My ds (almost)6 is struggling with learning to read. He isn't behind by any means, but he is doing a lot of guessing at words, and is often wrong. We have used OPGTR and ETC, and the MCP readers, and he knows the phonics rules pretty well. He knows many of the long-vowel digraphs and the silent-e rule. He can tell you all the short vowel sounds that each letter makes, and each of the long vowel sounds. If I ask him if a word has a short or long vowel sound, he usually knows. But when it comes to reading sentences, he just starts guessing at the vowel sounds in many words. It is very frustrating to him, and he hates to read.
As a side note, I also struggled with reading as a child, as did my mother. I was not homeschooled, but was taught to read in a school where I had to read out-loud in a group:001_huh: and then had to complete those awful timed reading comprehention tests. Speed reading was highly valued and I was only taught a little bit of phonics. All this added up to me learning to guess at words and I was often wrong, like my son! I don't want him to grow up being as frustrated with reading as I was.
His twin sister is reading amazingly well, and she just seems to read intuitively. She reads well beyond her grade level and beyond what I have taught her so far in the OPGTR. I have always taught them separately, but I know that it is a struggle for my son that his sister reads better than he does.
Do any of you have any suggestions for making reading easier for him, and to help him gain confidence?
Thanks for your help!