AAR Pre 1

[NavyMommy]

I have a question for any other moms using AAR pre-1 for their children. My plan was to go through it with DD (turned 4 in August) who doesn't yet know all of her letters as well as DS (will be 3 in May) as something fun for him to tag along in. Then once DD was ready we would go to AAR1 and DS and I would keep working in pre reading.

 

We've done the first couple of lessons and I don't know what to do with DD. She doesn't seem to 'get' rhyming in the context it is presented, even though she can go on the HoP computer game and do very well at the rhyming games. She's stubborn too, so if the 'out' word (in "Get out of the Wagon") was in the first position the first time she will only pick the card in the first position as long as we're playing. I'm having trouble deciding if she's not getting it because of me or because she's not ready and maybe I need to shelve it for a bit.

 

The problem is she wants to learn to read so badly, but I think she needs these skills before we can start 'officially' reading. We do lots of reading together time, but she doesn't know all her letters and I would think at a minimum she needs that. She also plays dumb with me a lot, I was shocked at how much she did know when I watched her playing the HoP game over Thanksgiving, she knew many more letters then I had realized.

 

This is not at all how I envisioned things. We have had a crazy time of transition since last March so maybe it's just the kinks in our new schedule getting worked out. I'm also starting to get the questions about her being in school next year and while I really want to homeschool her this has made me second guess if I am cut out for it or not.

[KristenR]

I had the exact same hiccup with my daughter as we went through the prelevel. She eventually just memorized the cards for the Get Out of the Wagon game. I thought she was getting it but the light bulb didn't click outside of that game and those cards. She wasn't quite 4 at the time so we just took a break and focused on some other things. I have been building up her confidence by using our SightWord Flashcard game. We also kept going with our Nora Gaydos readers and plan on picking back up with our prelevel AAR soon.

[lexi]

We had those problems too-first with my ds at 4 and now with my dd at 3 1/2. Take a break and then come back. We just kept practicing and I would keep helping or giving cues. Eventually both of them got it. It can be slow going sometimes but I felt it was worth it. Those skills are so helpful. Now my ds is in level 1 and doing well. I think it's because of his good foundation. But don't give up or be too hard on yourself, some of these skills take time and patience. It's ok to take a break and try again later.

So, ((((hugs)))) we've all been there. One day it will click and it will be so exciting!

[SevenDaisies]

We had the same problem. Dd was about 4 1/2. I kept repeating the word ending: bell-ell-ell, shell-ell-ell, duck-uck-uck. That eventually helped her to find the two that rhymed. We were stuck there for a few weeks, but it finally clicked.

[NavyMommy]

Thank you so much for the tips and the BTDT!! I am hesitant to shelve it because she is so ready to read, and honestly she does really well on the letter portion and really seems to enjoy Ziggy and the little stories, plus they both love the little activities. I actually worked with her a bit more last night while Daddy was distracting little brother and she did better. I think we'll probably just add those rhyming games into our daily rotation of activities, that way she gets lots of practice and we can move on a bit with the letters.

[MerryAtHope]

I think it's a great idea to add rhyming games into your daily rotation and keep moving on with the letters. It's good to capitalize on her interest in letters, and the rhyming might "click" for her later on. I wonder if she has memorized the HoP computer game rhymes. One of my children really struggled with rhyming, and my oldest was famous for not letting on to what he knew and playing dumb, LOL! One thing that used to help with him was to have me say the wrong answer and let him correct me. (Sometimes I had a favorite toy or stuffed animal participate in the lesson and say something wrong--you could do this with Ziggy if she likes helping Ziggy.)

 

There are three stages of rhyming:

 

Hearing rhyme

This is what they do in Lesson 1 with Ziggy Body Parts and Lesson 2 with the Rhyming Cards. Here’s another way to help kids hear rhyme:

“Listen to this sentence: There’s a goat in my boat. Now you say it.†Child repeats the sentence.

“Boat and goat rhyme. They have the same sound at the end: oat. Say these words with me: boat, goat.â€

“I’ll say another sentence, and you’ll repeat the sentence and say the two words that rhyme. ‘There’s a fox in the box.†Child repeats the sentence, then identifies the words ‘fox’ and ‘box’ as rhyming.

 

With some kids, this activity may need to be repeated every day for two weeks straight before they catch on. Keep practice very short but frequent until the child catches on.

 

Differentiating rhyme. This is what they do in Lesson 3, 4, 6 with the Get Out of the Wagon game, Lesson 5 with Rhyming Concentration, Lesson 7 with Stand Up or Sit Down. (Don’t start doing this until the child is able to hear rhyme.)

