All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[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!

[tamarind]

starz,

No need to say sorry ! I really enjoy talking about how to teach children to read with other parents.

Yes my boy never attended any phonics class. I single handedly taught him how to read. Roald Dahl's most well known books like Charlie and the Chocolate factory has about 180 pages. He also wrote some simple books, like the Giraffe, the Pelly and me, which has about 150 - 300 words a page, less than 100 pages. My boy can read about 300 words in 5 to 10 minutes.

That's why I am sure that all mommies can teach their kids to read at home !

I did not have time to teach him the letter sounds, he learnt all the letter sounds by watching Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. He watched the DVD from 2 years old to 3 years old.

Once he knew all the letter sounds very well, I taught him how to join letters to form words. Actually the Leapfrog Talking Words DVD teaches how to join 3 letters to form words. But there is not enough practice. So I printed out all the 3 letter words and used the method as described in my blog.

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html

I took about 6 months to teach all the 3 letter words containing \"a\",\"e\",\"i\",\"o\",\"u\". Then another 5 to 6 months to teach \"bl\", \"cl\", \"br\", \"cr\", etc.

So we took quite a long time. Fortunately I started to teach him earlier. At first his progress was very slow, and he could not focus for more than 3 minutes. Later his speed of learning improves and he was learning much faster when he was near 4 years old.

I always teach them to decode new words, unless the word is not phonetic at all, like \"cough\", etc.

I am very busy nowadays, every night I only manage to let my boy read a page (about 200 - 300 words), and my girl reads a few pages (about 800 words) to me. Each takes less than 10 minutes. They have spelling now. But my boy already knows how to spell all the words, thanks to his strong foundation in phonics. My girl's spelling is quite difficult, with words like \"chlorophyll\", so I make her write the words once a day.

I did not have the time to teach writing skills. I just make sure that both kids have access to paper and pencil at all times. They only practice writing in school. Then at home, they can draw or write anything they want.

My 6 year old girl writes and draws this story on her own, without any help from me.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_w1nyHWTEh94/Sl5Whj7ysNI/AAAAAAAABKk/L3y4IKybEqo/s400/DSCF6927.JPG\">

I think a child who can read very well, naturally knows how to write without the need to be taught.

During weekends, I teach them to bake cupcakes, create things out of air dry clay, etc. Checkout these threads.
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3735&start=0

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3102&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I think your girl is progressing very well with the Ladybird books ! You can try other readers that your girl finds interesting. My kids are reading the Rigby Rocket books at their kindergarten. Though they still prefer the Ladybird Peter and Jane series.

http://www.edventurebooks.com/Rigby/Rocket/pink.htm

The Dr Seuss books are very good.
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/12/books-for-beginning-reader.html

Green Eggs and Ham is very good. I think by the time your girl completes book 3a and 3b, she should be able to read the entire Green Eggs and Ham.

[starz]

Hi Tamarind,


Wow reading so many words (300 words) in 5 to 10 minutes! They must be very fluent... I must say their foundations must be very strong.

I dun think i can make it 6 months to learn all vowels Imagine i have used like 4 months to teach just the vowel a. Cos of busy work schedule. Probably need to plan out like 1 month 1 vowel?

Can i check w u something? For the ladybird books, some words like \"shop\", my girl treats it as a sight word. Usually we hardly decode. its like even after decode a few times, it became a sight word to her. How about your boy? hmm not sure how to explain. Its like some words she already know as sight word, do i still need to ask her to decode?

Really impressed with your girl too.

hmm btw how do u define a child who can read very well?
meaning can decode, fluency, recognise words?

[tamarind]

starz,

If you teach your girl every day, one month one vowel should be OK. Then when you finish teaching all vowels, revise from \"a\" again. That is what I did for my boy.

It is OK for your girl to read \"shop\" as a sight word, since she has not started to learn \"sh\" sound yet. Later when she learn \"sh\", \"ch\", etc, she will make the connection. There is no need to ask her to decode now.

Personally I think a child who can read the Peter and Jane books 9a onwards, is reading very well We cannot expect a child to be able to decode every word, because English is not completely phonetic. For example, the word \"patient\", the \"t\" is pronounced as \"sh\". There are no reason, no rules to this. So we just have to teach them when we come across the words.

[meiesther.09548yahoo.09548com]

Hi Tamarind


Thanks for your sharing on the starfall.com. This is really a great help. Initially I am trying hard to find a phonics class for my girl, now I think this will really help me a lot!!

Thanks again!!!

Cheers

[tamarind]

[email protected]:

Hi Tamarind


Thanks for your sharing on the starfall.com. This is really a great help. Initially I am trying hard to find a phonics class for my girl, now I think this will really help me a lot!!

Thanks again!!!

Cheers

Its my pleasure to share free and good things with other mommies

[mrswongtuition]

Tamarind, I'm having alot of success with my 2.5yo boy and I feel like a proud mummy


Today I shared with some of my colleagues about you teaching phonics to your kiddos & how inspired I am by you. & all they retorted me was \"Don't over-teach your boy, he'll be very bored at school in future\". Sigh, why can't they understand that reading is the key to the whole world of knowledge? To think they are educators!

Anyway, I love reading this thread to see many mummies doing the same Although I personally think I'm a tad TOO KS, I enjoy reading with my boy every night.

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi Tamarind,


If a child manage to master 50-60% of lettersound, do you think is time to progress to 3 letter words?


Thank you. :lovesite:

[tamarind]

mrswongtuition:

Tamarind, I'm having alot of success with my 2.5yo boy and I feel like a proud mummy


Today I shared with some of my colleagues about you teaching phonics to your kiddos & how inspired I am by you. & all they retorted me was \"Don't over-teach your boy, he'll be very bored at school in future\". Sigh, why can't they understand that reading is the key to the whole world of knowledge? To think they are educators!

Anyway, I love reading this thread to see many mummies doing the same Although I personally think I'm a tad TOO KS, I enjoy reading with my boy every night.

mrswongtuition,
I am really happy to know that your boy is doing well

You are absolutely right that reading is the key to the whole world of knowledge !

Both my kids do not feel bored at their kindergarten at all, both of them like to go to school. They can learn many things other than reading/writing in school

Charmaine_chong:

Hi Tamarind,

If a child manage to master 50-60% of lettersound, do you think is time to progress to 3 letter words?


Thank you. :lovesite:

Personally I think that it is better to wait until he master 80% - 90%. A child below the age of 4 may take up to 1 year just to know all the letter sounds very well.

You can also try to teach a few 2 letter words first, for example, \"at\", \"am\", \"as\", etc and see if he can read these.