We need some K phonics help.

[ByGrace3]

I tried starting OPGTR last year with ds. He knows all letters and sounds but was not ready to blend. We picked it up again last week, reviewed all letters and sounds, moved on and got stuck. For 5 days. On Lesson 29. Today I decided I could not do lesson 29 again so we tried some phonics games for blending. Nope. Sometimes he gets it just fine, but most of the time just letter sounds, not able to blend them. So we went back to some basics today, beginning and ending sounds. He struggled picking out some ending sounds. He does struggle with some articulation issues and we are working on it, but I was wondering about a good resource to help work on some of these pre reading skills. I have ABeka K and they do this but they also mix it in with a ton of lessons learning the letters and sounds. I don't think I want to do that, again. I considered All About Reading, but since I have so much on hand I hate to spend the money, but I will if I have to.

 

Thoughts? I get that he might need to mature some for blending/reading but do want him progressing someway. He is 5.4 btw.

[brehon]

Honestly, it sounds like he just isn't ready yet for blending. He's still very young. As long as he isn't getting frustrated you could try just reviewing/trying blending for 5 or so minutes a day (or until critical mass is reached :tongue_smilie:).

 

One of the best things you can do is to read to him while running your finger under the lines. And just read to him. He'll pick it up when his internal alarm clock goes off.

 

Oh, you might try some of the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVDs as well. Other than this I wouldn't spend any more money.

[alisoncooks]

What sort of pre-reading skills do you think he's lacking?

 

I've used a lot of the games from this site:

http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/studentCenterActivities.shtm

There is a section for Phonological Awareness skills:

• Rhyme

• Phoneme Matching

• Alliteration

• Phoneme Isolating

• Sentence Segmentation

• Phoneme Segmenting

• Onset and Rime

• Phoneme Segmenting and Blending

 

I have a 4 and 6 yr. old. My oldest still struggles to blend CVC words. We have shelved "formal" phonics curricula (AAR didn't fit us either) and just do games and reading. She's using Click N Read Phonics (which she likes and it was only $20 for a lifetime purchase), lots of Starfall, and I just ordered Happy Phonics so we could do some practice together. We are also reading from the Let's Read readers, which are super-repetitive and have no pictures but rely on sounding out the word.

[Aoife]

I have a kiddo with artic problems and honestly I would not go OPGTR with them. I would use an O-G method with him. Some good ones are spalding, Saxon phonics, Logic of English, Barton. I have used and loved Saxon phonics with my ASD kiddo after many failed attempts at OPGTR. We had tears with OPGTR but with Saxon everything just clicked and he gained so much confidence and skill so quickly! My kiddo is workbooks so it really helped him to have the workbook pages to fill out each day.

[ByGrace3]

I have a kiddo with artic problems and honestly I would not go OPGTR with them. I would use an O-G method with him. Some good ones are spalding, Saxon phonics, Logic of English, Barton. I have used and loved Saxon phonics with my ASD kiddo after many failed attempts at OPGTR. We had tears with OPGTR but with Saxon everything just clicked and he gained so much confidence and skill so quickly! My kiddo is workbooks so it really helped him to have the workbook pages to fill out each day.

 

Yeah, I am tell he needs more instruction than OPGTR, but n to sure what...

[boscopup]

Spalding and its spinoffs don't require "blending". Just a thought.

[edeemarie]

I am using a combination of Writing Road to Reading (4th edition) and AlphaPhonics (both are pretty cheap). Basically, I teach all of the phonograms from WRTR and then we start going through AlphaPhonics but I mark up the words they way they do in WRTR (for example, with the word "was" there is a 3 above the a since it makes it's third sound and a 2 above the s since it makes it's second sound). We have had good success with this and I like that is doesn't involve any writing yet. We will eventually add in WRTR spelling, but not yet.

[ByGrace3]

Spalding and its spinoffs don't require "blending". Just a thought.

:confused: how do you learn to read without blending?

 

I am using a combination of Writing Road to Reading (4th edition) and AlphaPhonics (both are pretty cheap). Basically, I teach all of the phonograms from WRTR and then we start going through AlphaPhonics but I mark up the words they way they do in WRTR (for example, with the word "was" there is a 3 above the a since it makes it's third sound and a 2 above the s since it makes it's second sound). We have had good success with this and I like that is doesn't involve any writing yet. We will eventually add in WRTR spelling, but not yet.

 

I admit I have stayed away from all the Spalding/WRtR stuff because I never wanted to get into all the markings...it all seemed to overcomplicate things to me...

