readers- finding fun not frustrating

[choirfarm]

How do you find things your child can read to practice???? Lately, I have just been doing the little books that come with Saxon phonics 1 because at least they only have words she knows.. But she needs more practice.. The phonics goes so quickly. This past week it introduced qu, or, ir and ar. Every time I go to a "real" book she gets so frustrated. But I remember when the boys were in school they had to read for 30 minutes every night. It was easy for them in 1st grade, they could read anything you handed them. When I started homeschooling them in 2nd and 4th I was trying to figure out what phonics I should do with the 2nd grader and he read me The Chronicles of Narnia aloud, so I decided phonics were not needed. So this is my first time teaching someone to read and it is SO frustrating. We did find out she has vision problems, but the eye doctor told me to keep doing phonics and keep reading, but I don't have any idea of the pace or exactly what I am doing. I taught AP literature courses and I LOVE reading, but explaining how to do it... I laugh at her spellings. She recently spelled likes lixe... makes sense because with Saxon phonics ks sound is x. I guess I just tell her that most words with that sound end in x. So you don't have x with a silent e. Then she had a spelling test that had room and rule on it. So how do you know if it is oo or u with a silent e??? You just memorize it by sight, I guess. But she is a VERY auditory learner. Anyone says anything or audio books and she has it memorized. Her IQ was very high on the test she took and it is almost like she overthinks things... Sigh... So how in the world do I read for 30 minutes with her. To be honest, we can only manage about 5 minutes at a time even with readers where she know the words as she gets tired and starts jumping around or making up words... We all love reading around here and it is so frustrating. We have survived 2 weeks of therapy. I've endured the crying every day when she does the computer program..."IT's hard...my eyes hurt.." Yes, they are supposed to . You are having to retrain them, dear..

 

Christine

 

Christine

[MIch elle]

We bought all the sets of Bob books and borrowed the HOP readers from the library. They were wonderful! Then easy readers from the library.

 

:grouphug:

[choirfarm]

I just gave her the Reading Competency Test that Elizabeth posted and in section A she made 6 errors and they were ALL mixing up b and d. She is 7 and in 1st grade. Sigh. She cannot figure it out.. She is AWESOME at math with the exception of the symmetry exercises. She cannot figure out how to draw a line to cut it in half and/or if two sides are equal or not.

 

Christine

[choirfarm]

We bought all the sets of Bob books and borrowed the HOP readers from the library. They were wonderful! Then easy readers from the library.

 

:grouphug:

 

I have the first set of BOB books and she is bored with them. She is also tired of the dragon books at the library.. I think part of the problem is she is so smart... I was listening to the POP quiz for TOG in the car ...rhetoric level about King Henry VIII and my daughter preceded to tell my dh all about his different wives and what happened to them all.. When she was three one day out of the blue, she said.. "Mom, if Lincoln was shot at Ford's theater by John Wilkes Booth, what movie were they showing when he was shot?" She had been listening to Oddyssey that day and had remembered it when I was driving to church, so we talked about the difference between a theater and movies.. So Bob sat on a hen is boring to her, but she can't read.

 

Christine

[PeterPan]

Christine, I haven't used Saxon phonics, but it sounds like you should pick up the pace. She's bright and trying to understand, just hasn't covered enough material. Don't be afraid to progress forward in the phonics WITHOUT forcing the reading. It's not necessary for her to read books right now to learn to read, honest. With SWR/WRTR, which is what I used, we covered all the phonics components, applied them to words, then practiced reading the words, writing them onto flashcards to drill them. When we had covered quite a bit of phonics and words this way, THEN she started reading regular books. I know it sounds counterintuitive to learn to read without reading, but it works, lol.

 

Does having larger print help your dd? You might put her phonics words onto flashcards. That way you can make them as large as she needs. Also, when my dd was at that stage, I took the words she knew (and a couple extras as needed) and made little booklets. Just fold paper and staple to make a booklet. I wrote a sentence at the bottom of each page, which she would then read and illustrate. It was so fun, not hard at all, and of course she was the star.

