JudoMom Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I hate teaching reading. Ds5 (he turned 5 in November) wants to read. He loves books. But, he can't blend. I've plan on using Phonics Pathways with him (I've got the 8th edition that I've used with all his brothers), and we've been doing the free Funnix. I'm not stressing--I know it'll come with time and he's young, but please give me some fun ideas on ways to work with him so I can keep somewhat sane while I fulfill his request to learn to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfatherslily Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 When my DD was 4.5, I tried and tried to help her blend CVC words. She knew all the sounds, but just couldn't get them together. Finally it dawned on my to do 2-letter words. That made it click for her and she moved right along then. You may have already tried that, but I thought I'd put it out there anyway:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Here is a good blending thread. There is another that is even better, I will look for it. There is also a good book on Don Potter's page... http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165984&highlight=Blend+ra+Ma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leann_in_tx Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 I'm only just beginning to teach my oldest how to read - but the first few pages of Phonics Pathways really worked for us. Sounding out the letters in all those little boxes somehow taught him how to put the sounds together into words. Everything else has been slow going though...but he's still young as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Don's #4 link, Burnz' Step by Step primer, has a great graphical description of blending: http://donpotter.net/education_pages/valuable_reading_programs_f.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Ya' know the LeapFrog DVD...Talking Words Factory, I think...in it there is a machine called a "Word Whammer" and parts of words come out and stick together to form words. Well, I take it to the white board (using magnets or just writing with a marker) and we play our own verson of "Word Whammer." One letter at a time, keep repeating the sounds together until the word "clicks." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Ya' know the LeapFrog DVD...Talking Words Factory, I think...in it there is a machine called a "Word Whammer" and parts of words come out and stick together to form words. Well, I take it to the white board (using magnets or just writing with a marker) and we play our own verson of "Word Whammer." One letter at a time, keep repeating the sounds together until the word "clicks." :iagree: I enjoy teaching phonics, but any of the early drill that can be delegated to a cute talking frog is happily delegated and everyone is happy about it. My husband even thinks the leapfrog movies are cute. You can also do some spelling in the interim, explaining that historically reading was taught by combining spelling and phonics. Both my children learned to spell before they learned to blend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyR Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Not sure but my 4yr old has come up with her own method that works pretty much most of the time. She stretches her arm out. Taps down her arm each time she says a sound and for some reason it clicks. LOL. We also did finger stretching with my 3rd daughter. Its a method used by K12. Each time they say a sound they put a finger out ( starting with their thumb) .. thumb, rrrrr, index finger,, aaaaa, middle finger, tttt, then pull their fingers in ( like when you make a fist) and say the whole word. This seemd to work really well for my 3rd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 What worked for my oldest was me backing off completely and letting starfall.com teach him. One day, the blending finally clicked and he was immediately reading well beyond those early beginner readers. It was a bit scary, actually. That's my only experience though. Second child could blend before he knew all his letters sounds. :001_huh: And he's still sounding out every.single.word.even.if.he.just.read.it. I think I prefer my oldest's progression. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoundAbout Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 One thing I've been doing with my 4 yo is playing a oral/listening game in the car where I sound out a word slowly and then he has to figure out what word it is. If he doesn't get it right away then I might blend part of the word for him or say it faster. Like "st" (pause) "o" (pause) "P". He'll yell out "stop!" He's getting pretty good at it and loves this game. It's blending without having to worry about looking at letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nart Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 (edited) My 4 year old ds has made slow but steady progress in the past two months by continuing to practice lessons in 100EZ lessons book every day for 10 minutes and then going back and repeating them every five lessons or so. I think what has also helped a lot is that I typed all the letters that have been introduced so far (16 sounds, we are on lesson 31). So on the paper there are around 30 letters in a mixed up order. We start the lesson by seeing how fast he can accurately come up with the sound the letter makes. He knew all the sounds the letters make but I realized he was taking too long to say the sound after seeing a letter. For example, he looked at the letter "c" and thought of cold from the leapfrog letter factory and said under his breath "cold, c". To blend you have to really be able to name the letter sound in less than a second AND hold onto that sound as you come up with the sound in the next letter. When my son started he couldn't rhyme or orally blend but over the past two months has vastly improved little by little. So it hasn't been something that has "clicked" as much as a light switch dimmer that is very slowly being turned on. Edited February 12, 2011 by Nart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy Jo Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Well I spent time having DS blend two letters (the syllables from Websters). Then I moved us to spelling (SWR) which helped a lot. It got rid of ghost sounds, showed me sounds he couldn't produce yet and was more concrete / puzzle like for him. I'm about to start with DS4 this summer. It should be an adventure anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 :iagree: I enjoy teaching phonics, but any of the early drill that can be delegated to a cute talking frog is happily delegated and everyone is happy about it. My husband even thinks the leapfrog movies are cute. :iagree: Leapfrog is the best thing ever for blending. over and over and over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wee Pip Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Besides doing the usual (leapfrog videos, phonics program, alphabet letter magnets on the fridge, etc), I also played silly auditory games. Example: me: "time to get into the /t/ /u/ /b/. Where are we going?" dd: "tub" later.... me: "would you like a /s/ /n/ /a/ /k/? what word did I just say?" dd: "snack" I did this A LOT. Any word that I could easily separate, I did. I think this helps because sometimes when they are focusing so much on actually making the sounds, there is a disconnect between actually listening to the sounds they are making. (In other words, they sound out /c/ /a/ /t/ but sometimes can't remember that they just said "cat"). I would also remind them during reading practice. dd: "/c/ /a/ /t/" me: "what word did you just sound out?" dd: (shrug) me: "you just said /c/ /a/ /t/. what word was that?" It was a very gradual thing, though - being able to sound out, blend the sounds together, and then actually KNOW what they just said, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 We did a lot of work without words in front of us. We talked about the sounds that words are made up of (rather than the letters) working out what sounds were in cat, bat, etc. It was only when Hobbes could fluently decode short words orally that we tried the reverse process: blending letters together. He blended immediately at that point. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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