All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[tamarind]

starz:

Hi Tamarind,


I have just finished vowels a and started vowels i. We actually came across words like talk, walk and will, bill and sunny, funny, bunny.
May i know which category do these words fall into as i am not too sure? Do these consider phonics as well? Is it correct to teach them sounds out words S-unny, f-unny, w-ill, b-ill? Thanks.

My girl's Montessori phonics class taught words ending in \"-ll\". Her class did not teach words ending in \"-nny\".

I taught my boy words ending in \"ill\", \"ull\", \"ell\", \"all\", etc. But I did not put a lot of emphasis on it.

Personally I feel that we only need to make sure that kids know the basics, like how to read 3 letter words. Then progress to words starting with \"th\", \"sh\", \"ch\", \"wh\", \"bl\", \"cl\", \"gl\", \"fl\", \"pl\", etc, which are included in my blog.
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/

I think that it is not necessary to learn too many phonics rules. It is more efficient for the child to learn other words as sight words.

[pokemon]

I also self taught my boy simple phonics when he is 2yr o. Beside using flash cards, i also play simple games and worksheet with him,coupled with my own self made sight words flash cards. I didnt even finish the whole phonics syllabus, he could oredi read simple books e.g 3sentence per page book all by himself when he was around 3yr o. By 4yr o,in his nursery he is reading charts in his class and alot of non-fiction information books from the library. Its good that kids learn to read young so they can read and acquire many information from books since we cant be spoon feeding them.


Now he is 6, funnily, he dun seem to enjoy fiction e.g story books but will absorb himself in dictionary, information books. Besides ability to read, he seems to pick up spelling very fast. Since in his kindi, they dun give spelling, i also din pressed him to do it at home since he could spell it phonetically. According to his school teacher, his spelling skills is excellent (they did creative writing in cls), he was being asked to help other classmate to spell words. I ask him how he know to spell words, he replied 'when i read, i see the words so kn the spelling and some v difficult 1 i spell my phoncis way"

Learning phonics is truely a great way to enable a child not only to read but also spell and finally to acquire knowledge thru reading.

[tamarind]

pokemon:

Learning phonics is truely a great way to enable a child not only to read but also spell and finally to acquire knowledge thru reading.

pokemon,
You are absolutely correct ! Your boy is doing very good !

Both my kids have good foundation in phonics, and they can both spell easily. When I taught my boy at home, and I also did not make sure that he knows every thing in the phonics syllabus.

My younger boy also likes non fiction books. But I have a reading routine for him, he has read the Enormous Crocodile, the Giraffe the pelly and me, and the Minpins by Roald Dahl, which he enjoys very much. I make sure that my kids read all the great children's classics, they can learn the rich vocabulary as well as the wonderful styles of writing.

[starz]

Hi Tamarind,


Does it mean those words like sunny, bunny n etc, house mouse, tall, wall n etc I can treat them as sight words? Hee not sure how to differentiate whether they belongs under phonics or simply sight words. Confused.

What is the estimated ratio that you would think words to learn as sight words or phonics? 80% sight to 20% phonics?

Hi Pokemon,

Wow! care share with us what kind of games or worksheet did u do with your boy? how abt spelling?

Peiful both of you.

[starz]

tamarind:

My younger boy also likes non fiction books. But I have a reading routine for him, he has read the Enormous Crocodile, the Giraffe the pelly and me, and the Minpins by Roald Dahl, which he enjoys very much. I make sure that my kids read all the great children's classics, they can learn the rich vocabulary as well as the wonderful styles of writing.

I am very impressed that your boy at such a young age can read so difficult books by Ronald Dahl. Those books are not easy to read for 4 yrs old. Sorry just curious, is he able to read all the words from these books for the 1st time or he also get to learn new words from there?

[starz]

Abit side track, how do u all teach your kids that must use the word "an" for vowels (aeiou)? Any suggestions?

[pokemon]

[quote]Hi Pokemon,


Wow! care share with us what kind of games or worksheet did u do with your boy? how abt spelling? [/quote]You can print free worksheets from http://www.first-school.ws, www.dltk-teach.com,www.enchantedlearning.com. I played matching, word rhyming,memory game and etc.