 

Don't feel the need to force her to read right now. Just give her gentle practice doing the things she can do and keep blazing through that phonics. It will all come together later, just fine! You want her to feel comfortable in the process so she comes out with a good attitude. Keep it positive. Don't scar her now or have her develop bad feelings about reading just because you're worried about it. She WILL start reading sooner or later! :)

[PeterPan]

My dd was the same way, despising easy readers like the Bob books, etc. She literally read nothing, except those little booklets I told you I made and the flashcards, until we had covered so much in SWR that she literally just took off! So her first book was Calvin & Hobbes. :)

 

Don't be afraid to keep covering the phonics. She might be like my dd, where you'll cover so much that eventually she'll be able to read what she actually wants to read (your emails, real books, etc.). Not every kid goes through the easy reader stage.

 

On the symmetry and visual perception, will the therapy help? You might google for Tin Man Press, which love2read around here has posted about. They have some nifty activities, including one where you make snips. Also, Timberdoodle sells fun stuff for visual perception.

[mktyler]

Christine,

 

This sounds so much like my daughter. It took me several years to figure out how I needed to teach her, 9 months to teach her, and in 1 year she jumped to an 11th grade reading level.

 

First off, Saxon goes too fast for many students. At the same time the lessons are too long. Second, if reading is so difficult, reading books will only make it worse. It would be better to not have her read books and just work on word level work.

 

I will give you a brief outline of what finally got things rolling for my daughter:

 

1. Teach each sound-spelling correspondence individually and stay with it till she is comfortable reading it. Sometimes it would take a week of lessons for her to finally remember the sound for the letters.

 

2. As you introduce new sound-spelling correspondences, teach the skill of "trying another sound for that (those) letters." For example, you have just taught the sound-spelling correspondence 'ea' for the sound /e/. You have previously taught 'ea' for the sounds /ee/ and /ae/. When she practices the word 'ready' she says /reedy/. Point under the letter pair and say, "What other sound do these letters spell?" Then have her work through the word, trying the new sound. This will feel slow and painful to you and her, but it is the best way learn this important skill and learn which sounds go with which letters in which words.

 

3. Review previously taught correspondences each day, until she knows them automatically. For my daughter, I generated a list of words down one side of a page. If she read the word smoothly and accurately, she got to draw a quick picture of the word. If she stumbled or read incorrectly, she wrote the word next to the printed word, saying each sound as she wrote, then read the word again. I usually had 20-30 word each day.

 

4. As you introduce a new correspondence, have her write the new words, saying the sounds as she writes.

 

5. Compose simple sentences using only the new and previously taught correspondences. This way she KNOWS she can read the sentences. I usually did three sentences a lesson.

 

A few principles and tactics to keep in mind:

1. Teach each word as its component parts. Children this bright really want to jump ahead and just understand, so they want to memorize and skip. These are the wrong skills to teach. We have to keep them paying attention to the parts of the words and making them read from left to right, blending all through the word.

 

2. To train tracking (much cheaper than VT), use a 'notched card'--a 3x5 card or business card with a square cut in the left corner. Expose one letter or letter group at a time, have her say the sound. When the word is uncovered, read the word. This will quickly correct her attention and tracking. It took my daughter about a week of intensive, daily practice to smooth out her reading and make it easier and more enjoyable.

 

3. You can spice it up with games such as memory and sound bingo using flashcards. Another fun game, I call HONK! It is a variation on a game from Phonics Pathways. Have several flashcards for each of 5-6 sound-spelling correspondences and several flashcards with silly pictures. Turn the flashcards over, say the sound. When the silly picture comes up, do something silly. Go through multiple times.

 

Unfortunately, I find it difficult to happily recommend a reading program in this instance because I bought 12 different programs (and reviewed many more) and found none of them to work for my bright, logical, impatient daughter. She was happily listening to and understanding chapter books at 2 and found learning to read painful because it was at such a lower level than she could understand.

 

If you want an example lesson of what I did, you can email me privately. Hang in there! :grouphug: It will happen.

 

Melissa

Minnesota

Reading Program Junkie

dd(10) dd(6) ds(4) ds(1)

[Amanda_Jo]

My dd often picks readers that are too hard for her, but instead of letting her struggle over a word I know that she doesn't know the rule on I help so that she doesn't get frustrated.

Reading aloud is tiring, so often I'll tell her that I'll read everyother page, or ask her to read a certain number of pages then we'll bookmark it and come back later or I'll read a few pages while she rests her eyes, voice, and brain.

This has made the readers seem more fun and less like work.

[choirfarm]

I have several questions:

 

Christine,

 

 

1. Teach each sound-spelling correspondence individually and stay with it till she is comfortable reading it. Sometimes it would take a week of lessons for her to finally remember the sound for the letters.

