All About Teaching and Learning Phonics
-
hi tamarind,
i have another qn, is it too early to introduce P and J to my 2.5 yr old.
To be honest , P and J can be quite a boring book with not so exciting pictures, how do i read to her? How many pages a day?
since she is still learning phonics now( but i think a bit stucked) how to associate the phonics w reading, i dun she can read based on phonics, should i train her to remember the sight words/ memorise words instead?like doing flashcards?
I am really impressed that ur kids can read books of sec 1 level at 6 yrs old!! its amazing, i dun think my ger can do that but i just want her to like reading n be able to read on her own prob by 4 yrs old.
We do read everynight and in fact she likes to read but its moe of me reading the stories, and she will be more interested in the pictures, flipping e pages n interrupting me. How? if i force her to look at the words as i read, she will seem bored....
dunno what to do. -
Hi Tamarind,
How do you get your kid to read other wordy books when they are able to read up to P&J level 11? Do they also just read a couple of pages everyday? Will they remember what they read yesterday to remember the plot of the story?
My kids (turning 3 in Sep) are currently reading one page of book 11a each day. I treat P&J as some kind of study book, more for systematic introduction of new words than for reading for leisure. I am still pointing out the words for them to read. For other fun reading, they are reading much simpler books (colourful and much less wordy). I tried wordier books from the library but they do not seem to have the ‘stamina’ to finish the books at one seating. But the good thing is they enjoy taking those simple few liner books and read by themselves… -
sean wife:
Hi Tamarind,
How do you get your kid to read other wordy books when they are able to read up to P&J level 11? Do they also just read a couple of pages everyday? Will they remember what they read yesterday to remember the plot of the story?
My kids (turning 3 in Sep) are currently reading one page of book 11a each day. I treat P&J as some kind of study book, more for systematic introduction of new words than for reading for leisure. I am still pointing out the words for them to read. For other fun reading, they are reading much simpler books (colourful and much less wordy). I tried wordier books from the library but they do not seem to have the 'stamina' to finish the books at one seating. But the good thing is they enjoy taking those simple few liner books and read by themselves...
Hi Sean Wife,
When my kids finished the Peter and Jane series, both before 5 years old, I continued to let them read one or two pages out loud from thick novels. Now they read about 4 to 5 pages, and sometimes up to 10 pages out loud at one time (each page about 200 words).
They have always been reading many other books of their choice silently on their own, some books are simple, other books are very thick.
Are your kids able to read out loud from book 11 very fluently, without any help from you ? If they can do so, then that is very amazing for 3 year old kids.
However, do note that many thick English books may be too difficult to understand for 3 year old children. You still have to find books that they can understand. I don't advise you to let them read Charlotte's Web, that book is better appreciated by children who are at least 5 or 6 years old.
Also note young kids should still read lots of picture books.
Quote:
\"No matter if they are reading above grade level when they are between the ages of 5-9, their books should always contain some pictures to help them develop their comprehension. He may be able to read at 5, but the development of visual perception probably isn't at the same level. Pictures will continue to help develop this very important skill.\"
Try the original Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne. Also try these books :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/03/picture-books-from-my-home-library.html -
genice:
hi tamarind,
i have another qn, is it too early to introduce P and J to my 2.5 yr old.
To be honest , P and J can be quite a boring book with not so exciting pictures, how do i read to her? How many pages a day?
since she is still learning phonics now( but i think a bit stucked) how to associate the phonics w reading, i dun she can read based on phonics, should i train her to remember the sight words/ memorise words instead?like doing flashcards?
I am really impressed that ur kids can read books of sec 1 level at 6 yrs old!! its amazing, i dun think my ger can do that but i just want her to like reading n be able to read on her own prob by 4 yrs old.
We do read everynight and in fact she likes to read but its moe of me reading the stories, and she will be more interested in the pictures, flipping e pages n interrupting me. How? if i force her to look at the words as i read, she will seem bored.... dunno what to do.
Hi genice,
Parents should not read the Peter and Jane books to their kids. These books are designed for kids to read every word out loud on their own. So you should point to every word and ask your girl to read out loud, you should help her only when she does not remember the word.
