I need a little hand holding, please, regarding reading instruction

[Kidlit]

I've been doing OPGTTR with my girls since roughly the beginning of the year. Eldest daughter will be 5 next week, and we have advanced up to lesson 34. She can read cvc words with just a little help, but is she interested in doing this? No. Once in a blue moon she will say she wants to read, and generally after we've done a lesson she is proud of it and wants to show dad later, etc., but she never initiates it.

 

My question, then, is what to do? Do I continue doing OPGTTR during the summer (which is what I had intended to do, but after today, I don't know. . .), or do I pick up with a curriculum (I'm thinking MFW K) that would essentially be a review but would be more fun?

 

Honestly, it's really like pulling teeth most of the time to do the lessons. I am having a difficult time distinguishing between "this is too hard for me right now" and "I'm being extremely obstinate and just plain old don't want to do this." She is a very bright child who LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to be read to and to act out what we've read. (She and little sis have been acting out Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo "Ingalls" Wilder getting married while I'm typing this.)

 

I guess what I'm really doing is second guessing my ability to figure this whole homeschooling thing out without making it too much for my little girls. I don't want to burn them out before they're ten, but I also want them to learn.

 

Help!!:confused::tongue_smilie:

[mlbuchina]

I'm excited to see what people have to say about this. I am having somewhat of the same problem with my younger dd. With her, it is like one step forward and 3 steps back. Granted, she won't be 4 until June, so I know it is still early for her. She can recognize beginning sounds (YEA!), but is struggling to blend. We are finishing up MFW K, and have loved it. My olders dd (5, will be 6 this month), did not get much from the reading part of it. She learned to read mostly on her own, and it turned into more of a review. Mostly, she didn't like the reading part. When I found WTM and OPGTTR, we started on that, and she is doing much better with reading. Younger dd has learned her letter sounds and to recognize beginning and ending sounds with MFW K. Learning the letter sounds with MFW K is a bit more fun than OPGTTR. I plan to go back through some of the activities and games again with my younger.

 

Sorry for going on and on!

Oh, and don't worry about feeling lost about homeschooling. This was our first year, and now that it is under my belt, I feel much more comfortable. I think that MFW K is a wonderful place to get your feet wet. You have enough structure that you don't have to add anything to it, but not so much, that you can't if you want to.

[amtmcm]

My older DD is gifted and has done all academics early. I thought all kids worked at this level and didn't really clue into her being advanced. Sooooo, when my younger DD was 3/4 I pushed her to start reading and she wasn't ready. In kindergarten she could read cvc words, but she just wasn't ready to go beyond that. She didn't really read until after Christmas in 1st grade (almost 7 years old) so it took about 3 years of working with her for that "window" to open.

 

It sounds like you're doing everything right and it's wonderful your daughter enjoys being read to. That will go such a long way in helping her to read when that reading "switch" is ready to be turned on. And she'll have a great vocabulary!

 

Sorry I can't give you advice about curriculum.... my only advice is to keep doing what you're doing and don't worry if it takes a little longer for her to read. My younger DD caught up in no time. By the end of 2nd grade she was reading at a 4th grade level and scored at a 9th grade level in spelling on her SAT.

 

Hope this helps a little. I know it can feel daunting when our child is capable of reading but isn't ready to do it yet.

 

Best Wishes,

[Aurelia]

My daughter sounds like she has the same personality as yours.

 

If you and your child are miserable, I'd find something else. There's a line between perservering through difficult material and turning your child off of learning because the work is agonizing.

 

Maybe you could take some time off the "official" learning book and have her practice with BOB books or some other beginning, decodable reader, then move on once she is comfortable with that.

 

We separated reading instruction and reading practice, so we did the instruction part during "school time" and did the practice at bedtime. I told her that if she wanted me to read a bedtime story, she had to read to me first. It worked like a charm. :D

[ElizabethB]

At that age, fun games and a white board hold their interest more.

 

Besides my suggestions in this thread, you may want to try Pollard's series, it's similar to Sing, Spell, Read, Write, but not as expensive.

