Suggestions on where to go from here with phonics

[pebblesjns]

I have a very advanced 4.5 year old who will be starting K/1st this summer (I'm pregnant and due in August so I'd like to get a good routine going a few months before my due date to ensure I don't feel too overwhelmed and "behind" if we get off our routine while having a new little one). We've been doing some pre-k sporadically this year. We have been working our way through Horizons Math K and Explode the Code. My son taught himself to read right before he was 3 (I honestly have no idea how this happened but it did). He has progressed naturally with his reading and is able to read around a 2nd-3rd grade level now (from all of the assessments I've made him take, this is my best estimate). Needless to say, ETC has been a struggle with him because he is bored reading words like cat, hat, etc. when he is capable of going around our neighborhood and reading street signs and billboards.

 

I am just confused as to what I should be doing next. Part of me wants to make sure he has a good knowledge of phonics and doesn't have any gaps in his understanding, but the other part of me knows he will be bored with some of it. Do you have any suggestions for either a good phonics program that I should consider or should I scrap the phonics program and just let him read books and keep increasing his skills that way? I do plan to add in AAS 1 this year because he is very interested in spelling. I am thinking that might cover any "gaps" in his phonics that would come up since he would be learning phonics skills to spell. 

[blondchen]

Others with more experience will probably chime in, but I'd suggest OPGTR - it's inexpensive and straightforward and will fill in gaps and build his reading skills in a systematic fashion. Just pick a place where you think he'd start and go either back or forward from there - it can definitely be started in the middle. Or just start him in a place where you know would be easy for him and let him practice reading through the lessons at a quick pace until he gets to a place that's challenging, and then slow down. Most of the lessons can easily be shortened if they're too easy.

 

In my opinion, for a child who picks up reading easily, it would be frustrating to bog down the learning-to-read process with all the explicit, detailed spelling rules found in AAS and the other O-G programs. I'd just use OPGTR (or something like it) to get him reading more and more fluently, and deal with spelling as a separate animal when you think he's ready for spelling. I taught DD6 to read via OPGTR and before we got to the end we started spelling with LOE. It has worked really well for her. I want her to know the phonograms and spelling rules, but she didn't need all of that to learn to read fluently. 

[nature girl]

My DD also began to sound out words herself at around 2.5. When she got frustrated with not being able to read everything easily I decided to try a phonics program...We tried for a little while with book 1 of ETC (she hated it) and MCP Plaid Phonics (she was okay with it, but I don't know that it taught her much.) So I decided to just let her learn naturally, much more fun for both of us than a formal program. I learned at a little over 3 myself, my parents certainly never taught me phonics, and I never suffered for it at all, picked up the rules naturally just by reading books. I was a voracious reader throughout childhood (and became an author when I grew up ;)) and I think part of the reason is that nobody ever sat me down and bored me by trying to explicitly teach me.

 

It's obviously different for kids who aren't natural readers, of course phonics instruction has its place. But for kids who pick it up naturally it just seems unnecessary, you don't want to do anything that might make them think reading isn't gloriously fun.

[Hunter]

I wouldn't do anything for phonics right now. When he is ready for intensive handwriting instruction, I'd do combined handwriting and O-G instruction then. And if he is still bored, I'd teach the dictionary respellings for each phonogram at the same time. Handwriting, phonograms and rules, and dictionary respellings combined, should keep even the brightest little boy challenged. 

 

I think AAS might move a little slow for you. Look more at the programs people use to remediate older children. Writing Road to Reading 4th edition. LOE essentials. Alpha-phonics with Don Potter's free supplements for phonograms and cursive-first.

http://www.donpotter.net/reading_clinic.html

 

From what you are telling me, I'd track down a used copy of WRTR 4th edition.

