Let's talk reading curriculums for K through 1st... 2nd...(pretty please)

[Hobbes]

Since the whole school episode Emma and I have been doing 'homeschool' (it's what we call it) 30 minutes a day (except weekends). We started at 20, 30 seems her limit, of the 10 times or so we've done it she's enjoyed it all but one time. She likes the 'Papa-time' and I try to make it fun and low-pressure.

She hates being wrong or the thought that she could and she'll shut down. So we talked about how, when I do science, I'm wrong A LOT, and that is part of the process of learning. You get it wrong, try it a different way (or again), and eventually you learn to do it. Since she is proud I'm a scientist and likes "doing science" she seemed to 'get it' and I really try hard to not have pressure to be 'right' (she gets a star just for doing the 'homeschool'), 5 stars in a week and we have a papa-daddy-emma dance (she likes dancing).

Mostly it's been rhyming games, syllable games, matching picture games, building sentences games. I've just been culling stuff from a bunch of materials the teachers, friends or others have been giving me.

Of course on top of this we are doing Hogwarts Summer School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (about 3 times a week) and that is focused on the natural world (Care and Feeding of Magical Creatures) and cultures (Muggle Studies) with a dose of intrigue, clue deciphering and gathering potion materials for Hogwarts. This of course all gets tied into reading and writing in her journal.

So, I guess part of our homeschool curriculum, but I'd like something for our 30 minutes or so a day that is a bit more structured and outlined, something I can 'follow'

I've been doing some reading on reading and teaching it, and it's getting a bit confusing.. phonics, whole word, multisensory, whole word, whole language, etc.

Dang, I'm confused.

Someone gave me a book called "Reading Reflex" which is phono-graphix (which seems a blend of whole word and phonics? yet another 'method'). It looks good to me, but what do I know?

I also donwloaded sight word lists and cards, phoneme tables, etc, etc, etc.

Suggested curriculums, books? thoughts on the different methods of teaching reading? Can anyone categorize them for me in simple terms?

[hamamelis]

I have how to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons if you're interested in that. I never used it because we wound up not HSing.

[gfrach]

Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye might be helpful.

[lunita]

I like The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. It is systematic, scripted, includes game/manipulative ideas, and it progresses in a gentle, logical way. I came up with a ton if its content when I googled the book (I've never seen google books before! This is cool) http://books.google.com/books?id=gC9M7CtP8-0C&dq=ordinary+parent%27s+guide+to+teaching+reading&pg=PP1&ots=gBfJksAqJC&sig=OzZ8e9gdAnLBiGBBMGy9FPlaqm0&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fq%3Dordinary%2Bparent%2527s%2Bguide%2Bto% 2Bteaching%2Breading%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26client%3Dfirefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPA73,M1 For a good feel for what the book is like, check it out from about page 70 on.

Have you tried Bob Books? My girls loved them. Nothing else lets them have such early success with "reading a book." Nora Gaydos' little phonetic readers, and "Brand New Readers" http://www.brandnewreaders.com/TryOne.Pop.asp sight word/whole language readers (these are cute, fun, and a good way to memorize sight words, IMO). We also had phonetic readers from the library (I think they were from Modern Curriculum Press) and some from a discarded textbook place (I think they were Open Court). Having a bunch of VERY easy readers that only introduced one or two new sounds or sight words per book helped. It's okay if she memorizes the books, as long as she "reads" them while pointing to the words, IMO.

Has she played with Starfall yet? Do you have the Leapfrog Videos (The Word Factory, in particular)?

This is disjointed because I'm really distracted. I'll probably come back later to add something or clarify. I wanted to add that using something that allows Emma to feel the words, especially sight words, can be helpful. You can make flash cards and glue sand or beans or rice or whatever to the words so she can trace them with her fingers. Even just tracing the shape of regular written words can help some kids remember how to read and spell them.

Ack, I just burnt a batch of cookies!

I hope this helps!

[Brenda]

I have how to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons if you're interested in that. I never used it because we wound up not HSing.

This is what I have used with my girls and we just started it with Vincent.

I will say that we have never made it past lesson 50 or so before veering off to Bob books and other really easy readers, but I like the base the 100 easy lessons gives the kids.

[KMP]

She hates being wrong or the thought that she could and she'll shut down.

No advice but this was Madeline at that age. She'd get physically upset if she wrote something wrong, or said the wrong word because her brain was working too fast for her mouth. She got better as she matured, and learned to slow down.

She still is somewhat of a perfectionist at age 10 especially when it comes to her piano or karate studies.

