OPGTR-if your child doesn't get it, yet.

[OregonNative]

We have gone thru the alphabet poem and DS did wonderful. He knows all of the sounds. Now it's time to move on to short words like an, at, am. He knows the sounds, but doesn't hear them form a word. Would you just keep going over that lesson until he understood and then move on? How would you know when to take a break from teaching the child?

 

I LOVE OPGTR and def. don't plan to throw in the towel, but I would like to hear from those with experience. I know boys on average learn to read at age 7, my son is 6.5. I know he will read eventually, so I'm not worried. I just want to have some sort of understanding on how to handle him not picking up just yet.

[Christie_P]

Thank you for asking this question! Although my DD age 5 is doing fine (at lesson 64) I was a bit concerned when I saw two others post that THEIR DDs FINISHED OPGTR before their 5th birthday!! (pass the paper bag please, I must pass out - my daughter is BEHIND! Ack!) ;)

 

With a son learning to crawl - this will be very helpful info to remember: BOYS LEARN TO AT AGE 7 - otherwise I would've had a heart attack!

 

Thanks!

[Tylianna]

Disclaimer: I just got this book last week.

 

I've looked through it, and I believe I will do the vowel sounds, and skip to sounding out words since my dd is there already, but there is one part that says "We do not stop our voice between letters. We blend, or combine, the sounds together to say a word."

"Remember to sustain your voice!"

 

My dd will sound out her words "b-a-t bat" if she does not recognize it right away. I think teaching her to sustain her voice and start with the endings first will help. Like "baaaat" instead of each individual sound.

 

And, don't worry... my dd is 6.5 and having problems.

[Goldilocks]

I took a break for about two months when my son was not able to blend the words together. It was right at the lesson you described. Two months later, he got it.

 

I went through the book very, very slowly with this child, taking lots and lots of breaks along the way. It took us about 3 years to get half-way through the book. We quit there because it suddenly clicked. (He was about 7 1/2 or 8 at the time.) He is now reading at grade level. :001_smile: He loves to read and spends hours reading every day.

[Cindyz]

Whenever we hit a block, we go around. I look for a different method to go over things at the same level until he gets it. When my guy hits a block in OPG, I spend a little more time reading to him (eventually having him read regular books to me starting with Bob books), playing with letter tiles so he can visualize the letter sounds coming together, doing mcp workbook, etc. Eventually you come back and his starts ripping through it again.

[ElizabethB]

I would try starting with the syllables of Webster's Speller, it's much easier to blend two letters together than the commonly taught CVC words. I also would start with the easiest letters to blend.

 

The easiest letters to blend are m, n, l, and r, and long vowels are easier to blend than short vowels. They also have the advantage of being both the name and sound of the letter. In the syllabary (the start of 2 letter syllables for Webster's Speller), the syllables ending in a vowel are pronounced long, so ma and ba are pronounced long as in ma-ker and ba-ker.

 

So, here are the easiest syllables to begin with to teach blending:

 

1. ma me mi mo mu my; na ne ni no nu ny; la le li lo lu ly; ra re ri ro ru ry

(remember, the a in a syllable is long as in ma-ker, na-ture, la-kers, ra-di-ant)

 

then short vowels

2. am em im om um; an en in on un

 

It takes a lot of practice for some children before they get the blending.

 

Also, when you are blending, you the sounds you make do not exactly equal the sounds in the words. It is impossible to make a b without a bit of an uh sound. You can say less of an uh sound at the end, but you cannot make a pure b sound in isolation that matches the sound of b in a word. M, n, l, and r (l and r before the vowels, after the vowels they alter the sound of the vowel) match a lot better, that's why they're easiest to learn to blend with. My dyslexia page has a more detailed explanation of this and why syllables can be a good idea for a child having difficulties.

 

Word Mastery on Don Potter's page also starts with letters that are easier to blend together. And, many of the articles and programs on Don's Page have good ideas for different ways to teach blending.

 

You can be working on the spelling of the syllables in Webster's syllabary while you're waiting for the blending to come along. Both my children have been able to learn to spell before they were able to learn to blend. You can see here how my son is currently progressing through Webster's Speller. He is going much slower than my daughter did, but he is progressing! You can be working on learning to spell the syllables and then later have him learn to sound them out via blending.

Edited November 23, 2010 by ElizabethB

[Susie in CA]

I can assure you that it will indeed come!

 

I used OPGTR with both my boys. My older ds wasn't reading well until 8 - 9 years old. It was very frustrating. It took him almost 3 years to go though OPGTR. However, once we finished the book he could read anything. It was such a great relieve, and he was excited to realize that he could read anything. We hardly spent any time on memorizing sight words. He learned how to decode words instead. It worked.