 

Pollard's series is linked about halfway through my list of good phonics and spelling books page:

 

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

[JustGin]

I've been doing OPGTTR with my girls since roughly the beginning of the year. Eldest daughter will be 5 next week, and we have advanced up to lesson 34. She can read cvc words with just a little help, but is she interested in doing this? No. Once in a blue moon she will say she wants to read, and generally after we've done a lesson she is proud of it and wants to show dad later, etc., but she never initiates it.

 

My question, then, is what to do? Do I continue doing OPGTTR during the summer (which is what I had intended to do, but after today, I don't know. . .), or do I pick up with a curriculum (I'm thinking MFW K) that would essentially be a review but would be more fun?

 

Honestly, it's really like pulling teeth most of the time to do the lessons. I am having a difficult time distinguishing between "this is too hard for me right now" and "I'm being extremely obstinate and just plain old don't want to do this." She is a very bright child who LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to be read to and to act out what we've read. (She and little sis have been acting out Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo "Ingalls" Wilder getting married while I'm typing this.)

 

I guess what I'm really doing is second guessing my ability to figure this whole homeschooling thing out without making it too much for my little girls. I don't want to burn them out before they're ten, but I also want them to learn.

 

Help!!:confused::tongue_smilie:

 

I'll just tell you a little of my story, offer an opinion and remind you that you know your little girl better than anyone, so trust your Mommy-heart. :)

 

My oldest daughter (adopted from foster care at age 1) loved books from the very beginning. At age two she would insist on having all of her books in bed with her every night, and would pick out stacks at the library.

She loved, loved, loved being read too.

Age 5 - 6 - I began using Explode the Code and little readers and she progressed to reading CVC words.

Age 7-11, Still passionate about books, still brought home stacks from the library, still loved being read aloud too, added in listening to audio books constantly, but...reading skills made very, very, slow progression.

We worked through all the Explode the Code books, used McGuffeys, etc., but it just wasn't getting there. However as time went on, we noticed that she could narrate back to us very well the stories she was reading silently, so we knew things were moving along. Just S_L_O_W_L_Y. I also knew that she was doing a lot of skimming. She buzzed books. She progressed through the basics but was not fluent by...

Age 11 - One day I was in Walmart and on a whim picked up the first Series of Unfortunate Events book for her after casually asking if she wanted it. (This was a series she had fallen in love with via audio books borrowed from the library.)

The response was nothing short of amazing. She started reading as we shopped and kept reading as we drove home and I noticed that she was not buzzing the book, but actually turning the pages slowly. She read the entire book over 2 or 3 days, instead of skimming though it in 1 day and we knew that she had crossed over into fluency! She continued to "really" read books from that point on. She is now a completle book worm in every sense of the word. :)

I'm thankful that my Mom-heart and her Daddy's encouragment kept me from freaking out about her late reading because she did finally "get it" I honestly think that if we had pushed and prodded and fussed and fretted she might have learned the skill but we might have killed the joy.

 

Now for my opinion. Almost 5 is still very young. I would drop the formal lessons for now, and just enjoy books. Read aloud, listen to audio books, play with language, go to the library if you can as much as you can. Look for small words and sound chunks on signs and cereal boxes, things like that. Oh, and make sure she has lots of different kinds of paper and writing tools available whenever she wants for scribbling and drawing because this makes language her's to own as well. Talk about the stories she loves and enjoy her little plays. BTW, sounds like her listening comprehension is great, and that is a huge indicator that when she's ready, she will have little trouble learning to read.

 

There is my two cents worth. :)

Edited May 6, 2009 by JustGin

[Kidlit]

Thank you, thank you, thank you all for your encouragement and advice!!! I had a mini-epiphany while in the shower and thought I'd try what ElizabethB (I think) suggested and just play around with the white board. We haven't done that in a while.

 

I still think we might start in on MFW K this summer, just for fun. I think they'll both enjoy it.

 

I think I want them to succeed sooooo much that I have a hard time reining myself in.

