Phonics Pathways frustration

[Gwenny]

We are about half way through PP and I don't think we can do another day! My daughter hates the long lists of words and I think it is slowly killing any love of reading she might have. Yesterday, we did the lesson on the sh- digraph. Many of the words she doesn't know the meaning of and so when she reads them, she thinks she must be wrong and gets frustrated. For example, that page contained the words sham, shun, shank, shale, and sheaf. Do other 5 year olds understand the meaning of these words, or do they just not mind reading them? She wants to know what each one means, and by time I explain each of them, I'm tired and frustrated as well! I feel like screaming (although I don't), "Who cares what they mean, just read it!"

 

I refuse to buy another book, so now I am thinking of putting PP aside until next year when I plan on using it for spelling, and do something along the lines of Teach a Child to Read Using Children's Books. We will just read easy readers together and when she has difficulty on a word, we will just practice that sound, digraph, or whatever it is for a few minutes afterwards.

 

Does that sound like it will work? I don't wan't to skip over phonics, but still cover it as it comes along in our reading. Since I plan on using PP for spelling in 1st grade, I figure she will get additional phonics that way also.

 

By the way, she is doing well in PP. She can read most of the words in each lesson and we only do 1 page a day, 4 days a week. We also play file folder phonics games and other games to reinforce what we learn in PP. She reads fairly fluently simple beginning books like Sam and the Firefly, the Cat and the Hat, and most Suess like books, and the We Both Read books.

 

Thanks for any advice or reassurance you might have and sorry this got so long.

Gwen

[texascamps]

When we did PP with the three that were reading age, I stopped about halfway through with each one and we moved right into BOB books. Once they were comfortable with box A, then we went right into early readers and so on. My kids were just so eager to move out into the world of books, that I've never made it to the end of PP. If she is fluent at simple reading, then maybe that time should be spent reading stories and books. We ended up doing phonics with Spelling Workout and some of the language books later. I don't think we missed out.

[mumtoo3]

my 5.5yr old is the same, so alternate and do 1 week phonic pathway, 1 week bob book and then 1 week jolly phonics this way she does not get bored or frustrated, and she gets a more wide covering on phonics, we also have fun with phonics dvd which they all love, when i have not a lot of time :)

 

we find variety is the key to not getting frustrated :)

 

hth

[mamaof2andtwins]

I split the PP book into 3 sections. I considered the first section to be 1st grade, the second section to be 2nd grade and the third to be third grade.

 

I never went past section 2 with any of my children. I viewed PP more as a quick phonics and spelling instruction. It never affected my children's reading. I would split a page up over a couple of days, and we never spent more than 10-15 minutes on it at any time.

 

In the beginning I used a sticker chart for my twins. Perhaps they gave me a hard time. I really don't remember now. I would let them pick a little sticker each time they finished the lesson. I had a 3x5 card marked with a grid pattern. They used that as a sticker chart. When they filled the card I would give them a bigger treat.

 

I see nothing wrong with shelving it and reading.

 

Jennie

[Marie in Oh]

we stopped sing PP. There were to many unknown words or made up words. I find my early readers have trouble blending words they don't know. For instance, sheaf would be hard, but leaf would be fine. So, we changed to Saxon Phonics ealy on and have never looked back.

[RhondaM.]

When we did PP with the three that were reading age, I stopped about halfway through with each one and we moved right into BOB books. Once they were comfortable with box A, then we went right into early readers and so on. My kids were just so eager to move out into the world of books, that I've never made it to the end of PP. If she is fluent at simple reading, then maybe that time should be spent reading stories and books. We ended up doing phonics with Spelling Workout and some of the language books later. I don't think we missed out.

 

Same here with both children that I taught to read with PP. Never made it past about halfway through the book. We were doing Explode the Code too...as well as some Bob Book type readers. Both kids went right into reading real books at that stage with no more phonics instruction.

 

My dd after finishing half that book was able to read Little House in the Big Woods. Once she realized she could read that there was no stopping her. She read all the Little House Books over the summer after kindergarten. :)

[Mama2Three]

My DC got tired of PP, too. We put it to the side for a couple months and used the ETC workbooks instead. Now we use both -- I like the ETC books for the phonics review, but I think that PP has really helped with reading fluency. Best wishes to you! :)

[mom2hunangirls]

I think I'm more bothered by my dd not knowing the words than she is because she asks what everything is!!! Sometimes I'll tell her, other times, to finish, I just tell her to keep reading.

We are almost to the halfway point and read Pathway readers and other I Can Read type books for practice.

She's a good reader, at least I think. She's my first so I have nothing to compare her to, but she's remembering the way PP teaches to split the word up to figure it out.

So while PP is not as fun as I would like, it seems to be getting the job done. And we do ETC too.

All that to say....the unknown words double as vocabulary for us. If it's a word.

[jenadina]

Doesn't it say somewhere in the intro to stick with a time limit rather than forcing your way through a whole page? Once you get into the longer lists, I don't see why you need to get through a whole page every day. Try 20 min. or half a page and see if that helps!

[coffeefreak]

We're sick of PP too. It was a great way to start and give us the foundation for reading. I have "A Handbook for Reading" from A Beka and we like doing that for reinforcement. We've also started reading regular books. "Hop on Pop" is a good one, as well as all the Bob books people have mentioned. I think there comes a time when the best way to become proficient is to read "REAL" books instead of lists of words.

[debbielong]

Reading lists of words can be painful. My kids hated it. PP was a great way to start, but we moved to Bob Books as quickly as possible.

 

I am now using PP for spelling for our youngest. It is AWESOME for that task:)

[Gwenny]

I plan on using it for spelling next year in 1st grade but I'm not exactly sure how at this point.

Gwenny

[Cindy in MO]

I always used PP as a supplement when we needed more practice than our main program was giving us. I couldn't see PP as being our main reading instruction.