If your young first grader isn't reading...

[StaceyinLA]

What are you doing? Dgs (just turned 6) isn't reading. He can read Bob books and simple things like that, but no real blending or anything taking place. Dd has been using Phonics Pathways, but I think she's a little frustrated.

 

Any recommendations that won't break the bank for getting him reading well this year?

[HomeAgain]

Honestly, I'd take a break.  It's a brain thing.  Take a break, let him breathe for a bit, and just read good books to him or something like Wee Folk Art, where it's a book, craft, activity every week.  I'd pick up reading instruction again midyear with a different phonics book.  We used Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons and took as much time as needed on each lesson while keeping the daily work short and hands on (we used a tray and letters in two colors for vowels/consonants).  And I recommend that book because it is very explicit on the "say it slow/say it fast" technique needed for blending.  If *no* progress was made by 2nd, I'd start looking to get testing done.

[boscopup]

My middle son wasn't reading much at that age either. Phonics Pathways really helped him get blending down pat though. He couldn't progress much because he couldn't remember what he sounded out the next time he saw the word, even on the same line. That slowly got better each year. When he was 9, it finally clicked and he took off. He's 10 now and reading at grade level.

 

I did find that this child did better with a program that used sight words *and* phonics, not just phonics. We used Rod & Staff Phonics and Reading when he was in 3rd grade, and that's what helped the most. But I don't know how much was age vs. the program itself. He was almost 9 when we started it.

 

I agree with taking a break. Sometimes they need time to ruminate on what they know. :)

[rjand6more]

My 6 year old "quit" kindergarten around January.  He had enough and was so upset and was tired of learning to read.  We took a looooong break and started 1st grade a few weeks ago with a new program.  He is doing great!  He remember so much more than I thought.

 

It can be SO frustrating to teach reading.  And tedious.  Maybe she needs a change.  I change things up when I need to for *me*.

 

I vote: Take a break .:)  for child and mama. :)

 

 

[BearWallowSchool]

My 8 year old son (2nd grade) is just now learning to read. He's a late bloomer and was not ready at 6yo. He wasn't even ready at 7yo. I cried, worried, and wasted a lot of $$$ on Curriculum. He just needed time.

[JudoMom]

There's some sort of magical switch that flips, in my experience. Until that flipped, we just did a few minutes of practice each day. The good news is that once it flipped (at least for my boys), they took off and could decode anything by the time we were about halfway through Phonics Pathways.

[SilverMoon]

My just turned 7yo was just barely sounding out "The cat sat on the mat" in Jan/Feb this year. I had him practice with the Writing Road to Reading cards, had him read a BOB Book or similar to me regularly, and read aloud to him regularly. Somewhere along the road it just clicked and he started making jumps in his skill. Half a year later you would never be able to tell he just started reading this year. He started using the WRTR cards at 4, but it was more for speech at that point. (4th edition WRTR is dirt cheap on used book sites.)

 

My high school senior didn't start really reading until 8yo. I just kept whittling at it. She used Phonics Pathways, and did better with some Plaid Phonics workbooks thrown in. The latter was from MCP. I *think* they still make it. (By 4th-5th grade she'd completely caught up.)

 

There's a Leapfrog video that's about blending. Word Factory I think. It's only 30 minutes long, but it's catchy, fun, and effective.

[Ellie]

What are you doing? Dgs (just turned 6) isn't reading. He can read Bob books and simple things like that, but no real blending or anything taking place. Dd has been using Phonics Pathways, but I think she's a little frustrated.

 

Any recommendations that won't break the bank for getting him reading well this year?

 

I wouldn't expect a little person who had just turned 6 to be reading fluently. In fact, I would be surprised if he were.

 

Before jumping ship on Phonics Pathways, which is a decent phonics program, I would want to know if your dd has been teaching it regularly and following the method closely, and how far she actually is in the book.

 

In any case, 6 is too young to be worried, unless you see other things in his behavior that also concern you.

[forty-two]

None of my kids were reading at the beginning of first grade. At that point, my oldest was a young six and struggling with CVC words; my middle was an old six and also struggling with CVC words; and I just last month started teaching reading with my youngest (a young six).

