If OPGTR didn't work for you what did you use instead?

[A home for their hearts]

My ds7 is really struggling to learn to read. We are on lesson 98 and he just hates it. He is really struggling with the phonics. I think we may need something that uses both phonics and whole language to move him along. He really hates reading and this book isn't helping him to love it. I'm afraid it is turning him off to reading altogether. I understand the need for him to learn phonics, it was one of the main reasons I pulled my dc out of ps. But if it doesn't work for him maybe it's time I look into something else.

[Lovedtodeath]

My dd hated and hates OPG but she has a full understanding of phonics. We played with magnets, played go fish and bingo with words, and read lots of simple poems with rhyming. Most of my ideas came from the A squared demo CD. MFW K is similar in approach. Others have DC that did not do well with OPG and they switched to ETC. HTH

[A home for their hearts]

My dd hated and hates OPG but she has a full understanding of phonics. We played with magnets, played go fish and bingo with words, and read lots of simple poems with rhyming. Most of my ideas came from the A squared demo CD. MFW K is similar in approach. Others have DC that did not do well with OPG and they switched to ETC. HTH

 

 

I have tried ETC and he doesn't do well with that either.

I guess I'm not creative enough either, I have trouble coming up with game ideas on my own. :lol: Thanks for the suggestions

[Mallory]

We didn't use OPG, but tried Phonics Pathways and it was not working for ds7. For this year we are trying Reading Made Easy. We only started today, so I don't know how it will do, but it seems to have a little more whole language (I also have a hard time admiting that the phonics only way doesn't work for everyone ;)).

 

I also think it will work well because this kid loves index cards, and the physical act of moving around all those cards will work well for him too.

[A home for their hearts]

We didn't use OPG, but tried Phonics Pathways and it was not working for ds7. For this year we are trying Reading Made Easy. We only started today, so I don't know how it will do, but it seems to have a little more whole language (I also have a hard time admiting that the phonics only way doesn't work for everyone ;)).

 

I also think it will work well because this kid loves index cards, and the physical act of moving around all those cards will work well for him too.

 

The main reason I shy away from using anything but a phonics based program is because I wasn taught to read using only whole language and it had/has really limited my reading ability. I never knew the difference between a long and short vowel, many phonics rules until I started teaching my ds7 to read and then things really started to click for me. I struggled with reading all through school. However my son is really struggling with a phonics based approach maybe it isn't for him. I don't want to hinder him the way I was hinder. I really hope I can find something that is in the middle. A little bit of both approach I think might work well for him.

[Guest]

Have you looked into headsprout? My dc are doing this program in addition to WinterPromise's LA program. They are using it more for fun and re-enforcement but it is a really great stand alone program. You can sign up for three free lessons to see if you like it.

[CookieMonster]

Ok, I have a couple of thoughts. My first question, after reading your post, is, "Why does he hate reading?" Has it become mind-numbingly boring? Is he being pushed beyond current abilities? Are there some things you might need to change in your teaching of the lessons?

 

What about modifying the teaching to spark some interest? What I mean is, instead of reading all the required words/rules/daily lesson out of the OPGTR maybe you could have it all set up beforehand on a whiteboard, or chalkboard, or on index cards, or a powerpoint slideshow. Honestly, sometimes changing up the delivery method is all it takes to break the oppressive boredom (for you and for him :) ) There are times in every child's journey of reading where they're bored, but it shouldn't last too long...

 

Also, are you sure he doesn't need you to back up? Some things take more review to master. If you continue to plod on without the necessary review, the child becomes frustrated because reading becomes hard. Because reading becomes difficult for them, children begin to balk.

 

Or, perhaps your teaching delivery could use a tune-up. In all my experience teaching reading to young ones, it was my attitude that determined the student's successfullness (no matter which program I used). I have a tendency to get frustrated when the child misreads something he should know how to read. I have a tendency to get bored myself and just grind through the lessons. I am want to forget my happy, smiling face and positive encouragement. I have a strong aversion to slowing down and adding in extra lessons on phonics rules that are stumping the child. These are my hang-ups. But after lots of experience I recognize them and have learned to change my attitude and come back with a smile. As soon as I come back to the table with a smile, freqent encouragment pouring from my lips, and on the right lesson for the child, reading takes off again.

 

Those are just some initial thoughts. Anything helpful in there?

[Malenki]

DS didn't like OPG so we switched to Phonics Pathways. He continued to struggle, however. And now I'm realizing part of why he liked PP instead was because the letters were much larger for him to read; all the text on OPG drove him nuts. I *should* have kept using OPG and just written his part on a white board for him to read so he didn't have to see my part. Doing ETC was the worst part of our day; so we dropped it completely.

