My4arrows Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 DS 4 ( will be 5 next month) has been asking to be taught how to read for the past year. I pull out our AAR, begin to teach but it just isn't clicking him him. Even so he keeps asking to learn. Do I continue presenting it to him using AAR (daily as he's asking), put it away and see if he just needs to mature some more, or try another approach with him (AAR worked with my older ones)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 (edited) What level do you have--Pre-reading or AAR 1? He may need to work on phonological awareness skills first. Edited October 9, 2016 by MerryAtHope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcitedMama Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 Check out Memoria Press First Start Reading. My DS struggled with blending and couldn't even read cat at 5 even though he could say all the sounds of all the letters by themselves but he couldn't put them together. He struggled at the beginning of AAR1 so I added in First Start Reading and it helped it click and he took off with AAR. I would at least take a break from AAR until he has the basic CVC blrnd down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My4arrows Posted October 9, 2016 Author Share Posted October 9, 2016 (edited) dp Edited October 9, 2016 by My4arrows Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My4arrows Posted October 9, 2016 Author Share Posted October 9, 2016 What level do you have--Pre-reading or AAR 1? He may need to work on phonological awareness skills first. We are using level 1 (or at least attempting to!). He already can identify letters by visual and sounds, rhyming, clapping out syllables, chooses words based on their beginning and end sounds, etc. pre reading wasn't out for my oldest and I've never felt my others needed those skills, sober never invested in it. Is there more it covers than I realize? His biggest struggle is blending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My4arrows Posted October 9, 2016 Author Share Posted October 9, 2016 Check out Memoria Press First Start Reading. My DS struggled with blending and couldn't even read cat at 5 even though he could say all the sounds of all the letters by themselves but he couldn't put them together. He struggled at the beginning of AAR1 so I added in First Start Reading and it helped it click and he took off with AAR. I would at least take a break from AAR until he has the basic CVC blrnd down. Thanks I'll look into it. I looked at it briefly before but never more in depth since we already had aar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 We are using level 1 (or at least attempting to!). He already can identify letters by visual and sounds, rhyming, clapping out syllables, chooses words based on their beginning and end sounds, etc. pre reading wasn't out for my oldest and I've never felt my others needed those skills, sober never invested in it. Is there more it covers than I realize? His biggest struggle is blending. He may just need to work on oral blending for a bit--that may be enough to help him get it. The free e-book, In the Kitchen with the Zigzag Zebra works on some pre-reading skills, including oral blending of two parts of a word (like /sh/ and /eep/). If he does well with that, then work on blending words when all of the sounds are isolated (do easy, three-sound words). You say the sounds of a word you are thinking of (don't worry about showing the letters at this point, just work on hearing sounds and blending), and then he blends them into a word. Can he guess a word that you mean if you just say the sounds? This is a game that can help develop his blending skills. If he can blend orally, then he is on his way to being able to blend what he reads. Let him say 3 sounds for you to blend as well--it doesn't matter if they make an actual word--he will still have the benefit of hearing how the sounds tend to sound when they are blended. Laugh and have fun with it if they make nonsense words (my kids used to love saying sounds for me to try to blend!) You can also play the opposite game--say a word and see if he can guess the sounds he hears in that word (again, he's not saying letter names--just the individual sounds like /k/ /a/ /t/ for cat). Have him say a word for you to isolate the sounds as well--even if it's a big long word, that's okay. Another thing that you can do with young kids that’s fun: (First the parent demonstrates this, and them the child mimics.) Lay three sheets of colored paper on the floor. Write one letter on each sheet of paper, like M – A – P. Jump on the first paper and say /MMMMM/. Jump on the second paper and say /aaaaa/. Jump on the third paper and say /P/. Then start over, and do it quicker. Finally run across the papers and say “MAP!†Play some games and just have fun with it. When he seems ready, reintroduce the letter tiles and just play with the tiles and making up words. Then as he gets the hang of what it means to blend, you can restart the lessons. It does sound like he wouldn't need Pre-reading, but you can double check the placement test to see if there are other gaps. The AAR 1 test can help you know if your student is ready for that or if Pre-reading would help. HTH some! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 What about reading eggs using a iPad. you can sign up for a 14 day free trial 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 I'd keep working with him as long as he's asking, but I found that blending is a switch that just needs to flip and nothing I did could make it flip--it just happened when it happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcitedMama Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Thanks I'll look into it. I looked at it briefly before but never more in depth since we already had aar Just a heads up if it looks worthwhile to you, the teacher's manual is completely unnecessary so you only need the workbook. