Esperella Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 My DS is 6 (in June). We did Sonlight 4/5 last year, hated their LA and I bought AAR-1. He liked some of the games but he really disliked the rest. He has SPD and a speech delay, though through speech therapy his delay is almost gone. But I feel that has been making it hard for him to learn the sounds. He really does not like the flashcards on AAR. He does not get blending at all, and if you even say something like "C A T" what did I say? He says, "I dont know!!". It's really hard to get him to focus and I really feel like he's guessing all the time. If I lay all the flashcards out, and say a word, he can find it out of the pack, but if I hold one up he can't say it. Or if I put letter magnets on the fridge and, like AT and say, "spell CAT" he can do cat, bat, fat, sat, ect. but he can't make the words on his own. I took off about 5 months last year, then also the summer, because I'd read that sometimes kids just need time for it to "click" and not to pressure them, especially boys. But we went to a family get together in another state last week and there was a lot of "he's homeschooled and can't read", which *I* don't care about but it kinda upset him. The thing is, he's so super smart and it's frustrating that people hinge his intellect on learning to read. Like the FIRST question people ask is "oh, can you read yet?". It's weird. I mean, he could just be going into Kindy, so I really dont understand this rush. DH thinks I should just start AAR over and see how it goes, but I'm not sure about that because honestly we weren't very far. He is just now to "qu". We didn't use the tiles, so maybe if we do this time it'll help. Honestly it was so distracting to him he could not stop playing with them and then mashing them all together and getting mad when it didn't make a word. I was thinking of just getting something new that would maybe be easier to "get" but I'm getting overwhelmed with all my searches here. Any advice? I'd love some veteran help here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 I don't have many suggestions, but :grouphug: Your DS sounds a LOT like my DD (6 in June, not catching on to reading as quickly as I'd hoped). We tried AAR1 in May but had the same issues that you mentioned. Hated the flash cards, letter tiles were distracting. And really -- once you take those away, *I* didn't feel like the program was worth the money... I sent my AAR back, but I did end up getting Hooked on Phonics (not very popular here but it has dvds to help learn things and DD loves that). We also subscribed to moreStarfall (because we love free Starfall so much). Between those 2, reading instruction is becoming painless. :p Does your fella like games? Happy Phonics was one that was on my radar (and I really wanted). I even placed an order for it via Rainbow Resource but they were out of stock... *I am not a homeschool veteran...however I do have 5 years of 1st grade teaching under my belt -- lots of reading instruction! :) Oh, one book I really like for hands-on ideas is this Scott-Foresman Phonics Handbook; it came with a school-system adopted reading program and I had such good memories of it that I bought one to use with my DD. Lots of ideas for phonemic awareness, listening skills, alike/different, rhyming, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esperella Posted August 22, 2012 Author Share Posted August 22, 2012 Oh thank you! that's all wonderful. He does love games very much. I'm so glad you had my experience with aar (haha, that sounds mean ;)) because everyone I know loves it so much so I was like, huh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarrySanger Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Have you tried the (newly-completed) Reading Bear yet? http://www.readingbear.org/ It's very gentle and fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandraK Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 My friend used the Explode the Code workbook series with her son last year. He loved it! I will be using it for my daughter who is age 5. We will be using the A, B, C and precursor books for her. I will be using books 2 1/2 through 7 for my 2nd grade son. He can read just fine but struggles with writing. He saw his friend using the books last year and was interested in them. So we will be using them to get him acclimated to practice writing...just don't tell him that ;). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandamom Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Back up a little :) You have a child with a past history of a speech disability, who is bright, frustrated and can't differentiate the sounds in words. You need to start with developing phonological and phonemic awareness. He needs to learn the sounds of the words -- saying them but also backward (you give him the sound and he gives you the letter/diagraph/blend. Start slow -- as slow as you need to and make it fun. I'm going to link an old thread here to give you more ideas. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=407523&highlight=phonemic+awareness You should probably stick with an Orton-Gillingham based programs of which AAR is one of those. There are others so look around. Move at his pace; change it up; play some games that apply what lesson you are working on. I hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2queens&1princenmyhouse Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Have you tried the (newly-completed) Reading Bear yet? http://www.readingbear.org/ It's very gentle and fun. I like this. Thanks. I have a couple daycare kids that are 2-3 and want to"do school" with the older ones. They will love to add a few videos per week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Texican Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Memorize this song and sing it when you're driving down the road now and then. It's contagious. Check out this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0l6qPMzPho&feature=youtube_gdata_player Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esperella Posted August 23, 2012 Author Share Posted August 23, 2012 Thank you guys for the help. I'm talking to his OT on Monday as well. That link to the other thread is fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 My DS is 6 (in June). We did Sonlight 4/5 last year, hated their LA and I bought AAR-1. He liked some of the games but he really disliked the rest. He has SPD and a speech delay, though through speech therapy his delay is almost gone. But I feel that has been making it hard for him to learn the sounds. He really does not like the flashcards on AAR. He does not get blending at all, and if you even say something like "C A T" what did I say? He says, "I dont know!!". It's really hard to get him to focus and I really feel like he's guessing all the time. If I lay all the flashcards out, and say a word, he can find it out of the pack, but if I hold one up he can't say it. Or if I put letter magnets on the fridge and, like AT and say, "spell CAT" he can do cat, bat, fat, sat, ect. but he can't make the words on his own. To me it sounds like he wasn't ready for AAR 1 yet. Did you happen to look at the Pre-reading checklist to see if he had already mastered all of those items? If not, you might want to take a look at that. If you do try AAR 1 again, make sure you are only using the flash cards for 2-3 minutes--you don't use them for a long time each day. Also, on the fluency pages, you'll want to adapt these to his needs. You might have him take turns reading with a favorite stuffed animal, puppet, rescue hero or the like. He could read a line & then you be the voice for the animal/doll for a line, etc... But it really sounds to me like he was just not ready to learn to read, lots of kids aren't at age 5, and some are not even at 6. Anyway, take a look at the checklist & see what you think. If you think it's a fit, you could exchange Level 1 for the Pre-reading level, or just hang onto it until you are ready to use it. I'm sorry he's struggling. And I'm especially sorry for the trouble he got from family! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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