All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi Tamarind,


The MMI teacher teach my son on worksheets and plastic read and blue alphabets.

No explanation of words and pictures.

It is one to one teaching.

I ever feedback to the teacher that my son has learnt short vowel a & i but didn’t learnt well before i signed him up.

My son has attended 4 lessons so far. The teacher taught him 5-6 sets of 3 letter words in a lesson. He was on short vowel a and i last week. They went through 3 letter words for ap, ab, ad, ax, ig, in, im , that is about 60 new words in a lesson. Is this the way to teach? I doubt so.

He sit through with my son and read words by words without explanation and pictures for the entire one hour.

I don’t think this way of teaching would benefit my son. This would just scares him away. And yes, he doesn;t like to go there.

I am looking for alternative. If anyone knows about good phonics class please do let me know.

I brought him to Zoophonics before. This was fun but nothing much to learn and tooo slow. Far too slow.

I can read is my final option. Just wondering does I Can Read teaches phonics or only part of it?

[tamarind]

Charmaine,

There is another thread for I can Read. You can join that thread.

Too bad that the Montessori center that you went to does not have good teachers. My girl’s experience at the Montessori phonics class was very different. My friend also sent her girl to the same center, and her girl also learned a lot from there. It could be that the class is more suitable for older kids who have a longer attention span.

I believe that mommies are the best teachers for kids, so this thread is for mommies who are keen to teach their kids at home. It is not easy to teach at home, we must have faith that it can be done, we must have a lot of patience and we cannot give up so easily. For some kids, we may see results in less than a year. But for most kids, it may take one to two years before the child can read fluently. Personally, I think that if I cannot teach my son, even if I send him to many enrichment classes, he will not be able to learn anything there.

Kids can learn so much more from mommies at home, compared to enrichment classes. I have heard of many kids who cannot read even after attending all sorts of classes. Mommies are the ones who can find the best teaching methods that suit their kids.

[buds]

Charmaine_chong:

The MMI teacher teach my son on worksheets and plastic read and blue alphabets.

The material is called Large Moveable Alphabets.

Blue letters represent the vowels and the red letters represent
the consonants. Very handy for learning/introducing word building.
In fact, even for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5768&start=110.

Charmaine_chong:

No explanation of words and pictures.

Means the teacher just goes through the word list.

Charmaine_chong:

It is one to one teaching.

This should be taken as an advantage really...
With the right teacher, one to one teaching escalates the interest
for phonics and reading. In some cases where children become
highly motivated, they can even display positive progress in
barely months into the programme, since there isn't a need
to conform to the levels/paces of other children in the class.

Charmaine_chong:

I ever feedback to the teacher that my son has learnt short vowel a & i but didn't learnt well before i signed him up.

Centres would assess new children coming in with some phonics
background, to justify the level they are really at and whether
the sounds are indeed pronounced correctly. You see... with
personal teaching aids from the market, the sounds played
may not be the proper sounds pronounced (in some).

It may also be a case of a child not concretely grasping the concept
of blending at the time he learnt it at home or another centre or by
a product. Different centres would have different approaches and
different techniques. Most times, the children would have to follow
through a certain teaching method to ensure they can follow-up
with the later levels in months to come.

For example a child coming in for Letterland but has exposure only to
ZooPhonics, he/she may need to re-learn the Letterland characters cos
the characters play a part in the blending process and will come in the
stories and learning materials like flashcards and songs... Hence if a child
were to swap to Letterland he/she has to follow through from the
beginning to ensure he/she is coming in with the same knowledge
as to how the later levels will be taught.

Charmaine_chong:

My son has attended 4 lessons so far. The teacher taught him 5-6 sets of 3 letter words in a lesson. He was on short vowel a and i last week. They went through 3 letter words for ap, ab, ad, ax, ig, in, im , that is about 60 new words in a lesson. Is this the way to teach? I doubt so.

The syllabus is created as such only guides and worksheets are provided
for them, but ultimately in a very human-oriented industry... the facilitator
is the one solely responsible for the creativity in encouraging & motivating
the children under her guidance using her initiatives and the available
materials (within the centre or her own) to the best of her abilities.

The fun & creative factor deeply relies on the educator.

Syllabus are prints and prints are dry. It is how one delivers what's in all
that print that matters. Knowing all the theory by hard is essential as
educators must be knowledgable in what they do, but the practical side of
it is subjective to each person's personality and definitely passion for the
job. Initiative is also another factor cos teachers who do not like extra work
will not want to think beyond the given syllabus. Time to punch in do work,
time to punch out must be on time.

Charmaine_chong:

He sit through with my son and read words by words without explanation and pictures for the entire one hour.

I don't think this way of teaching would benefit my son. This would just scares him away. And yes, he doesn;t like to go there.

Older children may learn faster via drilling and can finish within one year.
Younger children may need more than just reading word for word since
their attention span is shorter and they will need more materials to work
with during the lessons. But a Montessori classroom with materials in
abundance, it is unfortunate to know that the teacher may not be utilizing
them for the benefit of the children.

