Stuck at beginning stage of learning to read

[tld]

I'm doing kindergarten with DS. He's 5. We've been doing Sing, Spell, Read,and Write for his phonics/reading program.

 

He knows all his letter sounds very well. Four lessons ago we started the ferris wheel and blending basic 3-letter words and he's just not getting it. Maybe I'm not teaching it well or maybe he's just not ready or maybe the SSRW way of teaching blending just doesn't connect with him. I'm not sure what it is or if it's a combination of the 3. Since we started the blending, it's been stressful and not fun for either of us.

 

At this point, I'm planning on just trudging through the SSRW curriculum until we get so stuck that we just can't continue, hoping that something will click with DS in the meantime. I think I'll slow down our pace too.

 

Should I try supplementing with something else too? I signed up for the free trial of Reading Eggs today. DS enjoyed it, but he seems far beyond these beginning lessons. Would Explode the Code be of any benefit? Or do I just need to stick with the plan in the above paragraph for now? OR is that a bad plan? I guess I just need some direction. :confused:

[boscopup]

Blending is often developmental. In the meantime, practice oral blending (no letters to look at), saying, ”/c/-/a/-/t/.... cat” Tell him the answer. He needs it modeled before he can do it himself.

 

Reading Eggs does get into blending in the first map. I would also use starfall, which teaches chunking words into their sounds (my son learned that from them, but didn't blend for another year and a half!).

 

You may be able to continue with your curriculum, helping with the answers (again, modeling), though I don't know how that program works in K.

[Kendall]

You could try dictation. Give him a sound and have him write it down. You could then try words like fat, sat. One of my children figured out the blending when he wrote the words down. He could spell them but couldn't read them, but spelling them helped him read them. Weird, but it worked(it was an accidentally discovery on my part)

 

You could also just try two letters -at, it, ot then put a letter at the beginning. Do a handful of words each day, helping him and praising. You may have to do most of it at first and have him repeat after you. At some point with consistency it will click and you will be past that hurdle. Most of mine have struggled a bit at the beginning and then it clicks. You could back off on the curriculum and just do a few words a day until he gets it. I don't know your curriculum and so I can't advise you about that.

[twoxcell]

I don't think trudging through until you both get even more frustrated is a good idea. Going from knowing letter sounds to blending is a developmental skill and takes longer for some kids than others. 5 years old is still very young. I would concentrate only on blending for now and put the curriculum aside for a bit until he can do it. Use things like games, online and not. Letter magnets work well. Make three letter words with them. Separate the letters and say each sound and slowly move them together while saying the sounds closer and closer together. Really try to overemphasize this with him. Make large letters on paper and have him jump out three letter words while saying the sounds. It is ok for you to help him sound them out and tell him what the word is. Also be sure you are reading to him daily from quality picture books. Run your finger under the words to show him where you are reading, and if you get to a three letter word stop and slowly sound it out together. Just a few ideas anyways. HTH:001_smile:

Some other things that might help are starfall.com and Leap frog DVD's especially the talking words factory.

[Joshin]

We used a magnetic white board and letter magnets to teach initial blending of CVC words. Similar to above, where I said the words in their parts and he picked out the letters he heard. I gradually moved from saying the words in parts to just saying the words, then he would break them into parts and spell them with the magnets. It worked exceptionally well.

 

I read somewhere to stop and slow down at CVC words until they could sound out and blend simple ones fluently, otherwise it can lead to more frustration and slower progress later. We slowed down for a year and DS fell way behind his grade level, but then when he was ready he made a giant leap and regained grade level in a few weeks. We just kept plugging away at CVC and fluent blending until it clicked.

 

We used a similar method as he memorized all the consonant blends, which went quicker since he had already mastered fluency in basic blending. We have moved onto vowel blends and this method is still working great. DS is very tactile and visual, so we use a lot of reading manipulatives and games (not computer based) to solidify the concepts, along with actual reading practice.

[Tanikit]

For beginning blending I'd just do it orally with him for now - and YOU do it, not him. So say c-a-t says cat. If you want him to try to do any perhaps you could start with two letter blends (i-n in, a-t at etc) and see if he can get those first as they are easier than three letter blends simply because they do not have to hear the middle vowel sound. Blending can take a lot of auditory work first - they need to have heard it being done for them numerous times before they will be able to blend by themselves.

 

You can also try www.readingbear.com with him which will blend words for him while he just has to listen initially.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Another vote here for Starfall.com. Also the LeapFrog videos if you haven't seen them yet. Their Word Builder toy is AWESOME.

 

Blending really is a developmental thing. Until it "clicks," there doesn't seem to be much use frustrating yourself and your child. Turn letters and words into play instead. Let him play around with the letters. Also try to figure out your child's learning style so you can teach him in a way that he understands. I had a lot of frustrations with ds5.5 until I figured out that he is a kinetic learner. I bought some inexpensive word tiles and POOF: understanding.

[MeaganS]

Something that worked for us was this free ABC Magic Reading app. My daughter had a much longer attention span for an app over magnets.

 

Another great tool for us was the Reading Bear website (also free). Both of these got her blending quicker than I was on my own.

[The Way of My People]

I second the suggestion for the Talking Word Factory dvd. Both of my sons loved it, and went from not understanding blending to blending well almost immediately.