 

Blending's been hard for all of them, as has phonemic awareness in general. Both my girls spent a full year struggling with CVC words (latter of half of K through first half of 1st). They both pretty much had to learn to sound out each and every possible CVC word individually, and a good chunk of CCVC/CVCC/CCVCC words, too, before reading started to come easy. A lot of programs/readers expected kids to generalize and apply their letter sound knowledge to untaught rule-following words much, much earlier than either of my girls were capable of. (We used "Let's Read: A Linguistic Approach", which taught over 250 CVC words and over 400 CCVC/CVCC/CCVCC words, and my kids needed every bit of that practice.). My oldest took off reading *without* ever cracking blending around February of her first grade year (she later learned to blend during her 4th grade year); my middle cracked blending CVC words sometime in the early spring of her 1st grade year, got good at CCVCC words during the end of 1st grade, and from then on learned digraphs pretty easily on into the beginning of 2nd. Around Jan/Feb of 2nd grade she took off and could read most anything.

 

As far as recommendations go, I used the "train" method of Phonics Pathways along with homemade phonogram tiles and sound picture tiles (using the sound pictures from Dekodiphukan) to teach my middle to blend. (For both girls, I wrote up the first 2,000 words from Let's Read in sound pictures (using the sound picture font from Dekodiphukan) and had them sound them out and write them from the sound pictures (using a sound-to-spelling chart I made), and then read them back what they wrote. If they had problems blending the printed sound pictures, I'd pull out the tiles and have them train the sounds together.)

 

As you might guess, I love, love, love Dekodiphukan - those sound pictures have helped my kids *so* much. (For an example of the sound pictures, they had a hissing snake for /s/ and a buzzing bee for /z/. They have 44 sound pictures, one for each sound of English. There's a cute rhyming story that teaches the sound pictures pretty painlessly. You start off reading words written in sound pictures, and then learn the letters that go with each sound.) Dekodiphukan is free on the web to use: http://www.center.edu/dekodiphukan.shtml And if you have an iPad, it's downright convenient to play with - they put everything into 14 or so apps, all free. (We spent most of our time on the story and the blending two- and three-sound apps (plus some with the writing app).)

[Alessandra]

Your dd could focus on language other than decoding. Phonemic awareness, comprehension. I'd be loathe to work too much on decoding at his point.

 

Read alouds. I particularly like the recommendations in Books to Build On.

Recordings, like Jim Weiss retelling.

Poetry, getting familiar with a small selection is better, imo, than trying to read a lot.

Singing. We liked the Wee Sing series for that age, hope its still available.

And speech teachers always told us that experiences are great for developing speech.

Teacher stores usually carry comprehension games, like placing a series of picture cards in order.

Writing. An adult can write a story for the child. Asking a child to describe a simple picture (who, what, where) is good for language.

 

Two excellent books by Peggy Kaye, Games for Reading and Games foe Writing.

 

You probably know all this already, but just a reminder.

 

ETA

A superb site with free, downloadable recordings of children's stories, read by good actors.

Edited September 3, 2017 by Alessandra

[Lori D.]

DS#2 really wasn't ready for the pre-reading/beginning instruction for reading until age 7, and didn't click with reading until age 8. The only thing that comes of trying to "rush" or "push" reading readiness is frustration for the parent and potentially developing a dislike for reading by the student.

 

Agreeing with previous posters -- personally, I would relax and just do fun things this year to let this little guy develop at his own pace. For phonics/pre-reading/reading readiness prep enjoy informal learning with things like:

- letter of the week

- Leap Frog videos: Letter Factory, etc.

- Starfall online activities

- Reader Rabbit: Preschool, Kindergarten, and Reading (for ages 4-6)

- possibly games -- if you can find Sing, Spell, Read, Write at a good price used, or, maybe Happy Phonics (it's a lot of DIY cutting out for a higher price than I think is reasonably, but DS#2 did enjoy the games)

 

And then do lots of Read-Alouds on Fiction and Classic stories, History, Geography, Science, Poetry, etc. And enjoy great hands-on exploring of Science and Nature, Music, Art, and some early Math, etc. Have a FUN year! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited September 3, 2017 by Lori D.

