2 Fold Questions.. Reading and Writing 2nd grader

[DragonflyAcademy]

I have 2 questions..

 

First, the easier one,

I need ideas for small, quick journal/writing activities for my 2nd grader.. nothing too heavy or in depth.. fun prompts for journaling to get those writing juices flowing.. Everything I've found so far seems either too dry, too formal school (ps) geared or too heavy...

 

Now the harder one.

 

DD reads OK for her age/grade.. but not as well as i would like. We have done all the BOB books, the My First Readers, Brand New Readers, all the 1st grade readers for the McRuffy program, all the level 1 readers I can find.. These she does just fine with.

 

but anything harder.. is more difficult for her.. I don't know if it is because they are using words that she hasn't seen before or what... I do notice that she tends to see the first few letters of the word and then she just throws some other letters in there and makes a total guess.. For example Honey became Holly today..

I had her stop and look at the word again..she repeated Holly.. I asked if she saw any L's and she said no.. so we sounded out the word.. and she got Honey..

This happens a lot.. there are also times where she reverses letter teams.. RO instead of OR but it is not consistent...

In her reading, she struggles with books like Magic Tree House but does ok with McRuffy 2nd grade readers from their reading/la program..Some level 2 readers (like the Jump into reading) are ok but others are harder..

 

I didn't start homeschooling my oldest until he was nearly through the 2nd grade.. so I didn't see if he also did this or not..

 

So.. is this cause for concern? Do we just need to read books with less words per page? We try to read every day..both her out loud to me, her quietly and me out loud to her..

 

Thoughts? Tips? BTDT?

[Aurelia]

In answer to question 1, how about Unjournaling or Story Starters (by Karen Andreola, I think)? I remember about second or third grade really enjoying creative writing that would start out something like "We were all surprised when popcorn started raining from the sky..." and we would be asked to finish the story.

 

For question 2, my daughter was that way, and still is, though to a much lesser degree. What worked for us was to use the Spalding approach to reading and spelling. I put away all the books for a week or two, and drilled the phonograms via flash cards and had her spell and read back the phonograms and lists of words made with them. Having her write them and read them back that made them stick when using only the flash cards did not. I also found that larger print books helped with the reading difficulties, too, like Amelia Bedelia was a breeze, but MTH or the Rainbow Magic Fairy books were/are difficult due to the print size. You can also try using a notched card as a cursor, and uncover one letter/phonogram at a time which forces the child to sound the word out, and reinforces left to right tracking, since she may have some reversals because her eyes jump around on the page.

[threeofakind]

For your first question, you could also use pictures a props- have her write about what could have happened or even have her pick a picture from a vacation and write about it?

 

To you second question, you could have her blend words. Look ahead to what she will be reading and then pick a few that you'd like to focus on- like the sounds she is working on or has issues with. For ex: if you choose cat, write on a white board/paper "c" and the have her tell you the sound; then write "a"; have her tell you the sound, and again with "t". If she has trouble with blends have her practice them together- "fl" "a" "p", just like the example and then maybe highlight those in her reading. For sight words have say the word (just tell her) and then spell it out loud then say it again, keep practicing the same ones over and over until she gets quick and can say the word the first time without your help. Good luck, and some kids just need time!:001_smile:

[DragonflyAcademy]

Magic Tree House and Rainbow Fairies are the exact two series we are struggling with..

 

We use Phonic Road to Reading, she finished level 1 up over the summer and we are now in level 2. We drill the teams every week. She has gotten a lot better..

 

We also did a lot of work with the Reading Pathways last year.. and she got really bored with it..

 

 

 

I guess it's just the books then..

[MerryAtHope]

 

DD reads OK for her age/grade.. but not as well as i would like. We have done all the BOB books, the My First Readers, Brand New Readers, all the 1st grade readers for the McRuffy program, all the level 1 readers I can find.. These she does just fine with.

