Well since I first started teaching Anna to read with a method, I've been soo certain of the timing and her ability but I've been very leary of the material. It's book called Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons! It was recommended by a couple of homeschooling families that had many children who had gone through the program.
The only reviews that were negative said that the first couple lessons were tedious (phew...they weren't joking). But I've found a couple of problems and we're not even in the 20's (# of lessons). The first is that they use a lot of symbols (phonetic spellings) but they don't always carry through and use the symbols....ie the "d" sound being short with a symbol like this ">" underneath that letter. Another flaw is that the introduced sound for A is "a" like apple or in sad. But they keep wanting the kids to read the words "am" and "ram".....which have a totally different sound....we've made these two words sight words (after a brief conversation that vowels make a couple different sounds...that's what makes them special.. eh ehehe).
OK...to the point of this post..... The other day Anna was having soo much trouble remembering the "d" sound...I mean she was looking at the "d" saying "t" and "b". She really doesn't like doing the dreaded yellow reading book so her heart wasn't in it AT ALL. I did get frustrated just because she wasn't trying.... she is sooo ready and very, very able!!! Finally I realized that if this experience is bad she'll never want to do it again and so I closed the book and said that we'd do it later.
So the last few days we've been working away from the book talking about, drawing and sounding out the sound "d"!!! And this evening as the clock read 9:10, my 3-yr old wasn't in bed...she had opened the "dreaded yellow reading book" and was sounding out words... when I approached her, she sounded out a few more words (a couple with the "d" sound)!!! Finally she sounded out the word "read" and she realized what she had read and smiled!!!
Father, help me to enjoy and cherish this learning process! Help me to have patience and be encouraging. To know my child's limitations and when I need to guide. Help me have the right attitude and heart so that I can model that to her and bring glory to You.
2 comments:
"the introduced sound for A is "a" like apple or in sad. But they keep wanting the kids to read the words "am" and "ram".....which have a totally different sound"
Where I live, way up north, we do say the 'a' sound the same in all those words, so they maybe aren't too far off with their book. It probably depends on what kind of accent you have.
Kelly, check out www.learningpage.com. It is a great resource that is totally free. Lots of learning pages that make reading and writing letters fun. They have words for each letter page that the child can learn to read. : )
Also, if you join, which is free, you can get additional pages and resources too. It's great. We used it a lot in the private school where I taught preschool/pre-kinder.
Blessings! Jenn
PS - Check out my blog...it has a "Tag Ur It" read.
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