All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi mummies,


Found a website that is great for teaching phonics + sight words + cute pictures + fun stories.

Have a look!

http://www.progressivephonics.com/index.php

[tamarind]

starz,

My girl went to the Montessori phonics enrichment class near Lakeside MRT. The phonics course is only 11 months, my girl completed the whole course. It is an express course for kids above 3 years 6 months old.

How old is your girl ?

You can break up "ap" to a - p, then teach your girl to sound out each word. Young kids may take quite long to learn to read 2 letter words. They need lots of practice. Try to make it fun by using games. For example, put the letter "a" on a toy car, put the letter "p" on another car, then roll them towards each other while sounding out the "a" and "p" sounds until they collide ! Some fun and actions will enable the child to learn better.

It is not necessary to make sure that she knows all the "a" words very well, when you think she has enough practice, you can move on to "e" words, then "i", "o", "u" words. Then go back to practice "a" words again. It make take 6 months to 1 year to learn read 3 letter words.

My girl’s phonics class take only 2 weeks to complete all the "a" words. Her classmate’s mommy told me that her 6 year old son cannot follow up. The advantage of learning at home is that you can progress at a speed that suits your girl.

Also try to explain the words to your girl, by find the real object, or demonstrating the actions.

[joyip]

Hi Tamarind,


I read your blog and feel inspired to teach my girl phonics using the same method. have since started teaching my girl phonics, I realised that four year old girl got confused with the vowels "a" sound and "e" as they sound almost the same.How do you differentiate their sound?

[starz]

Hi Tamarind,


My girl is 3 years old this year. Is it too young for this age to learn 2 letters words? She knows her phonics quite well. I intend to enrol her Montessori phonics. Are they strict as in must be 3yrs 6mths above?

When she comes to ap, ag, ad, maybe to her the words seems almost same n sound the same?? and she will feel frustrated to blend those.

However, as for -an, -am, -at, she knows them well and shows more interest in these. maybe the words looks different more obviously. Not too sure. trying to find out the problem. Or perhaps not enough practice

Like joyip, vowel a and e sounds almost the same. how to differentiate?

[jedamum]

starz:

Like joyip, vowel a and e sounds almost the same. how to differentiate?

hi starz,
thanks for bringing this up. i am 'stuck' at 'et' and 'eg' 'en' too.
while my boy has recognises 'ag', 'at', 'an', 'am', 'ig', 'it', 'ot', 'ip', he'll mixed up a bit when i put in a letter in front of these blends ie 'man' he can say 'mat'. i think i made a mistake in teaching from my book cos instead of mastering one before moving on to the other, the boy flipped through the book and pick what he likes to do that day.

[tamarind]

joyip, jedamum,

You can try to listen to the sounds in these 2 web pages :

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-a/load.htm?f

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-e/load.htm?f


For \"a\", you need to open the mouth bigger, and it sounds a bit longer than \"e\". Hard to explain to kids, best to let them listen to the sounds from the web page.


starz,
Yes Montessori phonics only takes in children who are 3 years 6 months and above. This class is an express course for children up to 6 years old. It takes only 11 months to complete the full phonics course. The staff thinks that the later part is too difficult for very young children to understand.

You can try Zoophonics. They take in children as young as 2 years old. They take almost one year just to teach the letter sounds, then another whole year to teach 3 letter words.

You can try to break up the words \"ap\", ask her to sound out \"a\" and \"p\" separately. The same for \"ag\" and \"ad\". Children need lots of practice, just keep repeating.

Instead of teaching \"ap\", \"ag\", \"ad\" together, you can teach these :
an at am ap

Since she knows the first 3 very well, she should be able to tell which one is \"ap\".

Then continue with :
an at am ap ag

There is no need to wait for her to know all the 2 letter words very well before teaching the 3 letter words. Since she knows \"at\", \"am\", \"an\", you can start to teach 3 letter words ending with these letters first, then slowly progress to words ending with \"ap\", \"ag' and \"ad\". With more practice, she will understand.

[Charmaine_chong]

Dear Mummies,



Great on line phonics website that teaches Phonics, Consonants, Vowels, Blends & (Common Words)Sight Words

http://www.abcfastphonics.com/

Catchy alphabet sound

http://www.youtube.com/user/barbaramilne

[tamarind]

Charmaine_chong:

Dear Mummies,



Great on line phonics website that teaches Phonics, Consonants, Vowels, Blends & (Common Words)Sight Words

http://www.abcfastphonics.com/

Catchy alphabet sound

http://www.youtube.com/user/barbaramilne

Thanks for sharing !

[tamarind]

A few days ago, my boy showed me this little story that he wrote on his own.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2491/3762974535_79b7cfc326.jpg\">

I am surprised that he is able to write in sentences now. He is able to spell all the words except \"cage\", which he wrote as \"kage\". This is common for phonics trained kids. I have not started to teach him to write in sentences yet. I am happy that he is able to form sentences like that, even though the grammar is not perfect He will be 5 years old in September. All thanks to phonics and the Ladybird Peter and Jane series ! A child who reads everyday naturally knows how to write No need for expensive enrichment classes !

He has finished reading book 11a of the Peter and Jane series. I decided to let him read other books for a change. He has finished reading Roald Dahl's The Enormous Crocodile which he likes very much. He is now reading The Giraffe and the Pelly and me, also by Roald Dahl.

[starz]

Tamarind,


I am really impressed of your kids and your inspiration to teach them to read. At this young age, they can read Roald Dahl’s books and is really amazing! Roald Dahl’s books must be very thick rite?

May i know when did you start writing skills for your boy?

I must thank you for your suggestion using the cars to teach the 2 letters word. It works. My girl is more keen in learning and not that confused as compared to earlier on. We have in fact just completed vowel a.

I am surprised your boy did not attend any phonics class. U mean u taught him by yourself? When did you start to teach your boy? And with all the vowels a, e, i, o, u and others, how long u took to complete ALL?
i m just curious cos i took almost a few months just to teach vowel a only. Its like snail progress.

As for ladybird books, my girl is going to finish level 2b. Going to start 3a soon.

For beginners, besides using ladybirds, what other books do you recommend? how about phonics books? i just bought the usborne phonics readers. not sure is that good enough?

Do you ask them to decode new words or words that they are not familiar whenever they read?

What kind of activities do you do every night with your kids? cos at times not sure what to do besides all the reading, painting, drawing…n etc…

Thank you for taking your time to read my long post.
Sorry about it!