[pokemon]

starz:

Abit side track, how do u all teach your kids that must use the word \"an\" for vowels (aeiou)? Any suggestions?

i told him those words that start with 'aeiou',u have to use 'an' before it. Must give them alot of examples and comparison with those words that use 'a', they will get the hang of it fast.

[pokemon]

[quote]My younger boy also likes non fiction books. But I have a reading routine for him, he has read the Enormous Crocodile, the Giraffe the pelly and me, and the Minpins by Roald Dahl, which he enjoys very much. I make sure that my kids read all the great children's classics, they can learn the rich vocabulary as well as the wonderful styles of writing.[/quote]
tamarind,
for fiction, i borrowed simple,thin chapter books for him,he loves it when i read to him, or else he wont voluntarily pick it up to read, although i did tell him he could read few pages and contd some other time. I also tried getting picture books w text, he will say its too kiddy. Does your boy pick up the fiction voluntarily? If given both fiction and non-fiction, which will he prefer? i was told boys at this age prefer non-fiction and as they grow older, will naturally go into fiction. Maybe different kids have different preference. Im just afraid he wil lose interest in reading. Any idea how to encourage him to read simple chapter books or izit wil come naturally when its of rite age? Since he is going P1 soon, hope he can use it on his creative writing.

[tamarind]

starz:

tamarind:

My younger boy also likes non fiction books. But I have a reading routine for him, he has read the Enormous Crocodile, the Giraffe the pelly and me, and the Minpins by Roald Dahl, which he enjoys very much. I make sure that my kids read all the great children's classics, they can learn the rich vocabulary as well as the wonderful styles of writing.

I am very impressed that your boy at such a young age can read so difficult books by Ronald Dahl. Those books are not easy to read for 4 yrs old. Sorry just curious, is he able to read all the words from these books for the 1st time or he also get to learn new words from there?

starz,
This is a page from the Minpins by Roald Dahl. My boy just read it 2 nights ago. He can read every word on the page without any help from me, except for a few words like \"completely\", \"tantalizing\", \"desire\". There are usually less than 5 words on each page that he needs help.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/2470/74151826.jpg\">

He is also reading very fluently, he can read a page like that in less than 10 minutes. He always asks about the meaning of new words, and I will take time to explain to him. I make sure that he understands the story by asking him to act out the story with me. For example, I pretend to be the big swan and he pretends to be the little boy riding on my back. Or I pretend to be the little boy and he pretends to be the scary fire monster coming after me

My boy is of average learning ability, and I am also surprised that he can read books like this before the age of 5. All thanks to the Ladybird Peter and Jane series, as well as his strong foundation in phonics. Besides teaching him phonics http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/, all I have done with him, was to read one page of Peter and Jane every day since early last year. He has finished reading book 11a about 2 months ago, and he is ready to start reading all the wonderful children's classics.

According to Ladybird:
12 key words make up one quarter of those we read and write
100 key words make up half of those we read and write
About 300 key words account for three quarters of those we read and write


The Peter and Jane series start by teaching kids all the important key words, enabling them to be able to read quickly at a very young age.

I have not seen any other series as good as the Peter and Jane books. My kids are using the Rigby books which do not build up the key words like the Peter and Jane series.

It is a pity that many parents think that their kids are not interested in Peter and Jane, and give up on these books. The fact is that kids don't know what are good for them !

starz:

Hi Tamarind,
Does it mean those words like sunny, bunny n etc, house mouse, tall, wall n etc I can treat them as sight words? Hee not sure how to differentiate whether they belongs under phonics or simply sight words. Confused.

Yes you can treat them as sight words. Kids should be able to see the pattern themselves. For example, we teach them sunny, bunny, then when they see \"funny\", they will be able to read it.

If you read the individual phonics letter sounds of the word, and it does not sound like what the whole word should be pronounced, then the word is not phonetic. Don't need to worry about which are sight words and which are phonetic words. Just concentrate on teaching the basics of phonics. Kids can figure it out themselves.

For example, the letter \"o\" sounds different in \"one\" and \"come\". Don't need to try to explain to the child using phonics. Just point to the words and read it correctly. If you try to explain, it will only make it more confusing.