All About Spelling, can it be used to teach reading?

[Chloe]

It gets compared to SWR so much, which can be used to teach a child to read, that I was wondering if AAS can be used to teach reading.

 

My ds (5.5) has known all his letter sounds for two years now, but can't seem to get past three-letter short vowel words. He has trouble blending. By the time he makes the last letter sound in a word, he's forgotten what the first sound was. He might sound out the word "sat" one letter at a time, and then when I ask him to put it together to say the word, he'll say "fat" or "mat". I'm really at a loss here. He taught himself the sounds from letter magnets and LeapFrog Letter Factory videos. I honestly thought he would pick up reading just as easily.

 

We've tried 100 EZ Lessons, Phonics Pathways and The Reading Lesson, but he hates them all. He never wants to sit down and do a lesson, even for 10 minutes. He says reading is boring, but he likes for me to read to him. I was thinking that maybe a more hands-on approach would work better. He actually likes writing better than reading. Does AAS sound like it would work for this ds, or should I go with something like Teach America to Read and Spell or Happy Phonics with Explode the Code books. I have SWR, but had trouble implementing it with my two older dc, so I don't think I'd be able to do it with him either, especially with a 22mo running around.

 

Any ideas or advice is greatly appreciated!

[Johanna]

hmmm, I definitely think that it can reinforce "learning to read" however, since all the sounds/spellings are introduced over the whole 6 books (only 4 are out as of now), I think it would be a slow way to get them to read. You would have to do all the books to make sure all sounds are covered for reading.

Have you tried OPGTR...that seems hands on. I have heard that TATRAS was good as well.

He is still young, so I would plug away at the short hands-on lessons and wait for his attention span to increase over time.

When I was teaching my ds (we used MFW1st) I would get those "linking letters" they are kinda like legos but snap horizontally...and I would reinforce the sounds by having him put them together as we sounded it out. You can add these manip's to any reading program to give it a hands on nature.

[fenni]

The author of AAS says it can be used to teach a child to read. We have level 1 but haven't started it yet and I'm planning to use it with my 7 yo who already reads.

[Homeschooling6]

I was thinking about this too, but after looking at it I'm not sure it could be used for reading. I know the Author has said it could, but like johanna said, it looks like it would be slow. Maybe you can contact the author and ask her how you can make it work as a reading program.

 

Blessings,

[yslek]

I plan on using this to teach my almost-5yo dd to read. We're still working on step 1 (first 26 phonograms).

 

I also own SWR, so if it seems to be going too slowly, I guess I could switch over.

 

For now AAS looks perfect. I especially appreciate the tiles. My dd doesn't have the motor skills to write yet, but with the tiles, she'll be able to "build" words until she is ready to write on her own. :)

 

Kelsy

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

Have you tried verbally taking apart and putting together words? I got the idea from Montessori Read and Write where kids play the sound game. There are several levels, starting with learning to discern the first sound of a word, then first and last sounds, all the way to being able to pull apart any word themselves. I played this game with dd a lot and it has made a huge difference. The step-by-step fashion helped me to be able to teach the skill. We also use a movable alphabet so that dd can spell simple words.

[Chloe]

I think I'll hold off for now and just try some phonics games and extra reading aloud from me.