Did anyone successfully teach reading without programme/curriculum?

[Momof3plus]

Hi,

 

I'm just wondering if anyone has successfully taught their child how to read just using real books?

 

My 6.5yr old really loves books and listening to stories. But as soon as I try to 'teach' him phonics (OPGTRR / Phonics Pathways) he just shuts down, he can decode no problem and has beautiful cursive handwriting (Abeka) so I don't think he has any LD's, he's just not engaged.

 

My husband and I have decided that 'teaching' him phonics rules in such a dry way is just not for our son.

 

Do you think I'd be able to teach him to read just buddy reading with him and occasionally throwing in some phonics rules?

 

Suggestions welcome please xxx

[nixpix5]

Does he catch on fast? Some kids with rock solid memories can have an aversion to structured phonics. My oldest was like that. He just wasn't having any phonics curriculum. So we sat and read books together, taking turns. When he hit a snag I would say something like "oi says oy and is used in the middle of words usually and oy makes the same sound and comes at the end most often. Let's practice writing those words..." that was it. He is 24 and a phenomenal reader. Always has been. It can work but it is often child specific. If he is pushing back then it is fine to follow his lead and get creative.

Edited July 1, 2017 by nixpix5

[73349]

That's how I learned to read. :)

 

It probably helps to have letter-related toys around, too--fridge magnet letters, etc.

[Brenda in FL]

Well, I did it with my youngest, but. I discovered that he had already learned many sounds from those old leap frog videos (Ciirca early 2000s). We started reading through Bob books and then went to readers.

 

You could start with Bob books which focus on different sounds and see how it goes.

 

I used 100 EZ lessons with my older two. I was very happy that I got to skip it with the third child!

[Momof3plus]

Does he catch on fast? Some kids with rock solid memories can have an aversion to structured phonics. My oldest was like that. He just wasn't having any phonics curriculum. So we sat and read books together, taking turns. When he hit a snag I would say something like "oi says oy and is used in the middle of words usually and oy makes the same sound and comes at the end most often. Let's practice writing those words..." that was it. He is 24 and a phenomenal reader. Always has been. It can work but it is often child specific. If he is pushing back then it is fine to follow his lead and get creative.

[Momof3plus]

He does catch on fast when it's something he wants to learn 😄, he actually has a wonderful auditory memory.

 

Thanks for everyone's replies, I think I'll use PP as a guide for me mainly. I'll write all the taught rules out onto a chart so I can easily refer to them when reading with him. I'll maybe read a paragraph and start with him attempting to read a sentence or two with help when needed.

 

I'm feeling hopeful 😄

[Momof3plus]

We've tried magnetic letters etc but I've found that too many moving parts becomes a real distraction for him.

[scoutingmom]

I See Sam! After the first book (which has 5 sounds), the books only have 1 or 2 new sounds to learn. They really do learn to read by reading the books. Www.3rsplus.com

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

[Kiara.I]

We've tried magnetic letters etc but I've found that too many moving parts becomes a real distraction for him.

 

Well, don't use them as "teaching to read...."

 

Instead, have him build words for you to sound out.  If he's anything like I was, they'll be long, using every single magnetic letter you have.  LOL   bplqrssstuvvxqtaonmxr.....

 

My mom would take turns with me--she'd make a word for me to read, then I'd make one for her.  Of course the ones she made for me were things like "cat" or "hill", whereas the ones I made for her...see above.

 

With him, because he's resistant to learning right now, do a few sessions where he just makes words for you to sound out.  If he enjoys the game, you could start trading him turns.  If he doesn't like it, don't force the approach.  It's just one thing that works for some kids.

[nixpix5]

Well, don't use them as "teaching to read...."

 

Instead, have him build words for you to sound out. If he's anything like I was, they'll be long, using every single magnetic letter you have. LOL bplqrssstuvvxqtaonmxr.....

 

My mom would take turns with me--she'd make a word for me to read, then I'd make one for her. Of course the ones she made for me were things like "cat" or "hill", whereas the ones I made for her...see above.

