What if your K child is not ready to read?

[athena1277]

Ds started K this year, only about 2 weeks after he turned 5yo. (We always start in July.) We spent the first 5 weeks doing the first 26 lessons of OPG where you learn/practice learning letters and sounds. He already knew them fairly well, but I wanted to make sure he had them learned well.

 

Last week we started the lessons where you use letters to sound out CVC words. We have gone slow and repeated a lot, but he just doesn't seem to understand. He can sound out the word, but has no idea what the word is. Today we read the simple sentence "Dan can bat" and he could not tell me what the sentence was. He sounded out the words several times, but it just did not translate into anything that made sense to him. He also cannot remember the sightword "the" from one day to the next (it's the only one we have gotten to so far). Today when I showed him the word, he guessed "it".

 

I have no idea what to do now. He is doing well in all of his other subjects. He's flying through K math and is making great progress in learning to write.

 

I don't know if we should just do letter sound activities, keep working on CVC words and hope it clicks, or something else. I love OPG, but I have started wondering if a reading program that does the nonsense type words (example: ba, be, bi, bo, bu) would work better.

 

Please help!

[Carol in Cal.]

I would wait on it.

Read to him, a lot.

Read history.

Read poetry.

Read picture books.

Read the Bible.

Read chapter books.

Read science.

 

Enrich his life with cognitive exercise.

 

Go to science and natural history and history museums, a lot.

 

Hike.

 

Build castles out of fridge boxes, and read about knights and shining armor.

 

Build a clubhouse and figure out a flag that symbolizes his favorite interests.

 

Cook.

 

Have a great time, enriched with lots of books and conversation. Try again in 6 months.

[EKS]

I'd keep at it a little each day. If he can sound out the letters of CVC words have him do it slow then fast. If he can't say the word after that, they *you* say it and move on. If it is a short sentence and he can't remember it, then *you* remember it for him. He'll eventually get it.

[amy g.]

I'm a former kindergarten teacher.

 

My advice is to go very slowly, make each lesson short, and as fun as possible, and repeat, repeat, repeat.

 

Stay positive so that he feels successful. If he is not ready to move on, buy a different book at the same level, and keep practicing.

 

If you have to help him figure out the answer, go ahead and do that. After you model it enough times, he will begin to be able to do it on his own.

 

Most importantly, try to keep both your and his stress level down.

 

My 5 year old could not remember the word "the" I would always tell her, "this is the word that you just have to memorize". As soon as she said "the" I would praise her. Now she gets it right all of the time, and does not confuse it with "this" or "them" or "then".

 

It just takes time, and more repetition that you could ever imagine.

[hsbaby]

My dd was the same way last year when she had just turned 5. I put OPGTR away and just focused on reading together. Now, 5 months later, we have picked it back up and it seems to have just clicked. I wouldn't worry about it, put the curriculum away, and give him a few months to mature.

[SJ.]

I would give him time and retry in a few months.

 

Unfortunately I did not follow this advice with my oldest ds. I pushed him and pushed him, he hated reading. Eventually I did let it go and I was so worried that I ruined reading for him. We switched from Phonics Pathways to the Spalding Method. After he learned all of the phonograms reading just came naturally. I guess you can't say whether it was learning the phonograms or the element of time, perhaps maybe a bit of both. Now he loves reading and will tell you it is his favorite subject. Good luck OP!

[Cinder]

I'm not familiar with OPG; we used Phonics Pathways. PP starts with learning short vowel sounds then uses the blends (ba, be, bi, bo, bu) as the next step. It took my ds at least 2 weeks to get the vowel sounds down to where he wasn't hesitating. We only worked on it 5-10 mins per day.

 

When we moved on to the blends I had to show him how to put the consonant sound and vowel sound together. He could say each sound separately but he couldn't figure it out as one sound. I'd tell him to "smooth out" the sounds so there wasn't a break between--like "buh", pause, "a" for ba--and once I started helping him see how the consonant and vowel worked together it started to make sense to him. Once he got that part down adding the final consonant was easier.

[tabrizia]

You could also try something else, maybe look at something like the AAR pre-reading curriculum, or even AAR 1. It has taken about 4 weeks with AAR, but DS has started actually blending and getting the words. It is a nice change, he was not getting anywhere with OPGTR. It could be just be he needs more time, and for it us is possible he would have gotten to the same point if we hadn't switched, but either way he is finally starting to get there, which is a nice relief.

[Chris in VA]

I remember teaching dd "the." We wrote it on about a million (OK, maybe 20) post-it notes and hung them all around the house. We said the word each time I wrote it, and then I had her go find them and bring them to me, saying it again as she handed it to me. I wrote it on her hand, too, and told her THE would keep her company all day. I asked her throughtout the day how THE was doing--look and check!