[Alessandra]

DS#2 really wasn't ready for the pre-reading/beginning instruction for reading until age 7, and didn't click with reading until age 8. The only thing that comes of trying to "rush" or "push" reading readiness is frustration for the parent and potentially developing a dislike for reading by the student.

 

Agreeing with previous posters -- personally, I would relax and just do fun things this year to let this little guy develop at his own pace. For phonics/pre-reading/reading readiness prep enjoy informal learning with things like:

- letter of the week

- Leap Frog videos: Letter Factory, etc.

- Starfall online activities

- Reader Rabbit: Preschool, Kindergarten, and Reading (for ages 4-6)

 

And then do lots of Read-Alouds on Fiction and Classic stories, History, Geography, Science, Poetry, etc. And enjoy great hands-on exploring of Science and Nature, Music, Art, and some early Math, etc. Have a FUN year! Warmest regards, Lori D.

OMG, how could I forget Starfall? It was a huge part of our lives for a while. My dd even had the Starfall stuffed animal vowels.

 

https://store.starfall.com/plush-characters

 

This reminds me that hand puppets and finger puppets can be wonderful teaching tools.

Edited September 3, 2017 by Alessandra

[madteaparty]

I don't know what's up with her. She can sound words out and figure it out, she just isn't interested and prefers not to. She also further stalls by taking long pauses ahead of words she already knows by sight. She goes to school and there's exactly zero chance of anyone sitting down and doing this sort of 1:1 work which is not fun for anyone involved.

What do we do? We plug away at 3-5 min a day. Using Ordinary Guide and some usborne books. I think it's just a matter of time.

[PeterPan]

What are you doing? Dgs (just turned 6) isn't reading. He can read Bob books and simple things like that, but no real blending or anything taking place. Dd has been using Phonics Pathways, but I think she's a little frustrated.

 

Any recommendations that won't break the bank for getting him reading well this year?

 

In our area, he would be a K5er, meaning I'd rebadge him. At that point, he's brilliant, ahead of the curve, boom done.

 

My ds has a fall b-day and a gifted IQ too, so I get that hairy line where you're like what is he, what do I do... The other thing you might be seeing there is a bit of a working memory deficit, so I would play games that build working memory. That will help him hold the sounds in his head so he can blend them together, remember what he was blending, and come out with a word. 

 

So games where she gives instructions and he repeats them and does them (2 step, 3 step, 4 step, etc.) are GREAT. Visual memory games like, of course, memory, are great. (matching cards that you flip over) You can do digit spans, memory work like poetry or important phone numbers... There's a junior version of Ticket to Ride that is great. Any strategy game where they have to hold their next few moves in their head will improve working memory.

 

Also, I would take the time to go through a phonological chart like The Development of Phonological Skills | Reading Rockets and just make sure he's on track. They have suggested games here Classroom Strategies | Reading Rockets if you scroll to the middle of the chart. 

 

My ds' dyslexia was obvious at that age and he was diagnosed at newly 6 by discrepancy, so it definitely pays to be careful and notice whether the underlying development that should be there (ability to rhyme, sound deletion, etc. etc. ) is there. If it is, then he probably just needs more time, maybe more multi-sensory instruction.

[mumto2]

I am in the take a break camp. Ds was difficult to teach but had been totally reading ready for at least two years, as in he had the skills, the ability, and simply refused because I was desperate. He wouldn't even do BOB books! We travelled between two houses for dh's work at that point and I had a special bag we carried filled with his reading stuff. We were switching houses for a holiday weekend for social reasons so the weeks schedule was full and I purposely skipped packing his bag because I knew he wouldn't use it. He realized HIS bag wasn't packed and went and got it. I was a bit stressed and told him we didn't need it because he would never use it that week. Painfully blunt. He looked at me and announced he was planning to learn to read that week so we needed that bag. He did. Completed it all. The pressure was off.......

[Melissa in Australia]

Not sure if it helpful but what about adding a little iPad use something like reading eggs or/and bob books apps

[Susan in TX]

I have had success using ClicknRead Phonics. It worked really well for my son who struggled with reading.

 

Susan in TX

 

 

[StaceyinLA]

Not sure if it helpful but what about adding a little iPad use something like reading eggs or/and bob books apps

I'll definitely check those out. He has an iPad, and stuff like that is always a fun addition.