 

He *loathed* reading which never made any sense to me. "Book" was his very first word (long before Mama even, little stinker) and we would read for hours a day together.

 

I finally had his eyes checked this summer in June at a little over 7 yo when I happened to sit across from him instead of next to him during his ETC one time. I realized he was working hard to make his eyes *see* the page clearly and was rubbing at his right eye which used to be weak when he was a toddler.

 

Turns out while he does have 20/20 vision and never any problems at his yearly well child visit with the pediatrician, he had MAJOR focusing issues and convergence issues. The letters would double, blur, and even bounce around the page. In fact, numbers did that for him too. We started (and have finished) vision therapy this summer with tremendous results.

 

He's reading all sorts of things now. We just spent 15 minutes with him reading to me this morning. True, it's still leveled readers but three months ago he was struggling to sound out anything at all and 3 minutes would wipe him out completely. It just wasn't making sense. His math has also shot ahead. Something about those numbers staying put making addition and subtraction understandable now. He's also voluntarily doing 2 or 3 pages of ETC at a sitting now. We added it back in. :o)

 

So, not to say your son has vision issues, but it may be something else to pursue! It isn't always the program.

[Pat in MI]

I tried OPGTR with my dd who likes school and she just never really liked that program. So I switched to MFW 1st grade program and it was like night and day. She took off with it. I loved the program for teaching reading. Easy to use and little teacher prep.

Blessings,

Pat

[A home for their hearts]

I finally had his eyes checked this summer in June at a little over 7 yo when I happened to sit across from him instead of next to him during his ETC one time. I realized he was working hard to make his eyes *see* the page clearly and was rubbing at his right eye which used to be weak when he was a toddler.

 

Turns out while he does have 20/20 vision and never any problems at his yearly well child visit with the pediatrician, he had MAJOR focusing issues and convergence issues. The letters would double, blur, and even bounce around the page. In fact, numbers did that for him too. We started (and have finished) vision therapy this summer with tremendous results.

 

 

 

 

I've wondered about this as well but I haven't noticed him having any trouble seeing the words. I've even asked him if the letters float around on the page and he says no. He does look around a lot when we are doing our lesson. He'll even try to sound out a word when he isn't even looking at it, he'll start to sound it out and then he will look away and start saying different sounds. We are working on long vowels now but he still has trouble sounding out cvc. I did make an appt. for him to have his eyes checked. If there is a problem there hopefully they will catch it.

 

Thanks!

[Mom-ninja.]

I also suggest you look at HeadSprout. My 7 yr old ds never wanted to read and he fought me about it. He loves HeadSprout. He is doing well with it.

 

I also just bought "Reading Reflex" but haven't gotten it yet. There are a few threads here about it.

[neesek]

I like Sing, Spell, Read, and Write. It works especially well for wiggly boys. Both of my dc have loved the songs and the games.

[Dawn E]

OPGTR didn't work for us either. I used Primary Phonics which is published by the same people who do ETC. There is more writing in the workbooks than in ETC, but not too much. The storybooks are great for beginning reading. I added the phonogram cards from Spell to Write and Read.

[bairnmama]

I also suggest you look at HeadSprout. My 7 yr old ds never wanted to read and he fought me about it. He loves HeadSprout. He is doing well with it.

 

I also just bought "Reading Reflex" but haven't gotten it yet. There are a few threads here about it.

 

:iagree: My dd has struggled immensely with reading and OPG didn't work for her at all, but she is doing quite well with headsprout! Of course, now that she's on lesson 57, it's getting really challenging and she doesn't like that aspect of it, lol! We also had some success with Rod & Staff. They have a very good phonics program as well as a reading portion that concentrates on sight words. It is very much Bible based (so much so that we use the reading portion for our Bible study), but I don't know if that would be an issue for you.

[Malenki]

I've wondered about this as well but I haven't noticed him having any trouble seeing the words. I've even asked him if the letters float around on the page and he says no.

 

I found it interesting that my DS always said "no" when I would ask him if things were blurry or funny or what have you. And he said to the doctor "no" when asked. But two weeks into therapy he suddenly turned to me (we did daily therapy) and practically shouted, "The letters are MOVING all around!" He could finally see what he had been automatically masking.

 

We went to a developmental optometrist btw. The regular eye doctor at ages 3 and 5 never saw a problem.

[hsing1]

We used to Abeka and it was completely different. He loved it and is now a great reader!