My younger son learned to read much faster. Reading is easy for him. He read the Hobbit when he was 7. Going through OPGTR took only about 1.5 years with him. He, too, could read anything once we finished the book.

We never worried about the reading level of books. They read whatever they like no matter the level. I only pay attention to content.

 

I would use this book again if I had another child learning to read. Be patient, take a break when necessary, move forward, take break, move on.... You get the idea.

 

Susie

[RegularMom]

I have 2 dd's, aged 10 and 7. They both didn't start OPG until they were 5, and took about 2 years to go through the book.

 

Sometimes they'd get stuck on something and we'd take a short break (not more than a week) and then keep trying.

 

Sometimes, they'd hate learning to read unless there was a game involved. So we'd spend a couple of extra days playing the games.

 

They both went through brief stages where they couldn't handle all the different print and font sizes on the pages of OPG, so I wrote the sentences they were supposed to read on our large whiteboard. I felt silly and schoolmarmish standing up there pointing to each word, but it worked.

 

Sometimes we'd all end up frustrated and close to tears, and we'd stop for the day and go do something fun.

 

But both of them, within two years, had finished OPG and read well above their age and grade levels.

 

I recently lent my copy of OPG to a friend whose 9yo boy was still struggling with reading. She says that her son is surging ahead at last with OPG and loving it.

 

Keep on going, I say. He'll get there. They all do. :)

[imhim]

We are using Abeka for my 5 yo (and I used this in K for my 7 yo).

They do a lot of blends: - ladder blends:

ba

be

bi

bo

bu

, etc, etc, etc over and over. Maybe you could try this.

My son is getting to read a bit better now, he just turned 5 and 2 months ago, I tried this last year and did not work. Heis getting into long vowels. like gate, deep, etc.... We are doing just the Abeka Handbook for reading and the Phonics Pathway half a page a day, and his favorite, ABeka workbook.

You may want to try that lesson in a few weeks and see.

[Whereneverever]

It WILL come- it's a huge leap between knowing the sounds and blending them. My first WTM mind post was one freaking out about this- and now my DD reads Narnia and Harry Potter. :) Keep being patient and it'll happen soon!

[JoyfulMama]

I don't use the specific program mentioned by the OP, but I also have a ds6 who is in a similar spot. (I use Primary Phonics.)

I liked the terminology of a PP: When we get stuck, we go around.

That is basically what we do. We write in a salt box, on a white board, with pencil, with marker, with fingers on backs. We play matching games with letters. I spell words to him, he spells words to me. We use letter tiles. Today we used the Leap Frog Word Whammer when he got frustrated with the paper and pencil. We rhyme words.

He has now progressed to sounding out all of the letters of the word (CVC) and is is much harder than just doing the beginning letter or the ending and beginning. I have found that tasks are easier when it is a game. We review the sounds daily, but not always the same way.

Today he read simple sentences to me. "The cat is red." (Color words are sight words, and he started learning those a long time ago.) He was so proud! Things are starting to come together, slowly but surely.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Until it comes don't give up reading out loud. Be sure you do some reading at the level you expect them to read at in the beginning. It may be easier to associate sounds and letters.

[kmacnchs]

I fought the blending w/dd and was NOT understanding why she was not getting it! That is not something you can force. It took me awhile to learn that w/her (poor guinea pig). We just kept at the same lesson until she did get it...

 

However, w/dd2, I just taught the lesson, she said 'a' 't', and if she couldn't blend, I told her what it said, she repeated, and we moved on. She eventually got it. Start the 'two review and one new' early. I am NOT a fan of stopping and coming back to it - just not my personality, I guess. However, if they REALLY aren't getting it after awhile, I would continue w/reading lessons, just make it review (nothing new until they start to get it).

[blessed3x]

I can assure you that it will indeed come!

 

I used OPGTR with both my boys. My older ds wasn't reading well until 8 - 9 years old. It was very frustrating. It took him almost 3 years to go though OPGTR. However, once we finished the book he could read anything. It was such a great relieve, and he was excited to realize that he could read anything. We hardly spent any time on memorizing sight words. He learned how to decode words instead. It worked.

My younger son learned to read much faster. Reading is easy for him. He read the Hobbit when he was 7. Going through OPGTR took only about 1.5 years with him. He, too, could read anything once we finished the book.

We never worried about the reading level of books. They read whatever they like no matter the level. I only pay attention to content.

 

I would use this book again if I had another child learning to read. Be patient, take a break when necessary, move forward, take break, move on.... You get the idea.

 

Susie

 

:iagree:

We went through OPGTR and then just kept reading and working on it -

s l o w l y

DS8 is now getting it :lol: and enjoys reading. It took time.