Rading/phonics help with almost 5 yr old

[Mommie_Jen]

DS will be 5 in 1 month.(exactly!) He has letter sounds down pat. I tried OPG a few months ago and shelved it for a while afeter we got past the initial sounds and into blending. He just didn't get it. I tried again over the last few days. Same exact same thing. He can look at the word cat and say "c a t" but he can't for the life of him put them together. When we try to say the sounds without stopping, he gets all confused and will throw out another word completely.

 

I'm going to move to AAR in the spring when preschool is done. Do I just wait a ew months and try again? Or keep painstakingly sounding out AT words over and over? I am having problems understanding why it is so hard to go from "c a t" to "cat" for him!

[Mommee & Baba]

My middler was the same way as you describe your ds. We tried HOP, OPGTR, The Reading Lesson, and finally landed with simple Bob books and SAM books. The one thing that finally had her TAKE ahold was AAS. I was shocked to see this as it's a spelling program. She started AAS when she was 5. She too knew her letter sounds but couldn't blend barely at all!

 

So if you have AAR, I'd just focus on doing that with him. You said you aren't starting until Spring. In the mean time hook up with starfall.com and readingeggs.com and let him just have FUN reading.

 

You'll get over this hill. I know how you feel and he's probably just as frustrated too.:grouphug:

[blondeviolin]

This is very often a developmental block that you can't do much about until he develops past it. I'd practice rhyming, questions of "What does dog begin with?" and also play Say It Fast. (You say: "/c/ /a/ /t/. Say it fast." He says, "cat!")

[5Bmom]

DS did great with Starfall to learn to build the words. Then we moved into Explode the Code and BOB Books and it all "clicked" for him with ETC.

[Bloggermom]

I HIGHLY recommend you use Explode the Code (ETC).

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

This is very often a developmental block that you can't do much about until he develops past it. I'd practice rhyming, questions of "What does dog begin with?" and also play Say It Fast. (You say: "/c/ /a/ /t/. Say it fast." He says, "cat!")

 

:iagree: Though I also teach spelling (word building) at this stage, too. That's where my current 5yo is.

[mom2bee]

Try Funnix as a fun stand in supplement, its free to download tonight and a little more guided than just Starfall. I can't speak to readingeggs.com

 

But ReadingBear.com is a good site, it might help alot and its free --365 days a year. (366 days this year) :).

 

You can probably shelve OPGTTR for a while and use playlists from HookedOnPhonics youtube channel, read some simple and easy readers from the library or where ever it is you choose to acquire reading material.

 

Download the I See Sam readers from the internet, (theres a link where you can get the first 52 for free. I saw them the other day, I'll find the link if I can...)

 

and just do reading everyday. In some shape or form, read a lot of rhyming books and do a lot of say it fast, vs say it slow. Check out "

video on Youtube. it might help YOU get an idea.

 

I never knew that blending was such a stumbling block for some children until I started teaching so many of them to read. Yuck! Its annoying but necessary that we patiently support them during this phase/stage of their development.

[FairProspects]

AAR Pre-level 1 works on this blending skill very explicitly but in fun, scripted games. If you have the time and funds available, I would really consider doing pre-level 1 with him before moving onto AAR 1. It is also something you could be doing now, so that by the end of preschool in the spring he would be ready for level 1.

 

ETA: I've been amazed at how the AAR Pre-level games got ds 2 blending. He can do it much better than ds 1 at the same age and I mostly credit AAR. He got used to hearing the sounds segmented aloud and putting them together and it really helped the click happen in his brain.

[ErinE]

I would also recommend you say the word very slowly, dragging out the letter sounds. For the word "sat," I would say: sssssss...aaaaaaa...ttt. Then, I would say it a little faster: sss...aaa...tt. Then faster, until my child would blurt out "sat" just to be done. I would give lots of praise, "Very good, you read the word sat," and we'd move onto another word. For my kids, there was a plateau between letter sounds and reading CVC words so give it time.

[Mommie_Jen]

Thanks for the encouragement. I have installed Funnix, but we haven't looked at it yet. I will use the suggestions and just keep trucking along for now. I will look at Funnix tomorrow since I just downloaded it today. It's just frustrating at times!

[Mommie_Jen]

I would also recommend you say the word very slowly, dragging out the letter sounds. For the word "sat," I would say: sssssss...aaaaaaa...ttt. Then, I would say it a little faster: sss...aaa...tt. Then faster, until my child would blurt out "sat" just to be done. I would give lots of praise, "Very good, you read the word sat," and we'd move onto another word. For my kids, there was a plateau between letter sounds and reading CVC words so give it time.

 

Thisis such a good suggestion for me, just the little bit of help I needed to hear tonight!

[smootwater]

I had the same problem with my DS5, so I did phonemic awareness activities with him: rhyming words, syllable segmentation, beginning sound substitution, sound isolation, phonemic segmentation. Then we started to use ABeka's blending ladder activities. It helped a lot. Here is a very helpful site http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/phonics-printables

It doesn't mean your son is not ready, he might need a different approach to teach him.

[Tanikit]

Personally I would stop expecting my child to blend and just blend for them - so you say c-a-t cat and d-o-g dog and so on and you do this repeatedly until one day your child gives you the word. If they hear it done for them many times they seem to get over the blending stump far quicker. I also like Reading Bear for teaching blending.

Edited February 17, 2012 by Tanikit

[jennynd]

did you try progressive phonic? It is also free. they start the 2 letter word blend then go from there.

 

http://www.progressivephonics.com/

[T'smom]

DS will be 5 in 1 month.(exactly!) He has letter sounds down pat. I tried OPG a few months ago and shelved it for a while afeter we got past the initial sounds and into blending. He just didn't get it. I tried again over the last few days. Same exact same thing. He can look at the word cat and say "c a t" but he can't for the life of him put them together. When we try to say the sounds without stopping, he gets all confused and will throw out another word completely.

 

I'm going to move to AAR in the spring when preschool is done. Do I just wait a ew months and try again? Or keep painstakingly sounding out AT words over and over? I am having problems understanding why it is so hard to go from "c a t" to "cat" for him!

 

 

I could have written this post!!!! I have no suggestions since we haven't gotten over that hump yet, but I wanted you to know that you are NOT alone! My ds has known his letter sounds for at least a year- but canNOT blend at all! We've been doing the same two lessons in OPGTR for 2 weeks (at and an words).

[Mommie_Jen]

I did put some printables from the Confessions blog on the iPad today for us to work on. I think we re going to spend some time going over those for awhile before we start AAR. we did try progressive phonics a month or so ago, but he wasn't that interested in it, so I set it aside for now. We do have the FUNNIX Rading program now, so we might start them to see how they go.