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Tuesday Tips - How do you encourage your little ones as they learn to read?

2:29 PM, Feb. 14, 2006

Reading comes easily to some children, to other children it does not. How do you encourage those struggling readers?

Have you ever dealt with the frustration of working with a child one day and they seem to have “the” down pat, then the next day they act like they've never seen the word? How do you keep them motivated to try their hardest? Have you found a phonics program or technique that really helps?

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Posted in Tuesday Tips, 8 comments, Link
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Untitled Comment

3:23 PM, Feb. 14, 2006, posted by blessdmommy

The greatest thing I've experienced with my kids is the joy of reading. We've had great success using Teaching Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons.

blessdmommy2002 - at - yahoo - dot - com

Come back later....

4:54 PM, Feb. 14, 2006, posted by Mom4jdc

I learned the hard way. When my oldest was 5 I determined that he was going to learn to read becuase he was ready and I was going to teach him. Yep. Well, that worked well.....not really. After about a year of fighting and tears, I gave up and decided that he'd probably be 16 before he learned. After a month, he asked me to help him do something in his book, so I did and then left. About a week later, he asked for my help again. Then the week after that and then a few days after that. Before I knew it, he had finished the book and was reading well. More than that, he was loving it. My next 3 were more relaxed. We work when they want with hints thrown around so they don't get lazy. But if they are really balking at reading or 'forgetting' what they knew perfectly the day before, we give it a rest. I figure that as long as they can read before college, we'll be okay. ;o)

Leslie
mom4jdc at aol dot com

Untitled Comment

7:01 PM, Feb. 14, 2006, posted by hsmomof2

We struggled with phonics programs and almost killed the love of books in our boy, then did some research and discovered that phonics just didn't make sense to some kids - and he is one of them. A couple of other realizations - that he despises workbooks, and that he wanted to read meaningful text, not lists of words or phonemes - led us to toss out the phonics programs and concentrate on reading to him and WITH him and building his confidence. Keeping my frustration to myself was key, as was giving up the notion that at age 7 he should be reading "just like other kids his age." He "suddenly" exploded as a reader and is now reading quite a bit at age 8 1/2. I suspect he will no longer be "behind" his age-peers pretty soon. In the meantime, he still loves books while some kids we know, who were pushed into earlier reading, do not.

Know your child, learn to understand his brain and learning style, and let go of expectations (and grandma's expectations if necessary)!

marbelto2 -at- yahoo - dot - com

Reading...

12:19 AM, Feb. 15, 2006, posted by creech7s

I was very blessed to have read "Better Late than Early" by the Moores before I began homeschooling (I highly recommend it - old book, great advice), and then followed up with Ruth Beechick's booklets (again, oldies but goodies). I think between the two I avoided a lot of mistakes I am (still) prone to make about all sorts of subjects. Letting the child set the pace is important, but we also balanced it with "encouragers" like stickers for reading words within the time limit, recognition by Dad for finishing the first book, etc. We also found that letting the child pick out some of their own books helped - I had one child who thought reading was "silly" until he found a series of science books on volcanoes and earthquakes, which we used to teach him to read (at age 7), after we realized he just thought most easy readers weren't factual enough for his taste (although he did later discover "Amelia Bedelia" to be to his liking!).

Untitled Comment

1:54 AM, Feb. 15, 2006, posted by homeschoolhelp

Our third son was our reluctant reader. I am so glad that I had already learned a thing or two with the two older brothers to know that I needed to teach reading at his own pace and his own interest level. We used Bob Books along with Reading Made Easy by Valerie Bendt. The motivation came from getting something ready to read to Daddy when he walked in the door from work. My husband was always good to make this time special and exciting and was a huge encouragement to our sons when they were learning to read. For boys, I really think a major key is to not push them, don't compare them to other kids, and follow their lead (even if that means you put the books down for a week or two here and there). It worked for us anyway.
Blessings,
Dianne

whiteley 6 - at - truevine - dot - net

Sight Word Bingo

10:42 AM, Feb. 15, 2006, posted by GAhomeschoolmom

One thing that helps my son remember sight words is to play sight word Bingo. He has fun and he doesn't even realize that he is learning to read!

superhomeschoolmommy-at-yahoo-dot-com

Untitled Comment

3:44 AM, Feb. 16, 2006, posted by eyecorn

I didn't use a formal reading curriculum with DS and now, with DD, I"m not using one either. I use a set of index cards, each with a letter (upper and lower case) and then a picture/drawing of an object on the back. Then, we play different types of games with them. For example, I'll get 2 boxes or laundry baskets and put one card in front of each. Then, we use a pair of wadded up socks (DD prefers this over a ball! LOL). I'll say a word that starts with one of the two letters. She has to toss the sock into the correct basket. To step up the difficulty, I'll say a word that ends with the sound of the letter. We worked on consonants first and then have added one vowel at a time. Another game....I'll put one of the cards on the kitchen table and we'll make its sound. Then, DD has to go through the house and find 3 objects that start with that sound and bring them back. We also use the cards to make words. We started with the -at words. I had her write them on paper...I didn't care if it was straight or crooked. I also have her use the dry erase markers on the window of the back door...she thinks it's fun and I get her practicing the reading and phonics. When we had the short A down, then I introduced easy readers with this sound - Cat Traps, Cat in the Hat...I read them to her 3x sounding out words I knew she could handle. Then, after that, I made her sound out with me, then, eventually, she would do it on her own. Other things I've done to encourage her reading and writing....we have a toy mailbox...she writes me letters and I write her back. She asks me to write down what she wants to write, and she transcribes. I cannot tell you how much she has picked up doing this! It is amazing. I bought some blank books at the local teacher supply store. I had her make up a story and illustrate it...course, the pages only have maybe one word on it...cat, hat, bat...but, again, an opportunity to read and write and feel good about what she has accomplished.

Hope this is what you were looking for.
Michelle

Untitled Comment

6:57 PM, Feb. 17, 2006, posted by gottsegnet

I don't think any one approach works best. This may be surprising to some, but I lean toward "whole-language," which, due to CA's gross misuse of it, has become way too politicized. Maybe I'll blog more on that this weekend...interesting topic. We started with "reading readiness" and a LOT of phonemic awareness activities. When my daughter showed mastery of that, we began letter sounds. I never emphasized their names, but she seems to have learned them somewhere along the way.

From the start we have read and listened to her recite quality literature...we encouraged pretend reading and pretend writing. I did not begin emphasizing spelling until she was reading pretty well...she kept asking how to spell words and I just kept telling her to listen to the sounds. She has had her own journal since two...she'd scribble and tell us what it said. Usually I would write down what she told us.

I wouldn't say she necessarily loves reading, but she loves literature. She has vision problems which give her headaches when reading. Still, she is a good little reader and has surpassed those state goals which aren't really my standard of success anyway.

We are kind of using Writing Road to Reading right now...but more just for the phonograms and I like how the spelling list is ordered. Mostly, I have made up my own curriculum...

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