[lunita]

Amanda was *very much* a perfectionist too, but she's mellowing. Sometimes I wish she'd care a little more, in fact.

I meant to say that what seemed to work best for Amanda and
Maia both was for me to simply provide a word to them if they hesitated/paused/stumbled. Asking them to go back and guess again, to sound it out, or making ANY commentary about the word being wrong seemed to be problematic. Just quietly saying the word was least disruptive to the flow of the lessons.

[Sherri]

My son hated 100 Easy Lessons and it would be hard to figure out where to start. I also think it would be hard to do with a child already reading to some degree, really hard. You can't simply skip ahead because you have to learn the techniques particular to the book, but you'd be going through a lot of lessons before getting to new skills for her. Let's just say she'll spend a lot of time saying "mmmmm"

Reading Reflex is about my favorite, actually. One thing looked for in a good reading program is "going both ways" in instruction, aural to visual and visual to aural (i.e. I say the word, you break it up into sounds, spell it, or write it as well as I show you a word and you read it to me). I like that there is a mix of activities for each collection of sounds taught, and it's helpful for even moderately kinesthetic learners to be able to move the words around. I definitely consider it a phonics approach, btw.

Phonics pathways (you want a fairly recent edition, I got a really old one on Amazon thinking it was the same as the one I'd seen, but it was missing many games) is a really good resource, particularly for the games.

If she still does speech therapy, some resources a speech therapist may have that we liked are Earobics software (you'll probably want Earobics II mostly), Say and Glue (perhaps below her level though), and the Vowel Scramble game.

One fun thing to do at home is to make labels for the objects in your home "table" "chair", etc. One day you could label parts of the body, too. Another fun thing (based on Sylvia Ashton Warner) is to have a time each day or week where she can ask for any word she wants. When we do this, I write them on cardstock, and the kids keep them in a manilla envelope. She can then have a "blank book" journal to write the words in herself. You can learn a lot about what words a child chooses, what words really stick with them, what themes they keep coming back to. Playing scrabble is obviously a good one, and I think there is an easier version for young kids.

Hooked on Phonics can also be good. I think she'd be at level 2 already. You should see if your local library system has it so she could test drive it. It's not best for "Daddy time", though, as most of the work is more independent.

20-30 minutes is actually a pretty good long time for a child to work on something 1-on-1 that they are struggling with.

The Hogwarts school thing is brilliant, btw. Think of ways you could expand that to include more word learning. She could draw a picture and write a short sentence about it.

I also think that whatever you do for 20-30 minutes a day will do wonders. It sounds like it's going well and she's working hard. If you have a number of games or an activity she loves, switch on the days she gets really frustrated. Then you are still learning, but she isn't banging her head against the wall.

Sherri


Sherri

[Hobbes]

Since the whole school episode Emma and I have been doing 'homeschool' (it's what we call it) 30 minutes a day (except weekends). We started at 20, 30 seems her limit, of the 10 times or so we've done it she's enjoyed it all but one time. She likes the 'Papa-time' and I try to make it fun and low-pressure.

She hates being wrong or the thought that she could and she'll shut down. So we talked about how, when I do science, I'm wrong A LOT, and that is part of the process of learning. You get it wrong, try it a different way (or again), and eventually you learn to do it. Since she is proud I'm a scientist and likes "doing science" she seemed to 'get it' and I really try hard to not have pressure to be 'right' (she gets a star just for doing the 'homeschool'), 5 stars in a week and we have a papa-daddy-emma dance (she likes dancing).

Mostly it's been rhyming games, syllable games, matching picture games, building sentences games. I've just been culling stuff from a bunch of materials the teachers, friends or others have been giving me.

Of course on top of this we are doing Hogwarts Summer School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (about 3 times a week) and that is focused on the natural world (Care and Feeding of Magical Creatures) and cultures (Muggle Studies) with a dose of intrigue, clue deciphering and gathering potion materials for Hogwarts. This of course all gets tied into reading and writing in her journal.

So, I guess part of our homeschool curriculum, but I'd like something for our 30 minutes or so a day that is a bit more structured and outlined, something I can 'follow'

I've been doing some reading on reading and teaching it, and it's getting a bit confusing.. phonics, whole word, multisensory, whole word, whole language, etc.

Dang, I'm confused.

Someone gave me a book called "Reading Reflex" which is phono-graphix (which seems a blend of whole word and phonics? yet another 'method'). It looks good to me, but what do I know?

I also donwloaded sight word lists and cards, phoneme tables, etc, etc, etc.