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReadingMama1214 Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 I would look on Pinterest or PreK/k blogs for some oral blending ideas. We've done racecar blending and games. Dd loves ziggy from AAR-pre level and the free printable A are great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabritadorada Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 We're in a similar place--AAR pre-reading has totally caught up my 5.5 yo dd on her phonological awareness skills (she passes the AAR 1 pretest with flying colors now) but we've been trying lesson 1 of AAR level 1 for a week now and she can't blend. For now we're in a holding pattern--we review the basic phonograms every day, attempt to blend a few times, and then practice initial sounds and robot voice (say it sloooow, say it fast). It was suggested to me that if you give a child the first consonant attached to the vowel of a cvc word, you can help transition into blending. For example, teach that "ca" says /ca/ and then add /t/ for cat or /p/ for cap, if f that makes sense...We are trying this but it hasn't clicked yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 We're in a similar place--AAR pre-reading has totally caught up my 5.5 yo dd on her phonological awareness skills (she passes the AAR 1 pretest with flying colors now) but we've been trying lesson 1 of AAR level 1 for a week now and she can't blend. For now we're in a holding pattern--we review the basic phonograms every day, attempt to blend a few times, and then practice initial sounds and robot voice (say it sloooow, say it fast). It was suggested to me that if you give a child the first consonant attached to the vowel of a cvc word, you can help transition into blending. For example, teach that "ca" says /ca/ and then add /t/ for cat or /p/ for cap, if f that makes sense...We are trying this but it hasn't clicked yet. If you follow the full blending procedure, you actually do this--first they point to each letter and say the sounds. Next they blend the first two slowly as they draw a finger underneath and then point to and say the last sound, then blend slowly, and then quickly. You may want to model and then have her try to teach the same word back to you with the tiles, with your help as much as needed. If you have Ziggy from Pre-reading, get Ziggy involved with helping to blend the letters. Try the oral blending games I mentioned above too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 (edited) How to teach blending, why it is difficult and developmental. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html Also, you can watch the blending movie with him to help him underestand why it is difficult and that the steps like oral blending do lead to reading. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q4KTyqpg5o LOEs developing phonemic awareness video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l3aBN-qowg2u8BdGYM64pTi&v=KJF8zt9jnZI Edited October 11, 2016 by ElizabethB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My4arrows Posted October 11, 2016 Author Share Posted October 11, 2016 Thank you for all the suggestions and help. I'm going to take a look at it all this weekend and try to put something together that will benefit him the most! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabritadorada Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 (edited) Just wanted to check in and say that successful blending happened this morning!! The look on dd's face when she realized she'd just read "map".... :) And then Pam, sap, am, sam.... I had her touch each letter and make its sound, then do it again faster. then I had her put her finger under the first "m-a" and said, "This says /ma/" and had her repeat--then I asked her if she could add the last sound to that... and she finally did it! It went smoothly with the other words and she's so excited now. For the past week we've revisited blending briefly every day and I've modeled what we're trying to do--the rest of the time we've been working on letter sounds, say it slow-say it fast, and a few sight words she has in Kindergarten. I'd say it's been 3 weeks of attempts before it just now clicked for dd. OP, I hope your son has a breakthrough soon too. Edited October 17, 2016 by cabritadorada 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My4arrows Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 Just wanted to check in and say that successful blending happened this morning!! The look on dd's face when she realized she'd just read "map".... :) And then Pam, sap, am, sam.... I had her touch each letter and make its sound, then do it again faster. then I had her put her finger under the first "m-a" and said, "This says /ma/" and had her repeat--then I asked her if she could add the last sound to that... and she finally did it! It went smoothly with the other words and she's so excited now. For the past week we've revisited blending briefly every day and I've modeled what we're trying to do--the rest of the time we've been working on letter sounds, say it slow-say it fast, and a few sight words she has in Kindergarten. I'd say it's been 3 weeks of attempts before it just now clicked for dd. OP, I hope your son has a breakthrough soon too. That's great! We took a fall break last week and we will get back to trying again tomorrow. I'm hoping it will click for him soon! He wants it so bad! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My4arrows Posted October 25, 2016 Author Share Posted October 25, 2016 So I tried a few suggestions given here (he particular liked jumping on the papers with letters, saying the sounds and then running to say the word) and today he was able to sound out all the words from lesson 1- Sam, Pam, map, Sap He was so excited! I know we have a way to go, but the look on his face was priceless, thanks for the help! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabritadorada Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 So I tried a few suggestions given here (he particular liked jumping on the papers with letters, saying the sounds and then running to say the word) and today he was able to sound out all the words from lesson 1- Sam, Pam, map, Sap He was so excited! I know we have a way to go, but the look on his face was priceless, thanks for the help! YAY! :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 So I tried a few suggestions given here (he particular liked jumping on the papers with letters, saying the sounds and then running to say the word) and today he was able to sound out all the words from lesson 1- Sam, Pam, map, Sap He was so excited! I know we have a way to go, but the look on his face was priceless, thanks for the help! Love that! So glad for both of you :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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