 

but anything harder.. is more difficult for her.. I don't know if it is because they are using words that she hasn't seen before or what... I do notice that she tends to see the first few letters of the word and then she just throws some other letters in there and makes a total guess.. For example Honey became Holly today..

I had her stop and look at the word again..she repeated Holly.. I asked if she saw any L's and she said no.. so we sounded out the word.. and she got Honey..

This happens a lot.. there are also times where she reverses letter teams.. RO instead of OR but it is not consistent...

In her reading, she struggles with books like Magic Tree House but does ok with McRuffy 2nd grade readers from their reading/la program..Some level 2 readers (like the Jump into reading) are ok but others are harder..

 

I didn't start homeschooling my oldest until he was nearly through the 2nd grade.. so I didn't see if he also did this or not..

 

So.. is this cause for concern? Do we just need to read books with less words per page? We try to read every day..both her out loud to me, her quietly and me out loud to her..

 

Thoughts? Tips? BTDT?

 

It's something I'd keep an eye on, it could be cause for concern. Reversing the order of letters (ro/or) and guessing after seeing the first couple of letters could be signs of an issue like dyslexia or a vision processing struggle. It might be worth reading up on these and being prepared. If she is still doing a lot of guessing or struggling with reversals at age 8, she may need additional help such as vision therapy or using an Orton Gillingham based curriculum. You may also see struggles crop up with spelling if one of these issues is happening. The fact that she doesn't read MTH doesn't concern me really--I think for a beginning 2nd grader I'd aim more towards very beginning chapter books with lots of pictures--those with larger print and only a few lines to a paragraph on a page. Frog & Toad, Amelia Bedelia, Arnold Lobel books, Henry & Mudge...things like that.

 

She may just need more experience with reading, if her reading level is off a bit, it's not by far for a beginning 2nd grader. Had you only mentioned the books, I wouldn't really have concerns, it's just the specifics you mentioned that give me pause.

 

How did she respond when you had her sound out honey? Was she very frustrated, or was she able to go with the flow? That's also a clue to how hard she is having to work to do this. I think you handled this well. Merry :-)

[DragonflyAcademy]

 

How did she respond when you had her sound out honey? Was she very frustrated, or was she able to go with the flow? That's also a clue to how hard she is having to work to do this. I think you handled this well. Merry :-)

 

I will keep an eye on it. Her spelling is quite good. She does well with Phonics Road and also Spelling Workout (which she finds easy). Some of the letter teams (ou and ow) mix her up.. so she may say blow is B l o u but since the ow and ou are saying the same sound.. I chalked it up to that..

 

She will usually just laugh at herself when she comes to a word that her guess is totally off.. I try hard to keep it without pressure.. we just stop and work through the word..She does get frustrated if she tries to read MTH etc by herself and cannot..

Ameila Bedelia and Frog and Toad she enjoys I will look at the other books you suggested

[MerryAtHope]

I will keep an eye on it. Her spelling is quite good. She does well with Phonics Road and also Spelling Workout (which she finds easy). Some of the letter teams (ou and ow) mix her up.. so she may say blow is B l o u but since the ow and ou are saying the same sound.. I chalked it up to that..

 

She will usually just laugh at herself when she comes to a word that her guess is totally off.. I try hard to keep it without pressure.. we just stop and work through the word..She does get frustrated if she tries to read MTH etc by herself and cannot..

Ameila Bedelia and Frog and Toad she enjoys I will look at the other books you suggested

 

It sounds like overall she's doing pretty well then. I think the attitude is a big key.

[skueppers]

Magic Tree House and Rainbow Fairies are the exact two series we are struggling with..

 

I'm not familiar with Rainbow Fairies, but my daughter wasn't ready for Magic Tree House until she could read books like Nate the Great at a sustained rate of 50 or 60 words per minute.

 

Series she read before MTH included:

 

Amelia Bedelia

Nate the Great

Young Cam Jansen

 

Good luck!