[StaceyinLA]

Thanks for all the input! I will tell dd all of this. They have taken a break during the summer; not the entire summer off, but they've had a several week break for sure.

 

I think some stuff in smaller bites would work well. I'm going to present a lot of these ideas. I may tell her to stick with the PP and just add in some extra little things here and there.

[Lori D.]

Thanks for all the input! I will tell dd all of this...

 

Invite her to join the WTM board so she can read and post threads for lots of first-hand personalized help! :)

[StaceyinLA]

Invite her to join the WTM board so she can read and post threads for lots of first-hand personalized help! :)

I'm sure she will at some point, but right now, she just doesn't have much opportunity to get on the forums. She is basically raising her kids alone as her husband works out of town, and with 3 little ones, plus taking care of her house and animals, she just doesn't have time to do all the research. I've been on the forums for 18+ years, and home schooled all mine until college, so I guess she just trusts me to get the info.

 

She asked me to help her make a plan for the year and set a schedule. I'm going to be teaching dgs 2 days/week (with his sister and my other dgd being here one of those days to do all the messy stuff).

Edited September 3, 2017 by StaceyinLA

[desertstrawberry5]

W is doing progressive phonics- very gentle and slow. When they feel overwhelmed or disinterested, we break it into teeny chunks. When they are ready we buzz through them fast. I like that there are many levels. I think some programs teach the basics and then jump way too far ahead. My kids aren't ready for that.

 

We are mixing it up with some Hop on Pop, and I'm on a quest for some Dick and Jane.

 

I would "allow" some Starfall as well.

Edited September 3, 2017 by desertstrawberry5

[ElizabethB]

Work on phonemic awareness, phonograms, oral blending, and oral and "written" spelling, written can be with a white board, or any type of letter tiles or magnetic letters.  I have some letter cards to print in the pdf file at the end of my post if you don't have any, but they might be better anyway since they have the sounds on the cards as well as the letters.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html

 

I would go over my chart daily.  The letters are arranged in sound order, not alphabetical order, which helps phonemic awareness. Don Potter's Phonovisual videos show how.  (Both the Phonovisual charts and my charts are based on Caroline Yale's charts, which were made in the early 1900s.)

 

 

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/40LChartsCombined.pdf

 

 

Edited September 3, 2017 by ElizabethB

[Ellie]

What are you doing? Dgs (just turned 6) isn't reading. He can read Bob books and simple things like that, but no real blending or anything taking place. Dd has been using Phonics Pathways, but I think she's a little frustrated.

 

Any recommendations that won't break the bank for getting him reading well this year?

 

would he be entering first grade now if he were in school, or kindergarten? Not that it actually makes a difference, because he just turned six, because he is homeschooled and "grade level" is pretty much irrelevant. :-)

[SporkUK]

All of mine found it frustrating with Phonics Pathways to go back over pages they were struggling with, but writing out letters/syllables/words on a white board worked well even doing similar day after day and doing it one letter/sound at a time helped with blending. 

 

With my older three, I used Blend Phonics as it's a simple, free PDF. With my older two it worked well alongside the I See Sam books (with my oldest, the reading a whole book himself really helped it all click). My third struggled with reading so much, and she was begging for reading lessons and worked diligently through them though really seemed to forget everything between lessons that we tried a few other programmes, until, oddly (and it could be an age thing but we used it and she clicked less than a week later), we tried using Leapfrog Letter Factory videos. Like a week of watching it daily and it was all magic and clicked for her. I added the Preschool Prep phonics videos for a bit and then we did Ultimate Phonics free word/sentence list for reading and copywork alongside the I See Sam and other books (she's actually has about a month's worth of lessons still on that). 

 

With my current almost Year 1 child (and will be 6 in November) who followed along for those videos and the reading alouds, we're using Webster Speller Syllabary (there is a thread by ElizabethB about it in my signature, soror created a google doc version which is posted in that thread) because it fits him better than Blend Phonics for several reasons (mostly it's easier to keep lessons short and tweak on the fly as well as he isn't writing very well unlike his older siblings at this stage so doing capital syllables is more suitable than writing out words). It's working very well for us - big whiteboard across his lap, 3-5 syllable sets - I try to make sure to include at least one set with long vowel sounds and one set with short vowel sounds each day - all very relaxed - I write it out one letter/sound at a time, he sounds it out and blends, then he sounds out the whole set before writing it at the bottom of the board, and when we do all the sets we go through them as listed and then at random. 

