Mom-ninja. Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 My 9 yr does NOT get it. How many times do I have to explain to him how to look up a word in the dictionary before he gets it? Here's an example of what he does. He had to find the word "huge" so he goes to the H section. So far okay. He looks for 'u' and finds it. Then while looking for 'g' he ends up going back past the 'hu' guide words. He gets all the way to 'hog' guide words and looks at me totally confused. I've explained many many many many MANY time that he has to pay attention to all the previous letters including the next letter he's looking for. We went to the library the other day and I made him actually look up a book and locate it. He was so lost. He could not figure out how to use the guide words on the aisles and then how to figure out how to locate the book on the shelf. I've explained and shown him how to do so before. When I told him he needed to learn how to find books he said, "Why? All I have to do is request the book online and just walk in and pick it up." <_< Is this just one of those things he has to over practice before he can do it? I don't know how else to explain it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 My younger did quite a few alphabetical order worksheets before he catch on to using that skill for dictionary and library. Below links are an example of the kind of alphabetical order worksheets both my boys had to do in K and 1st in public school. http://www.studenthandouts.com/01-Web-Pages/001-Pages/abc-order-worksheet-alphabetize-names-alabama-cities-towns.htm http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/ws/languagearts/alphabetizing/alpha14.gif Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unfrumpable. Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 I've gone over alphabetical order with my son before and he's done a small amount of dictionary work. Today one of our lessons was dictionary skills. He had six words to look up. He was acting like it was killing him. He is the drama queen. I won't mention how long that took, but it was a while! Like your son, he would find the first and second letters, then get discouraged, start flipping through pages w/o really looking, flop to the side and give up. Oy! I have no advice, just wanted to commiserate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tita Gidge Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 This thread comforts me. I thought it was just my kid, and I was going nuts because he's in double digits and should've totally nailed this by now. I no longer allow him to place a book on hold unless it's already checked out (to someone else); everything else he has to search and find the old-fashioned way. This works for school books because I tell him to find a specific title or to seek out a specific topic. It doesn't work for personally-selected books and topics he can locate in the stacks by memory. About once a week we do a quick review. I have him pick a letter of the alphabet, then I let another kid pick ten words from that letter in the dictionary. Then when he's waiting for lunch, he alphabetizes them. WIth much fanfare and ado, wondering loudly why he must do this ... the smell of lunch usually keeps this to a minimum. Usually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Am I the only one who thinks that I might as well just teach them to use an online dictionary? I mean, I know alphabetical skills are important, but I have a hard time getting myself to *care* all that much about putting in the time (which seems to be fairly immense) to really learn them. I can't personally remember the last time I used a physical dictionary. We were doing a test prep book with questions about phone books and almanacs. That was an interesting conversation! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unfrumpable. Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Alphabetical skills are useful in other areas besides dictionaries. Libraries and bookstores usually put things in alphabetical order. Indexes in the back of books are in alphabetical order, as well as glossaries and whatever other appendixes they want to shove back there. :) I would imagine there are other examples that I'm just not thinking of now. I feel it's pretty important to know how to how to alphabetize in general. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Yes, he has to do it over and over and over. In fact, if he were mine, he'd be alphabetizing every.single.thing for the next six months, lol. AlphaBetter is good (the site doesn't work well with Internet Explorer). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Am I the only one who thinks that I might as well just teach them to use an online dictionary? I mean, I know alphabetical skills are important, but I have a hard time getting myself to *care* all that much about putting in the time (which seems to be fairly immense) to really learn them. I can't personally remember the last time I used a physical dictionary. I haven't used a dictionary in forever, either, but I have to know how things are alphabetized all the time. IMHO, it's important enough to take the time to teach it in the first place, and then to make it a point to use it as often as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNW Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 I was working at a job recently where *filing* was a crucial skill to have. (Front desk at a fitness center.) Let me assure you of the importance of having this skill. I cannot begin to describe to you the massive amount of frustration I endured every time I looked for paperwork that was misfiled by my coworkers because they simply had no idea how to alphabetize. My boss wrote out the entire alphabet and taped it to the counter, and it did not help these poor, ignorant people. Please don't let your children turn out this way. You never know what kind of part time jobs they may have on the way to doing something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 I no longer allow him to place a book on hold unless it's already checked out (to someone else); everything else he has to search and find the old-fashioned way. This works for school books because I tell him to find a specific title or to seek out a specific topic. It doesn't work for personally-selected books and topics he can locate in the stacks by memory. I'm going to do this as much as possible. A lot of books we want are not at our physical branch and we have to request them. However, from now on I will be checking every book to see if it is in our branch. I may even drive to other libraries if I have to. Making a list of words is a great idea. In fact my 12 yr old would benefit from it as well. Hum, I wonder if it would be mean of me to have him put the books on his bookshelf in his room in alphabetical order. It would be a big job once but pretty simple to keep up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNW Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 I'm going to