Please read this page for more explanation :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/12/key-words-with-ladybird.html
I have heard of parents who read the Peter and Jane books many times to their kids, this is not going to be effective at all.
The Peter and Jane books train kids to read fluently and confidently, and many kids have developed a love for the books.
Your girl is still very young. My advise is to concentrate on phonics first, make sure that she knows how to join 3 letters to form words before starting on the Peter and Jane books. It will be a lot easier for her. Children who have a very good foundation in phonics will naturally know how to read phonetic words, or even remember sight words with the help of phonics. The Peter and Jane books are excellent for teaching sight words, there is no need to use flash cards, just point and ask the child to read out loud from the Peter and Jane books.
If your girl does not seem to be interested, that means she may not be ready to learn to read yet. Remember that every child is different and progresses at a different pace. I only started to teach my boy phonics and reading when he was 3 years 3 months old. Before that, I only let him play games to learn the 26 letters, and also learn all the letter sounds from the Leapfrog DVD. My older girl started even later at 3 years 8 months old. However, she was able to read Charlotte's Web fluently at 5 years old, thanks to her very strong foundation in phonics and also the Peter and Jane series.
You should focus on teaching the letter sounds and phonics first. In general, kids can start to read the Peter and Jane books at around 3 to 4 years old. Although there may be exceptions. -
genice:
Hi genice,
There are a few problems here:
1) she is confused betwwen letter names and sounds.
2) she does not seem to recognise all the letters, sometimes when she does she will either tell me thir sound or sometimes names.
3)she does not seem to be interested in learning, any other ways to teach her to differentiate between e names n sounds?
4) i myself is not gd at phonics, i am pretty confused of the sounds a, o , u and l. any other ways to learn them? i tried watching starfall so many times but still cant get it..
Don't be upset, my boy used to be the same even at 3 years 3 months old !
It takes time for a child to learn. My boy also could not recognize all the letters at 3 years old. He knew most of them, but he was often confused with \"b\" and \"d\", and even \"n\" and \"h\".
My advise is to give her more time, most kids should take about 1 to 2 years to learn the letters.
Besides the Leapfrog DVDs, I also used many resources like these :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2009/10/first-step-teaching-b-c.html
My boy actually knew the letter sounds instead of the letter names at that age. This is absolutely fine for him because when he sees a word, he naturally knows how to use the sounds to form a word. This has actually helped him to learn to read much faster. This also helps him to spell effortlessly, because when he hears a word, he knows how to break it down into the letters. He only knew the letter names better at around 4 to 5 years old, when he was already reading very fluently.
I don't think you need to worry about confusing letter names and letter sounds.
buds has a different opinion, she thinks that parents should teach letter names first
As for your girl not interested in learning, that is perfectly normal for a 2.5 year old child. I had to think of all sorts of games to play with my boy at 3 years old in order to teach him phonics. Try to use games to teach
As for you learning phonics, do you have the Leapfrog Talking Words DVD ? If you can understand that DVD, then that should be good enough for now. Just watch it many times with your girl, that's was how I learned too.
Remember that learning takes time. It is great that you are teaching your girl now at 2.5 years old, by 6 years old, she should be reading very fluently. Set yourself a milestone for every year. For example :
1. learn all the letter sounds by 3 years old
2. learn how to join 3 letters to form a word by 4 years old
3. start to read Peter and Jane book 1 by 4 years old
4. able to read books with a few sentences by 5 years old
These were actually the milestones that I set for my boy I am very happy that he has progressed much faster than I expected, but I would have felt OK so long as he could meet all the milestones.
-
Here is an interesting article :
Teaching Letter Names vs Letter Sounds
http://socyberty.com/education/teaching-letter-names-vs-letter-sounds/ -
Hi Tamarind,
Yes, they can read all the word without help…except those words which they are seeing for the first time, e.g. dinghy. As for fluency, sometimes they tend to skip one two words and sometimes add in some extra words. Sometimes, when they start to slow down and shows reluctance to continue, I will start the first word of some sentence to get them going… I find that they can read more fluently when they read faster.
