All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[sean wife]

Hi Tamarind,


Thanks for your compliment and most of all, thanks for your recommendation of the P&J books which are really good and systematic to introduce self-reading to kids. But other than reading, there are many other aspects e.g. spelling, grammer, comprehension which seems daunting to me to teach….what age do you think is good to introduce grammer in a systematic way to kids?

I know that spelling will be easier with phonics knowledge. Problem for me is I actually do not really know how well they can breakdown a word by its phonics sound (as in beginning, middle, end sound). My kids phonics journey started with learning beginning sounds from Leapfrog DVD around 18 month and knew them pretty well in a short time, before 2 years old. When I try to teach blending of sounds around 2 yrs old, I find that they were not ready or willing to sound out the individuals sounds…I thought maybe their speech development wasn’t so developed yet, so I thought easier to introduce sight words first. After 2-3 months when they were around 2 yrs 3 months old, I notice that they were trying to read words in their familiar storybooks and thus thought let them try out P&J books.

Till now, I notice that they do try to sound out an unfamiliar word using phonics beginning sound…but I still do not know if they can break down a word by its individual sound…I doubt so. The only spelling activity I tried with them was to say a word e.g. ‘cat’ and I break down the individual sounds so that they choose the correct letter and paste them together to form the word…They are not particularly keen on phonics activities and don’t seem that they can decipher the individual sounds in the words by themselves. Initially I was very vexed, but then my hubby say since they can read, why kill their interest by insisting that they can read the way I want….???

Anyway maybe I still have some time before I need to worry about their spelling skills….right now, it’s a challenge to get them to practice tracing of letters…they can do it fast and quite well if they are in the mood, but most of the time, it can really test my patience…again, my hubby asks me to take it easy…

[starz]

tamarind:

Hi starz,
It is not necessary to buy the \"b\" series if your girl can read most of the words in \"a\" without any help.

Check out this page from my blog :

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/03/picture-books-from-my-home-library.html

I listed many books suitable for reading level 4.

Thanks for your reply. So meaning i can skip all Level B books since level book 4 and 5 seems ok for her at 4yrs old. can i start to buy chapter books? or i just let her carry n continue on P&J book 6 n 7?

[tamarind]

sean wife:

Hi Tamarind,


Thanks for your compliment and most of all, thanks for your recommendation of the P&J books which are really good and systematic to introduce self-reading to kids. But other than reading, there are many other aspects e.g. spelling, grammer, comprehension which seems daunting to me to teach….what age do you think is good to introduce grammer in a systematic way to kids?

I know that spelling will be easier with phonics knowledge. Problem for me is I actually do not really know how well they can breakdown a word by its phonics sound (as in beginning, middle, end sound). My kids phonics journey started with learning beginning sounds from Leapfrog DVD around 18 month and knew them pretty well in a short time, before 2 years old. When I try to teach blending of sounds around 2 yrs old, I find that they were not ready or willing to sound out the individuals sounds…I thought maybe their speech development wasn’t so developed yet, so I thought easier to introduce sight words first. After 2-3 months when they were around 2 yrs 3 months old, I notice that they were trying to read words in their familiar storybooks and thus thought let them try out P&J books.

Till now, I notice that they do try to sound out an unfamiliar word using phonics beginning sound…but I still do not know if they can break down a word by its individual sound…I doubt so. The only spelling activity I tried with them was to say a word e.g. ‘cat’ and I break down the individual sounds so that they choose the correct letter and paste them together to form the word…They are not particularly keen on phonics activities and don’t seem that they can decipher the individual sounds in the words by themselves. Initially I was very vexed, but then my hubby say since they can read, why kill their interest by insisting that they can read the way I want….???

Anyway maybe I still have some time before I need to worry about their spelling skills….right now, it’s a challenge to get them to practice tracing of letters…they can do it fast and quite well if they are in the mood, but most of the time, it can really test my patience…again, my hubby asks me to take it easy...

Hi sean wife,
The best way to teach grammar, comprehension, vocabulary is to read as many good books as possible.