 

She thought it immensely silly and fun, and learned the word.

 

As for the rest of your post, I'd just continue to move slowly. Maybe write some of your own stories and make little books for him, or play the Montessori command game (it's really fun!). He may need more context for the "story" or sentence. He may need to mature more to get the blending/comprehension.

 

I love the game approach--just sitting on the same set of skills and letting him get ready when he's ready, but playing in the meantime.

[higginszoo]

I'd back it up and do something like Letteroftheweek.com, just to keep the letter sounds fresh. They have many fun, hands-on ideas that are appealing to 5 year old boys.

My dc were a little atypical with ages (they knew letters and letter sounds by age 2), but it took quite a while for those things to sit and stew and be ready to turn into words (several years in most cases). I've noticed the same thing with my niece.

The rest will come ... sometimes the whole idea of letters and sounds just needs to cook a while before a child is ready to put them together into words. He's still young yet, he'll get there.

[Chocolate Rose]

This is one of the very reasons I chose to homeschool. I didn't want any children I had pressured to read before they were ready.

 

Enjoy your 5 year old with lots of reading and fun around words. Don't worry. He will read. Just not right now.

My dd was 9 before she really took off reading. Now, I can't keep a book out of her hands. One whole wall of her bedroom is a huge bookcase filled with her books.

[athena1277]

Thank you for all the encouragement and ideas. It's frustrating that he is not ready for this when he is enjoying and doing well with everything else in K. At least now I have some ideas of where to go from here.

[Alenee]

This is one of the very reasons I chose to homeschool. I didn't want any children I had pressured to read before they were ready.

 

Enjoy your 5 year old with lots of reading and fun around words. Don't worry. He will read. Just not right now.

My dd was 9 before she really took off reading. Now, I can't keep a book out of her hands. One whole wall of her bedroom is a huge bookcase filled with her books.

 

:iagree:

[StartingOver]

Blending is hard work. What I do with my little ones is to sound out words, first slowly then faster. (sound of ) c, pause, ( sound of ) u, pause, ( sound of ) p, pause. Then try faster and faster until they get it. I do this with toys, or anything else they need to get for me, or pick up, etc. Leap Frog Letter Factory is an excellent DVD to help with blending too.

[NanceXToo]

When I was in school, 1st grade was time enough to learn to read! :) I'd just back off for a while. Read to him but don't stress over whether he's reading at 5.

[Mandylubug]

My girls just turned 7 last month. We are JUST NOW getting to the point of blends such as st, bl, ch, etc... and that is ok with me. We have taken it SLOWLY since I was a slow reader and so are they. The good news is they LOVE to read, to be read to, and just have an over all joy for learning. IF they weren't progressing slightly I would be concerned but they are progressing, slowly but surely. They surprise me some days and read words such as "fancy." Five is still young. Just keep plugging, make it fun and light!

[ThisIsTheDay]

Thank you for all the encouragement and ideas. It's frustrating that he is not ready for this when he is enjoying and doing well with everything else in K. At least now I have some ideas of where to go from here.

 

Agreeing with those who said to let it go for awhile. Read out loud, have fun, focus on what he's enjoying. He's barely 5. Just as you can't force a child to walk before they are ready, neither can you force them to read. While I'm not at all in the "better late camp," I think far too many schools are forcing reading on children who are not ready. There's absolutely no point in making him hate it now.

[Ellie]

"Kindergarten" is just a label used by schools to describe children of a certain age group. It has no relevance for homeschoolers.

 

If your 5yo isn't ready, then don't sweat it. There are many other things he can be learning. :)

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

LeapFrog Talking Words factory. I cannot recommend this video enough. I would stop with the lessons for a few weeks and just let him watch the video as many times as he wants. If he still doesn't get it, then his brain might not be ready to "click."

[SKL]

What I did at that stage was point out words in the environment and in books and talk about the phonics in those words. Especially where there are rhyming words on a page, or multiple words with the same initial sound, you can talk about the words and the sounds in a way that includes repeat/review. Instead of always going from sounds to word, start with the word and then analyze the sounds.

 

I would also pull out a book that had just one line of words per page, with one or more words repeated, and point out a word, then have the child point out that word in the text. ABC books that have the word by itself on top of the page and include it in a sentence below are good for this. After a while it will click.

 

Look over all the easy books you have, and familiarize yourself with which books have which sight words repeated often. Bring out those books after introducing a given sight word.

 

Once he can read even the simplest little story, read it over and over. I read a really dumb story with my eldest every day for about two weeks, just to encourage her and get those first sight words hardwired.

