Montessori Phonics - Introduction To Single Letter Sounds

[mamii]

mypiggee:

I have the same experience!My son is in K1 now...and just finished learning his letters phonics...He still cant get the essence of forming a word. So in a nutshell, he can't recognise words.

Trying to revise at least 5mins per day...which is already a challenge as he will always said he's tired or give all sorts of excuses.

He studies 3hrs class in Kindergarden and we sent him to a 2hrs montessori enrichment class too. The montessori class teacher feedback to me that she had to pronounce very CLEARLY then he's able to form a word. Till now, she's trying to get him to understand the essence of it.

Now looking into Chinese enrichment class for him too...

My MIL always asked me not to stress him but he already skipped Pre-N. I tried not to stress him but he only attended 3hrs class daily.
Enrichment is just 2hrs class for English, then 1hr45mins for Chinese if I go for Berries...
5 mins simple revision....30mins on Sat....the rest of the weekend is purely play time

Hi mypiggee, DS is K1 too At least your DS gets it when the teacher pronounce it CLEARLY, my DS sometimes still can't get it. I think he gets confused when the letters start to blend. DS can recognize some words but he may not recognize the same word he had read before !!! Then sometimes he surprised me by reading out a word.

I feel that quality is important, 5min maybe short but if he understand what it has been taught to him it will stay with him. I can spend 30mins with DS but half is asking him to \"sit up\" \"don't rock the chair\" \"stay focus\" \"stop jumping\" etc another few min is him talking and talking, then he complained \"why so long, are we done ?\" :mad: :mad: sometimes will try reward system

off topic, for chinese I am using si wu kuai du at home, you can search in the forum for more info.

He attends ICL on saturday so I do not do any revision at all for weekend.

[buds]

enzoelize:

Thanks Buds!


I guess I have abt 4 months to prepare my resources for teaching her phonics when she hit 18 months.

Don't rush into the process of trying to get child to read. Reading is but only one of the many skills a child has to learn in life. Enjoying reading and sustaining the reading interest for as long as they can is the key.

18mths can start single letter sounds. Better if they oredi know all the alphabets by hard (by then) la.. both letter names AND letter shapes.

[buds]

enzoelize:

Thanks Buds!


I guess I have abt 4 months to prepare my resources for teaching her phonics when she hit 18 months.

Don't rush into the process of trying to get child to read. Reading is but only one of the many skills a child has to learn in life. Enjoying reading and sustaining the reading interest for as long as they can is the key and the challenge some parents face...

18mths can start single letter sounds. Better if they oredi know all the alphabets by hard (by then) la.. both letter names AND letter shapes.

[tantart]

Hi, my girl is 4 years old and just started her phonic class with MMI.

She can idenify all upper and lower alphabets. At times she get confuse between the sounds, the letters and the pictures. How should I explain to her?

[happypoppy]

Hi Buds,


How do I teach DS (who is 4 this year) how to differentiate the "a" in pan and "e" in pen? What I mean is when he word builds, how will he know whether the word "pen" is spelt with a "e" or "a" since both "a" and "e" sounds pretty similar?

Likewise, when he word builds the word "cup", how should I explain to him that "cup" starts with "c" and not "k" since both "k" and "c" sound alike?

This issue has been troubling me for a while so it’ll be great if you could provide some insights. Thanks in advance!

[iLoveChubby]

Hi happypoppy

My DS used to have this problem too.. he doesnt know how to differentiate and doesnt know when to use \"a\" and \"e\". He was spelling words like \"cat\" to \"cet\" as both sounds,to him, were the same. However when he started to learn blending eg \"-at\" ==> cat, pat, sat... \"-an\"==> can, pan, man, he could slowly understand the correct spelling of the words.

To me, there isnt a hard and fast rule on this, kids will naturally learn all the different words - be it thr' phonics, thr' lots of reading, thr' sight words reading, even thr' memory as well.

However this is just my 2cents' worth.... I believe our dear Grand Master, buds, will provide better insight to this.. :rahrah: :rahrah:

[enzoelize]

Hi Buds,

Yes, I do know reading is just one component to the English language.
DD seems to be able to listen to instructions (listening)… She’s blabbering some words (speaking)… She should start with learning reading before writing isn’t it?

I have been getting her to listen to the ABC song and have bought those alphabet magnets to play with… I hope this is enuf for her to learn the letter names… When you mentioned her knowing letter shapes, does it mean she has to write it?
I am in the midst of making the sandpaper letter… started with small caps…
Bought the foam sheets but gotta be done with sandpaper first… Lotsa cutting…

I am also trying to read a short story to her every day, if not once in two days…

Hope to find more time to work with DD…

[happypoppy]

Hi IloveChubby,


Thanks for your inputs. I’ve spoken to DS teacher and her reply closely mirrored yours and she also gave me some pointers as to how I could help him differentiate between the "a" and "e" better. I guess at the end of the day it really comes down to exposure.

Hi Buds, hope to hear from your end when you have the time.

[buds]

Hi happypoppy, while it is right and very true that part of the success to this issue is exposure... to more print... to more pictures... to more practice you may also try this and lemme know if it works out.


You open your mouth wider for words with the vowel /a/... and drag the
sound slightly longer. For the words with the vowel /e/... try the brief &
quick \"eh\" sound.

In our Montessori classrooms we have these materials that expose children to three letter phonetic words from concrete to abstract. Children who have completed the single letter sounds level will carry on to learn how to do word building and we use these boxes to work with them.

> http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=17222#p17222

Advancing to the next step is using the abstract materials like this one..
> http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1927&p=28531&hilit=pink+picture+box+1#p28531

These Object Boxes and Picture Boxes are placed on shelves accessible to children so they can work on them anytime... plus the boxes also expose children to 3-letter phonetic words with the other vowels... e.. i.. o.. and u.

For younger children who are still at the single letter sounds level, we already introduced the /a/ and the /e/ sounds as such as usually when they reach this 3-letter phonetic words level, there ain't much confusion as to whether the word contain an /a/ or and /e/. They have been introduced to correspond the print to the sound. Like when we play the > http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=114377#p114377

Should they still make errors on the above, just reiterate to them nonchalantly that you require the /a/ that comes in the first sound in the word apple... or if you require the /e/ then you say, you need the /e/ that starts the first letter sound of the word /e/lephant.

Sometimes with some children, the more we make a big deal out of it.. the more nervous they get and they may even make more mistakes.

You can make the boxes on your own.. just scour around your children's old toys for the objects.. and old assessment books or magazines to do up the picture boxes.

Hope this helps.

[buds]

A fellow forummer asked about word building before (and also the method to differentiate between the two similar letter sounds in words), so am putting up the link here for you.

> http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5768&p=133487&hilit=drag+the+sound#p133487

If you or the school are/is currently doing word family blending then you may try these suggestions as extension activities.
> http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=877&p=26206&hilit=drag+the+sound#p26206