All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[Akin]

actually i had already started with K1 boy and he responded quite well, maybe you can work with with him slowly but have to be very patient.[/quote]

[chrismei]

Hi Tamarind


I stopped P&J many months back and was trying to concentrate on teaching my gal’s phonics - blending as her enrichment school suggested to stop P&J as it is too boring… She is confused with some words like sat, ban…i think she is unable to identify the ending sound despite breaking up the words…

Recently, she took the initivate to read P&J-4 pages but she hated to break the words…and i believed it was because she used to read as whole word instead of breaking up…

what sld i do…

[tamarind]

mummaid:

Hi Tamarind,

I tried the phonics teaching method you shared in your blog. DS1 and me had great fun! He was able to pronounce most of the 3-letter words to my surprise. The fun part came in when I asked him to try to explain some of the words (eg. he explained 'Jam' as 'Jam' on the bread, traffic 'Jam'..etc). However, I have problem explaining present and past tense to him (eg. 'sit' vs 'sat'). Is it the right time to introduce present & past tense to a K1? Will I confuse him?

Hi mummaid,
It's great that you and your DS1 are having fun !

It is OK to start teaching present and past tense to him now. The best is not to use words to explain, but to actually act it out. For example, put a bear on a chair. Say \"The bear sits on the chair\". Then remove the bear, and say \"The bear sat on the chair.\" Remember that kids do not learn well by memorizing grammar rules, they learn best by reading and using the language in real life

[tamarind]

chrismei:

Hi Tamarind


I stopped P&J many months back and was trying to concentrate on teaching my gal's phonics - blending as her enrichment school suggested to stop P&J as it is too boring.. She is confused with some words like sat, ban..i think she is unable to identify the ending sound despite breaking up the words..

Recently, she took the initivate to read P&J-4 pages but she hated to break the words..and i believed it was because she used to read as whole word instead of breaking up......

what sld i do...

Some kids know phonics, but they do not like to show adults that they are using the phonics techniques. Like my boy, he will just read out the word without breaking it up. It is absolutely fine for kids to do so. In fact, we should not insist that a child try to break up words as they read. A child should read because they enjoy reading.

To check whether a child is good at phonics or not, parents can ask them to spell any 3 letter word. A child who knows phonics very well can spell any 3 letter phonetic words effortlessly. The more advanced ones can spell any 4 letter phonetic words starting with bl, br, cl, cr, etc.

The Peter and Jane books are well loved by millions of children around the world for over 40 years. Both my kids love them too. Peter and Jane are the best books for teaching kids to read, no other books are as efficient as these books. Adults should not think that the books are boring. Kids see things differently from adults. In fact I find that many children books are extremely boring But I always show that I enjoy reading the books in order to influence my kids positively.

In fact, I think that both my kids love books now, because I always show keen interest in reading their children's books

[jacsplace]

Tamarind, I agree with you about the P&J books. I have a few and my four-year-old is able to read most of the words, even though we don’t read those books every night. I think it’s also a combination of him and his kindy’s reading curriculum. Reinforcement really helps.


But, ultimately, no matter how patient I try to be with him, he plays the fool and will pretend not to words he read effortlessly just a few seconds ago. Then I stop. No point continuing. Try again another day.

[tamarind]

jacsplace:

Tamarind, I agree with you about the P&J books. I have a few and my four-year-old is able to read most of the words, even though we don't read those books every night. I think it's also a combination of him and his kindy's reading curriculum. Reinforcement really helps.


But, ultimately, no matter how patient I try to be with him, he plays the fool and will pretend not to words he read effortlessly just a few seconds ago. Then I stop. No point continuing. Try again another day.

jacsplace,
My boy did the same thing too when he was four years old I also just moved on.

[tamarind]

Dear all,

I found this very nice educational website :

http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.php

Suitable for kids 2 to 5 years old who are beginning to learn the alphabet. The best thing is that kids can also learn some simple Spanish, German, and French from this website.

For those who do not already know, the starfall.com is an excellent website for learning phonics and reading :

http://www.starfall.com/

It is possible for kids to learn all the 26 phonics letter sounds only by learning from http://www.starfall.com

[tamarind]

I often encounter parents who ask me what other books their kids should read besides Peter and Jane.


I have listed many wonderful picture books from my home library here. For every book, I have also indicated the reading level :

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/03/picture-books-from-my-home-library.html

[autumnbronze]

tamarind:

Dear all,

I found this very nice educational website :

http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.php

Suitable for kids 2 to 5 years old who are beginning to learn the alphabet. The best thing is that kids can also learn some simple Spanish, German, and French from this website.

Hi Tamarind,

Thanks for sharing.

I had a quick look at it and immediately saved it under Favourites. Will def try it out with DS

[buds]

tamarind:

I have listed many wonderful picture books from my home library here.

Nice home library, tam!