Reading behind my back?

[desertmum]

My 4.5 yo has resisted the phonics approach more than once. I have assumed he is simply not ready to read and left it at that.

 

However, I have noticed quite a few times he "reads" behind my back. I've caught him reading things off the television screen, books, street signs, etc.

I'm thinking he is recognising words by sight, which I was always told is a big no-no and that children must learn phonics or they will never have good spelling. I don't quite know what to think, or if I should discourage ds from doing this, or...what? Help. :confused1:

[boscopup]

My oldest son taught himself to read that way. We're hitting phonics via spelling, and it's all good. He would not have been able to sit through a phonics lesson at that age. My son resisted all attempts at formal teaching when he was 4. He was perfectly fine with it when he was 5. Go figure. Now at 6, he reads very well (around a 5th grade level), is learning to spell very well (thank you AAS), and he's a joy to teach - very easy. He just wasn't ready for formal school at 4, which is completely normal. He did enjoy starfall.com (the free section), and that teaches a bit of phonics - highly recommend. The day he started reading, he read a book that was grade level 1.5, and he was 4.5 years old. He took off from there.

 

Now the strange thing is that DS1 is NOT a wiggly willy in the least. DS2 is a wiggly willy, but DS2 LOVES formal school at 4.5. :lol: I just have to keep it super short and do it on his terms (ie, I don't tell him it's time to do school... I wait for him to ask to do school, and then we spend 5-10 minutes doing reading or math).

 

I think normally the wiggly willies are supposed to be the ones not ready for formal school, so my kids are backwards. :tongue_smilie:

 

Anyway, I wouldn't try to stop your son from learning to read in this manner. Just make sure you teach him phonics once he is ready for formal school (you'll know when he's ready, because he'll stop resisting attempts to teach phonics ;)). You do need phonics for those multisyllable words around the 4th grade level, and of course spelling is easier if you've done phonics. Just don't worry if the 4 year old isn't ready to do phonics lessons. You can teach them at 5 or 6 and still be just fine. You can informally teach the phonics as he's reading the words he sees, and again, starfall.com is excellent for stealthfully getting some phonics rules in there (not all of them, but it's enough to give them a basic working knowledge).

[Sherri in MI]

I see no cause for alarm. I personally think it would be counterproductive to discourage his reading, but, now that you can see he is ready, keep up (or resume) the phonics instruction. Just because we are teaching them phonetically, doesn't mean they will not learn some sight words. We learn a new word phonetically, but eventually it becomes familiar and becomes a "sight" word. I mean, we don't sound out every word we read now, right. We just know them.

 

I wouldn't recommend making it a battle, nor would I recommend giving up either, since he seems ready now. I like Jessie Wise's suggestion to just say cheerfully, do you want to take a nap or have a reading lesson? Most kids that age would rather do anything than nap. Make the phonics lessons short & pleasant - 15 minutes. I found The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading perfect for that. (We had tried Teaching Your Child to read in 100 EZ lessons, Phonics Pathways & AlphaPhonics before that.)

 

Lots of good simple and effective info on teaching reading in The Well Trained Mind.

 

Of course read aloud to him a lot, just for fun. Make sure to keep reading fun. Once my son knew some words, I would let him "read" when I was reading story books to him. I would read the story, but pause & point to words I knew he knew, or words I knew he could sound out easily & let him read them. He loved it! Kids love to show what they can do!

 

Hope this helps and keep us posted.

[Sherri in MI]

P.S. My son LOVED the Get Ready for the Code books. They are the preschool Explode the Code books. I did use those too. Of course, at that age I had to do it with him. I think it made him feel grown up to get to use a pencil. They are perfect for this age too. They use pictures and have them put an "X" on the correct answer. We used Explode the Code all the way through Book 8. My son is now 12 & still has fond memories of those & wishes there were still some for his age.

[JessieC]

My 4.5 yo has resisted the phonics approach more than once. I have assumed he is simply not ready to read and left it at that.

 

However, I have noticed quite a few times he "reads" behind my back. I've caught him reading things off the television screen, books, street signs, etc.

I'm thinking he is recognising words by sight, which I was always told is a big no-no and that children must learn phonics or they will never have good spelling. I don't quite know what to think, or if I should discourage ds from doing this, or...what? Help. :confused1:

 

It's fine, normal, natural, and a big step in developing skills. Definitely don't discourage this!!

[Giraffe]

:bigear::bigear::bigear:

 

Good to know I shouldn't be discouraging it - we've got it here as well.

[Karen in CO]

My oldest taught himself to read before I had a chance to try, and my middle learned to read despite my best efforts to teach her.

 

If you want to do phonics with a child starting to read, ETC workbooks are terrific.

[Dana]

My son taught himself to read. He absolutely refused to do any phonics with me. We switched to All About Spelling in the 2nd grade (after I heard about it here) and that's how he's gotten his phonics.

[skueppers]

For what it's worth, I never received a lick of phonics instruction in my life, and I've always been an excellent reader and a strong natural speller.

 

Phonics instruction has the best chance of success for the greatest number of children, but that doesn't mean every child needs it.

[desertmum]

My oldest taught himself to read before I had a chance to try, and my middle learned to read despite my best efforts to teach her.

 

LOL :lol:

[desertmum]

For what it's worth, I never received a lick of phonics instruction in my life, and I've always been an excellent reader and a strong natural speller.

 

Phonics instruction has the best chance of success for the greatest number of children, but that doesn't mean every child needs it.