Suggested curriculums, books? thoughts on the different methods of teaching reading? Can anyone categorize them for me in simple terms?
I have to go to bed,

but can I just say that

I LOVE YOU ALL.

:love::hearteyes::hearts::heart::hugging:

Seriously, I've never met most of you, but this site has been a huge group of friends who give me a reality-check, learning-tool, steam-release, fun-n-games, boredom-killer, therapy-session, refuge, debate-forum, thought-provoker for me for nearly 5 years now.

From learning how to cut my food bills down by 2/3rds 5 years ago to this 'school' thing now...

Damn, what would I have done for the last 5 years without you all?!?!

[sarahs]

I have to go to bed,

but can I just say that

I LOVE YOU ALL.

:love::hearteyes::hearts::heart::hugging:

Seriously, I've never met most of you, but this site has been a huge group of friends who give me a reality-check, learning-tool, steam-release, fun-n-games, boredom-killer, therapy-session, refuge, debate-forum, thought-provoker for me for nearly 5 years now.

From learning how to cut my food bills down by 2/3rds 5 years ago to this 'school' thing now...

Damn, what would I have done for the last 5 years without you all?!?!


LOL! We all feel this way.

I found this book very helpful when my kids were in the learning to read phase. It has concrete advice and information that I found very reassuring.

http://www.amazon.com/Straight-About-Reading-Louisa-Moats/dp/B0012F4ASU/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214408640&sr=1-10

Oh and my 2nd is a major perfectionist as well. I am afraid it is still an issue so if you find a cure for that, let me know.

[gfrach]

my 2nd is a major perfectionist as well.
C is, too. It's really taken a lot of work to get him to try on some things because he becomes so afraid he's not going to do it well enough. Slowly, though, this is getting better, thankfully!

[laurata]

imo, reading reflex is painfully boring. I have no curriculum recs, but my girls like wizardsspell.com for spelling. they have a $10 trial subscription option. N, age 5, is doing 5 minute 3x a week with me by her side. We also practice reading from primary readers (BOB books, etc) a few times a week, and do sensory writing (drawing words in our millet and bean box).

[Hobbes]

I have how to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons if you're interested in that. I never used it because we wound up not HSing.
Sorry this took a while :(...

Thank you very much for the offer. I've decided to use Reading Reflex right now. It's about 12 weeks of stuff... so we'll see how it goes.

Thank you again!!!!

[Hobbes]

Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye might be helpful.
Great suggestion. I didn't realize it at first, but one of the learning specialists made copies of some of these games from that very book and I've actually played them last week.

SO on that recommendation and yours, I went to the library and got one and will be using that for our "homeschool"

Thanks.

[Tracy]

I have how to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons if you're interested in that. I never used it because we wound up not HSing.

Oh! I'm glad you posted this. I have been trying to remember the name of the book I'd heard was so good for beginning to read and this is it!

I am wanting to try it with Joshua and couldn't even remember who had spoken to me about it to ask them what the name was!

[gfrach]

She's written Games with Books, too, which might also be helpful. (Her other books are wonderful, too, IMO.)

[Hobbes]

I like The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. It is systematic, scripted, includes game/manipulative ideas, and it progresses in a gentle, logical way. I came up with a ton if its content when I googled the book (I've never seen google books before! This is cool) http://books.google.com/books?id=gC9M7CtP8-0C&dq=ordinary+parent%27s+guide+to+teaching+reading&pg=PP1&ots=gBfJksAqJC&sig=OzZ8e9gdAnLBiGBBMGy9FPlaqm0&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fq%3Dordinary%2Bparent%2527s%2Bguide%2Bto% 2Bteaching%2Breading%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26client%3Dfirefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPA73,M1 For a good feel for what the book is like, check it out from about page 70 on.

Have you tried Bob Books? My girls loved them. Nothing else lets them have such early success with "reading a book." Nora Gaydos' little phonetic readers, and "Brand New Readers" http://www.brandnewreaders.com/TryOne.Pop.asp sight word/whole language readers (these are cute, fun, and a good way to memorize sight words, IMO). We also had phonetic readers from the library (I think they were from Modern Curriculum Press) and some from a discarded textbook place (I think they were Open Court). Having a bunch of VERY easy readers that only introduced one or two new sounds or sight words per book helped. It's okay if she memorizes the books, as long as she "reads" them while pointing to the words, IMO.

Has she played with Starfall yet? Do you have the Leapfrog Videos (The Word Factory, in particular)?