[athena1277]

Mary Pride had an article years ago that talked about why the third phonics program works. Doesn't really matter what ORDER you do them in--you start with one and it works, to a point, you panic and order another and it works, to a point, and you panic, and you order a THIRD and IT WORKS! And probably all that happened is that about 9 months went by and the child is older and ready to learn to read. There's a lot of wisdom in that... I only started with program #2 with ds and stopped after 2 days and just let him grow up a bit. And IT WORKED! This is my child who wanted another book to take to Boulder two days ago--he only had one "short" book and knew it wouldn't last--it was only 300+ pages long...

 

Funny that you mention moving from one program to another. A friend is bringing me #2 on Thurs. I'm hoping after that one we can move back to #1 (OPG). :tongue_smilie:

[Mommyof4ks]

I agree, slow and steady. Focus on what he does well, and keep reading short. My almost 9 yr old is just now starting to read. He is very strong in per subjects, but reading is not his thing right now. My dd on the other hand could read chapter geeks by the end of kindy, but she could not do math at all until she was in 5th grade. Every kid is different. :)

[Kaleidoscope]

You just keep giving non stressful opportunities for it to come together and you wait. I'm still waiting on my 8 year olds. Waiting and waiting and waiting. My oldest 3 read at 7, 9, and 5... now a few years later they all read about the same... reading earlier or later made no difference really.

[bethben]

I have a 5 year old who turned 5 in May. She has the ability to blend words, but not the maturity to sit still. She also gets frustrated easily. Last week was attempt #2. I also tried in early June. After 5 lessons, I could tell she still wasn't ready. I'm going to wait until January now. She'll get it eventually and I'd rather have it easy than have it be like pulling teeth. It is a little unnerving to wait since her older brothers were younger than her when they took off. But, is it really worth the frustration to teach a child not ready?

 

Beth

[scrappyhappymama]

My second son was definitely not ready for formal phonics instruction at just turned 5. He was just very, very active and distractable and didn't have the motor skills to write what he was learning. He had a "late" birthday, in October, so I decided that since he wouldn't be in K in school anyway, we'd just lay off for a while. I still read to him and we did lots of educational activities and he'd absorb some of what his older brother was learning.

 

This was not easy for me because I wasn't really of the "better late than early" camp, and also because my first son was raring to go at four and reading chapter books at five. But, it was the right approach for *this child.* I also ended up using another program, Funnix, to teach him to read. I started using it as a fun supplement, thinking it would be a bridge to the program I used with my older son, but it has suited this son much better. And now at 7, almost 8, he is reading right on target for his grade level.

 

So my advice is, feel free to customize your teaching to the needs of your particular child. It's one of the benefits of homeschooling, right?

[Incognito]

I found with my DD (and DS, but he has come along with it earlier) that it is just one of those things that clicks when it clicks. I wouldn't personally waste my time (and his) trying to teach him reading at 5 when it really isn't necessary and he isn't developmentally ready for the information. I waited a few months, had the very simple readers around for DD to look at, had some LeapFrog Talking Words Factory to watch, and when it clicked, it clicked. HTH.

 

ETA: We did lots of reading too - that is just what we do as a family. I would do that if you aren't already. But read interesting good things, not stuff that is at a CVC level.

[Carol in Cal.]

Time for a story:

 

DD attended a parent participation preschool. One of the other kids there went into kindergarten, and I knew him and his mother pretty well, from observation over a two year period. He was a bright kid, and she was a very involved mother.

 

So he went on to kindergarten, and the teacher emphasized to the parents the importance of having the kids read at home every night, and so she was someone who took that seriously, and he just wasn't getting it. Really worried that he might have a serious problem, previously undetected, she requested a special teacher's conference, told the teacher that he seemed to be having difficulty, and asked what the actual requirement was. "Reading several word sentences comprised of CVC words by the middle of one's kindergarten year," was the reply. "And how many of the kids in his class will accomplish this?" "Probably only two," the teacher replied.

 

Thus, here in CA, eighteen out of twenty children are identified as failures before they enter first grade, which, BTW, is the first required education year. That tells you two things--how ridiculous that requirement is, and how messed up our schools are. Don't you be like them, now!

[WiseOwlKnits]

He's a young 5. The last few months have made a HUGE difference to my DS and how well he does with reading. He's almost 6 now. So I would work on those things that DS is doing well at and back off for a few weeks on the reading. Give it a try in 6-8 weeks and if he's still struggling, wait another 6-8 weeks to try again till it clicks. I was shocked at the difference in how "slow" DS was at reading compared to DD, but what they say really seems to be true - girls have a much easier time with learning reading than boys - and pushing it will only frustrate both of you. :)

[Frances]

Unless he's begging to learn how to read, I would just wait until next year. Even though my son was extremely verbal, had a huge vocabulary, and enjoyed having chapter books read to him, I didn't even attempt to teaching reading until first grade. Once we started, he progressed very quickly, and was soon reading several years above grade level. If I had to do it over again, I probably would wait even longer, maybe another six months or a year. There's really no rush. Just take your time and enjoy your sweet little boy.