 

They're both listening to LIW audiobooks right now for rest time. :)

[Stacy in NJ]

Generally, you'll get two different type of answers to this question.

 

Answer 1. - Don't push your child too early. She'll get it eventually. She's not developmentally ready. Set the reading material aside and start fresh in the fall. You'll be amazed at the progress she'll make.

 

Answer 2. - Keep going. You'll find in your homeschooling journey this won't be the only time that your dc hits a wall. It's more of a discipline issue than it is a learning issue. If you allow her to dictate when she's willing to do school you're setting yourself up for years of tears and resistance.

 

For my part, I recommend Answer 2, but go gently, gently. Continue on with reading instruction but approach it in a fun and gentle way. Don't expect big gains, or even any gains. Let her over learn the material, but insist she spend 10 - 15 minutes daily on a bit of "instruction". YMMV :D

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

Try to make it fun. OPGTR as it is isn't very fun. You could try MFW K or you could just add some games to OPGTR. It sounds like she is still learning to sound out and blend words. I played games from a book called Montessori Read and Write to teach dd this skill. First she learned to distinguish the first sound of a word, then the first and last, and finally all of the sounds in a word. We did this using objects. I would ask which object in front of us started with the "k" sound and she would point and tell me the name. Then we'd do the same activity for the first and last sounds of a word. Finally we'd pick an object or just any word and try to figure out all of the sounds of that word. This led into spelling words. So for a while we focused on spelling words with a movable alphabet. We also played simple reading games. We eventually started All About Spelling (which my social, hands-on dd loves!). We use this to teach reading and spelling. AAS is almost like a game to her and I use games to practice reading. Some of the games we play are: matching (word to word or word to picture or word to object), placing 6 word cards on the table and finding and reading the word(s) that start with a particular sound or the two words that rhyme, and commands (dd reads a word or phrase and then does the action). I do also highly recommend using a whiteboard. DD likes that too.

[cin]

Pollard's series, it's similar to Sing, Spell, Read, Write, but not as expensive.

 

Pollard's series is linked about halfway through my list of good phonics and spelling books page:

 

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

 

 

Pollard's series looks good, where can I buy it?

[ElizabethB]

Pollard's series looks good, where can I buy it?

You can not buy new ones. You can print out the PDFs and use those, or you can try to find originals from Alibris or ABE books. I got all of the books for around $10 each, I might have paid $20 for the manual.

[skaterbabs]

I know this isn't a popular answer on these boards, but this is what worked for *my* daughter.

 

Just before her 3rd birthday we began HSing her eldest brother. I bought the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD (used) just so that I had something I could give her to do while I was working with DS. Within two days she knew her entire alphabet and the sounds each letter made. I found the starfall website and let her play that daily. Shortly thereafter we purchased the BOB readers, and she blew through them in no time.

 

We are a TV household, so when she displayed an interest in Between the Lions on PBS around this same time, we DVR'd the episodes and allowed her to watch them whenver she wanted.

 

By 4 years and 6 mos she was reading on a beginning first grade level. A year has past and she is now reading on a mid-second-grade level. We have yet to begin formal reading instruction with her.

 

I bought OPG last weekend and we'll go through it with her just to make sure she doesn't have any obvious holes or gaps. I suspect by this time next year I'll be selling or giving away our copy.

[RootAnn]

 

Answer 1. - Don't push your child too early. She'll get it eventually. She's not developmentally ready. Set the reading material aside and start fresh in the fall. You'll be amazed at the progress she'll make.

 

 

 

I'll go with this one. However, you may not be amazed at the progress. She still might not be ready.

 

If you have something "fun" for her to do, by all means do it. Otherwise, give it a break for the summer & start fresh (possibly with something different, whatever you decide).

 

We struggled through 100EL with my oldest but she didn't "like" to read until she was just-turned-7 and jumped two reading levels within a month.

 

My #2 child is almost six and couldn't care less about learning to read. We just do letter sounds and beginning spelling stuff. I figure she'll get it eventually. We're going to take a bit of a break this summer, though.

 

GOod luck!