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Question

My son started Kindergarten on 8-22-08. A list of 25 "sight words" was sent home. These are words he should be able to read, ie mom, dad, red, like etc, just by looking at them. He knows 6 out of 25.

My problem is I'm having a terrible time getting him to focus (I swear he had ADD, but has never been formally tested). I started out having him say the letters in the word, then making the sounds and then putting them together (r-e-d). He does great with recognizing the letters and making the sounds, but can't seem to put them together.

He is easily distracted and has a 2 year old, attention starved brother at home. Sometimes it's impossible to get him to focus on what he already knows, let alone something he's trying to learn. Dad works 2nd shift so he's not home until 11:00 pm, so I can't have dad watch our youngest while I'm reviewing the words with our oldest.

I've started to break them up into groups of 5, like 5 before dinner, 5 after dinner, 5 after bath, etc to help with his focusing issues. My problem is what to do with my 2 year old. His bedtime is 7:30 and my 5 year old's bedtime is 8:00. Do I push back his bedtime to 8:30? Than that blows my whole "5 at a time" plan out of the water.

I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt in that he's never done anything like this before and we just started, but that doesn't mean I'm not getting frustrated

So, my questions are after my novel (sorry BTW), how do I handle my 2 year old while also trying to teach my 5 year old the words? Anyone know if any games I can make this into to make it more fun (he learns by doing not by listening)?

I know my question is long and sparatic and probably in the wrong section, but any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!

Answer 1

Actually, my son is in Kindergarten too and 25 sight words BY THE END OF THE YEAR is what is expected.  

I used Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann and he is reading at the beginning of first grade already...if you want to go that route... but it&#039;s not necessary.

So I guess my first suggestion is to do 5 until he masters them. And then move on to the next five but review the others as time goes on.  They are called sight words because they are very common but some are irregular and can&#039;t be &quot;sounded out&quot;.  So memorization is what is going to work best.

Cut out paper shapes and write the words in dark marker and tape to a wall, away from breakables.  Let him throw a bean bag at each one and tell you what the word is.  If he gets it wrong...just point to it and say what it is.    As for your little guy--- give him a bean bag and shapes on another wall to toss at...or something similar.

Draw a &quot;hopscotch&quot; board outside on the sidewalk with chalk.  Write each word you are working on in each square.  Have him hop to each square and tell you the word.  For the little guy- draw him his own hopscotch board with the letters in his name or basic shapes or pictures.

Go fishing... write a word w/ permanent marker onto a plastic &quot;counting/poker&quot; chip and attach a magent to the back.  Use those dollar store magnetic fishing rods or make your own and her him go fishing for the words.  Provide a fishing &quot;pond&quot; for your other son to do as well...incorporate shapes, colors etc.  You could use counting chips as well and not write anything on them for your 2 year old.

A variation to the above... tape a rectangle with the word onto your refrigerator.  Use magentic letters in your &quot;pond&quot; and go fishing for letters and have him place the letters he &quot;caught&quot; onto the fridge under the word it goes in.  Then read them.  

Do you bath your children together?  If not, you can use those foam letters to make the words on the side of your bathtub.

Shake and Spell- put letters to spell one word inside of a juice can or something similar.  Have him dump them out and spell that word (have the word written down for him to refer to.)  For the little guy- give him a can with the letters in his name or any object for that matter.  At two- they love to dump it out and put them back in.  If he&#039;s not oral...give him a can with a few pennies... cut a slit in the top of a container lid and let him put the pennies in...it will definately buy you time to work with you other son.

Play Concentration – Have two cards with the same word. Start with 5 words (10 cards).  Mix the words up.  Lay the cards face down so the words cannot be seen.  Have your child turn one word and then find the matching word.  If wrong, they turn the cards back over.  If they make a match they don’t get to keep the cards unless they can say the word and use it in a sentence.  For your little guy- give him a memory game- encourage him to turn the pieces over to find the matching pictures--- you don&#039;t need to play the actual game with him.

Puffed-up words – Use puffy paint to write each spelling word on a large index card.  It is vital that the words are written neatly in manuscript.  After the paint dries, your child can trace each letter while he/she says the names of the letter.  Do this three or four times.  Then have your child say the word and use it in a sentence.  After tracing the letters, your child can write the word.  For your little guy- give him his own &quot;puffed up cards&quot;- use individual letters or shapes.

Garage- create a garage with multiple &quot;doors&quot; or a parking lot with the words labeled in each slot.  Write the words onto a slip of paper and tape to the top of a car.  Have him drive the cars to their correct parking spot.  Your little guy will love you have a plain garage with some cards.

At 2- they can learn that they need to sit quietly next to you and do their &quot;game&quot; while you work with brother.  Call it brother time... and immediately after working with your 5 year old spend 5 minutes with the little guy.  They learn pretty quick...if it&#039;s expected.

As for your child having ADD... you know your child best...but consider that many males this age does not have much interest in &quot;reading&quot; especially sight words...it doesn&#039;t have much meaning for them... but it&#039;s something we have to learn so make it fun.  Use what is interesting for him to keep him focus and 5 is plenty enough words to do at a time.  You were on the right track with only doing 5 at a time...but don&#039;t worry so much about doing the 25 all in one day.  You can ask his teacher and clarify that this is 25 by the end of the school year.  :-)  Good luck!

Answer 2

hiya

I don&#039;t know how old a child starts kindergartern- here in the UK they go to nursery at 3 (morning or afternoons only) then &#039;reception&#039; at 4 which is full time school- maybe reception and kindergarten are the same?

