been making a lot of progress on a different front. First Steps has mainly sight words (he, she, was, is, this, that...) but it's actually a lot of fun to read. We've kept working on blends with ETC 2, but it's not the only reading thing we're doing.

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You may try reading the same story over and over till she really gets it. SOme kids hate this. My son usually likes to do this because he likes to feel confident. Another thing I do (a Ruth Beechick method) is that when a new sound seems very difficult (my son is having a lot of trouble with long vowel digraphs) then you read the story to them, then hand them the page and let them read it. Some of it will still be in the child's memory so that he will remember but still see the blend. This cements the RIGHT sound in their mind.

 

When they are starting a new sound and you make them plod along, making lots of mistakes, you are cementing the WRONG sound in their minds. It's also frustrating.

 

So I usually do this for a while until something really clicks, and then I back off and see if dc can pick out that sound on their own too now and then.

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