All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[tamarind]

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..

Hi genice,
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.

[tamarind]

Here is an interesting article :

Teaching Letter Names vs Letter Sounds
http://socyberty.com/education/teaching-letter-names-vs-letter-sounds/

[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…

[buds]

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:

Your advise came in just in time. As I have finished with the initial consonant blends and that is when I felt stuck :whut:

Phew! Lucky me then that i'm not too late. :oops:

laughingcat:

Okie....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.

You will come to long words with triple consonant blends when you
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.

[tamarind]

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....

Hi sean wife,
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.

[sunset_dae]

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…

[sean wife]

Hi Tamarind,


Thanks for your compliment and most of all, thanks for your recommendation of the P&J books which are really good and systematic to introduce self-reading to kids. But other than reading, there are many other aspects e.g. spelling, grammer, comprehension which seems daunting to me to teach….what age do you think is good to introduce grammer in a systematic way to kids?

I know that spelling will be easier with phonics knowledge. Problem for me is I actually do not really know how well they can breakdown a word by its phonics sound (as in beginning, middle, end sound). My kids phonics journey started with learning beginning sounds from Leapfrog DVD around 18 month and knew them pretty well in a short time, before 2 years old. When I try to teach blending of sounds around 2 yrs old, I find that they were not ready or willing to sound out the individuals sounds…I thought maybe their speech development wasn’t so developed yet, so I thought easier to introduce sight words first. After 2-3 months when they were around 2 yrs 3 months old, I notice that they were trying to read words in their familiar storybooks and thus thought let them try out P&J books.

Till now, I notice that they do try to sound out an unfamiliar word using phonics beginning sound…but I still do not know if they can break down a word by its individual sound…I doubt so. The only spelling activity I tried with them was to say a word e.g. ‘cat’ and I break down the individual sounds so that they choose the correct letter and paste them together to form the word…They are not particularly keen on phonics activities and don’t seem that they can decipher the individual sounds in the words by themselves. Initially I was very vexed, but then my hubby say since they can read, why kill their interest by insisting that they can read the way I want….???

Anyway maybe I still have some time before I need to worry about their spelling skills….right now, it’s a challenge to get them to practice tracing of letters…they can do it fast and quite well if they are in the mood, but most of the time, it can really test my patience…again, my hubby asks me to take it easy…

[starz]

tamarind:

Hi starz,
It is not necessary to buy the \"b\" series if your girl can read most of the words in \"a\" without any help.

Check out this page from my blog :

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

I listed many books suitable for reading level 4.

Thanks for your reply. So meaning i can skip all Level B books since level book 4 and 5 seems ok for her at 4yrs old. can i start to buy chapter books? or i just let her carry n continue on P&J book 6 n 7?

[tamarind]

sean wife:

Hi Tamarind,


Thanks for your compliment and most of all, thanks for your recommendation of the P&J books which are really good and systematic to introduce self-reading to kids. But other than reading, there are many other aspects e.g. spelling, grammer, comprehension which seems daunting to me to teach….what age do you think is good to introduce grammer in a systematic way to kids?

I know that spelling will be easier with phonics knowledge. Problem for me is I actually do not really know how well they can breakdown a word by its phonics sound (as in beginning, middle, end sound). My kids phonics journey started with learning beginning sounds from Leapfrog DVD around 18 month and knew them pretty well in a short time, before 2 years old. When I try to teach blending of sounds around 2 yrs old, I find that they were not ready or willing to sound out the individuals sounds…I thought maybe their speech development wasn’t so developed yet, so I thought easier to introduce sight words first. After 2-3 months when they were around 2 yrs 3 months old, I notice that they were trying to read words in their familiar storybooks and thus thought let them try out P&J books.