 

What does this mean?? She does remember all of the sounds for individual letters and I can show her the pairs of sounds: ai, or, etc. she knows what they sound like. But you give it to her in a word and sometimes she starts in the middle and she OFTEN adds in sounds that are not there... I will say, "Why in the world are you making the l sound...where is an l in that word???"

 

2. As you introduce new sound-spelling correspondences, teach the skill of "trying another sound for that (those) letters." For example, you have just taught the sound-spelling correspondence 'ea' for the sound /e/. You have previously taught 'ea' for the sounds /ee/ and /ae/. When she practices the word 'ready' she says /reedy/. Point under the letter pair and say, "What other sound do these letters spell?" Then have her work through the word, trying the new sound. This will feel slow and painful to you and her, but it is the best way learn this important skill and learn which sounds go with which letters in which words.

I'm not sure i understand what this means. Part of the reason I am using Saxon is that I do not know phonics. I think I just memorized words. My dad said that I knew how to read before I entered kindergarten and they didn't teach phonics in the 60's. I read TONS, but I just know. Spelling...well, I know if a word doesn't look right. That said, I am also an auditory learner as I am musical and memorize many things by listening. To study for exams I could remember both what the professor said as well as see it in the textbook in my head if that makes sense.. But I have NO idea how to teach this, so the script is very important in Saxon.

 

3. Review previously taught correspondences each day, until she knows them automatically. For my daughter, I generated a list of words down one side of a page. If she read the word smoothly and accurately, she got to draw a quick picture of the word. If she stumbled or read incorrectly, she wrote the word next to the printed word, saying each sound as she wrote, then read the word again. I usually had 20-30 word each day.

 

4. As you introduce a new correspondence, have her write the new words, saying the sounds as she writes.

 

5. Compose simple sentences using only the new and previously taught correspondences. This way she KNOWS she can read the sentences. I usually did three sentences a lesson.

 

A few principles and tactics to keep in mind:

1. Teach each word as its component parts. Children this bright really want to jump ahead and just understand, so they want to memorize and skip. These are the wrong skills to teach. We have to keep them paying attention to the parts of the words and making them read from left to right, blending all through the word.

 

2. To train tracking (much cheaper than VT), use a 'notched card'--a 3x5 card or business card with a square cut in the left corner. Expose one letter or letter group at a time, have her say the sound. When the word is uncovered, read the word. This will quickly correct her attention and tracking. It took my daughter about a week of intensive, daily practice to smooth out her reading and make it easier and more enjoyable.

 

I will try this, but I really don't understand how this works. For example for cake. As you uncover ca, they will make the short a sound and then add k and then have to change to the long a sound when she sees the e. I though you wanted them to be able to look at the word and just know it... it seems like doing it this way would take a really long time.. Aren't you trying to get it fast and smooth.

 

3. You can spice it up with games such as memory and sound bingo using flashcards. Another fun game, I call HONK! It is a variation on a game from Phonics Pathways. Have several flashcards for each of 5-6 sound-spelling correspondences and several flashcards with silly pictures. Turn the flashcards over, say the sound. When the silly picture comes up, do something silly. Go through multiple times.

 

I have Phonic pPathways and we have done a little. Should I drop Saxon and just do Phonics Pathways? That said, she really hates it. But she cries at everything, so I just ignore her anyway... But it really gets on my nerves. I feel like Tom Hanks..."There is no crying in... reading, violin, reading therapy, etc." It makes me angry. JUST DO IT!!!

 

Unfortunately, I find it difficult to happily recommend a reading program in this instance because I bought 12 different programs (and reviewed many more) and found none of them to work for my bright, logical, impatient daughter. She was happily listening to and understanding chapter books at 2 and found learning to read painful because it was at such a lower level than she could understand.

 

If you want an example lesson of what I did, you can email me privately. Hang in there! :grouphug: It will happen.

 

Melissa

Minnesota

Reading Program Junkie

dd(10) dd(6) ds(4) ds(1)

[Ottakee]

Check out the I See Sam readers. http://www.roadstoeverywhere.com/3RsPlusRead.html

 

If you click around on BRI 1 and the downloads part you can see the first book for free and then read up on the notched card. That is VERY helpful for kids that add extra sounds, have trouble with eye tracking, etc. Even if you don't buy the readers, the card can be made at home for free and used with any program.

 

We did a whole set of vision therapy and saw no changes but that little notched card greatly helped my dd.