do this as much as possible. A lot of books we want are not at our physical branch and we have to request them. However, from now on I will be checking every book to see if it is in our branch. I may even drive to other libraries if I have to. Making a list of words is a great idea. In fact my 12 yr old would benefit from it as well. Hum, I wonder if it would be mean of me to have him put the books on his bookshelf in his room in alphabetical order. It would be a big job once but pretty simple to keep up I like the idea of him managing his own personal books. Sounds reasonable and it would definitely help him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tita Gidge Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 I'm going to do this as much as possible. A lot of books we want are not at our physical branch and we have to request them. However, from now on I will be checking every book to see if it is in our branch. I may even drive to other libraries if I have to. Making a list of words is a great idea. In fact my 12 yr old would benefit from it as well. Hum, I wonder if it would be mean of me to have him put the books on his bookshelf in his room in alphabetical order. It would be a big job once but pretty simple to keep up Ok, this is where I confess I'm talking about my 12 year old LOL. We live in a semi-rural town and our library is less than 5 years old. We're like you, where lots of things have to be loaned from other libraries (or we drive to the neighboring city's library). But I figure it's win-win if I give him a random subject or book to fetch for me because he works on his skills and even if we never read the book ... well, the library gets credit for a book checked out! I like the idea of organizing his bookshelf :) I may see if my daughter will go for that assignment, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 My phonics lesson 30 teaches the skill by changing letters to numbers. http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/phonicslsnslinks.html Here are the charts that go along with the lessons: http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/Resources/AlphabetFiles.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Spam by maysnx reported. Exact sentences from #3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyniffrec Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 I knew we had a problem when I told my son to alphabetize a list of words and I got something like this: My list: Dog Flatten Fake Story Bean He handed the sheet back like this: Dgo Aefntt Aefk Orsty Aben I'm so glad that I thought to see if his school had taught him this information! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 That is funny! But, hey, the letters are in the correct order! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyniffrec Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 That is funny! But, hey, the letters are in the correct order! Yeah, I had to shift my thinking a bit. It was one of those moments when I could I appreciate original thinking once I wrapped my head around what he had done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 I've been trying to contextualize skills for today lately. Basically, I'm trying to recognize that these things are still necessary but that "kids today" learn other necessary skills early and I shouldn't feel bad if they learn some of the more old-fashioned ones later on than kids a generation ago. So this applies to alphabetizing, tying shoes, and a number of other things I could do easily at my kids' age, but with which my kids still struggle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Have you practiced putting words on paper in alphabetical order first? I'd do that for a while before moving to the dictionary. My oldest can do alphabetical order, but his spelling has a short practice every week. It started out alphabetized words with different starting letters. Then it gradually moved to comparing the second or third letter. He can also tie his shoes, but not until this year - 3rd grade. I can't count the number of people that said to me, "When I was in school, we couldn't graduate kindergarten until we could tie our shoes!" Even my DH made that comment. But DS did finally get it. I then told him, " Congratulations! You've graduated kindergarten!" :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 This is off the origional topic, but I am glad to hear that other people's kids can't tie their shoes yet. My pediatrician has been asking me if Ds can do this yet since his 4 year check up and a almost 6 years old he is not even close...grant it we live In a place where no one usually even owns shoes with ties, but I was still feeling bad. I am going to set myself a new bar...by third grade ds will be able to tie his own soccer cleats (the only pair of shoes with laces he has) :-) ETA: DS cannot alphabetized well yet either, but we are working on it and I think it is a worthwhile skill. I wouldn't stress about it though, I think it's one of those things that if you just make a point to do it once in a while it will eventually come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weederberries Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 Am I the only one who thinks that I might as well just teach them to use an online dictionary? I mean, I know alphabetical skills are important, but I have a hard time getting myself to *care* all that much about putting in the time (which seems to be fairly immense) to really learn them. I can't personally remember the last time I used a physical dictionary. We were doing a test prep book with questions about phone books and almanacs. That was an interesting conversation! I had to borrow a physical dictionary to do the dictionary skill lessons in FLL. :/ My kids caught on and then we repeated the lessons with an online dictionary, which is the only thing I ever use. phone books? no way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weederberries Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 To the OP, I'd suggest having him place his finger on the first hu word. Then have him move to the next letter. If that's a struggle or involves a page change, offer those tiny little post-it flags and mark the place on the page where the second letter changes. Other people have had good suggestions as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unfrumpable. Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 My son is 7 and I haven't even taught him tying yet. He has worn Crocs since he needed to wear shoes, no tying involved! My dh keeps asking when I'm going to teach him, I just never think about it. I always wear Croc sandals, so no tying there either! One of these days..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 On the shoe tying, my son learned when I got him tie shoes. He had to practice every time he put shoes on. Just make sure you give yourself extra time when getting ready to go somewhere. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.