[edeemarie]

 

 

I admit I have stayed away from all the Spalding/WRtR stuff because I never wanted to get into all the markings...it all seemed to overcomplicate things to me...

 

I used to feel the same way, but once you read through the book it really isn't that complicated. Basically, it helps the child understand which phonogram sound to use in a word and you underline the multiple letter phonograms to help them stand out and remember phonograms like "sh" are not two separate sounds. Does your son know the phonograms? Just learning those really helped my older 2 with their reading.

[boscopup]

:confused: how do you learn to read without blending?

 

They learn to analyze the words, then recognize the words. I'm sure the kids learn blending along the way, but you're spelling your way into reading instead of the other way around, so the blending doesn't have to come first. Maybe Ellie can explain it the Spalding way, because I'm not doing it justice whatsoever. :lol:

 

I admit I have stayed away from all the Spalding/WRtR stuff because I never wanted to get into all the markings...it all seemed to overcomplicate things to me...

I was afraid of the markings at first too, but then I tried it and found the markings very easy to use. There aren't very many markings (like 3 types maybe?). You basically underline 2+ letter phonograms, and you underline a vowel that is saying it's name, or you put a number over a vowel/phonogram that is saying one of its other sounds. You double underline the silent e and then mark which rule it's using. It sounds more complicated than it really is. My best advice is to check the book out from the library and go through the list, making your own notebook, analyzing the words.

 

I'm not using it for DS1 because I don't want to spend that much time on spelling (R&S Spelling is working great for him), but for DS2, spelling his way to reading will probably be very helpful. I'm using Dancing Bears for reading, but we're also working on learning to write the phonograms in WRTR, and we'll start the word list once he's ready. Anything I use with him will likely take more time (I think he's mildly dyslexic), so teacher-intensive is what it has to be for him, whereas DS1 didn't need teacher-intensive spelling, so WRTR (or AAS) wasn't necessary for him.

[FairProspects]

Can he blend orally? If you say silly sounds together like g-a-t, would he say gat? I would work on blending orally, and otherwise my recommendation would be AAR Pre-level 1 (sorry). It was great at bringing out these pre-reading skills through games.

[AdventureMoms]

DD couldn't blend for awhile after she knew all the letter sounds either. Now she can blend but is stuck at CVC words and can't do those well enough for sentences. OPGTTR did NOT work for us because I felt like if you get stuck there's nothing to do except repeat the same lesson over and over (or drop it and forget everything you've learned), and DD doesn't handle that sort of slow-and-steady approach very well.

 

Right now we're doing Rocket Phonics, which uses "helpers" for non-phonetic spellings, so you only have to learn the phonograms (the letters plus a handful of 2-letter phonograms), then everything follows the rules. I think that will appeal to her. However what really helps is there are a lot of games, so we can play those over and over to hold onto what we've learned when she's not ready to move forward in the book yet.

 

Also we're doing some Reading Eggs, which is good review and she loves, but I don't think it would work as a primary phonics program for us.

[ByGrace3]

Thanks for all the responses. I will check out a few things. I know all kids are different and I have to keep reminding myself of that. We tried CVC word and were more miss than hit so I went down to the ABeka blend book and tried just 2 letter blends. He is really struggling. I don't mind being patient, but I would like some kid of curriculum to follow ... Even if he gets it eventually and we can move on.

 

Also, is that normal? I hesitate to even ask. :lol: I am sure I sound like a paranoid mama, it with his articulation issues, I guess I just need to either be assured struggle to read this is indeed developmentally normal to be hung up on reading "ta, te, ti, to, tu" or I should be concerned.

 

Thanks for all the input! :001_smile:

[ByGrace3]

Can he blend orally? If you say silly sounds together like g-a-t, would he say gat? I would work on blending orally, and otherwise my recommendation would be AAR Pre-level 1 (sorry). It was great at bringing out these pre-reading skills through games.

 

Not really, but it is a good reminder of something to practice. We haven't done much of that.

 

I had looked over AAR pre level and level one and I guess I feel ds is in between all the phonics programs. He solidly knows letters and sounds, can rhyme, can identify beginning sounds, and getting better on ending sounds, but can't blend most of the time. And then there are times when he gets it right on a bunch in a row an leaves me all :confused:

 

:001_huh:

[Mallory]

I really think he is normal and doing fine and I would just put the reading away for a month or 3 or even 6.