This is disjointed because I'm really distracted. I'll probably come back later to add something or clarify. I wanted to add that using something that allows Emma to feel the words, especially sight words, can be helpful. You can make flash cards and glue sand or beans or rice or whatever to the words so she can trace them with her fingers. Even just tracing the shape of regular written words can help some kids remember how to read and spell them.

Ack, I just burnt a batch of cookies!

I hope this helps!
I haven't tried Bob's books...

but I just bought the first four sets (used but very good shape) and should be getting them soon.

She does have Word Factory. She loves it and now we are letting her watch it more often.

I like the sight words (another yaapster suggested Fry's list, so I have that) and think I'll make some flash cards for her to learn those words... become fluent in them... as we learn them by sound. I've got some large glitter (you can feel) I'll put on the letters so she can learn them tactilely (sp?).

Hope the cookies weren't too burnt!

[Hobbes]

Since the whole school episode Emma and I have been doing 'homeschool' (it's what we call it) 30 minutes a day (except weekends). We started at 20, 30 seems her limit, of the 10 times or so we've done it she's enjoyed it all but one time. She likes the 'Papa-time' and I try to make it fun and low-pressure.

She hates being wrong or the thought that she could and she'll shut down. So we talked about how, when I do science, I'm wrong A LOT, and that is part of the process of learning. You get it wrong, try it a different way (or again), and eventually you learn to do it. Since she is proud I'm a scientist and likes "doing science" she seemed to 'get it' and I really try hard to not have pressure to be 'right' (she gets a star just for doing the 'homeschool'), 5 stars in a week and we have a papa-daddy-emma dance (she likes dancing).

Mostly it's been rhyming games, syllable games, matching picture games, building sentences games. I've just been culling stuff from a bunch of materials the teachers, friends or others have been giving me.

Of course on top of this we are doing Hogwarts Summer School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (about 3 times a week) and that is focused on the natural world (Care and Feeding of Magical Creatures) and cultures (Muggle Studies) with a dose of intrigue, clue deciphering and gathering potion materials for Hogwarts. This of course all gets tied into reading and writing in her journal.

So, I guess part of our homeschool curriculum, but I'd like something for our 30 minutes or so a day that is a bit more structured and outlined, something I can 'follow'

I've been doing some reading on reading and teaching it, and it's getting a bit confusing.. phonics, whole word, multisensory, whole word, whole language, etc.

Dang, I'm confused.

Someone gave me a book called "Reading Reflex" which is phono-graphix (which seems a blend of whole word and phonics? yet another 'method'). It looks good to me, but what do I know?

I also donwloaded sight word lists and cards, phoneme tables, etc, etc, etc.

Suggested curriculums, books? thoughts on the different methods of teaching reading? Can anyone categorize them for me in simple terms?
Quick Update:

We've done over 2 weeks of "homeschool" (we both call it that) which is 30-40 minutes a day now of using "Reading Reflex" as our guide to learning letters, phonemes and reading. We 'review' previous lessons and then do the next one. We use word games from Games with Words at the end of our lessons that fit the lesson and we will start reading Bob books at night along with my reading to her.

It's going well. She enjoys (for the most part) our time together and at least for the first 20 minutes she is focused :D. She's FLYING through the first chapter of lessons (chapter three of the book), these are three letter words and straight-forward phonemes like sat, ben, bug, etc. At the rate we are going through these, we'll be done this chapter mid-July. The next chapter is double consonants and four letter words... she struggles with that now (though she can get it), so that might go a bit slower. The last chapter of lessons is other 'sound pictures' like sh, ch, ai, etc. That will be the longest chapter (in time it takes, it's actually on the short side in length).

We will supplement as we go along. Using our Hogwart's school as a reinforcement of lessons (though trying not to make it too obvious :D).

So far I'm feeling confident, but I'm sure we'll hit a few snags along the way... we'll just keep going.

I talked to a preschool teacher in the other class who told us she thought the suggestion to hold her back was wrong (and very poorly done). Apparently she got an earful from our learning specialist (who did the retention suggestion) for undermining her.... but she stood up for herself and said she was speaking as a parent (her daughter is in Emma's class) and not as Emma's teacher...

anyway, this teacher said even if retention is the absolute wrong thing to do (which she thinks is true too), at least this 'got our attention' and Emma will eventually benefit from all the added focus. It's true to an extent. We were planning to focus on this a bit, but nothing like we are now.

sheesh... not the best way to go about it to say the least... and this teacher agrees, the learning specialist was unprofessional (and she said something I thought but did not say... she thinks there is a aspect of "neophyte" overzealousness and overreaching here... first year as a learning specialist... etc.).