I am guessing he is young though-

A little tip i hear people say A LOT is boys are not good concerntraters!

I feel you may be too concerned with his learning. He is a little boy and shouldnt be worrying about homework. He doesn&#039;t know all the words on the sheet so you are worrying he may not be clever and you want him to be so you have got focused on learning them. I really think you should sit back! I mean this with no mean-ness! But you have a 2 year old to look after too (i know what thats like i have 3 kids)~ and you should not have to ignore that child for the sake of him learning words...

Oh sorry i just noticed you say your son is 5! Right...

Do not make hi have less sleep because sleep is what helps them learn better...that would be a bad idea. Plus learning at night is the worst time of day to try.

Here is my suggestion. Make FLASH CARDS

Bright colours and thick marker pen. Write the words clearly. divide into 5 as you said before and preferrably use a different colour for each set of 5. (so 5 on pink , 5 on blue etc) then start with, say, pink cards. Pull those 5 out at breakfast time (i assume you can all eat together) and just show them to him, over &amp; over. Encourage your 2 year old to do it to- i know s/he wont be able to, but pretend to them they are good at it...if there are 5 words there, Like Mum, Dad, said, it and was your toddler will probably get the idea and start saying the words too!

Just keep showing one at a time again and again. Then at dinner time too, bring the same words out. Only do it for 5-10 mins at a time and dont bother if he is bored!

Keep on with those 5 words until he knows them. Dont confuse him by doing those 5 words, then bring out another 5 later in the day before he knows them! Otherwise it will take him longer to learn. If you keep up with these 5 words i would expect in a week or so he will know them. Then move onto another 5 (not forgetting to occasionally go back to the first set) and then after learning these 10, spend a week doing these 2 sets totally mixed together.

Don&#039;t get too fixated on it. I am currently training to be a primary school teacher and these very short bursts of repeated learning we are told is the most effective ...do each word at least 3 times and EVERYTIME the word is shown, say the word 3 times and make him say it 3 times...so when you show the word said, first you announce &#039;this word is SAID...SAID....the word is ...SAID...&#039; then say to your son to say it and make sure he repeats it 3 times. It makes learning quicker and helps for the brian pattern faster#

good luck. just remember he is very little and wont be expected to know all these words straight away- and you know what, even if all the other kids know them all, learning shouldnt be about competition espp at this age. some kids arent academic and it doesnt mean he wont do well in long term school life anyway!! good luck

Answer 3

Putting aside the question of why they aren&#039;t teaching the words in class, and the fact that 25 words is too many for a five year old to learn at once, here are a couple of suggestions.

1. Teach him 5 at a time and make sure he knows them before moving on to the next group.

2. Try writing them on cardboard and tracing the letters with glue and sprinkling on sand. Have him run his fingers along the letters as he says them.

3. Cut the words into individual letters. Give him the whole word to look at while her assembles the letters in order.

4. Alternate between having him choose the word you name from the group and you showing him a word to name.

As for timing, I&#039;d give this no more than 15 minutes a day, preferably after he&#039;s had time to decompress from school and not just before bedtime when he is tired. More than that is going to bore and frustrate him. I&#039;d also ask the teacher what is happening in class to reinforce your efforts. As for your 2 year old, if you limit it to one session a day I&#039;m sure you can find something special and quiet he can do to keep busy.

Kids learn to read when they are ready as long as there are no underlying disabilities. Ease up on your child. He needs to want to learn to read and this kind of thing is apt to have the opposite effect. Kindergarten has turned into boot camp in far too many places and until parents start standing up for their kids this nonsense will continue.

Answer 4

I am mom to a 3 year old and a 6 year old. First, let me say, children will read when they are ready... whether that&#039;s 5 or 9! And when they&#039;re grown up know one will care how old they were when they learned to read. Think of 5 close friends you have and try and guess how old each one was when they learned to read. Then ask yourself if that even matters. I highly recommend reading some books or blogs, etc on Unschooling and or Deschooling ourselves. That information has given my SO much peace of mind. Also, most schools use the Phonics approach to reading but that is debatable! There is also Whole Word recognition.. how we all used to learn to read. You wouldn&#039;t show a child a shirt and then point out the threads, buttons, etc... you would show him the whole shirt. Now, there are wonderful FREE websites, like Starfall reading, that make learning to read really fun with animated games.

We had a lot of trouble with my 6 year old in Public school and have since enrolled him in a humanistic education at a charter school. My three year old is already sitting at the computer playing PBS games like Word World and he is actually spelling already!

If you need to spend uninterrupted time, find some special things for your 2 year old to do when you&#039;re working with your 5 year old. Let them play the games on the computer. Most importantly relax... they are children and they need to do things on their own time. They are supposed to be hyper and playful. When I was in Kindergarten in the &quot;70&#039;s we played, and played and played. Ever since the No Child Left Behind act, these kids do not get to be kids anymore. My oldest had almost 2 hours of homework a night... in KINDERGARTEN! They had art ONE day a week, recess was a whopping 10 minutes long, certainly not enough time to unwind from class, find a playmate, figure out what to play, etc.

I have sacrificed earning money, so we are a One income family and you know what, it&#039;s worth it. These are my kids formidable years and I have the rest of my life to work and pay off debt. They have this time only once to be kids. Please, take a deep breath, slow down and ENJOY the ride :-)