All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[Charmaine_chong]

Mummy of 2,


Thank you for sharing your experience. It touches my heart.

I am thankful to Tamarind and Buds when i was lost to find way teaching my son.

Lots of parents just knew how to show off how well their children can read at very young age but nobody willing to put in effort to share their success road of teaching young tots to read. This is what we need.

Phonics + reading sight words is the express way of reading. I also believe that reading loads of books by running finger on pages + flashing cards to young babies help a lot too. However, flashing to older kid is not effective at all.

My son age 3 years 11 months is reading P&J (book 2a) and knew most of short vowel a.

Lets keep up the hardwork and encourage each other.

[mummy of 2]

Hi Charmaine


I believe you also put in loads of efforts with your child. Let's all continue to share our experience, tips (if any) and learning points, while we journey ahead together.

Forgot to add that my DS1 (4 yrs 3 mths) started on Rigby Literacy in Dec last year and has read all the books in Emergent 1 and 2. I can't say that he recognises all the words he reads, as i suspect he reads based on memory. Nevertheless I'm glad that he is willing to pick up the books and read on his own. He will insist on reading the \"whole stack of books\". The books give him the confidence to read on his own. It also helps that DD2 praises gor gor for being able to read on his own.

[buds]

tamarind:

[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

When i read this i honestly thought you were talking in your usual
straight-forwardness manner direct at Charmaine! :!:

:faint:

Charmaine_chong:

[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.

You are very very very right, Charmaine.

There's this song that goes :

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.. :hugs:

And if it still doesn't seem to work...

There this song...

If at first you don't succeed, try other ways! :celebrate:

[autumnbronze]

Hi Charmaine,


I have PM-up

[tamarind]

mummy of 2:

It was a revelation to me to read about how Tarimand taught her children phonics and to read independently using phonics. I realised that this was the missing piece in my jigsaw puzzle of mastering the language. With phonics, one can improve one's speaking. I was very inspired and started to expose my children to the Leapfrog DVDs Tarimand introduced. I learned my phonics together with them. Soon I could see the effects. When I did worksheets with DS1, he could match the picture to the word simply by looking at the first letter of the word. I will continue to teach my kids phonics as best as i can.

Having said that, I still believe in the importance of cultivating the love for reading, as I believe that is fundamental to learning.

I would like to thank Tarimand and Buds for their generous sharing, and the tips they have provided to clueless mummies like me

I also hope that other parents will continue to keep trying. I'm sure we can make a difference to our child's learning. Even if we do not have the technical skills, our interest alone will be motivation to our children to keep learning.

mummy of 2,
You are welcome

Phonics as well as reading out loud every day, can improve kids speech. My younger boy does not speak well at 3 years old, but since 4 years old he talks from morning to night non-stop. And I am happy that his pronunciation is so clear, thanks to phonics. I don't think I can speak English like that even when I was in Sec 1. I was in RGS so you can imagine what other students think about me.

Yes reading as many books as possible is the key to doing well in English (and also Chinese). I was not able to read story books when I was young, because there were so many words that I didn't know and my parents could not teach me. All I could do was to memorize entire textbooks. I still did well enough, but I could not write good English compositions, even though I memorized all the grammar rules and lots of vocabulary.

[tamarind]

Dear all parents,

I firmly believe that we don't need to spend a lot of money in order to give our kids the best education. I know that many parents cannot afford to spend $40-$50 for one lesson, especially since there are also Chinese, swimming, piano lessons to pay for.

That is why I created my blog : http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html to share with other parents about how I taught my kids. My boy has learned to read at home without the need to attend expensive classes. He is reading at a level that no other pre-school can teach a child at his age. The only materials that I have used are the Leapfrog DVDs (now available at the National Library) and the Ladybird Peter and Jane series which costs me less than $120 for the 12 levels (a and b series). The rest of my materials are printed from my printer using plain paper. My hope is that all kids, regardless of family backgrounds, are able to read English chapter books by the age of 6, without the need to spend a lot of money. I myself struggled with English when I was a child, because my family cannot afford to put me in expensive pre-schools. I hope to make learning English a lot easier for other children.

[Charmaine_chong]

tamarind:

[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

Frankly speaking, i was very agitated when i see this post.

I pm some parents to seek their opinion when i couldn't get my child to speak up. The common answer was your child might not be ready, no need to be so pushy, most kids read at k1 or k2 no hurry. This does not help me.

Buds continuous support and encouragment makes me feel warmth. I have great success for tips that she shared with me eg: the highlighter and many more. Thanks again :celebrate:

I am strongly believe there are many ways we can help children to be READY to the path for reading. Just that some of us lost the way like me.

We might have wonderful materials but what matters most aside a child's personalities, that is the parents method.

Early stimulation like reading aloud and flashing are very effective for tender babies. When a child grows older, we can slowly expose them to phonics. That is the express path for reading but not the only way. I have friend who get her child to read well within a year time without phonics.

[mummy of 2]

Hi Tarimand


I also did not have family support in learning English. I picked it up simply from reading, reading and more reading. Now when I think about it, I can't really explain or articulate how I managed to learn English all by myself.

It is good that you have helped proivde a framework for clueless parents like me, so that we can teach our kids to read using a systemic approach. The approach may not work for every kid, but at least it's a starting point

Charmaine - The other parents who responded to you may be like me, not quite sure how to articulate their methods. Don't despair and keep trying.

[tamarind]

mummy of 2:

It is good that you have helped proivde a framework for clueless parents like me, so that we can teach our kids to read using a systemic approach. The approach may not work for every kid, but at least it's a starting point

mummy of 2,
Thanks for understanding me Yes that is exactly what I intended my blog to be, a starting point. I have wrote in this thread before that parents should find the method to suit their kids best.

[tamarind]

Charmaine_chong:

tamarind:

[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

Frankly speaking, i was very agitated when i see this post.

I pm some parents to seek their opinion when i couldn't get my child to speak up. The common answer was your child might not be ready, no need to be so pushy, most kids read at k1 or k2 no hurry. This does not help me.

Buds continuous support and encouragment makes me feel warmth. I have great success for tips that she shared with me eg: the highlighter and many more. Thanks again :celebrate:

I am strongly believe there are many ways we can help children to be READY to the path for reading. Just that some of us lost the way like me.

We might have wonderful materials but what matters most aside a child's personalities, that is the parents method.

Early stimulation like reading aloud and flashing are very effective for tender babies. When a child grows older, we can slowly expose them to phonics. That is the express path for reading but not the only way. I have friend who get her child to read well within a year time without phonics.

Charmaine,
You are not the only parent who is like that.

I stand by my statement. We need to try a method for a sufficient amount of time for it to work. Parents have to understand how the resources work and use it effectively to teach their kids.

Buds is certainly a very warm person who can make everyone feel good. Not everyone can be like her. I am glad that you are comforted by her.

I prefer to speak my mind.

I really hope that this thread can stay on the topic of methods to teach our kids at home, and not about finding enrichment classes because there is another thread about that. I don't want parents who cannot afford that kind of money to feel that they cannot give their kids a good education. Hope that you can understand.

Also about your last statement, note that a child may be able to read well without phonics, but she may still need to put in a lot of effort to learn to spell the words. A child who learns phonics and sight reading at the same time, will be able to spell words effortlessly.

Also, I never wrote anything about flash cards. My methods have nothing to do with flash cards.