 

I also think that Explode the Code (Book 1) might work well for you. Writing out those simple CVC words while sounding out each letter really helped him.

[ErinE]

When my dd was that age, we hung out for a few months with short vowel sound blending. It was frustrating and a bit frightening; what if I couldn't teach my child to read? We read lots of phonics readers and reviewed the lessons daily. I tried to give dd many opportunities to read without pushing her. One year later, she's sounding out multi-syllable words. I didn't purchase additional curriculum or games, only books to read. We just read, read, read until a light bulb went off. Unless you have reason to suspect he has a learning difficulty, I'd recommend keep working with your son without stressing too much.

[srs]

My DD had a lightbulb moment when we started talking about words in terms of rhyming and word families (thank you, Super Why, for this idea). So for cat, mat, sat, etc I would say "this is an "-at" word". And then she could add the first sound and read it. But going from the beginning of the word, like "ca-t is cat, ma-t is mat" did not work at all.

[Tawlas]

Just wanted to throw in my 0.02. My son is 5 1/2, and I THINK he's finally starting to get this whole blending thing! It's the coolest thing ever! :001_smile:

 

But! We were EXACTLY where you are six or more months ago. He knew all the letters, loved the lessons, it's just wasn't clicking. We were using OPGTR and I decided to just "go sideways" for a while. He was really young and I really didn't care when it clicked - that's why I wanted to homeschool after all!

 

We played magnet games, rhyming games, he discovered a love for all things fine motor so we began printing. He adores "spelling". First he used magnets, now he prints. I borrowed phonics pathways from the library and we worked through that from the beginning. We even took a few months off completely (GASP!). Of course, I read picture books and interesting novels and non fiction to him every day.

 

Now that's he's officially in "Big Kindergarten" (his words), we restarted OPGTR from lesson 27 and he's flying through it! It's truly amazing! Lessons that I broke down in to two or even three days he completes in 20 minutes. His stamina and focus is so much better. And he's really blending, not just saying each letter-sound out loud. We started new material last week and he's still chugging along, a lesson a day.

 

What this rather lengthy post is getting at is to give it time. You don't have to give up completely, but find some more fun ways to connect with letters and sounds and possibly some beginning blending. Whatever floats his boats and still keeps the information at the front of his brain. Or take a month or two and come back to it. There's lots of time at this age and I feel like it's so important that he loves reading more than he can actually read, if you know what I mean.:001_smile:

[thebacabunch]

BOb books are great because they focus on blends and the kids feel like they are reading a real book. My daughters were both so tickled when they got to put a star on a sticker chart after reading a simple Bob book. Very motivating.

[kiwik]

I know wtm says to use phonics and the article in the book was very convincing BUT having to sound out every single word makes reading very hard work. At school my son was taught the first 30 sight words before he was fought to sound out and break down words and it really seems to have helped. NZ has been using whole language since the 70's (I started school in 74) and it works for the majority of children.

 

I would like a phonics approach to spelling rather than the word lists we had 40 years ago though.:tongue_smilie:

[delaney]

I remember teaching 1st grade and wanting to scream when the same kids would stall on short words THEY HAD JUST READ!!! C_A_T...cat. UGH! But those same kids all of a sudden got it. Most of them after Christmas break. My 6 yr old still loses sight words as fast as I teach them but I am holding out hope. Some days he is on...and others he is O.F.F.:glare:

[Forgiven]

My only thought is don't jump into blending three letters together, start with only two. They don't have to make words, just blend...

 

My older kids used A Beka, and even though we aren't using that with our third, I have an old Kindergarten Blend book from A Beka and I've been going over it with my Kindergartener. it takes each consonant and blends it with the short sound of each vowel (except for Q, which is only blended with A, E, I, and O because U is needed with the Q).

 

Anyway, we go consonant-by-consonant and go through blending each one with each short vowel sound, and then move onto the next...Once we've gone through all the consonants (should finish today), then we'll start taking these two-letter blends and adding a sound at the end to form CVC words.

 

I didn't start using the blend book with my kindergartener until I realized that jumping into CVC words from the get-go just was too much. He needed the transition. Once I realized that, I pulled out the blend book and he's been doing fine. He gets excited when he gets them right and he looked ahead in the book and saw some CVC words and said he couldn't wait to get to that page. ;)

Edited September 27, 2012 by Forgiven
needed to complete a thought. LOL

[EKS]

What I do when a child has trouble is to help him and then gradually give back the parts he can do until he can do the entire thing. So if he can sound out the individual letters in a word, have him do that. Then have him do it faster (same word), then have him hear you do it really fast. Then *you* say the word. Repeat. Try it on words where you can hold the initial sounds for a long time (sat or mat as opposed to cat, for example).

 

This could take a while. Just be patient and loving and help him until he no longer needs help. Practice a bit every day even if it's only 5-10 minutes. Then (each day) move on to spelling (encoding), which is probably easier for him. Once he gets it, you can up the reading time again.

[alisoncooks]

I remember teaching 1st grade and wanting to scream when the same kids would stall on short words THEY HAD JUST READ!!! C_A_T...cat. UGH! But those same kids all of a sudden got it. Most of them after Christmas break. My 6 yr old still loses sight words as fast as I teach them but I am holding out hope. Some days he is on...and others he is O.F.F.:glare:

 

:iagree::iagree:

Same here, exactly.