 

HTH,

[Nakia]

We didn't use OPG, but it did take us a while to find something that worked. What did work for Anna was Reading Made Easy and the BOB books. She needed a combination of phonics and whole language to get it. You might want to look into Reading Made Easy. Also you can try Ruth Beechick's method in The 3 R's. You can buy those little books really cheap. HTH!

[Lovedtodeath]

I have tried ETC and he doesn't do well with that either.

I guess I'm not creative enough either, I have trouble coming up with game ideas on my own. :lol: Thanks for the suggestions

 

scrabble tiles. DC puts a vowel and you put a consonant on either side. DC sounds it out. Then you put a vowel and DC puts the consonants, you sound it out. Keep track of score on the board for more fun.

 

Go fish you can play this with letter cards, or word cards. You say "do you have a 'T' sound? and if the other player has a word with that sound... You can do this with rhyming words too. Do you have a word that rhymes with... ? This will work all the way through any sound you are teaching. Make the words from the OPG list into cards and have fun.

 

Bingo works well with sight words.

 

Fishing whatever words you are working on are written on some fish made out of construction paper. They have paperclips for mouths. Make a fishing pole with a magnet on the end. When you catch a word, you have to read it, or the fish gets thrown back.

 

Starfall.com has some games and stories. Emily learned the two vowel rule from this.

 

HTH some more.

[Sahamamama]

He does look around a lot when we are doing our lesson. He'll even try to sound out a word when he isn't even looking at it, he'll start to sound it out and then he will look away and start saying different sounds. We are working on long vowels now but he still has trouble sounding out cvc.

 

We are using OPG and so far, so good, but we supplement. A few ideas and thoughts:

 

1. Read Bob books, easy readers from your library -- have your son sound out words for which you know he has been taught the phonics. For example, you read all the words until you come to "The truck went up the hill to dump the sand." If he is on Lesson 98 in OPG, he should be able to read that sentence, so put your finger under or to the right of the word(s) you want him to read and cue him that it's his turn. We like OPG okay, but a child with that book needs more practice than what it provides. So use ANY book that interests him and have him sound out the words he can.

 

2. Make a "window card" for the sentences in OPG. Get a piece of cardstock and cut out a long, narrow strip that will frame a sentence in OPG. I use this with my daughter to help her focus on what she is to read, and I keep my index finger to the right of the word she is sounding out. In this way, if she does not correctly sound out the word, I don't have to say anything (most of the time), just keep my finger in the same place until she correctly sounds out the word, then I move my finger over. If she sounds out a word and my finger doesn't move, she knows it's not right and tries again (I do help her, or say, "Look at the vowel").

 

3. You said your son is looking around. My daughter did and at times still does this, too. What works here is for me to gently say, "The words are on the page" or "Look at the words."

 

4. You said your son is struggling with CVC words. In that case, if you are working on long vowels, either you need to completely go back (I wouldn't with a 7 year old), or work on long vowels s-l-o-w-l-y with a LOT of CVC review. So, a lesson could be review, a little bit of new on long vowels, and more review of CVC. It might just take time and lots of review for it to click with him.

 

5. One other tactic that might help your son, especially with the purely phonetic words (most of the CVC words) would be to have him spell them with magnetic letters on a magnetic board. He wouldn't have to write them out by hand, and the magnetic letters are a fun motivational tool. We use this set:

 

http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay_34048_-1_10001_10002

 

which is fantastic and has enough of each letter to make it worth getting and using daily. It also comes with picture magnets. As an example, with my daughter I put up on the board the picture magnets for cat, bat, hat, nest, king, ring, dog, pig, fish, rat, sock, duck, and so on. Then I let her go to work! She spells out all the words using the magnetic letters. This exercise really helps her to have to connect the letters to the sounds they represent and to the sounds she hears within each word. Yesterday she spelled pig: g-i-p. I said, "Great, you have a gip!" She looked at it, thought about it, and figured it out. :001_smile: P-i-g. "I had them backwards, Mommy! Duh!"

 

If you are looking for something like this all laid out, there is All About Spelling, a program which teaches phonics using letter tiles and phonics rules. Ask the board what they think about this program. We have not used it here, but it sounds like it might help your son to connect spelling and reading.

 

We play Picture Words Bingo (Trend) and work on Word Family Cards (also Trend). These are available at Parent/Teacher stores.

 

I do agree with the poster who mentioned checking out your son's eyesight. When I was in K, the school checked my vision and said it was fine. But my dad said, "That child can't see," and he took me to the eye doctor anyway. It turned out I did need glasses (very badly). When I was in second grade, my eyesight went from far-sighted to near-sighted -- and again this impacted my reading until the problem was resolved.