 

These books are phonetic based and can be used along with Saxon, etc. but they also stand alone as a complete learn to read program. They might seem to easy for her at first but she could rapidly go through them and get to the fun stories. They move much more slowly with introducing new code (sounds) and give a lot more practice with each sound.

 

Go to the link above and click on the UK site for even more information.

 

If they look interesting to you, click on my name and send me an email as I have several samples I can email to you to check them out.

 

I sound like a commercial here but as a special ed. teacher with courses in reading, I could NOT teach my own 2 dds to read until we found these books and used them. Everything else moved too fast, had too many new words/sounds in each book, not enough practice, etc.

[MIch elle]

I have the first set of BOB books and she is bored with them. She is also tired of the dragon books at the library.. I think part of the problem is she is so smart... I was listening to the POP quiz for TOG in the car ...rhetoric level about King Henry VIII and my daughter preceded to tell my dh all about his different wives and what happened to them all.. When she was three one day out of the blue, she said.. "Mom, if Lincoln was shot at Ford's theater by John Wilkes Booth, what movie were they showing when he was shot?" She had been listening to Oddyssey that day and had remembered it when I was driving to church, so we talked about the difference between a theater and movies.. So Bob sat on a hen is boring to her, but she can't read.

 

Christine

 

:D

[mktyler]

1. Teach each sound-spelling correspondence individually and stay with it till she is comfortable reading it. Sometimes it would take a week of lessons for her to finally remember the sound for the letters.

 

What does this mean?? She does remember all of the sounds for individual letters and I can show her the pairs of sounds: ai, or, etc. she knows what they sound like. But you give it to her in a word and sometimes she starts in the middle and she OFTEN adds in sounds that are not there... I will say, "Why in the world are you making the l sound...where is an l in that word???"

 

This piece of advice means not to group the correspondences (a correspondence is the letter or group of letters used to represent a sound, like 'a' for the short sound, for its name, for the sound /o/ in want, water, etc.) or teach a bunch at the same time. Kids who have short emotional fuses, like our daughters (she still cries pretty much everyday over schoolwork) easily get overwhelmed. Since this isn't your daughter's concern, you can ignore it.:)

 

2. As you introduce new sound-spelling correspondences, teach the skill of "trying another sound for that (those) letters." For example, you have just taught the sound-spelling correspondence 'ea' for the sound /e/. You have previously taught 'ea' for the sounds /ee/ and /ae/. When she practices the word 'ready' she says /reedy/. Point under the letter pair and say, "What other sound do these letters spell?" Then have her work through the word, trying the new sound. This will feel slow and painful to you and her, but it is the best way learn this important skill and learn which sounds go with which letters in which words.

I'm not sure i understand what this means. Part of the reason I am using Saxon is that I do not know phonics. I think I just memorized words. My dad said that I knew how to read before I entered kindergarten and they didn't teach phonics in the 60's. I read TONS, but I just know. Spelling...well, I know if a word doesn't look right. That said, I am also an auditory learner as I am musical and memorize many things by listening. To study for exams I could remember both what the professor said as well as see it in the textbook in my head if that makes sense.. But I have NO idea how to teach this, so the script is very important in Saxon.

 

Learning to read easily and on our own, as you describe, and which was the case for me and my husband, does not set us up well to know how to teach kids who don't just pick it up or figure it out. I really understand the frustration!! I had so many tears myself as I was trying to figure out what to do.

 

When you come to a knew word in your reading, most likely you read the sounds from left to right, adjusting the sounds and stress till it makes sense. Whether or not you were explicitly taught it, you understand the alphabetic principle. Some figure it out without conscious thought, others have to be explicitly taught all of it.

 

The technique I described can help your daughter get comfortable with a level of flexibility in reading English. Don't tell her the word, make her work through it, trying different sound alternatives, till it is right.

 

2. To train tracking (much cheaper than VT), use a 'notched card'--a 3x5 card or business card with a square cut in the left corner. Expose one letter or letter group at a time, have her say the sound. When the word is uncovered, read the word. This will quickly correct her attention and tracking. It took my daughter about a week of intensive, daily practice to smooth out her reading and make it easier and more enjoyable.

 

I will try this, but I really don't understand how this works. For example for cake. As you uncover ca, they will make the short a sound and then add k and then have to change to the long a sound when she sees the e. I though you wanted them to be able to look at the word and just know it... it seems like doing it this way would take a really long time.. Aren't you trying to get it fast and smooth.