[Ottakee]

A very good, easy program to use is the I See Sam books www.3rsplus.com or www.iseesam.com  You can even google and find the first sets as free printable PDF files since the books themselves are in public domain now.  No word lists, no drills, no rules, just blend a few sounds and start reading.  This program also keeps b,d,p, and q far apart in the instructional sequence which cuts down on confusion of those letters.

This would take a few minutes a day and they can go as fast or as slow as they needed.

[vonfirmath]

What are you doing? Dgs (just turned 6) isn't reading. He can read Bob books and simple things like that, but no real blending or anything taking place. Dd has been using Phonics Pathways, but I think she's a little frustrated.

 

Any recommendations that won't break the bank for getting him reading well this year?

 

We bought the Dick and Jane anthologies at Barnes & Noble and did a lot of reading out of them and it helped DD a lot.  Short stories  -- only a few lines a page. And the vocabulary really builds.  We just let her read what she wanted and put it up when she was tired. But she really loved she could read out of a "REAL" book (They are HC)

[Tanaqui]

It used to be that a child who had "just turned" six would be beginning their reading instruction. I wouldn't worry about it. At seven, maybe - but not at six.

[StaceyinLA]

would he be entering first grade now if he were in school, or kindergarten? Not that it actually makes a difference, because he just turned six, because he is homeschooled and "grade level" is pretty much irrelevant. :-)

 

He would be entering first grade. He has an August birthday and here the age cutoff is the end of September I believe.

[StaceyinLA]

It used to be that a child who had "just turned" six would be beginning their reading instruction. I wouldn't worry about it. At seven, maybe - but not at six.

 

I agree with this. I think there is just a lot of pressure because there is a cousin his age who is in a private school that has kids reading in K. I realize all kids are different, and I certainly think sometimes we push too hard, but I think dd feels pressured because of that. I keep reassuring her that he is gonna get it. He has really strong math skills and I just think sometimes you tend to get one or the other, so I'm not worried about it; just wanting to offer her some ideas and ease her mind a bit.

 

Thanks for all the input!

 

[Ellie]

He would be entering first grade. He has an August birthday and here the age cutoff is the end of September I believe.

 

There is no reason to expect a child that young to be reading. None whatsoever.

 

Y'all really need to keep telling yourselves that it does not matter that any other child, whether related or not, is reading.

 

And let's put it in perspective: (1) Your little guy *is* reading. He is not reading as well as he will be reading in a few months, but he is reading. (2) We don't know how well the young cousin is "reading." (3) It doesn't matter how your little guy is reading right now. Unless he has some sort of disability, he will read age appropriately at some point.

 

When your dd finishes PP with him, then we can talk. :-) But she needs to not be frustrated, if her frustration is because he is not reading as well as his same-age cousin, who had to leave home every day when he was just little instead of being home with his mother.

[StaceyinLA]

There is no reason to expect a child that young to be reading. None whatsoever.

 

Y'all really need to keep telling yourselves that it does not matter that any other child, whether related or not, is reading.

 

And let's put it in perspective: (1) Your little guy *is* reading. He is not reading as well as he will be reading in a few months, but he is reading. (2) We don't know how well the young cousin is "reading." (3) It doesn't matter how your little guy is reading right now. Unless he has some sort of disability, he will read age appropriately at some point.

 

When your dd finishes PP with him, then we can talk. :-) But she needs to not be frustrated, if her frustration is because he is not reading as well as his same-age cousin, who had to leave home every day when he was just little instead of being home with his mother.

You are so right, and deep down I know it doesn't matter; just trying to make her feel better since she's gonna be feeling like she's being judged (or worse, like he is) from that side of the family.

[Tanaqui]

You are so right, and deep down I know it doesn't matter; just trying to make her feel better since she's gonna be feeling like she's being judged (or worse, like he is) from that side of the family.