 

With him, because he's resistant to learning right now, do a few sessions where he just makes words for you to sound out. If he enjoys the game, you could start trading him turns. If he doesn't like it, don't force the approach. It's just one thing that works for some kids.

This is actually a really great way to get in some phonics without it seeming like you are doing so. One thing I have used is a movable alphabet. It is a Montessori thing but if you google it you can see what it is. Vowels are all blue and consonants are all red. You can get small toys are the dollar store or find mini dollhouse items at the thrift store...items like that and have him spell the items out with the movable alphabet. It is fun. I would also print out pictures of things from the Internet and laminate them to use for the alphabet. Sometimes it is just a way to break the monotony for kids. I also like the window markers too.

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

I did with my older two. I taught them all the basic letter sounds and then we started with the Abeka readers my mom had given me. When we came to a new phonogram I'd tell them what it said and we kept going. They're both great readers and love to read. The downside is that they're not great at spelling. I'm planning to have them go through LOE Essentials with my younger two this fall to work on that.

 

My younger two have struggled with reading so we've been doing LOE Foundations. It's great for active kids and they're doing well with it. We're working on level D right now and will continue with Essentials when we're done.

[sbgrace]

I used I See Sam that someone mentioned above. The child can read the books, but they are phonetically planned so the child learns as he reads. I followed with Progressive Phonics, which is similar but has you read and child read parts of each story. My kids loved both programs. 

[Arctic Bunny]

We used the books from Sonlight, if that counts. Well, for my oldest. My youngest decided one day he was going to learn to read, so he took a box of alphabet books (board books with a couple of words and pictures for each letter), dumped them on the floor of the playroom until he came down and announced he could read. And he could. As long as he's using his stubborn powers for good, right?

[Momof3plus]

That's how I learned to read. I have zero memory of the process; I don't remember a time when I couldn't read.

 

I've only taught one child to read using a strict phonics approach, but both other children had some phonics. It tended to be very informal but they definitely got a little phonics with their learn-to-read method.

 

With dd1, she had a little phonics and then a lot of reading real books and just...idk...reading!

 

With dd2, she had a little phonics, and then she really learned to read through a process of us writing stories together.

This is my issue with phonics, I was never taught phonics and I'm a great reader/speller - other than when predictive text replaces words for me 🙄.

 

My husband and all our siblings weren't taught using Phonics either - So is strict phonics really necessary? But, then I read all the research about whole word vs phonics and it completely contradicts my own and all my family and friends reading experiences.

 

I just remember bringing books home and reading them with my mom.

[fralala]

I think the whole debate about phonics is relevant to public schools, who are tasked with teaching all students to read. Most of us learned to read no matter what the approach, but "most of us" isn't good enough for an institution that is supposed to be for all kids. Luckily, that's not your homeschool! I've also been fortunate enough to be able to teach reading to kids whose ability never made me feel like a curriculum was necessary, although we found fun ways to practice at the early stages because they also didn't want to read aloud to me until they could do so fluently. (Computer games, Bingo, and so forth.)

[Momof3plus]

I think the whole debate about phonics is relevant to public schools, who are tasked with teaching all students to read. Most of us learned to read no matter what the approach, but "most of us" isn't good enough for an institution that is supposed to be for all kids. Luckily, that's not your homeschool! I've also been fortunate enough to be able to teach reading to kids whose ability never made me feel like a curriculum was necessary, although we found fun ways to practice at the early stages because they also didn't want to read aloud to me until they could do so fluently. (Computer games, Bingo, and so forth.)

That's a very good point about schools having to take a more systematic approach.

 

I'm greatful for homeschooling as I feel like I can adjust a phonics based education and apply it to reading real books.....I hope and pray!

 

Thanks for the input everyone xxx

[2_girls_mommy]

Yes, both of my kids (and a babysitting child I had one summer,) learned to read just from reading with me and from basic phonics rules I explained as we went and from the beginnings of Bob Books once they knew their alphabet and sounds. 