In fact, I did not teach grammar and comprehension before my girl enters P1. She has no problem at all. Because she has read extensively, her foundation in the language is already very strong and she naturally knows whether a sentence sounds correct.

Don't worry about grammar and comprehension at this age. Instead, let your kids read all the wonderful children's books in my blog :

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/03/picture-books-from-my-home-library.html

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/03/importance-of-reading-books.html

(Note: I will be adding more books to these pages)

If your kids can finish reading all these books before P1, they probably do not need to spend time studying English when they are in P1. For grammar and comprehension, just leave it to the teachers to teach in class.

It is also important to note that kids learn best from reading good books written by great authors(refer to my blog). Avoid books like \"Diary of a wimpy kid\", \"Beast Quest\", etc. Kids can read hundreds of those books and their English will still not improve.

Remember to discuss the books with your kids to make sure that they understand what they are reading. One way is to act out the story :

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/02/developing-love-for-reading.html


As for spelling, phonics is certainly essential. Do you have the Leapfrog Talking Words Factory and Word Caper DVDs ? These DVDs teach kids how to join the letter sounds to form words, as well as the more complex phonics rules like the silent \"e\". Since your kids are already reading so well, just let your kids watch the DVDs will do.

To check whether they can spell using phonics, you can try to use the list of words in my blog :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html

Print or write out the word cards. Then say a word, and ask them to pick out the correct card. Go through all the 3 letter words in Stage 1 in my blog, then move on to Stage 2. As you say the word, break it up into individual sounds. If your kids can pick up all the words correctly, that shows that they have a good understanding of the techniques of phonics.

Thanks to phonics, my 6 year old boy actually likes spelling, because he can spell all the words in my girl's P1 spelling list, even though he has never practiced writing those words before.

Your kids are most likely learning many words as sight words. So long as you make sure that they know phonics(use my methods above to check), there is no need to worry about whether they can break down a word. In fact, many words cannot be read by phonics techniques. Kids have the ability to use a combination of phonics and sight words(by memory) to remember words.

For tracing letters, I bought the Kumon books for my boy, and he likes them. I started with Kumon puzzle books before moving on to writing letters, then sentences. These books are very systematic and the quality is good.

[tamarind]

starz:

Thanks for your reply. So meaning i can skip all Level B books since level book 4 and 5 seems ok for her at 4yrs old. can i start to buy chapter books? or i just let her carry n continue on P&J book 6 n 7?

I would suggest that you start on chapter books only after your child has completed at least book 10 of the Peter and Jane series.

Also, when choosing chapter books, make sure that you choose books suitable for your child's age, otherwise she may not be able to understand.

I highly recommend the original Winnie-the-pooh series by A.A.Milne for kids age 3 to 5 years old. These books have many words on a page, but the words are not difficult.

Also, you should still let your child read as many picture books as possible. In fact, there are many picture books that are very challenging even for P1 to P3 kids. Make sure that she reads every book in this list :

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/03/picture-books-from-my-home-library.html

I indicated the reading level for each book. There are many books of reading level 4 and 5, that means a child who can read Peter and Jane book 4 or 5 should be able to read those books.

Quote:
\"No matter if they are reading above grade level when they are between the ages of 5-9, their books should always contain some pictures to help them develop their comprehension. He may be able to read at 5, but the development of visual perception probably isn't at the same level. Pictures will continue to help develop this very important skill. \"


When we read a story book, we are able to paint a picture of the story in our minds, based on the description in the book. However, a young child may not have this ability yet. Many young kids reading chapter books may not understand what they are reading. It is very important to let them read picture books to develop this ability.

[tamarind]

sunset_dae:

Hi Tamarind


thanks to yr blog, my 3 year old boy is now able to join 3 alphabets together and read out the word.
however i realised that he tend to get confused with words of the similar sound but different meaning, e.g:

MAT AND MAP
When he read map, he will tell me:\"Mummy, I know, MAP is this one, we are sitting on it!\"

I try to show him pictures or even the real stuff of what is the different of MAT AND MAP but i realise i cant possibly be buying real objects to teach him a new word every time..

SAG AND LAG: He ask me:\"What is sag and lag?\" I dont knw how to explain.....

