Would love ADVICE on phonics and reading assistance for my DD4

[Heidi {AK}]

I posted this in the "afterschooling" forum and was advised to post here to solicit your advice...happy reading! :D

 

I'm an educator very interested in afterschooling my DD4, as she is actually in a K3/4 class, rather than a K4/5 class, and is ready agewise for K in 2011-2012. She is a student at the Christian school at which I teach. I think she is proficient in the tasks listed in several kindergarten readiness brochures I have found, as well.

 

She knows her numbers, colors, shapes, letters, and is now writing her letters, both uppercase and lowercase, as well as spelling CVC words. She knows 24 sight words, and can comprehend fairly lengthy stories.

 

The reason she was put into this class rather into the K4/5 is because, two months ago when school started, she was not reading or writing.

 

Her teacher came to me today and told me she spelled, "cat," "dog," and "duck." I know she also knows how to spell "frog," as well as others. She said she was going to be looking for reading readiness activities for her, and I asked her to let me know if I can help her look for activities for her to do. I then thought, "I am planning to HS at some point, so I should really take charge and offer some ideas of things I want her to participate in." This is a small school, and her teacher is a colleague of mine, and she has said in the past she would welcome a partnership between the two of us in educating my daughter.

 

I'm not interested in pushing her, but I do want to strike while the iron's hot. What kinds of ideas do y'all have to enrich her reading readiness? Ideas a friend gave me are:

* Pull out already-read Dr. Seuss and P.D. Eastman books, as well as others, and re-read with the emphasis on reading the words in the books

* Tangrams - with the emphasis on putting together differently-shaped and -colored pieces to make the desired shape

* Sequencing, focusing on higher-level patterns

* Puzzles, with the emphasis on alphabet and words, or mixing two puzzles together and having DD separate puzzle pieces, then assembling each puzzle

 

I thought, too, that I would pull out the Five in a Row curriculum guide (a literature-based unit study approach) and offer the books as well as activity ideas designed to pull out art, social studies, applied math, science, and language arts from each book. We've done these before, and I'm just thinking, read, read, read to her!

 

I do read to her, but not as much as I'd like since I'm working now. I don't think this is forever; we are military and we'll move, so I will have to give up my job sometime. I think we'll be homeschooling by 1st grade, whether that's two or three years from now. I think it should be two years away, myself! Her birthday is 22 July 2006.

Edited November 4, 2010 by Heidi {AK}
clarifying DD4's age and time span from K

[KrissiK]

Sounds like what you're doing is great. I think the key to teaching children how to read is just to read to them and expose them to literature. I know that's kind of a whole-language approach, but when they are so young like that it seems to be a good thing to do. I definitely go with the "strike while the iron's hot", though. If she knows her letters and sounds then see how she does with some easy readers. If she's ready for it, I wouldn't consider that pushing her. I'd consider it giving her what she's ready for. I think pushing a child is doing things they really aren't quite ready for, but "forcing it on them", so to speak. My dd is only a couple months older than yours (her bd is in March, 2006) and she probably could do more than she is, but she really isn't interested in school at this point, so we do phonics a couple times a week, count unifix cutes and sort by colors and call it good.

[Heidi {AK}]

Krissi, thank you! Would you tell me what "unifix cutes" are? I'm not familiar with that...