 

But then I have had readers all over the place. My first was a good reader by 4 1/2. My second after many different curriculums was finally a reader by 9 (yes that is 9 years old). My third was 6 in March and did know sounds, but not able to blend. We started school last week and he is doing amazing! I think in a few more months I will be able to consider him a good reader! The difference from last spring to now is unbelievable! (and it happened that way for my other kids too, when they were ready it was easy)

[Terabith]

I vote for learning the phonograms (gonna have to do it at some point, and it's really just rote memorization), do oral blending and segmenting, and letting him grow. Also, you could try the first few sample lessons of Headsprout. I don't like it as a sole curriculum, but it was a great supplement and helped with blending.

 

It's totally normal. My younger one knew her letter sounds (so when shown a b said /b/ not /bee/) by 18 months. Crazy, right? She could do oral blending, rhyme, and identify initial sounds in words by 2. I felt sure she would be an early reader. Nope. She was really a good six and a half before she started. There's just something developmental and maturational about that blending clicking.

 

By six, if he is still having trouble blending, I would go with a Spalding or spell your way to reading program, depending on fine motor skills.

[sparkygirl]

We just met with a speech language pathologist for our daughter and she said certain sounds particularly the blends you are mentioning do not even begin to be developmentally appropriate until age 4, if he is 5 I would not be worried at all. Give him time and come back to it when he is ready. If you continue to push it may backfire that he will then dislike reading.

[MomatHWTK]

My kids like the resources at Sparklebox.com and Starfall.com. At Starfall we went ahead and purchased the subscription. On Sparklebox my 2nd son did really well using the dotted sound cards. There's a dot under each sound (whether a blend or single letter). So he could see that BOX had three sounds that needed to be put together as did CLAP even though it had 4 letters.

 

But, blending is a big step from letter sounds. Sounds are easier conceptually. My 2 y.o. can do letter sounds, but he can't get blending. He wants to, he watches the Starfall materials over and over and I can see that he's really wanting to understand but it's just not there cognitively yet.

 

I would do other fun letter stuff, play matching games with phoneme cards or rhyming words and watch for signs of understanding.

[FairProspects]

Not really, but it is a good reminder of something to practice. We haven't done much of that.

 

I had looked over AAR pre level and level one and I guess I feel ds is in between all the phonics programs. He solidly knows letters and sounds, can rhyme, can identify beginning sounds, and getting better on ending sounds, but can't blend most of the time. And then there are times when he gets it right on a bunch in a row an leaves me all :confused:

 

:001_huh:

 

Neither of my kids could do blend ladders. I've read some research suggesting that this approach doesn't work for some kids.

 

Re AAR - the letter sounds are really just a review. The meat of Pre-Level 1 is blending and segmenting exercises and these are the core of most of the lessons. I used it last year with my 5 y.o. who already knew all letter sounds and names and was beginning to read CVC words and he was far from bored - in fact he loved it. His blending skills are now really quite advanced for his age and I credit all those games we played in AAR Pre-Level 1.

[kwg]

I used to have this book when I taught. Not sure how helpful it would be but maybe your library has it or the preview will give you some ideas.

[ALB]

Well, I just ordered Saxon Phonics. I loved OPGTR for my dd, but my ds needs more structure and more workbook-y things. It's much more expensive, but it will be worth the price if it does what I hope it will :001_smile:.

[rocketgirl]

I taught Kdg & Preschool for 8 years, but have only been homeschooling for 2 years so I don't know the program you are using, but wondered, is blending introduced in a fun way? My pre preschooler didn't know all of the letters or sounds but learned to read using I See Sam books. (free download, just google it & you can watch free lessons & print the books). I taught her letters in a different sequence - letters used most often in words little kids read - so her first letters were s, m, t, a, i, d...you can make a lot of words with those few letters. I taught "see" as a sight word & "I", then to read the books we just used what she knew about letter s, a, m, i & d to be able to read. Those few letters give her the main characters, Sam and Mat. I can't tell you how excited she was to "read" and how fast it happened! :)

Edited August 17, 2012 by rocketgirl

[kalanamak]

For teaching blending I had a homemade wheel a hser gave me. It had AT, UT, etc on wheel and you moved it past a letter, C, for Cat then Cut.

 

But, for seriously learning it was Phonic Pathways. But I didn't start it until we had all the basic phonograms down with the SWR flash cards (kiddo loved these), and we'd done pre-ETC.

[Tanikit]

If he knows all his letter sounds and just needs help with the blending I'd probably use Reading Bear with him www.readingbear.org - its free and concentrates on blending initially cvc words and then slightly higher order phonics too though once he has the cvc blending down you can always go back to another program. What I like about Reading Bear is that you do not test your child - they blend the words for him slowly and faster - he needs to hear blending done regularly to be able to do it himself. And I would also blend easy words for him in your own reading without expecting him to do it - just to hear it done.