Homeschool World Forum

[gellegbs]

My 7 year old son is having a hard time reading. The extent of his knowledge of words is letter sounds, and maybe about 20 sight words. He has a really hard time sounding out words, especially with consonant blends. Any advice would be helpful. I've tried flash cards of blends and reading to him pointing out or sounding out certain words (the, and, as, etc.) He still has a hard time.

[mschickie]

Are you using a particular curriculum? You might try Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. I know a few people who have used that and it has helped. For something fun you might even try getting copies of the Electric Company on dvd. It presents reading in a fun way. I know my 5 year old is getting a kick out of it. It is a little dated but still fun.

[Ophelia]

I am using Hooked on Phonics, Learn to Read with my 5 and 6 (almost 7) year olds. I didn't have to purchase it. My local library has 2 copies, and one is almost always in my home. It is working quite well for my children.

We didn't do Sight words, but I do have a list of words hanging on the wall that we have come across that don't follow the Phonics rules, such as THE and TO.

My Husband found this http://call.canil.ca/english/index.html and this http://www.phonicsontheweb.com/index.php and was exceedingly proud of himself for it. These are what he uses when it's his turn to do a reading lesson.

[elliemaejune]

[Jazzy]

What programs have you tried?
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[Ophelia]

[gellegbs]

the sight words are from his 1st grade public school, I am only homeschooling my daughter for now. I was just wondering what programs are good. I have tried hooked on phonics and it wasn't his thing. I think hes a kentic learner because he does this trick moving his hand up his arm on each letter when sounding a word out.

Update: he has improved in his reading he can now read (the, and, are) etc he has problems still with blends and other words like (were, where, there, etc.)

[grv]

I don't know what's become available in recent years, but when we started in 1992, we considered the Writing Road to Reading (very popular back then) and Hooked on Phonics (heavily advertised but not very good reviews) but decided to try Samuel Blumenfeld's Alpha-Phonics ( http://tinyurl.com/4zzpv8 ).

We've used that with all our 9 children; my wife really has liked its simplicity and true phonics presentation. Our 7yo daughter just finished her last Alpha-Phonics lesson this past week, so my wife is now finished!

Her experience in teaching our nine to read has been quite varied (we generally started them with Alpha-Phonics at their 4th birthday). Our oldest is a language whiz, was reading Little House on the Prairie - voraciously - before 5, and did well in spelling bees, etc.

Our two oldest sons, on the other hand, took a long time to really learn to read. I'm pretty sure at least one of them would have been "labelled" had he gone to public school, but he's done fairly well (made about 70 percentile on the SAT in reading/writing).

My advice would be to get a good true (not sight-word) phonics program and hang in there with a child that takes longer. Try to find a type of book/subject that interests them, since that will motivate them to learn and give them more practice.

Once they learn to read, whether good or not, make sure they're reading a range of books on a regular basis, as this is not only educational but will help them a lot on their PSAT/SAT scores.

If you can just teach a child to read and to be curious/love to learn, teach the basics, and take them to library and check out a lot of books every week, they're almost sure to get an above-average education!
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[SecondGenHS]

I started 'Hooked on Phonics' program with 4 y/o and he's eating it up! Only been 3 days and he's begging me for lessons and now reading 3 letter words with understanding. Great program!
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Second generation home educator!

[roma]

I often volunteer my time to help children learn to read, and find Ring Around the Phonics to be the best I have used because the kids love playing it.

It uses static cling letters so you can use the board game to teach phonic sounds, blends, and words. It also comes with books, and can be used in conjunction with "Bob Books". It may be ordered on line, but you can receive a discount when you order by phone. More information can be found at: http://www.read-phonics.com/
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RC

[Sasha]

Another vote for Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons. I spent an insane amount of money on multiple programs to try to teach my oldest to read. That one $20 book was the only thing to work. It also worked for my second child and seems to be working with our 3rd now. It is a popular book so even if you bought it and it didn't work for you guys you should be able to get most of your $20 back by reselling it. You could also check at your public library, most of them have a copy you could try out. As far as kinetic my little boy is that way too so with the 100 Easy Lessons book I also cut out new sounds that he is learning from construction paper and he traces his finger around the letter or blend while he says its sound out loud. If he is having a really hard time then I make a huge version of the sound on floor using duct tape and he walks along the letters saying the sound.
Also as a side note. PBS has just started a new Electric Company show. If you go to their website you can check it out. Not a huge fan myself but a lot of people like it.
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Loved wife, Joyous mother of 5, and a notoriously poor speller.

[Theodore]

Most recently, we used Sing, Spell, Read and Write.
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[cafemama]

We are using Reading Works - Jay Patterson's "homeschool friendly" version of Spalding. It is a K-8 program that teaches handwriting, phonics, spelling, and reading. I used this in my kindergarten classroom for five years and loved it. Jay Patterson was also my high school English teacher, so I learned the "method" and rules from him and they made sense to me then. I thoroughly believe in a systematic phonics approach. We are using this with our five children ages 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 - three of whom are new to our family and know no English. It has been a huge success.

http://theworkspeople.com

Meg

[roma]

Here are two articles on the subject:

"How to Teach Reading Comprehension" and

"Teaching Phonics and Reading is Fun and Oh So Easy! (It Is! Let Me Explain!)"

You can find them both at this link:
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Roma_Cox
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RC

[ncmom]

My daughter struggled with reading when she was 6 and we reviewed Kdg phonics in her 1st grade year and then moved on to 1st grade phonics after the review. She reads wonderfully now and is reading about 1 grade above her grade level.

I didn't like "teach your child to read in 100 lessons" I found it hard to use. We used Abeka phonics which worked wonderfully for us. If you aren't looking for curriculum I recommend using study dog phonics, starfall, or trying reader rabbit or jump start computer programs. I also recommend just doing a google search for "free phonics programs" or something along those lines.

www.studydog.com
www.starfall.com