phonics for 5 year old? (Homeschooling)

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My daughter just turned 5 and she is learning to write the alphabet on her own. Any suggestions on how to help her? She goes to preschool twice/week, but I think they just play. I'm not trying to push her, but she wants to learn.

-- bill harrington (bill@msn.com), December 20, 2001

Answers

Response to phonics for 5 year old?

I"ve used a book called "TEach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Engelmann. She doesn't have to know letters at all - this teaches the phonics, gradually. You work with her 20 minutes or less a day. At the end of the book, she'll be reading at a late 1st or early 2nd grade level. Check on Half.com for a used copy.

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), December 20, 2001.

Response to phonics for 5 year old?

I'm using the same book, 100 Easy Lessons..... My son is 5 and is only on lesson 16 and he can already read simple books.

I also buy the workbooks they have at Sam's Club Warehouse. They have tear out worksheets, on Phonics and Reading etc... He really loves doing them. The books cost about $5 each.

-- Anita in NC (anitaholton@mindspring.com), December 20, 2001.


I have a 5 year old son. He has seen the television ads for the Leap Frog "thing". Bless his heart . . . he's believes the ads. He thinks if he just has a Leap Frog he will magically learn to read with no effort on his part.

I do have a book, Alpha-Phonics, by Samuel L. Blumenfeld. It is highly recommended by the Davis family who run The Elijah Company (homeschooling mail-order company). Since my son did show some interest in learning to read, we've started with this book. I don't think my son is ready to put forth the effort yet.

I read gobs and gobs on homeschooling. Apparently, children can vary widely in when they are ready to learn to read. I do think it is important to try whenever they show any interest.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

-- Mel Carroll in NC (frank.a.carroll@worldnet.att.net), December 20, 2001.


My son is five and we just started a new program called "Home Run Reading". It starts with the basic letters and goes to reading etc. I absolutly love it. I bought it new ,still in the plastic, at a yard sale so I don't know what they cost, but I would buy it again. It is so good. It has 4 big work books and 4-5 tapes for each workbook. They go over each lesson with them and he is already learning to read and do things on his own. Good luck!

-- Micheale from SE Kansas (mbfrye@totelcsi.net), December 20, 2001.

Abeka Book has an excellent phonics program. You might also get the alphabet cards for her to play with, that you can just pick up at Walmart, or anywhere.

-- mary (mlg@aol.com), December 20, 2001.


Read to her all the time! Read the signs at the grocery store and along the road. Read the newspaper (selectively, of course). Read the packages from foods. Read books and magazines. Read people's shirts. Read anything! My daughter's first read word was "no" and she read it off a street sign when we were riding down the road. When you are reading, let her pick out the letters of words, or pick out a word of her choice. For instance, if you are reading Goldilocks and the three bears, she could select the word "bears" (or the letter "b"), then have her find it all through the book. Some kids learn letters first, then learn to put them into words. Some kids learn word recognition first, then learn to divide them into letters. Make learning fun and she'll want to do it always. That is the most important thing right there. Oh, and working on reading every day isn't pushing her, and if you have short lessons throughout the day that are intertwined with normal daily activities she won't even notice that she's working...it will just be more play. Have fun...it is so exciting to see them learn to read. It opens a whole new world to them. Don't worry if it seems to go slow at first. Often times the kids will just sort of muddle along for a bit, then suddenly they get it and and they're off and reading!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), December 21, 2001.

I have taught reading to children and adults for almost 15 years. The big thing with children is not to push, or it will no longer be fun. The best thing is to read to your child. They can follow along and will learn from you speaking the words and seeing the "pictures"- which is how the brain responds to the written word. Many studies show that little girls are ready to read before little boys. It has to do with the brain developing verbal and picture skills. Baby girls often learn to speak before baby boys. Many young boys are taught to read before their brains are ready and this sets them up for a life of frustration.

Interesting note: In Waldorf Schools, children are not taught to read until the second grade. These children are more likly to become life time readers and rarely need prescription glasses, unlike most public school children.

In our loving desire to see our children do well, many children are taught to read before they are ready. Anyone without a learning disability can learn to read - they just don't always do it according to our schedule. So go to the library, pick a few good books and read them together. She will be reading to you before you know it.

-- diane greene (greenwitch@catskillnativenursery.com), December 21, 2001.


My daughter taught herself to read at age three using a Listen and Learn with Phonics set we purchased at a bookstore. It had casette tapes and flash cards. She would put the tapes in her player and follow along in the books. She also loved the books that came with tapes. Of course, I had been reading to her since before she was born, and I always have my nose in a book, so perhaps that influenced her. I'm not much of a believer in prescribed ages for learning skills, but I do believe in teaching children what they want to know when they ask to learn it (or providing them with the materials to self-learn).

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), December 21, 2001.

Diane, it sounds like you have been teaching the look-say method of reading, which is akin to teaching Chinese ideographs. It's no wonder so many children graduate from high school still essentially illiterate. English is a phonetic language, not a pictorial language, and needs to be taught as such. I have people in my family who learned to read phonetically, and people who learned to read by the look-say method, and without exception, the ones who learned phonics FIRST read much better, spell better, and ENJOY reading more. My husband was taught by look-say and thinks he's dyslexic, which is an invention of the public school system to cover up what a poor job they are doing of teaching children to read.

Samuel Blumenfeld is excellent, I've used a couple of his books.

Children do definitely come to a point of being ready to read at different times, but most of them should be ready to start by the age of six. If they are younger than that and *want* to learn to read, by all means start (with a good phonics program), but there's no need to push them. Reading aloud to them will give them a desire to read and a love of reading, plus it's a good way to spend time together, and to pass on some of your values.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), December 21, 2001.


Bill,

We have been homeschooling for 6 years. I have just finished teaching my third child to read. He is a very active 5 year old. We have used "Sing, Spell, Read and Write". The really neat thing about this program is it approaches reading from all the sences. (Sing, play, watch a video, write you get the idea!)

It has been completly painless and makes it fun for these little guys. Having just finished the program I would estimate my sons reading ablity at a min. of 3rd grade.

Although it is pricy ($170.00ish) you can re-use it if you make plans and of course you can always resell for atleast half the cost.

Good Luck and enjoy watching you little one learn!

Julie

-- julie glover (gloverteam@aol.com), December 21, 2001.



Oops - I did not mean to imply that phonetics should not be a part of learning to read. I just deal with many parents and children that think there is a magic method out there to teach instant reading. I have had parents proudly claim they no longer read to their children because the computer programs or reading tapes are so much better. Kathleen is correct in putting an emphasis on learning phonetics. Best to all.

-- diane greene (greenwitch@catskillnativenursery.com), December 23, 2001.

The easiest way I have found (am now teaching my 5th child to read) is to get a copy of A Beka's "Handbook for Reading" and go through it a page a day. At first, we took two or three days on the same page; as they got better at it, they could do up to five pages a day. I set the timer for 15 minutes and stopped when the timer went off. I gradually increase the time by 5-minute increments, until we are up to 30 minutes. I have noticed that if it seems like a particular phonics "rule" isn't getting through, I back off and go a day or so without "school". When we come back to it, it seems like something has "clicked" and they breeze right through. Penmanship lessons can be copied from the book as they learn each letter.

-- Cathy N. (notmyaddy@noviruses.com), December 23, 2001.

The christian light learning to read series is a very good phonetic reading series, not to expensive, although very Christian based as the name implies. Easy to use, and the reader that goes along with it only uses what they have learned so far so they feel very successful.

-- Novina in ND (homespun@stellarnet.com), January 30, 2002.

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