 

I wouldn't give up on the phonics with him, he's only 7 years old. I've noticed that a lot of children seem to catch on sometime around the middle of 2nd grade -- 7.5 to 8 years old. Then they take off like rockets! Give him more time with (mostly) pure phonics, lots of read aloud and audio books, letter magnets or tiles, and word games. He'll do fine.

[Sahamamama]

Oh, sorry, duh. I just went to your blog, LOL, and I see that you already have (and love) All About Spelling! Mea culpa.

 

Well, if you want a GREAT set of magnets....:lol:

 

http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay_34048_-1_10001_10002

 

Seriously, I'm reading your blog and you love your children. It shows. What more do they need than that? Your son will be fine, he will read, he will probably be a brain surgeon... :grouphug:

[Renthead Mommy]

We ended up HATING OPGTR. What we ended up finding, that worked great and he really enjoys is Progressive Phonics. You download it and you can either read it on the computer or print it out. You read it with them, so the words they read are in red bold and the words you read are all in basic gray. Because you read it with them, and your part are things that are past their level, it lends itself to stories that tend to be more fun to read than just "the fat cat sat on the mat" type things. My son just laughs at how silly some of them are. But he reads them! It's worked great for us.

 

Plus you can't beat the price at $20 I think. That's for all 14 or 15 books. Plus you can print out flashcards, memory game cards and handwritting pages. All for the same $20.

 

http://www.progressivephonics.com

[Quiver0f10]

We didn't use OPG, but tried Phonics Pathways and it was not working for ds7. For this year we are trying Reading Made Easy. We only started today, so I don't know how it will do, but it seems to have a little more whole language (I also have a hard time admiting that the phonics only way doesn't work for everyone ;)).

 

I also think it will work well because this kid loves index cards, and the physical act of moving around all those cards will work well for him too.

 

 

My DD disliked OPGTR too and is doing very well with Reading Made Easy.

[Lovedtodeath]

We ended up HATING OPGTR. What we ended up finding, that worked great and he really enjoys is Progressive Phonics. You download it and you can either read it on the computer or print it out. You read it with them, so the words they read are in red bold and the words you read are all in basic gray. Because you read it with them, and your part are things that are past their level, it lends itself to stories that tend to be more fun to read than just "the fat cat sat on the mat" type things. My son just laughs at how silly some of them are. But he reads them! It's worked great for us.

 

Plus you can't beat the price at $20 I think. That's for all 14 or 15 books. Plus you can print out flashcards, memory game cards and handwritting pages. All for the same $20.

 

www.progressivephonics.com

 

:iagree:These were the simple poems we used! They are fun, and work.

[Lovedtodeath]

If you are looking for something like this all laid out, there is All About Spelling, a program which teaches phonics using letter tiles and phonics rules. Ask the board what they think about this program. We have not used it here, but it sounds like it might help your son to connect spelling and reading.

 

I wouldn't give up on the phonics with him, he's only 7 years old. I've noticed that a lot of children seem to catch on sometime around the middle of 2nd grade -- 7.5 to 8 years old. Then they take off like rockets! Give him more time with (mostly) pure phonics, lots of read aloud and audio books, letter magnets or tiles, and word games. He'll do fine.

:iagree::iagree: There are many programs that you can get phonics in through spelling. A lot of us have to do this as remedial phonics.

[A home for their hearts]

Thanks for all the great responses ladies! I have made an appt. for him next week to have his eyes checked. It's not with a behavioral optomologist, I couldn't find one in our area, so hopefully if he is having focusing issues it will be detected. I do own AAS and am using it with my dd8. My ds7 has asked if he could use it and up until now I've told him not yet but I think it's time I try it with him. I'm looking into all the other programs everyone has listed to see if we can benefit from any of them. Thanks so much!

[chiguirre]

You could also try a more sight reading approach. Ds stalled out a bit with just phonics but really took off once we added in Pathway readers. If you want to try this out without buying anything, look for Dick and Jane books at your library.

[sagira]

I didn't read all the posts, but I would recommend looking at Ruth Beechick's 3Rs series. She combines sight and phonics reading for an integrative approach.

 

I also let ds play on Starfall.com once a week or so for half an hour.

[Laura in WA]

After paying full price for Headsprout, we got a 50% off coupon code. :tongue_smilie:

 

http://communityheadsprout.com/HSBTS2008/HSBTS2008_s2_html_email.html

 

Promotion Code: HSBTS2008

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