Switch program or remediate

[MistyMountain]

I have been doing 100 easy lessons with dd. I do like the program and it has progressed dd's skills and got her blending. We are coming up on lesson 60 and I feel we are getting a little stuck. She is still needing to really sound things out so her sentences are choppy which is fine and I am not too worried about that.

 

She is really starting to mix things up more now. She especially has trouble with whether to use the long or short vowel sound and just guesses. I go over the rules with her but I think she needs more help with distinguishing between when to use them. She makes other mistakes too like saying ch instead of th in words. If she sees just the th then she usually knows the sound. In earlier lessons she didn't make those mistakes because ch and sh wasn't introduced yet. It just seems like now that there are more sounds and rules she getting mixed up more if that makes sense.

 

I just got the OPGTR. I was wondering if I should just stop 100 EL and do that instead. I like to complete programs rather than switching all the time but I am wondering if the lay out of the book and the order it introduces things may be a little better for her. 100 EL starts right away with long vowels and introduces sound slowly but not really in any particular order. OPGTR starts simple and then gets more complex. It does short vowels and then goes onto a lot of different sounds before introducing long vowels. It seems to have more explanations too.

 

I don't like that we will be going back to the beginning and starting out much simpler than what we were working on if I do switch but maybe that would be helpful? I thought of working just on long vowels and short vowels with her. Does anyone have suggestions for that? I also thought I could go back maybe 10 lessons in 100 EL and review a little so maybe she be able to get concepts she might of missed.

 

I don't want to keep switching around and not completing programs but I don't want to keep going and get stuck. I was thinking of doing the 2 together since a OPGTR lesson takes a few minutes right now and by the time we got through 100EL she be at a good place in OPGTR to keep going with just that. I am thinking of just switching to OPGTR now though since she seems to be getting stuck.

Edited January 30, 2012 by MistyMountain

[PeterPan]

Sometimes at this age you're simply out-teaching their readiness. If you go do something else for a while (a geography unit study, games from Timberdoodle, a bunch of art) and come back in a month or two, she may be a totally different child. Sometimes they go in these lulls before or during a growth spurt, and those growth spurts can occur at their 1/2 birthday.

 

You haven't really said anything that sounds like a red flag for a PROBLEM. (vision, working memory, that sort of thing) Sometimes they just really need time to mature. You can't rush this in kids. I would give her a break and see what happens when you come back.

Edited January 30, 2012 by OhElizabeth

[chepyl]

I would take a break, then get the first Bob Books. We used them starting around lesson 20. I think the combo helped. It gave some variety to our lessons.

 

If you need, go back a few lessons and review.

[boscopup]

Yeah, take a break, and I'd recommend picking up some I See Sam readers (just make sure you teach the "ee" phonogram for the first one - otherwise the words are all basic CVC or open syllable like 'me', 'he', 'a', 'I', etc.). The first 52 are free online, and they're really cute. I like them a lot better than Bob books. DS2 and I both couldn't get into the Bob books. :tongue_smilie:

[Lecka]

I think she could stay on cvc for quite a while, especially if she is still blending a lot of things. It is fine for 5, I think.

 

I See Sam readers were great for my son, too. Bob books went too fast for him... they were good, but there was not enough practice for him. I See Sam had enough practice.

 

I think it is fine to stay with easier patterns, while getting more solid on blending. Once that skill is down, the other ones might come faster, with less confusion.

 

You could add in magnet letters or magnet tiles, too, and let her work on making cvc words.

 

It also helped him to have a cvc word, and change one letter in it, and say the new word. After he was really good at that -- we could have cvc words and add e to the end, and then take it off, and talk about how the vowel sound changed.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Lecka

[FairProspects]

I think she could stay on cvc for quite a while, especially if she is still blending a lot of things. It is fine for 5, I think.

 

I See Sam readers were great for my son, too. Bob books went too fast for him... they were good, but there was not enough practice for him. I See Sam had enough practice.

 

I think it is fine to stay with easier patterns, while getting more solid on blending. Once that skill is down, the other ones might come faster, with less confusion.

 

 

:iagree:with everyone else. I think the book is just moving too fast for her and she probably needs more time on CVC words before moving into long vowels and digraphs (sh, ch, th, etc.). FWIW, I felt that OPGTR moved too fast on this for ds as well. We ended up doing First Start Reading, which spends a whole K year pretty much on short vowel words, so that is another option if she needs more time. The I See Sam readers are a huge hit here as well.