Hi sunset_dae,
Your boy is doing very well

For the meaning of the words, I usually use the real object, or act it out with my boy. This is much better than explaining using words. I also show pictures if we don't have the objects at home.

For sag and lag, you can try to act it out

sag : To sink, droop, or settle from pressure or weight.

Get a piece of bedsheet, you hold on to one side, then ask your son to hold on to the other side. Put some heavy object on the bedsheet, it will sag !

lag : To fail to keep up a pace

Pretend that you are running in a race with your son. Run slower than him. That is \"lag\"

[sean wife]

Hi tamarind,


Many thanks for taking the time to advise me in such great details...actually I had printed out a part of your list sometime back...Will try to dig them out and test if they can read. But then again, I suspect they already know many words on that list by sight already... :?

[sunset_dae]

thanks Tamarind!! :lol:

tamarind:

sunset_dae:

Hi Tamarind

thanks to yr blog, my 3 year old boy is now able to join 3 alphabets together and read out the word.
however i realised that he tend to get confused with words of the similar sound but different meaning, e.g:

MAT AND MAP
When he read map, he will tell me:\"Mummy, I know, MAP is this one, we are sitting on it!\"

I try to show him pictures or even the real stuff of what is the different of MAT AND MAP but i realise i cant possibly be buying real objects to teach him a new word every time..

SAG AND LAG: He ask me:\"What is sag and lag?\" I dont knw how to explain.....

Hi sunset_dae,
Your boy is doing very well

For the meaning of the words, I usually use the real object, or act it out with my boy. This is much better than explaining using words. I also show pictures if we don't have the objects at home.

For sag and lag, you can try to act it out

sag : To sink, droop, or settle from pressure or weight.

Get a piece of bedsheet, you hold on to one side, then ask your son to hold on to the other side. Put some heavy object on the bedsheet, it will sag !

lag : To fail to keep up a pace

Pretend that you are running in a race with your son. Run slower than him. That is \"lag\"

[tamarind]

sean wife:

Hi tamarind,


Many thanks for taking the time to advise me in such great details...actually I had printed out a part of your list sometime back...Will try to dig them out and test if they can read. But then again, I suspect they already know many words on that list by sight already... :?

Hi sean wife,
If they know all the 3 letter words, then you can start to ask them to spell any 3 letter words. Since they are so young, there is not need to ask them to write. Just ask them to tell you the letters

[tamarind]

Dear all,

I received 2 PMs over the past few days asking me about Montessori phonics class at Jurong West.

I cannot remember where I wrote that this phonics class is good.

I want to clarify that this class is not suitable for all children. Someone has complained in this thread that her son did not like that class.

That phonics class, which is one hour a week, requires kids to sit down for one hour to do worksheets. It is not suitable for children who cannot sit still and expects to learn in a fun environment. That is why I did not send my boy there. My older girl is able to sit still to write for long periods of time since she was 3 years old, so she did not mind attending this phonics class because she did not like to run around aimlessly. So please make sure that your child can sit still to do worksheet for one hour before signing him up for the class.

Also, since this thread is about teaching phonics at home, I want to emphasize that parents do not need to become experts in phonics in order to teach your kids. Remember that the aim is to teach your kids to read fluently. Phonics is only part of the teaching scheme, the other parts are teaching sight words and reading from books. It is quite easy for parents (who are English educated) to learn and teach phonics by using the resources in my blog :

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

How difficult can phonics be if it is taught to kids between 3 to 6 years old ? I know that many other parents have taught their kids to read at home without attending any classes

[sean wife]

Hi Tamarind,


My gals are able to read out 90% of the 3 letter words...I just printed out each word family on A4 size paper and ask them to read out one by one...instead of I say one word and ask them to find the correct one as somehow I find that when I try to play games, they can get so carried away that it becomes really just a game between themselves... :x

Will try with the 4-letter words next week...However I think that's still a big gap between knowing how to read all these words and being able to tell me the sounds/letters that made up these words. I did try to guide them along with the spelling of 3-letters words before, as in I breakup the first, middle and last sound and they paste the corresponding letters to from the word....but if I dun prompt them, they seem lost leh... :?