For you homeschoolers or those who have taught a child to read!!?

Question

I am teaching my daughter Emily (5 in July) to read. I am using How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons. And for the most part it is going AWESOME!! Today she read "A fish ate a rock. The fish said "I ate a rock." A cow ate the fish. The cow said, "I ate a fish and now I feel sick."" (lesson41) So this is my issue. The long A sound is just blowing her mind. She gets short a sound and a as a word....sight word like said=no problem. I can't figure out if she is just playing silly or really isn't getting it. We have been over this sound over and over ...and even after I will tell her the sound again a sentence before...she just won't remember(or acts like she doesn't) Anywho... I don't want to continue introducing new sounds while she isn't firm on previous sounds. Or should I? Is this a usual difficult sound? She will say"I hate that sound and I say "yes we hAAAte that sound" trying to make is stick. Oh and in the book it is clear the long a sound is to be said

Answer 1

I would move ahead slowly, and continue to help her on those words. Learning to read is a process, its not unusual to have to continue giving prompts and help on some words up through 3rd grade.  Certainly at age 4 it is no problem.  Let her read the book, when she makes a mistake just remind her and help her get the right word, and move on.  It  will stick eventually.

BTW, that book is great for many kids, the modified alphabet gets them reading without memorizing the phonics rules.  When she gets older, you might want to review the rules anyway, because they are used a lot in spelling too.

Answer 2

She isn't even five.  Just give her time.  Mastery is dependent on development not just teaching style or program.  Move on to other things.  Don't sweat this.  She will pick it up in time.

Answer 3

I wouldn't worry too much.  At four years old, she has tons of time to worry about phonics.  That said, what worked the best for us was word families.  For example:   a - ate - late - relate - related    or    a - at - hat - chat - chatted.  What has worked for us has also been to show that a vowel needs a helper to make it strong (or long).  For example:  hat - if you give it a helper letter "e", the helper makes "a" strong (or long).  You may want to look at Ruth Beechick's book The Three R's, too.

Answer 4

It depends on whether she seems frustrated or not.  If she's not bothered too much by it, just keep going on while reviewing the sound each day.  Each child has their own sticking points and they'll eventually get it with enough practice.   (And long vowels are usually considered an advanced skill, so it wouldn't be unusual for them to take a while for a 4 y.o. to get.)

If your daughter seems frustrated by long vowel sounds (and saying that she hates the sound makes it sound like she probably is frustrated), then I'd back off. Take a break.  Quit using the book for awhile.  Spend time instead doing fun stuff that involves reading but seems different from the lessons you've been doing.

Do more reading aloud to her for fun (and further non-frustrating practice).  

Try having her watch "Between the Lions" on PBS.  This show is geared to teaching reading in a fun way, with puppets.  They have songs about things like "when 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" that will reinforce the idea of long vowel sounds.  You can also view some of their songs on the PBS.org website.  Or see if your public library carries DVDs of their program.

Another fun way to reinforce reading skills is with the Leap Frog series.  They have DVDs that are fun, so kids like to watch them.  But they also teach phonics skills.

And don't forget to spend time reading yourself.  Having a parent spend time reading makes it clear to the child that reading is important and is something that they'll be more motivated to learn.

Anyway, I found that knowing when to back off and give them time to process the idea is important.  You want her to want to read, to enjoy reading, not to be turned off to the whole idea.

Good luck.

Answer 5

Here's the advice.

Teach her the following thing:

A terminal e (call it e on the end) makes a vowel say its name.

That will get her over the majority of uses of it. Some weird ones, like with a y, say play, tay, way, etc. will be harder to cover, but once she gets the whole "a has two sounds" she'll be fine.

Answer 6

I've had problems similar to this with my son. He's not as advanced as your daughter yet but he is doing quite well for only starting about two months ago. My suggestion is to let her stew on it for a while before moving on too much. I would still introduce a few but make sure to come back to that one frequently. She may not get it yet but it wont take her too much time. Remember also that she is still only 4 and is doing very well for her age. Take your time with it. She will get it.

Answer 7

At the Schools that my girls went to,in kindergarten they taught the students to read by site words...meaning they have the kids learn the words by site/memory...They start out with the most common short words first....like "in" "is" "at" etc.....

They use index cards to make flash cards for this.....

I'm not sure if this is the best method or not,but that's how they do it....(so they must think so) and this was at 2 different states and more than 1 school,obviously....

also,are you sure your daughter doesnt have a speech impediment?Because that would explain her not saying the long A sound correctly....or does she say it right when she's not reading,and just not when she is?

I would just move on,because she will get it eventually.....

and besides as you move on,you should always constantly review back anyways,so that the things that are already taught arent forgotten.....so as you move on,just be sure to review back and always do more preactice with the long A sound when you do....And also remember she is quite young,so she is already doing remarkably well for her age as is....

:O)

and bravo for you to begin teaching her yourself

you sound like such a good mommy

:O)

Answer 8

In my experience, children who say they "hate" a sound are really trying to tell you they hate the phonics approach. (If she read the word "ate" she certainly gets it). Many kids don't enjoy building upward from letter sounds to words to stories (it takes too long and is boring). They want to start with the interesting part (the story), and then figure out the words and letters from there.

For such readers, I have found the best approach is to get leveled "predictable" books from the library (the librarian can show you where they are) and do a paraphrasing "picture walk" through them or just read them with Emily and then let her try on her own. Even if it seems like she's just memorizing, the goals are fluency and confidence, and she will notice letter and word patterns on her own without your even pointing them out. Being read to, especially favorite stories, over and over again is how many kids "learn to read on their own." Gradually increase the level of the books. Or else you can just read any simple books with her, making an occasional phonetic comment along the way, but not too many. Make sure they have good art, it really helps the attention span.

Another way to sneak in long vowels is to play games with rhyming words. You could make large size cards with a word on each, and have her match up the ones that rhyme, or make up little two-line cloze poems, and have her say the word that comes next, like

I really HATE

to wake up ______.

or

I want to BAKE

a chocolate ______.

You don't even have to mention the silent 'e'. She will notice the pattern.

Edit: I find the thumbs downs to be fascinating evidence that some homeschool advocates believe that a public school teacher could not possibly have anything useful to contribute. I have a lot of experience working with divergent thinkers and alternative learners, so you would think we would be on the same side of the fence.

Answer 9

I personally would move on... but continue to emphisize the long "a" sounds. Unless you feel like she would seriously benefit from spending extra time grasping the long "a" but like I said I would still emphisize it even if you don't spend more time on it, I am sure she will pick it up when she is ready! Good luck!

Answer 10

Perhaps this is unrelated, perhaps not.  I also used that book with my two youngest before they entered Kindergarten with great success with the younger one only.  Some kids need to be different and will try to be funny, obstinate, or whatever just to be so.  Same kid who had trouble with the lessons also refused to include the letter "g" when reciting the alphabet.  I thought that was the weirdest thing ever.  Somehow they just couldn't get the path to that fact laid firmly in their brain.  Eventually they will so have patience, they will get it.  The only way to get better at something is to just do it.  Keep reading.