 

It works for a number of reasons. Many kids struggle with paying attention to the letters they are focusing on, getting that information mixed up with the info. from their peripheral vision. The card covers up the peripheral info, training the brain to pay attention to the exposed letters. It also trains the brain and eyes to move left to right. These are primary skills of reading.

 

If you think she will be upset saying the wrong sound, just tell her, "In this word, say the sound /ae/ for the letter 'a'," then have her work with the notched card. I would uncover the 'k and the 'e' together, as the 'e' does not represent a sound. You want them to be able to look at it and know it only after they can work through the parts properly. When the parts are known well, it will sound fast and smooth almost as though she were reading the word as a whole, but she's not--she's comprehending the parts really fast.

 

3. You can spice it up with games such as memory and sound bingo using flashcards. Another fun game, I call HONK! It is a variation on a game from Phonics Pathways. Have several flashcards for each of 5-6 sound-spelling correspondences and several flashcards with silly pictures. Turn the flashcards over, say the sound. When the silly picture comes up, do something silly. Go through multiple times.

 

I have Phonic pPathways and we have done a little. Should I drop Saxon and just do Phonics Pathways? That said, she really hates it. But she cries at everything, so I just ignore her anyway... But it really gets on my nerves. I feel like Tom Hanks..."There is no crying in... reading, violin, reading therapy, etc." It makes me angry. JUST DO IT!!!

 

Phonics Pathways has decent info, with good word lists, however the pages are a mess and for those who struggle with eye training, not a good idea. (BTW, my daughter cries through violin practice, too, though she absolutely does not want to stop). You can put the info on much less cluttered paper, and use the notched card.

 

The thing you and your daughter need is efficient instruction. If Saxon is moving you forward, and you practice with the card, you should be fine. However, it is not the most efficient method. If Saxon isn't working, I can send you a word list and a sample lesson so you can just blow through the instruction.

 

Once I figured out the most efficient method and taught it all to her, (she wouldn't comfortably read anything till she could read high level chapter books and nonfiction), my daughter's reading skill increased dramatically.

 

It sounds like your daughter already knows a lot and needs targeted work on tracking. My word lists can help you ascertain what correspondences she still needs to learn. Adult level texts contain about 300 unique correspondences. For emotional, yet strangely logical, perfectionist, highly bright kids, they may not feel comfortable reading until they can pick up adult level material and be able to comfortably read it.

 

I'm sorry that is so long. If I didn't address your concerns well enough, please let me know.

 

Melissa

Minnesota

Reading Program Junkie

dd(10) dd(6) ds(4) ds(1)

[choirfarm]

. For emotional, yet strangely logical, perfectionist, highly bright kids, they may not feel comfortable reading until they can pick up adult level material and be able to comfortably read it.

 

 

I'll pm you later. This is exactly her. She HATES getting anything wrong. If she can't get a 100 on a spelling test or the violin sounds off, she cries. She expects perfection.

 

Christine

[ElizabethB]

I'd spend some extra time working on phonics--teach her all the phonics she needs to know to be able to read adult material first, then let her try reading. You might also want to try larger print and all uppercase on a whiteboard for a while, that's easier on the eyes to read and distinguish, and also helps by letting her see the letters one by one as they are written. (No B and D confusion in uppercase, and overall, there are less confusing letters in uppercase.)

 

I do have a worksheet and hints for the b/d confusion problem:

 

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

 

You may also get some ideas from my dyslexia page, that's where the b/d link is from:

 

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

[Haiku]

My dd liked the Usborne First Reading/Young Reading books and she also really loved the Rookie Read-About science books.

 

Tara

[dcjlkplus3]

In WTM there is a section on the preschool years (where teaching reading is discussed) at the end of the section (page 43 in the revised/2004 edition) that lists several phonics readers. My daughter really liked the Books to Remember Series by Laura Appleton-Smith.

I was frustrated because most early-readers at the library were NOT phonics based. I had to put ohonics readers in as a keyword search, or specific titles or series.

[claire up north]

One technique I used was to pick out an easy reader and underline just a few words on each page that I wanted my son to read. He would sit on my lap. I would read most of it, but he would fill in the underlined words. I was thereby able to avoid frustrating words and pick those that reinforced whatever phonics we were currently working on.

 

It was also great for sight words.

 

hth!