I do borrow many picture books from the library and read a few to them daily. Mostly they dun mind reading the first few pages but got tired and then only want me to read…
Ya, you are right…maybe I need to work more on their comprehension skills first…so far I do not really test their understanding of the storyline of P&J as I tend to treat them as study materials rather than storybooks… -
laughingcat:
HELLO Buds :rahrah: Thanks so much for the advise. I really need it ...hehehehe :lol:
You are always welcome.
I'm embarrassed that i sometimes cannot reply
to queries as quickly as i want to due to the many
commitments and i'd hate to keep parents waiting.
But i do go by better late than never.laughingcat:
Phew!Your advise came in just in time. As I have finished with the initial consonant blends and that is when I felt stuck :whut:
Lucky me then that i'm not too late. :oops:laughingcat:
You will come to long words with triple consonant blends when youOkie....shall try out the triple consonant blends. I was thinking of skipping this actually and just go straight into long vowels. heheheh seems like I can't take the short cut way.
start to go into the long vowels stage anyhow, ya know? So,
either you gao tim that now or you still hafta deal with it later.
Teaching appropriately (and not fast forward / short cut) will mean
that you do not have to revisit the basics or what should come first.
It will only hold the child back. The idea is to move forward at a
steady and regular pace. At times, in parents' anxiousness to get
their children to read the long and difficult words, they forget that
their children R still children. Whatever progress that is shared by
other friends or relatives for that matter cannot be compared with
your own.. it can somtimes give parents unnecessary stress.
You know your child best and give him/her the room to grow and
develop the learning skills the best way they can so that they can
achieve their potential accordingly.
All children are different and special in their own way and they
also have their own preferred learning style. It IS good however,
to at least know the milestones your children need to achieve yr
by year so that you can keep track of your child's progress and
tailor make your teaching ideas to fit that and his/her learning
styles. If parents can tap into the child's learning style, children
have the potential to accelerate in their learning experiences
more than we know...
As parents, observe your child and work towards fulfilling that
hidden potential in him/her which is waiting to be discovered...
Regards, buds.
-
sean wife:
Hi sean wife,Hi Tamarind,
Yes, they can read all the word without help...except those words which they are seeing for the first time, e.g. dinghy. As for fluency, sometimes they tend to skip one two words and sometimes add in some extra words. Sometimes, when they start to slow down and shows reluctance to continue, I will start the first word of some sentence to get them going... I find that they can read more fluently when they read faster.
I do borrow many picture books from the library and read a few to them daily. Mostly they dun mind reading the first few pages but got tired and then only want me to read...
Ya, you are right...maybe I need to work more on their comprehension skills first....so far I do not really test their understanding of the storyline of P&J as I tend to treat them as study materials rather than storybooks....
It's amazing that your kids can read Peter and Jane book 11 without help at 3 years old. My kids also used to skip words or add extra words, they are much better when they have read many more books.
After Peter and Jane, you should still continue to ask them to read other books out loud to you, one page will do. Then when they have more stamina, increase to 2 pages. Try the original Winnie the pooh, House at pooh corner, etc by A.A. Milne (don't get the Disney version). These books have many words on every page, there are many pictures, and the stories are not difficult for 3 to 4 year old kids. As they grow older, they will be able to read longer, and when they find a book that they like, they will finish the book on their own.
Remember that the most important thing is to develop a love of reading. The trick is to find good books that your kids will love.
Note that your kids have reached the reading level of 8+ years old according to the chart in my blog :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/12/key-words-with-ladybird.html
However, their level of understanding may still be around 3 to 5 years old, so it is natural that they like to read books for their age group. As you read with them, if you find that they can understand more complicated stories, then you can ask them to read more difficult books. -
Hi Tamarind
thanks to yr blog, my 3 year old boy is now able to join 3 alphabets together and read out the word.
however i realised that he tend to get confused with words of the similar sound but different meaning, e.g:
MAT AND MAP
When he read map, he will tell me:"Mummy, I know, MAP is this one, we are sitting on it!"
I try to show him pictures or even the real stuff of what is the different of MAT AND MAP but i realise i cant possibly be buying real objects to teach him a new word every time…
SAG AND LAG: He ask me:"What is sag and lag?" I dont knw how to explain…
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login