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Road-Reading-Spalding-Teaching/dp/0688100074/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395418590&sr=1-1&keywords=writing+road+to+reading+4th

 

I like the Merriam-Webster Concise Large Print for teaching dictionary Respellings

http://www.amazon.com/Merriam-Webster-Concise-Dictionary/dp/0877796440

 

Don Potter's phonograms according to the American Heritage

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/alpha-phonics_phonograms.pdf

 

When the dictionary has more vowel sounds than an O-G program, call the combined vowel sounds the "broad sound" and then teach the child there are two dictionary respelling used for the "broad sound" but otherwise just stick to how the O-G program is teaching.

 

[Tanikit]

I did word lists from OPGTR with my child when she was 3.5 to 4.5 years old - I did not use the book as written - just gave her a list of 4 words that followed a particular rule, taught the rule and let her sound out the words - we did 2 of those lists (8 words per day) and in the meantime she read to me from whatever she was reading and I made sure that she advanced her reading level at the same time with me pointing out the phonics rule we were covering in the words she was already reading - we did not cover the alphabet sounds and only read a very few of the cvc words just to make sure she could blend and knew the routine - same with blends which she needed almost no help with. Long vowel sounds we spent a bit more time on.

 

Before we were through OPGTR I could just point out a phonics rule in her reading and then point it out again in something I was reading to her and it would stick. Phonics comes up again in spelling. Still I would cover it some though perhaps at his age with much shorter session - if something is boring for 2 minutes it is far more manageable to a child (and can even be fun if you tell him how clever he is and how easy he finds it) than 15-20 minutes of mind numbing tasks.

[reign]

You could do OPGTR and just pick the lessons he needs to learn. Or you could have him read aloud to you from McGruffy readers which are available online. That way you are sure he is progressing (if you need the reassurance.) I have my girls read aloud to me daily after finishing OPGTR. I also started AAS with them. You can fly through the first book or two very easily.

[kerilynn]

I can't relate directly to your situation, but thought I might still make a suggestion. My ds actually didn't start sounding out words until middle of K (age 5), which isn't late, but felt like it to us because he knew all the sounds for at least two years prior. He attends public K, so I let go of teaching him my own, preferred way in lieu of not confusing him until I just couldn't stand the "let him look at the pictures and guess the words" reading instruction he was being sent home with every night.

 

So, even though he attends public K, I took up teaching him myself again anyway (which I had dearly missed). The point I am trying to get to is that by the time I did this, he had forgotten a lot of the phonics instruction he had before entering K, but was 'reading' a little beyond the beginning level of a lot of programs. I started him with LoE Foundations A, even though he was beyond much of it. In addition, we moved slowly because I'm an overwhelmed college student myself. Even though the lessons may have been boring for him in another context, LoE Foundations is so engaging and fun that he actually asked to do the lessons. Plus, I can't speak enough about the quality of instruction. There are definitely lots of other quality programs with less bells and whistles, (and I even integrate some of those with my son when I have the time). Even now, I wish I had more time to spend with my son on this because I can tell he is able/wanting to soak up the information at a faster rate than I feed it to him, but I resist skipping ahead because I know soon enough it will level out anyway, and in the meantime he still enjoys it.

 

My ds definitely isn't advanced as your ds, but I thought I would suggest the LoE Foundations anyway as a possibility for getting in the foundations without boring your son to death.

[Walking-Iris]

I say your instinct to start spelling is correct. I don't feel phonics/reading should be separated from handwriting/spelling. 

 

Also since he's young, you may just let him be for a bit. You'll have a newborn soon, and he's young. I think there would be no harm in doing less school with him. You could just keep good books around for him to read and books for you to read aloud. Opgtr will help you judge where he needs help. 

 

I was an early reader. My mother was advised to not send me to kindergarten. I spent that year just blissfully following my own interests and started 1st grade ready.

 

I read an interesting study about an early learning group that focused on science more than phonics, and compared it to one with a heavy language arts focus and less content. The preschoolers focusing on content were ahead of the others later. 

 

That stuck with me. Now I certainly focus on reading with my littles, but I also try to include lots of variety.

 

If I had a 4 year old and a new baby on the way, I wouldn't stress too much about doing 1st grade work.