Like i've said in another post, i have personally known some colleagues
who are lazy to use the materials during lessons and hence depriving
children of the maximum advantage of Montessori learning from concrete
to abstract.

Do talk to the teacher and tell him or her that the reason you placed your
child in a Montessori school to learn is cause from your research, children
get to learn concrete to abstract and get to use the variety of materials
available for the programme which will indirectly allow children to love
learning and motivate self-exploration. Where learning will come from
the heart..

Then again, one has to have faith in the teachings to fully help children
to develop to the best of their potential.

I've received your PMs. Do not worry, Charmaine. It is never a trouble
to me... asking questions is part of learning and i will be here for you thru
YOUR learning journey. Keep the faith, Charmaine. You WILL get there...

Take care... and i hope your feedback to the teacher will be positively
looked into. Let me know how it turns out for you. :hugs:

[tamarind]

buds,

Thanks for explaining in such details. Your explanation will give a clearer picture to those mommies who want to send their kids to Montessori centers to learn phonics. Also thanks for helping to encourage Charmaine.

However, hopefully we can stay on the topic of this thread, which is about teaching kids at home We seem to be discussing a lot about enrichment classes here, which is really off topic.

I believe that there are many other mommies who are keen to teach their kids at home instead of spending money on enrichment classes

[buds]

tamarind:

buds,

Thanks for explaining in such details. Your explanation will give a clearer picture to those mommies who want to send their kids to Montessori centers to learn phonics. Also thanks for helping to encourage Charmaine.

Charmaine tries a lot. She makes exemplary efforts without even thinking
of giving up on her son. As each child is built differently from birth, they
also connect differently to different methods of teaching and also with whom
they learn it from.

My encouraging Charmaine is the same as how i encourage the rest.
Though there have been a few off cases where the children simply have
no ear for Phonics, there are many ways around it for those who still can.
Do not despair.

tamarind:

However, hopefully we can stay on the topic of this thread, which is about teaching kids at home We seem to be discussing a lot about enrichment classes here, which is really off topic.

I'm just butting in here to clarify issues with Charmaine.

tamarind:

I believe that there are many other mommies who are keen to teach their kids at home instead of spending money on enrichment classes

With enrichment costs rising every other year, of course there will be
many many many other mothers who are definitely keen.

[tamarind]

buds:

Charmaine tries a lot. She makes exemplary efforts without even thinking
of giving up on her son. As each child is built differently from birth, they
also connect differently to different methods of teaching and also with whom
they learn it from.

My encouraging Charmaine is the same as how i encourage the rest.
Though there have been a few off cases where the children simply have
no ear for Phonics, there are many ways around it for those who still can.
Do not despair.

I agree. However, I find out some mommies give up too easily on a method, then they desperately go around trying this and that. A method works only if we try it for sufficient amounts of time. If we try for a few days, then give up on the method just because we cannot get the child to be interested, then it will be difficult to find any method that will work for the child. BTW, I am not talking about my methods, there are many other parents who used Jolly and Letterland phonics successfully.

Yes every child is different. There are parents in this forum who said that their kids do not need to be taught, and they just know how to read

Many kids start to learn well only after the age of 5 or 6. Before that age, it may be very difficult to teach them anything, but there is no need for parents to feel despair. Although I wrote that kids can start to learn phonics and reading at 3 years old, but if the child is not ready, then parents should just wait until he is older. It is not too late to start at 5 years old, and there will be less frustration.

Many parents have this belief that teachers at enrichment centers can teach better, but this is not true. It is not easy to find a good teacher out there.

I have seen too many parents who think that putting their kids in enrichment centers like reading, maths, creative writing, but in the end find that their kids still don't do well. The fact is that all these can be taught at home and parents can achieve much better results.

[Charmaine_chong]

[quote]

I agree. However, I find out some mommies give up too easily on a method, then they desperately go around trying this and that. A method works only if we try it for sufficient amounts of time. If we try for a few days, then give up on the method just because we cannot get the child to be interested, then it will be difficult to find any method that will work for the child[/quote]Tamarind,

True enough a method works only when parent persist. BUT, do bear in mind there isn't an approach or method that suits everyone. We have to always re-visit /try again and again. If this method doesn't work out, please review and revise. Is pointless to persist. Take a break may be few days or few weeks, try again.

Aside parents keen interest to teach, a child's character play a part too.

Parent is children's best teacher and should not give up regardless a child's learning ability. BUT, always yes or no. The parents must be educated as well, otherwise, how to teach a child?

For me as an example. I learn to speak and write when i came to Singapore. In my past 20 years, english is an alien to me. I spent how many sleepless night to digest parents succesful stories in teaching their kids as well as picking up english myself. That is not easy. I want to learn from them.