 

BUT later with each I did go through a phonics program after they were reading real books. But by the time I did it was quick work, solidifying what they already knew just to make sure they understand the whys behind what they already knew and then built on that into more advanced phonics rules as we went through the program. 

 

But for just learning to read- bedtime reading together and Bob books was all it took for us. 

[lmrich]

I kind of did.... 

When my kids were little, I would ask them to tell me one or two things about our day, and then I would write that down. I would carefully sound out the word and talk to them as I wrote. They clearly caught on that 'the' began with /th/ which was spelled with a 't' and and 'h'. They also learned how to spell a lot of sight words easily. Often they would take there sentence and add a picture and practice reading it several times. It was so easy. HOWEVER, I still taught phonics. My kids did NOT learn to read by this one sentence method; it just got them thinking about the sound and written word connection. At age 4 - 4 1/2 they would sound out words before spelling them - but vowels are so tricky, especially in the South. I think phonics helps so much with spelling that it would be a shame to not include it. Maybe wait a bit and introduce your phonics instruction when you teach spelling. 

[Farrar]

You might try Progressive Phonics - it's free (I think you have to register is all - it's been awhile). Anyway, they have all these little readers where you read parts and the child reads parts. Now, the "books" (you could print them out, though I think reading on a tablet if you have one is probably the easiest thing) go up to higher levels, but when ds was a kid, the method worked so well for him that we translated it to "real" books and read lots of things that way, back and forth - not taking turns, but with him reading the words within his ability and me reading the other words. It worked really well for awhile.

 

Later on, he needed to do All About Spelling.

[desertstrawberry5]

we have tried a million things. My favorite is Progressive Phonics.

 

It's mostly stories that you read together. There are very small little lessons, but not more than a couple of sentences, and you could skip them if he hates them. The three kids who have used PP have all loved it. Snuggle up and read a story. Not like a dry lesson at all. 

 

Additionally, I make Starfall, Teach Your Monster to Read, and any other cd-rom, online, whatever computer resource we have available for them to play with. It's kind of a treat, but they get to work on learning their letters. 

 

 

[Momof3plus]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

 

I've written all the phonograms on index cards and some other spelling rules and secured them to a keying so theyre transportable and won't get lost/mixed up.

 

Ive also bought him a chapter book that he's been wanting to see the movie of but I've been hesitant to let him watch it, so having this book to read and the prospect of me letting him watch the movie if he reads this book together with me, has, at last peaked his interest in actuelly reading and not just listening.

 

We'll see how we get on!

[drjuliadc]

I didn't use a reading curriculum but I used a reading program so I'm not sure this is what you want. I used the software programs Little Reader and Little Musician. I think little musician helps with reading because it works on auditory discrimination.

 

I also allowed leapfrog videos, preschool prep videos, monkisee videos, Rock n Learn videos and preschool prep books and Little Reader books. So just watching videos and reading books.

 

I allowed one 1/2 am hour video in the AM and one 1/2 am hour video in the pm after age 2. Little reader and little musician programs only take five minutes to do both and I did them both twice a day while they were eating breakfast and lunch.

 

Both children ds6 and ds4 are very good readers. I don't think my six-year-old is a very good speller but his (Montessori) teacher thinks he's fine. He's probably just normal for a six-year-old. His spelling only seems bad in comparison to his stellar reading. He read Magic treehouse books the first week of Kindergarten.

 

I don't know if my four-year-old can spell because I never ask him to.

[Momof3plus]

Thanks for your reply Drjuliadc. I hear a lot of good things about the leapfrog videos. I'll have a look at them.

 

Today, whilst I was playing 'cafe' with my children, I wrote out a few foods on a 'menu' then told my son, that as the waiter her needed to read me the menu. It was great practice for him and he then read it to his sibling chef too 😂

 

Sorry about the typo in my earlier post. I just noticed it.

[Plagefille]

We didn't use any programs. They played on Starfall and we read phonics books like Bob Books. All three kids were reading by Kindergarten.