OPG-a poor fit or give it time?

[andreainia]

Hello! I've been a wallflower (I hate the term lurker!) here for a long time and finally decided to join the party! I have been using OPG with my ds4 this year, and though I love it, my son doesn't. Reading directly from the book was a no-go from the start - I've done the white board, printed it in large font on the computer, added cute pictures to make the story more interesting to read (without giving away the words). He won't work with me on it. That's not to say he's not learning - when we DO get through it, he is very capable and retains what we've learned. He's constantly sounding things out as he goes about his day and can tell me how to spell words he's interested in. He discovered level 1 readers at our library & Wal-Mart and loves to sit with me and work on those. However, he hasn't learned all the rules he needs to read them yet, because we haven't gotten that far in OPG. Is this a problem with the program not fitting the kid, or do I just need to keep spoonfeeding little bits at a time and encouraging him to read what he can as often as he can? Thanks!

[Kidlit]

I don't have a lot of experience (my own dd is only 4, also), but I think maybe the old adage "slow and steady wins the race" might work here. I just work with my dd from OPG for a few minutes at a time. I don't make a big deal out of it; we just do it. I hope eventually it will be fun for her, but we just keep plugging away at it.

 

Anyway, I'm :lurk5: to learn more!

[ElizabethB]

At that age, I never worked more than 10 minutes at a time and usually for 2 to 5 minutes.

 

You could try my game for a fun change of pace:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

 

In K when my daughter was 5, we worked 5 to 10 minutes a day on a white board and got an amazing amount accomplished over the year. I made sure that those 5 to 10 minutes were focused work, if she wasn't ready to listen, I would stop and let her play for a while and try again later when she was ready to learn.

 

(I also "sneak" in things as the day goes along, correcting her spelling and sounding out any word she reads incorrectly, and occasionally sounding out a word or two as I'm reading to her.)

[Ohio12]

I would stick with it because it is SUCH a good program. But I agree with the others. My first daughter was such a reluctant student. We started when she was almost 5 and did 3-5 minutes a day. She is now 6.5 and reading as well as I do! Just do a tiny bit at the same time each day. For us, it was after lunch before rest time, out came the book for a few mintues. Then I would read to her whatever she wanted and she loved that part!

[Sara in WA]

Don't throw out OPG yet! It's such a great book and so simple. My one experience similar to yours is with DD 5. She was reading the early Bob books a year ago and so I brought out OPGTR. The first couple lessons were ok, but it went downhill. No interest, no attention to the lessons, etc. So, I put it away for a few months. When I brought it out again, it was all different. Some maturing helped and also a greater desire to read on her part.

 

My advice - put it away, read books to your child and try again. My kids find the Bob books extremely motivating and the Leap Frog phonics DVDs fun and educational. Sometimes I would do her lessons (letter sounds and words) with refrigerator magnets during breakfast. She was a captive audience and didn't realize it was her reading lesson because the OPGTR text was nowhere to be seen.