For a young kid who is smart, he/she will ask why aeroplane can fly on the sky? why ribena is purple color? mommy, can you tell me what tree is this, why tree is not straigh..... If the mommy is not knowledgeable enough, how to answer these. My son asked me :mommy what dinosaur is this? I couldn't answer as they have names that i don;t know how to pronounce. I checked on internet, some just dont have it especially encylopedia words.

I sent my child to enrichment as i would like to learn phonics myself to teach my daughter. She is a lot easier to teach.

My experience in teaching my 3yo boy
I was panic when my son couldn't recognise a single letter and slow in speech when he was 3 years old. I sent him to Talentplus when he was 20months old for entire 15months.

I didn't read to him from 0-3 years old. My journey of teaching began when he was 3yo.

I started him with Glenn Doman as i am right brain believer. I tried it for almost half a year without success. Into month 2 or 3, i tried other approach while i still continue with flashing. I trial and error, keep on trying different method to get my child to read.

Then now, 10 mths later, he slowly show interest in P&J and willingness to read aloud to me a page or two daily and road signs. He needs time to read other books, not very keen at this moment.

Look, entire 10 mths just to get him to like P&J.

I never give up. I will not. If i don't teach my son, who will??? Even i send my child to enrichment, i always believe revision is extremely important. Pratise makes perfect.

There was a period of time when he didn't keen to read by himself, we did crafts. We took a long break for reminding him to read himself. Just do crafts and reading to him.

My son couldn't read at 3 yo but i don't consider myself a failure. He knew his basic like
*letter name and sounds
* numbers almost up to 100
*shapes,
*colors
*2-5 tang poems recite through memory
*recognise some words in chinese and english
*drawing
*love to do craft
*writing numbers and alphabets by himself (about 80-90%), some of the letters still not sure.

This is my little \"success.\"

Just hope my little prince will be ready to read when he turn 5yo. That is my target for the year.

[jedamum]

Charmaine_chong:

My son couldn't read at 3 yo but i don't consider myself a failure.

most kids cannot read at 3 la...

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi Jedamum,


I know.

The fact is there are many children can read at 2 or 3yo. Most can’t.

This teaches me that early stimulation-reading aloud to kids is soooo important.

[tamarind]

Charmaine,

Both my boy and girl also cannot read at 3 years old My younger boy cannot even recognize all the 26 letters at 3 years 3 months old.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I was not exactly referring to you. There were other mommies who emailed me asking for advice. I was just speaking in general.

Phonics is not rocket science. My hubby learned his phonics by watching Sesame Street when he was a child. He can read Lord of the Rings at 13 years old. I learned my phonics by watching the 3 Leapfrog DVDs together with my kids about 3 years ago. Any parent who can speak and write in English can learn phonics in a few days. Those \"experts\" at phonics schools make phonics look so difficult, because they want to earn your money Believe me, the 3 Leapfrog DVDs are all we need to learn phonics (together with lots of practices).

I really do admire all the hard work that you put in. I know that you will never give up on your son. But your son is only 4 years old this year right ? He still has lots of time to learn, so there is no need to push too hard. And there is no need to panic and despair if he does not progress as fast as you like. There are many other kids who started to learn to read only at 5 to 6 years old. All these kids will eventually catch up

The truth is that I never expected my son to progress at this rate. He was a very average child, and his attention span was only 2 to 3 mins when he was 3 years old. I did not \"aim\" to teach him to read Charlie and the Chocolate factory before he turned 5 years old. My target was only to teach him to read simple sentences by 5 years old. I established a routine to teach him at least 10 to 15 mins a day. I would be happy enough if he can read books with one or two sentences by 5 years old, which is what his kindergarten is teaching.

Thanks to phonics and the Ladybird Peter and Jane series, he is doing far better than I ever dreamed. That is why I want to share with other parents about these excellent resources.

Personally I have a lot of faith in these resources. There are over 700 five star reviews for the Leapfrog DVDs at http://www.amazon.com. The Peter and Jane series have been around for more than 40 years. There are mommies who emailed me saying that their kids are doing amazingly well using these resources. The fact is that I wish I had these resources when I was a child, because I could not even read Charlotte's Web when I was 13 years old.

Of course every child is different, and if parents do not find these resources helpful, by all means use other resources. I will be more than happy to know about these resources in this thread. When parents decide on a method, they should be consistent and stick to it, instead of trying for a few days then give up. If we keep trying this and that the child will be very confused.

BTW, I am very lazy to read books to my kids. I taught them to read by themselves so that they can read books out loud to me This is far more effective than reading to the kids.

I actually hate enrichment classes because they cost so much money, and I felt so tired bringing my kids to class. They only attend Berries because I did not have good resources to teach them at home in the past. I spent a total of $9000 sending both kids to Berries from N2 to K2. I could have saved this money if I have found http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html earlier.

I believe that it is not necessary to spend a lot of money for kids to do very well That is why I started this thread to share with other parents.