robsiew Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 My 4 yo knows all his letters, letter sounds (except all the vowels). He does know short a and we're working on short e. I have in my possession Phonics Pathways and I very well could use that. I'm wondering if there is anything out there that would be better for a young beginner? He is VERY interested in reading and writing. We've tried blending and he's not quite there, but I haven't worked a ton with him on that either. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiobrain Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 The Reading Lesson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hscherger Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 My daughter will be 4 in December and we are having great success with The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading combined with some Happy Phonics games. In The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading we skipped passed the lessons that taught the letter sounds because she already knew them. Have Fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lionfamily1999 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 My daughter will be 4 in December and we are having great success with The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading combined with some Happy Phonics games. In The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading we skipped passed the lessons that taught the letter sounds because she already knew them. Have Fun! We use 'The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading' as well. There's a poem for the vowels to help the kids remember the short sounds and the term 'vowel.' Also, there's a game on pbs kids, pbs kids island I think, and that is full of phonics games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doodle Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Have you looked at Progressive Phonics? The beginner books only focus on the 5 short vowel sounds. http://www.progressivephonics.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissKNG Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 My 3 year old likes starfall.com and readingeggs.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is supposed to be especially good for young dc who do not yet have the small-motor skills or hand-to-eye coordination required by most other methods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 The I See Sam readers would be perfect. http://www.3rsplus.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuovonne Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 I also like "The Reading Lesson." I'm using it with my younger daughter. I'm also a fan of the LeapFrog "Letter Factory" and "Word Factory" videos, as well as Starfall.com. However, if he's having trouble blending, I'd work on that orally first before looking at words on paper. We usually play blending games and songs when in the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 (edited) . Edited October 30, 2022 by SilverMoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ritsumei Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 (edited) I'm using Happy Phonics with my 3 year old, and it's working great; not nearly so dry as the 100EL or OPGTR. He's also very near to blending. I've got Bob Books that we'll use when he actually starts to get the blending. I estimate that after 1 maybe 2 boxes of Bob Books and the full course of the games he'll be ready for regular books. It's pretty inexpensive, as programs go, too. Edited October 23, 2009 by Ritsumei Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in the UP of MI Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 We were a little different. I taught my dd to spell first. Spelling came much easier to her than reading. We did activities from a book called Montessori Read and Write, starting with orally picking out the sounds in words all the way to building words with a movable alphabet. Then we moved on to All About Spelling. We had lots of fun and it taught dd to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Phonics Pathways is sufficient in my opinion. :) There aren't any bells and whistles to speak of, but it is effective, uncluttered, and straight forward. :iagree: I would never call Phonics Pathways "fun" but it definitely does the job. My youngest was eager to start at age 4, but she wasn't really ready to "take off" yet. We spent several months slowly going through the blending pages (ma,me,mi,mo,mu). I think those pages are foundational--when your child can do those, the rest of the book will follow easily. My dds never read haltingly and never sounded out individual letters. Once they can blend two letters, they will be smooth readers. I love Phonics Pathways. Not because it is enjoyable and fun for dc, but because it really works and has turned both of my dds into excellent readers. Expect it to take at least a year and a half, longer if they're not quite ready to take off. But when you're done, they can read anything they want. My 6 yo was reading Little Bear fairly slowly in the spring. She's now picking up Caddie Woodlawn to read on her own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 My 3-yr-old learned to read with Starfall.com and lots of reading together. She HATED the OPGTR :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 PP or Blend Phonics from a white board, it's almost always better at that age from a white board, and usually better for older children, too! Also, play a lot of games. My game and the games from cat phonics. Webster's Speller is actually a very good choice for a young child if taught with a white board--the first step is blending 2 letter syllables, it's far easier to blend 2 letters than the 3 commonly taught in most phonics programs. I used it with my daughter in K very successfully, and am starting a bit of work with the Speller with my 4 year old when he's interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyNellen Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 My 4 oldest children all began Phonics Pathways at 4 years of age and did quite well with it. It's simple. I like simple :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 Thank you so much everybody for your advice! I agree with Phonics Pathways not being fun, but functional. We've started with the short vowel game (with the eyes) at the beginning of the book and he loves it! We will certainly do the train game too. I think just because I have it and am familiar with it I'll stick with that and see how it goes. Would be nice not to have to buy something new for the last one.... he also loves starfall too and gets to play that... I'll also check out reading eggs... haven't heard of that. We have Bob books too. If that doesn't work I have many good suggestions here to try... thank you much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 PP or Blend Phonics from a white board, it's almost always better at that age from a white board, and usually better for older children, too! Also, play a lot of games. My game and the games from cat phonics. Webster's Speller is actually a very good choice for a young child if taught with a white board--the first step is blending 2 letter syllables, it's far easier to blend 2 letters than the 3 commonly taught in most phonics programs. I used it with my daughter in K very successfully, and am starting a bit of work with the Speller with my 4 year old when he's interested. Thank you for these ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 There is a big developmental leap involved in blending. I would do some work on oral blending (you say the sounds and he blends into a word) and other oral phonemic awareness activities before I started a formal reading program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 There is a big developmental leap involved in blending. I would do some work on oral blending (you say the sounds and he blends into a word) and other oral phonemic awareness activities before I started a formal reading program. :iagree: Most definitely! Like I said, he's close, but doesn't have the skill of blending yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K&Rs Mom Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 PP or Also, play a lot of games. My game This one is GREAT! I printed the cards on 2 colors of cardstock (so we don't need the 1's & 2's on the backs), and paperclipped the ones we haven't gotten to yet into my Phonics Pathways book on the corresponding page. My 4yo is SO excited when we get to add new blue cards into her game. :) I agree with the others about Phonics Pathways - not exciting, but the best part is how short the lessons are. We usually do 1/2 page a day, so it's only about 5 minutes and she doesn't have time to get bored with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmacnchs Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 another vote for OPGTR :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 My 4 yo knows all his letters, letter sounds (except all the vowels). He does know short a and we're working on short e. I have in my possession Phonics Pathways and I very well could use that. I'm wondering if there is anything out there that would be better for a young beginner? He is VERY interested in reading and writing. We've tried blending and he's not quite there, but I haven't worked a ton with him on that either. Thanks! He might VERY much enjoy a set of the refrigerator alphabet magnets to move around, ask how to spell words and line the letters up on the fridge, and work towards blending. Also, what about a "word box"? It's great fun for young children to "own" words and to be able to "keep" them in a pencil box or index file box that is just his, with each word written on a separate index card that he can take out, read, arrange, make sentences, etc. -- Right now, it could be a "letter box", with each letter on its own index card in colored marker, with also a few words, such as his name, the name of each sibling and the words "mom", "dad", "yes", "no", etc. And it's probably just a bit above him, but once he gets blending, he might really enjoy the game "Python Path": http://www.educationallearninggames.com/phonics-game-python-path.asp How fun! Enjoy watching DS blossom into a reader! :) Warmest regards, Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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