 

Producing rhyme. This is what they do in Lesson 8 with Forgetful Zebra, Lesson 9 with What’s in My Bag, Lesson 10 with Read a Book with Ziggy, Lesson 11 with Name the Animals.

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[NavyMommy]

I think it's a great idea to add rhyming games into your daily rotation and keep moving on with the letters. It's good to capitalize on her interest in letters, and the rhyming might "click" for her later on. I wonder if she has memorized the HoP computer game rhymes. One of my children really struggled with rhyming, and my oldest was famous for not letting on to what he knew and playing dumb, LOL! One thing that used to help with him was to have me say the wrong answer and let him correct me. (Sometimes I had a favorite toy or stuffed animal participate in the lesson and say something wrong--you could do this with Ziggy if she likes helping Ziggy.)

 

There are three stages of rhyming:

 

Hearing rhyme

This is what they do in Lesson 1 with Ziggy Body Parts and Lesson 2 with the Rhyming Cards. Here’s another way to help kids hear rhyme:

“Listen to this sentence: There’s a goat in my boat. Now you say it.†Child repeats the sentence.

“Boat and goat rhyme. They have the same sound at the end: oat. Say these words with me: boat, goat.â€

“I’ll say another sentence, and you’ll repeat the sentence and say the two words that rhyme. ‘There’s a fox in the box.†Child repeats the sentence, then identifies the words ‘fox’ and ‘box’ as rhyming.

 

With some kids, this activity may need to be repeated every day for two weeks straight before they catch on. Keep practice very short but frequent until the child catches on.

 

Differentiating rhyme. This is what they do in Lesson 3, 4, 6 with the Get Out of the Wagon game, Lesson 5 with Rhyming Concentration, Lesson 7 with Stand Up or Sit Down. (Don’t start doing this until the child is able to hear rhyme.)

 

Producing rhyme. This is what they do in Lesson 8 with Forgetful Zebra, Lesson 9 with What’s in My Bag, Lesson 10 with Read a Book with Ziggy, Lesson 11 with Name the Animals.

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

 

Thank you, that helps a lot! I doubt she's memorized the HOP games since she plays them very rarely and before Thanksgiving she hadn't played the rhyming one at all. I think it's more along the lines of her playing dumb and not letting me in on what she knows, plus some lucky guessing. It's set up so there are only 2 or so words that don't rhyme so chances are good that you'll get a rhyming one. I also think that maybe the AAR games aren't quite synching up with her yet. Lesson 2 has you picking rhyming words out of a large number of cards which is overwhelming since there are only 2 that rhyme, and lesson 3 has you looking for differences rather then similarities which is harder. When I redid the lesson 2 game with her last night I just put 2 cards in front of her and Ziggy held a card that she needed to find the rhyming one. She did better with that.

 

I love the hearing rhyme exercise you mentioned. I will be doing that with her for sure. Thanks again for your help!!

[wendyroo]

My son's rhyming skills (and sound blending) took off after watching Leap Frog's Talking Words Factory a few times. They make whole word families and string together long lists of rhyming words: p-at pat, c-at cat, m-at mat, s-at sat, etc. DS was enthralled by the process and we started whamming together our own rhyming words. By the end of the week he could produce a rhyme (sometimes a nonsense word) for pretty much any word I said.

 

Wendy

[blondeviolin]

Rhyming is somewhat developmental, so don't push it too hard. FWIW, my son's lightbulb happened when he could SEE that pop and stop rhyme because they both end in "op."

[MerryAtHope]

When I redid the lesson 2 game with her last night I just put 2 cards in front of her and Ziggy held a card that she needed to find the rhyming one. She did better with that.

 

Great modification! Keep doing that, and maybe gradually build up to more cards for her to choose from.

[MerryAtHope]

. (oops!)

[NavyMommy]

Rhyming is somewhat developmental, so don't push it too hard. FWIW, my son's lightbulb happened when he could SEE that pop and stop rhyme because they both end in "op."

 

DD is very visual, I think when we get to this point she will be able to do it very easily. She loves doing those same/different books and things like that. I really think that will make it click, but at the same time I want her to be able to hear it as well. We're also going through another round of evals after the holiday (PT, OT, Speech) and she is getting her hearing checked again so that will help put to rest any worries that she's significantly behind in this area because of a developmental problem and not just something that she's not quite ready for yet.

[Mergath]

Back when we were doing pre-1, dd didn't get the rhyming either. I just shrugged and moved on, and at this point she's reading at somewhere around a 1st grade level, and still hasn't really picked up the rhyming. So unless you are planning to teach reading via word families, I don't see where it's a necessary part of a reading program. Important to learn at some point, to be sure, but I don't see a reason to stop until your child gets it.