Till now, I notice that they do try to sound out an unfamiliar word using phonics beginning sound…but I still do not know if they can break down a word by its individual sound…I doubt so. The only spelling activity I tried with them was to say a word e.g. ‘cat’ and I break down the individual sounds so that they choose the correct letter and paste them together to form the word…They are not particularly keen on phonics activities and don’t seem that they can decipher the individual sounds in the words by themselves. Initially I was very vexed, but then my hubby say since they can read, why kill their interest by insisting that they can read the way I want….???

Anyway maybe I still have some time before I need to worry about their spelling skills….right now, it’s a challenge to get them to practice tracing of letters…they can do it fast and quite well if they are in the mood, but most of the time, it can really test my patience…again, my hubby asks me to take it easy...

Hi sean wife,
The best way to teach grammar, comprehension, vocabulary is to read as many good books as possible.

In fact, I did not teach grammar and comprehension before my girl enters P1. She has no problem at all. Because she has read extensively, her foundation in the language is already very strong and she naturally knows whether a sentence sounds correct.

Don't worry about grammar and comprehension at this age. Instead, let your kids read all the wonderful children's books in my blog :

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

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/03/importance-of-reading-books.html

(Note: I will be adding more books to these pages)

If your kids can finish reading all these books before P1, they probably do not need to spend time studying English when they are in P1. For grammar and comprehension, just leave it to the teachers to teach in class.

It is also important to note that kids learn best from reading good books written by great authors(refer to my blog). Avoid books like \"Diary of a wimpy kid\", \"Beast Quest\", etc. Kids can read hundreds of those books and their English will still not improve.

Remember to discuss the books with your kids to make sure that they understand what they are reading. One way is to act out the story :

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/02/developing-love-for-reading.html


As for spelling, phonics is certainly essential. Do you have the Leapfrog Talking Words Factory and Word Caper DVDs ? These DVDs teach kids how to join the letter sounds to form words, as well as the more complex phonics rules like the silent \"e\". Since your kids are already reading so well, just let your kids watch the DVDs will do.

To check whether they can spell using phonics, you can try to use the list of words in my blog :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html

Print or write out the word cards. Then say a word, and ask them to pick out the correct card. Go through all the 3 letter words in Stage 1 in my blog, then move on to Stage 2. As you say the word, break it up into individual sounds. If your kids can pick up all the words correctly, that shows that they have a good understanding of the techniques of phonics.

Thanks to phonics, my 6 year old boy actually likes spelling, because he can spell all the words in my girl's P1 spelling list, even though he has never practiced writing those words before.

Your kids are most likely learning many words as sight words. So long as you make sure that they know phonics(use my methods above to check), there is no need to worry about whether they can break down a word. In fact, many words cannot be read by phonics techniques. Kids have the ability to use a combination of phonics and sight words(by memory) to remember words.

For tracing letters, I bought the Kumon books for my boy, and he likes them. I started with Kumon puzzle books before moving on to writing letters, then sentences. These books are very systematic and the quality is good.

[tamarind]

starz:

Thanks for your reply. So meaning i can skip all Level B books since level book 4 and 5 seems ok for her at 4yrs old. can i start to buy chapter books? or i just let her carry n continue on P&J book 6 n 7?

I would suggest that you start on chapter books only after your child has completed at least book 10 of the Peter and Jane series.

Also, when choosing chapter books, make sure that you choose books suitable for your child's age, otherwise she may not be able to understand.

I highly recommend the original Winnie-the-pooh series by A.A.Milne for kids age 3 to 5 years old. These books have many words on a page, but the words are not difficult.

Also, you should still let your child read as many picture books as possible. In fact, there are many picture books that are very challenging even for P1 to P3 kids. Make sure that she reads every book in this list :

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

I indicated the reading level for each book. There are many books of reading level 4 and 5, that means a child who can read Peter and Jane book 4 or 5 should be able to read those 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. \"


When we read a story book, we are able to paint a picture of the story in our minds, based on the description in the book. However, a young child may not have this ability yet. Many young kids reading chapter books may not understand what they are reading. It is very important to let them read picture books to develop this ability.