 

Then she needs to nip it in the bud. If somebody asks how her kid is doing schoolwise, she should memorize this phrase: "He's doing just fine, thanks, we're really happy with his progress" and practice combining that with various transitions: "...but what about your Jack, how's he doing?", "...and he's really excited about swimming", "so you should ask him about knights, he'll talk your ear off!", "but not as happy as I am with this bean dip, it's delish, what did you even put in it!?", "and I heard that Sarabeth is reading on a college level, that's amazing, how do you find age-appropriate books for her?", "oh my goodness, look at my wrist, I've gotta go", "wow, what an enormous spaceship!"

 

What she absolutely must not do is allow herself to get sucked into a conversation on his academic progress with anybody whom she feels might judge her - or him! I always say it, because it's always true: When you discuss these things, you are sending the message that they are up for discussion. And if they're not, they're not. So don't do it. Don't even let it get started.

 

If people are really persistent, she'll have to push back: "Aerith is reading so well lately, has your son finally started?" "He's making progress, but you know, I don't like to compare children. They all develop at their own rates" (lather, rinse, repeat with no change of wording). "Gosh, are you telling me that a big boy like you can't even read this little book?" "Aunt Sue, that's really impolite! C'mon, sweetie, we're going to go talk to Uncle Dave." (With absolutely no further engagement with Aunt Sue.) "Aren't you worried about him?" "Nope." "But really, don't you want him to learn to read?" "Nope." (Yes, take blatant refuge in audacity. Nobody will know how to respond, and they'll ultimately shut up.)

[Ottakee]

He would be entering first grade. He has an August birthday and here the age cutoff is the end of September I believe.

I bet there are many just turned 6 in August boys in K in your local school. Around here the cut off is September but many boys with May or later birthdays wait to start K until they are 6.

[StaceyinLA]

I bet there are many just turned 6 in August boys in K in your local school. Around here the cut off is September but many boys with May or later birthdays wait to start K until they are 6.

Well most of the kids we know who are right around his age are in 1st grade.

[StaceyinLA]

 

Then she needs to nip it in the bud. If somebody asks how her kid is doing schoolwise, she should memorize this phrase: "He's doing just fine, thanks, we're really happy with his progress" and practice combining that with various transitions: "...but what about your Jack, how's he doing?", "...and he's really excited about swimming", "so you should ask him about knights, he'll talk your ear off!", "but not as happy as I am with this bean dip, it's delish, what did you even put in it!?", "and I heard that Sarabeth is reading on a college level, that's amazing, how do you find age-appropriate books for her?", "oh my goodness, look at my wrist, I've gotta go", "wow, what an enormous spaceship!"

 

What she absolutely must not do is allow herself to get sucked into a conversation on his academic progress with anybody whom she feels might judge her - or him! I always say it, because it's always true: When you discuss these things, you are sending the message that they are up for discussion. And if they're not, they're not. So don't do it. Don't even let it get started.

 

 

You are so right! I just think when you're younger and unsure of yourself, it's harder to do that. She's pretty set on home schooling though, so I think she'll toughen up as time passes.

[Ellie]

Well most of the kids we know who are right around his age are in 1st grade.

 

And that's as it should be. :-)

[Ellie]

You are so right! I just think when you're younger and unsure of yourself, it's harder to do that. She's pretty set on home schooling though, so I think she'll toughen up as time passes.

 

And that's true, but it kinda seemed as if you were getting a little sucked up into that whole comparison thing, too. :-) 

 

Also, you should tell her how to get here so she can ask questions herself. :-)

[HomeAgain]

I would gently point out to your dd that there are a dozen methods to teach reading.  Many schools focus on memorizing through song, repetition, and pictures, the various sight words on the first Dolch list, plus others related to their classrooms as they work on phonics.  It's a way for the kids to have an immediate 'skill' with the language and feel successful.

 

It looks faster, and it looks like the kids are grasping the process faster, but it all starts evening out quickly when they begin to read to learn.

[knitgrl]

FWIW, my dd was 5 and reading Henry and Mudge for the last half of K. Once she was in 1st grade, I figured we should step things up a little bit and give her something more challenging to read. Her response was, "I miss Henry and Mudge!" For the past two years, this child has devoured every Geronimo Stilton she can get her hands on. Getting her to look at anything more substantial has been slow going. Periodically, you see the following sentiment on these forums, and I'm inclined to agree: Most kids by 4th grade all read at the same level.