All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[buds]

MLR:

Hiya buds


Thank you for the advise. I hv started doing the point to the letters as I read since he was 15 months old, thats when he started talking proper words, in phrases. Its was his 1st love - dinosaurs. Guess I m on the right path, will go check out the songs section. Flashcards don't work well with him.

Many thanks.

Yeah, flashcards dun work for every kiddie.
Neither do many other materials. We work
with what interests our own child our own
way to escalate his learning explorations.
Keep introducing different things and bb
will show you the one he likes to work
with...

Mine the same, flashcards didn't work for
the earlier stages but later on when they
were older. Just didn't totally stop trying.
Eventually when the flashcard was able to
hold their concentration better, i went on
with it tho still ultimately working with
more concrete activities each time too.
Mine were more hands-on babies i should
say, like to explore with hands for tactile,
(and taste too! - oh how babies love to
test things with their mouth ain't it..), smell,
and sounds - (very sensitive to sounds)..

So i wud show concrete objects for them to
feel and sing or play an audio track related
to the sound i was teaching..

Sigh, was gonna post up some pictures of
different CD selections but i have trouble
uploading them the whole night.. so i post
reply first, ok and see how to work the
image posting later on..

Aniwaes, yes... you're on the right track.
Fast track at that too i must add.. Well done.

:celebrate:

[buds]

Heyya MLR,


Here's one of them, available at Popular.
Comes with written activities with colouring
and written pages plus penmanship practise
as well. An audio CD included. S$12.90 if i
remember correctly.

http://www.postimage.org/

[buds]

Here's the usual kind most schools

and parents use.. i bought this from
an exhibition. About S$26 or S$27.
Ants on the apple picture book with
lyrics and an audio CD.


http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pqyr7O9

[tamarind]

Hi buds and MLR,

I did not use any flashcards to teach my kids A,B,C,s and the phonics sounds. Both my kids learn all the letter sounds simply by watching the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD ! For reinforcements, I let my boy play with alphabet puzzles, and use books with lots of pictures.

When I started to teach my boy to join letters to form 2 and 3 letter words, I made my own cards. But these are not \"flash\" cards. I don't flash them. If I simply flash the cards, my boy will not pay attention at all.

First I taught him to read at, an, ap.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3614/3397774650_ef4abc872d.jpg\">

Then I mix up the cards. I say \"an\", and ask him to pick up the correct card for me (I don't tell him which card) Then I continue to say one word at a time, until he picks up all the cards for me.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3472/3397782612_37aa46b4bf.jpg\">

The next step is to teach the 3 letter words. I taught my boy to read using the letter sounds, for example, \"c\" - \"at\".
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3584/3396984721_ef39afccf9.jpg\">

Then I give my boy the card and ask him to put under the correct column.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3606/3396991361_0c116eb96c.jpg\">

This method worked very very well for my boy, who has a very short attention span, and has very itchy fingers. He really have to pay attention and think so that he can pick up the right card. He especially enjoys the part where he can help to mix up the cards.

He completed learning the whole course of phonics this way. He did not know that he is learning. He thought that he was playing games all along.

More details in my blog.
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html

[tamarind]

buds:

Heyya tamarind,


Ya know the ghoti joke too?
All right, girl! Cute how they
put it, aye?

Ya, its true. Many rules to grammar.
Many different steps to reading
efficiently. The words in English
are all different and some are
derived from words of other
languages... like from French
words. As English is that complex,
the proven way to be in good command
is to read a lot and use it a lot...

Phonics IS another aide meant for
words that can be decoded but for
others that cannot be so, its just
plain sight.

Hi buds,
Totally agree ! My hubby told me that he learn phonics by watching \"Sesame Street\". I wonder if you have watched it before.

My point is just that parents should not put too much emphasis on phonics. Like I read somewhere that children must be sent to phonics schools to be taught by the \"experts\".

The fact is that any parent who can read English, already has a basic understanding of phonics, and they can teach their kids phonics at home. There are many helpful and free resources in the internet, like the excellent http://www.starfall.com.

BTW, have you come across any other good graded readers for children besides the Ladybird key word reading scheme (Peter and Jane) ? My kids' schools are using the Rigby readers which I think are not as good as the Ladybird series.

[buds]

Heyya tamarind, yes I have seen them!

Can say one of my favourite-cannot-miss
shows of all time... t'was indirect teaching
via TV series, hehee.. :lol:

Phonics is not thee only way to learn reading.
Heck, i didn't remember anything i did that
was phonics based. Mostly sight reading and
exposed to many many different readers..

But as of today, it has become a widely
commercialized programme to so call super
accelerate a child's reading ablities, from even
the youngest of kiddies to work with...

Though having said the above, it is also not accurate
to generalise a blanket statement that all parents
go to such organizations to fast forward a child's
abilities to be quite the linguist either..

Parents who can afford the time to self-teach
their children will definitely make the effort..
but there will be others who see phonics pgrm
as a need to assist their children in the way
they just cannot due to time constraints.