 

Personally, I think listening to books on tape and having lots of books read to him, including chapter books, is a far better use of time at this age than learning to read. In general, I don't agree with the trend in public schools to move beginning reading instruction from first grade to kindergarten. While some children are ready, many are not, and it just leads to frustration. One of the beauties of homeschooling is that we can wait until our children are ready and interested before tackling a big developmental milestone like reading.

 

Ultimately, the most important thing is that your son enjoys (loves!) reading and feels successful. At eighteen my son is still a voracious reader and has aced every standardized reading tests he's ever taken, including the reading portion of the SAT.

[FO4UR]

Wait.:iagree:

 

 

 

Keep up with the math and handwriting if those are going well.

 

 

Just sit tight where you are with the reading...stick with cvc words. Use fridge magnets and such to work on blending. (slowly:iagree:) You can use the lessons in the primer you've been using, but just put them up on the fridge and let your dc take all the time needed to get it and really get it. It's OK to either call him kindergarten again next year or teach him to read in 1st grade...or not worry about grade label at all and just teach each skill at his level.

 

 

 

My youngest is a June B-day and is just now really taking off, ready to read at 6yo. I think that is more normal than not. Happy Phonics games are fun and help things go quite quickly once the initial hump of blending has been jumped. While playing the games, I uncover one sound at a time with my finger so the child gets lots of modeling in how to decode the words with the phonogram we are learning.

[Cricket]

Unless he's begging to learn how to read, I would just wait until next year. Even though my son was extremely verbal, had a huge vocabulary, and enjoyed having chapter books read to him, I didn't even attempt to teaching reading until first grade. Once we started, he progressed very quickly, and was soon reading several years above grade level. If I had to do it over again, I probably would wait even longer, maybe another six months or a year. There's really no rush. Just take your time and enjoy your sweet little boy.

 

Personally, I think listening to books on tape and having lots of books read to him, including chapter books, is a far better use of time at this age than learning to read. In general, I don't agree with the trend in public schools to move beginning reading instruction from first grade to kindergarten. While some children are ready, many are not, and it just leads to frustration. One of the beauties of homeschooling is that we can wait until our children are ready and interested before tackling a big developmental milestone like reading.

 

Ultimately, the most important thing is that your son enjoys (loves!) reading and feels successful. At eighteen my son is still a voracious reader and has aced every standardized reading tests he's ever taken, including the reading portion of the SAT.

 

:iagree: I took my time with our oldest dd. She didn't really take off until about age 7. She loves to read now. I put more pressure on my boys (they are older--gotta practice on them, right? ;)) and they hate reading now. That is one of the things I wish I could go back and redo.

 

One thing you could do is make a little game out of sounding out CVC words. Don't have him reading it, just say the word "hat" but stretch out each sound "hhhhh-aaaa-tttt." Then have him guess what the word is. It works the other way too. Say "hat" and have him stretch out each sound he hears.

 

I would wait on it.

Read to him, a lot.

Read history.

Read poetry.

Read picture books.

Read the Bible.

Read chapter books.

Read science.

 

Enrich his life with cognitive exercise.

 

Go to science and natural history and history museums, a lot.

 

Hike.

 

Build castles out of fridge boxes, and read about knights and shining armor.

 

Build a clubhouse and figure out a flag that symbolizes his favorite interests.

 

Cook.

 

Have a great time, enriched with lots of books and conversation. Try again in 6 months.

 

Completely agree! At 5 years old, there isn't a big rush to have him reading, imo.

[swellmomma]

If he is not ready, he is not ready. Keep doing basic phonics things with the letter sounds. Read to him a lot and otherwise relax. You can move forward in other areas even if he is not ready to read.

 

If you are really wanting him to start put away OPG and get AAR pre-1. My almost 5 year old LOVES this program and is learning so much from it. To the point that she is now starting to spell (she can sound a word out to spell it but not read it yet, ds8 started reading the same way, spelling first then reading).

 

I dunno I am still in the mind set that it is not necessary to know more than your letter sounds at 5 years old, that learning to actually read doesn't happen until 6 yrs old, so I wouldn't stress too much about a 5 yr old not being ready. That's normal. Especially for boys.

[fairfarmhand]

This is one of the very reasons I chose to homeschool. I didn't want any children I had pressured to read before they were ready.

 

Enjoy your 5 year old with lots of reading and fun around words. Don't worry. He will read. Just not right now.

My dd was 9 before she really took off reading. Now, I can't keep a book out of her hands. One whole wall of her bedroom is a huge bookcase filled with her books.

:iagree:

 

my second dd was much the same. Be patient. It will come!