 

 

Funny you mention this. I didn't learn to read by phonics either. Uhm....I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

[morosophe]

For what it's worth, I never received a lick of phonics instruction in my life, and I've always been an excellent reader and a strong natural speller.

 

Phonics instruction has the best chance of success for the greatest number of children, but that doesn't mean every child needs it.

 

I completely agree. I received loads of phonics instruction, actually, so I'm probably not the best spokeswoman for this, but I firmly believe that most of the phonics instruction I received was worthless, in my case. I'd already figured it out for myself. As Isabel and Peter Myers point out in their explanation of their personality types, Gifts Differing, some kids are good at figuring out how sounds relate to the letters used to represent them "on their own." They get a little help from their parents (or others) on how particular words are pronounced and proceed apace willy-nilly. (If you follow MBTI theory, which is not necessary for this argument, the authors believe this to be very true of intuitives, and argues that INs are particularly likely to "catch on" to reading very, very quickly.) Others need the solid, step-by-step approach of a strong phonics program. (Once again, in MBTI these are supposed to be the sensers. ESs are claimed to often be the slowest.) Remember, there are people (such as Frederick Douglass) who successfully taught themselves to read with only a little basic knowledge about the relationship between words and sounds.

 

I personally found phonics very, very boring and insulting. And I have to admit, I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for my own son, who has since gone on splendidly. I have absolutely no problem talking about a new word he's having difficulty with, and how exactly the letters make the sounds for that word, so we're still covering phonics on a case-by-case basis. Just in case there's actually something to systematic phonics (although, of course, English is such an inveterate borrower of a language with such variances in spelling that a truly comprehensive phonics system would be insane to study), we're doing All About Spelling for our spelling, starting next year. (Well, that and All About Spelling is a really neat-looking product. Who wouldn't want to play with tiles and cards? Hey, it looks like half my husband's games, if you're squinting!) So don't worry about my poor son, limited by his mother's refusal to give him real phonics. (Just in case I gave you nightmares!)

Edited June 6, 2011 by morosophe

[ALB]

I don't see how its possible to keep a very motivated reader from learning many "sight" words ahead of a phonics curriculum! My dd did that a lot and I was a little nervous about it. We just kept plugging on through OPGTR and I plan to start AAS in the fall, which should also reinforce phonics. I wouldn't worry!:001_smile:

[desertmum]

I completely agree. I received loads of phonics instruction, actually, so I'm probably not the best spokeswoman for this, but I firmly believe that most of the phonics instruction I received was worthless, in my case. I'd already figured it out for myself. As Isabel and Peter Myers point out in their explanation of their personality types, Gifts Differing, some kids are good at figuring out how sounds relate to the letters used to represent them "on their own." They get a little help from their parents (or others) on how particular words are pronounced and proceed apace willy-nilly. (If you follow MBTI theory, which is not necessary for this argument, the authors believe this to be very true of intuitives, and argues that INs are particularly likely to "catch on" to reading very, very quickly.) Others need the solid, step-by-step approach of a strong phonics program. (Once again, in MBTI these are supposed to be the sensers. ESs are claimed to often be the slowest.) Remember, there are people (such as Frederick Douglass) who successfully taught themselves to read with only a little basic knowledge about the relationship between words and sounds.

 

I personally found phonics very, very boring and insulting. And I have to admit, I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for my own son, who has since gone on splendidly. I have absolutely no problem talking about a new word he's having difficulty with, and how exactly the letters make the sounds for that word, so we're still covering phonics on a case-by-case basis. Just in case there's actually something to systematic phonics (although, of course, English is such an insane borrower of a language with such variances in spelling that a truly comprehensive phonics system would be insane to study), we're doing All About Spelling for our spelling, starting next year. (Well, that and All About Spelling is a really neat-looking product. Who wouldn't want to play with tiles and cards? Hey, it looks like half my husband's games, if you're squinting!) So don't worry about my poor son, limited by his mother's refusal to give him real phonics. (Just in case I gave you nightmares!)

 

No, you didn't give me nightmares. I just learned a lot from your reading your message. Ta.

 

I don't see how its possible to keep a very motivated reader from learning many "sight" words ahead of a phonics curriculum! My dd did that a lot and I was a little nervous about it. We just kept plugging on through OPGTR and I plan to start AAS in the fall, which should also reinforce phonics. I wouldn't worry!:001_smile:

 

Thank you all for the replies. This board has come to my sanity's rescue yet again. As a newbie hs I was all happy and ready to go until I realised I had to teach my ds to read. I panicked, did some googling, went out and bought a whole set of phonic handbook, reader, flash cards, cd, and whatnot. Then I find the little one "reading behind my back". It just goes to prove that one of the many joys of hs is finding out children develop at different speeds and in different ways.

[Free]

For what it's worth, I never received a lick of phonics instruction in my life, and I've always been an excellent reader and a strong natural speller.

 

Phonics instruction has the best chance of success for the greatest number of children, but that doesn't mean every child needs it.

 

:iagree: I never learnt the rules of phonics formally either. I just instinctively understood them and have always been good at reading and at spelling. We did do dictation every single day at my school though.

 

Phonics seem to be gaining popularity now in schools in India, but when I was a kid, we were not taught to read through phonics. Several generations of kids here have learnt to read and spell perfectly well without phonics.

 

With my son, he was taught a combination of phonics and sight words at school. He learned to read pretty early and I never really had to do a lot of phonics work with him. He too is a very good speller.