Phonics for accelerated reader (Xposted)

[Mommy_of_4]

DS was doing Grade 1 La LifePac. The grammar was frustrating him and the phonics was way below him. I have been trying to make Alpha phonics work and he does not like it all. So we shelved that and I gave him a reading assessment from Let's Go Learn. His results said he has the reading comprehension of mid K but it said his phonics was high 4th grade. How accurate is Let's Go Learn? Since I wasn't sure what to do with him we went to the library and I had him pick out a beginner chapter book. He picked out a Magic Tree house book. We read one chapter together this morning. I would read a paragraph then he would. He only needed help with 2 words. Do I need to continue phonics with him or can we just read books together to improve his reading:confused: If I need to continue phonics with him what would you recommend? He likes workbooks but does not like ETC.

[boscopup]

I'd lay off the phonics for a bit, wait until he's needing to do spelling (a couple years from now would be fine to start that). Just read together and discuss what he reads. Read the same books over and over again to build fluency.

 

Really, at that age, I'd not want to do much formal work. My oldest was reading/comprehending at about grade level 1.5 when he was 4.5 years old. I did nothing with him but let him play starfall.com and get library books to read. He continued to improve by leaps and bounds. His reading is excellent now, and I don't at all regret not doing anything formal at age 4. He really didn't need it. We did AAS for spelling when he was 6.5, and that got him over the "4th grade slump" level of words. A year later, he can basically read and comprehend just about anything that would be an appropriate read-aloud for a child his age (somewhere around 7th-8th grade reading level).