The other reason would be that there are parents
who feel they are not versed to teach - meaning
that they may not necessarily have the knowledge
to teach the area or may not know the technique
enough to make it work, hence fearing it may
confuse a child even more.

So thats a possible reason why there won't be a
supply without the demand.

In any ways, this forum provides an avenue for
all parents out there who are in the know, to share
their knowledge and experiences working this area
regardless of the different usage of methodologies.
We can all use the one that works best for our own
children..

Cheerios!
:celebrate:

[buds]

I don’t so much as flash either but more to using

cards as another tool to introduce children to vocab
ie. cards with pictures… cards with numbers, etc…

I have seen Fitzroy Readers. Nice graphics. Incorporates
phonetic words graded their own way with the inclusion
of the much needed high-frequency (sight-words).

Ya, Rigby more to thematic and also pure sight reading
readers. My K2 also uses that in her school. But good
thing is the Rigby Readers comes with activity sheets.
those who have used Phonics to introduce children to
reading will find the structure of Rigby Readers a little
cluttered… like not in a systematic order of learning
sounds. But i am ok with it for the pure sake of exposing
to different types of readers… like how i was introduced
to before during my early years with the effort of my
parents.

Ya, i too like the Peter and Jane series. And having tried
and tested that… we know that it will work collaboratively
with Phonics introduction rather nicely, without the pricey
investment.

Letterland story readers are very colourful and interestingly
put together and with carefully thought of sequence - tho it
can be considered a rather pricey investment for set of readers.

[buds]

I will check my resource library and let

you know of more good ones okay!

Chow!

[tamarind]

[quote]
Parents who can afford the time to self-teach
their children will definitely make the effort..
but there will be others who see phonics pgrm
as a need to assist their children in the way
they just cannot due to time constraints. [/quote]buds,
It actually takes much more time and effort to send a child to phonics class, as compared to teaching at home.

I sent my older girl to Montessori phonics class when she was almost 4 years old. The course was about 11 months. It was only for one hour a week on Saturday afternoons, and the school was only 5 minutes away by car. But I had to wait for her outside, and by the time we got home, I felt like the whole Saturday afternoon was gone. After every lesson, the teachers showed the parents how to teach the day's lesson, and emphasized that parents must practice with the child at home. So we still have to spend time teaching the child at home.

I actually feel that I save a lot of time by teaching my boy at home. I only teach him for less than 15 minutes a day in the comfort of our own home. It is so relaxing, and most importantly, teaching my boy is a great way of bonding with him.

I honestly do not feel that the Montessori phonics teachers are \"experts\" at all. They probably just went through a short course, and they simply follow the phonics materials to teach. Phonics is not rocket science. English educated mommies should be able to learn phonics very quickly. Given the phonics materials, anyone (who can read English well) can teach phonics. The best thing is that we can always invent our own methods to teach phonics. We all know that phonics is taught in many different ways : Jolly, Letterland, Zoophonics, Montessori, starfall.com, Leapfrog, Sesame Street None of these methods can claim to be the absolute authority of teaching phonics.

Also we must not forget that English is not phonetic. Personally I feel that it may be good enough for a child to just know how to join letters to form 3 letter words. In fact, my boy started to read the Peter and Jane series after he knew how to read 3 letter words, and he is able to progress very well. The more advanced rules of phonics, like the long and short vowels, can be very confusing to a child. In fact, I simply taught my boy using the silent \"e\" method (from the Leapfrog DVD), I don't bother about explaining long and short vowels at all. I think my boy learns many words by sight as he reads the Peter and Jane series. I have heard of other children who learn very well using sight words, which may be better than trying to make them understand long and short vowels.

[tamarind]

buds:

I don't so much as flash either but more to using

cards as another tool to introduce children to vocab
ie. cards with pictures.. cards with numbers, etc..

I have seen Fitzroy Readers. Nice graphics. Incorporates
phonetic words graded their own way with the inclusion
of the much needed high-frequency (sight-words).

Ya, Rigby more to thematic and also pure sight reading
readers. My K2 also uses that in her school. But good
thing is the Rigby Readers comes with activity sheets.
those who have used Phonics to introduce children to
reading will find the structure of Rigby Readers a little
cluttered... like not in a systematic order of learning
sounds. But i am ok with it for the pure sake of exposing
to different types of readers... like how i was introduced
to before during my early years with the effort of my
parents.

Ya, i too like the Peter and Jane series. And having tried
and tested that... we know that it will work collaboratively
with Phonics introduction rather nicely, without the pricey
investment.

Letterland story readers are very colourful and interestingly
put together and with carefully thought of sequence - tho it
can be considered a rather pricey investment for set of readers.

What I like about the Peter and Jane series, is that it starts out so simple.

Page 1. Peter
Page 2. Jane
Page 3. Peter and Jane.

Any child can manage that. Then it repeats the same words, adding only one or two new words on each page. I have seen other readers, like the Rigby and Magic Schoolbus series, where the first page has more than 5 words. A child who does not know how to read will lose confidence at the very first page.