kazzoozz

Hello! I'm finally de-lurking to ask a question. My 7-year old son
is interested in learning how to read (and wants my help), but I'm
clueless as to how to help him in a practical way. I used to help
him sound out words until I kept hearing myself say, "well, this one
doesn't sound like it looks" and realized that was the case with a
whole bunch of words. Any thoughts on how to help him learn how to
read? Thanks --

Danielle E. Conger

At 09:30 AM 12/28/2003 +0000, kazzoozz wrote:
>My 7-year old son
>is interested in learning how to read (and wants my help), but I'm
>clueless as to how to help him in a practical way. I used to help
>him sound out words until I kept hearing myself say, "well, this one
>doesn't sound like it looks" and realized that was the case with a
>whole bunch of words. Any thoughts on how to help him learn how to
>read?

We just try to play lots of games (6 dd, 5dd, 3 ds). I have phonics cubes,
letter dice (boggle cubes work, too), magnetic letters on the fridge, etc.
that we'll play games with. Sometimes we'll throw them up in the air and
make as many real words as we can. Sometimes the kids like to put them
together and make me say the words they make--they always have great fun
with that one. Sometimes they like to just play around in the
word-processing program on the computer. We also play lots of verbal word
games--end rhymes, alliteration, and word association. Dh is notorious for
beginning limericks that are so ridiculous, he couldn't possibly find the
rhymes to finish them. That's always fun for the whole family!

I think that my kids are learning a lot about language without anything
"formal." Dh tried to talk my oldest into practicing her reading every day
because "that was how she would get better"--he made a "deal" with her and
then left me to carry it out. For maybe three weeks, we sat down once a day
or so when she felt like it (though she never really felt like it). There
were good days, and there were bad days. I dropped it pretty quickly, and
apologized to her for the whole ordeal. We talked about what might make
reading fun and what kinds of things make it NOT fun. I suspect that if a
child really wants to learn to read by sounding things out, she will do
that and ask for help AS she needs it--when she's truly trying to read
something that's important to her. Systematic lessons of any sort are not
likely to be successful unless the child undertakes them on her own, in my
opinion and limited experience anyway. I guess you could always brainstorm
different ideas with your son, try them out and evaluate them as you go,
being sure to listen if he says that they're not what he's wanting to do. I
think respect and following your child's lead is crucial, even if he
decides he wants to stop altogether.

--danielle

J. Stauffer

<<<< Any thoughts on how to help him learn how to
> read? Thanks -->>>>
*******************************************
I think an important thing to remember is that when he wants to and is
ready, he will learn....

Some words you can sound out and some you just kind of have to remember what
they look like...so what you are telling your son sounds on target to me.

We play lots of games that have words in them, sometimes just a word or two
like "Uncle Wiggly". Or when we are reading a story and we come to a word I
know Marsie knows, I might point to the word and let her read that one (she
takes great delight in knowing how to read words in "big" books). Zach's
reading took off when he discovered Yu-Gi-Oh because reading made the game
so much easier for him. We also might do treasure hunts where I would write
the name of the next place to look on a post-it note and have them posted
all over the house. And if one of the kids asks me to read to them, I do,
period.

But I think the most important thing you can do is to take learning to read
as just another stepping stone, like learning to talk or walk. Make sure he
has lots of opportunities, happily help him when he needs it, don't try to
"make" him learn or force the issue in any way.

Julie S.

----- Original Message -----
From: "kazzoozz" <hksarmina@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2003 3:30 AM
Subject: [UnschoolingDiscussion] helping with reading


> Hello! I'm finally de-lurking to ask a question. My 7-year old son
> is interested in learning how to read (and wants my help), but I'm
> clueless as to how to help him in a practical way. I used to help
> him sound out words until I kept hearing myself say, "well, this one
> doesn't sound like it looks" and realized that was the case with a
> whole bunch of words. >
>
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Susan Gallien

My two youngest are girls aged 7 and 9, and all the help that I give then is reading to them and telling them what a word is when they ask me. I don't bother with helping them sound out words, I just tell them the word, since as you have found sounding out isn't always helpful. When they are writing they sometimes come and ask me to spell a word for them and I ask them what they think the first letter is, they tell me than and then often keep going spelling the word out together. They are getting quite good at sounding out words since they have become more interested in spelling.

Sue Gallien
The Winona Farm, Minnesota
http://thewinonafarm.com





Hello! I'm finally de-lurking to ask a question. My 7-year old son
is interested in learning how to read (and wants my help), but I'm
clueless as to how to help him in a practical way. I used to help
him sound out words until I kept hearing myself say, "well, this one
doesn't sound like it looks" and realized that was the case with a
whole bunch of words. Any thoughts on how to help him learn how to
read? Thanks --





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liza sabater

On Sunday, December 28, 2003, at 10:22 AM, Susan Gallien wrote:

> I don't bother with helping them sound out words, I just tell them the
> word, since as you have found sounding out isn't always helpful.

In Spanish it works to sound out letters because they are 'pure'
sounds, even the vowels. In English though you'd have to divide words
by sounds. So:

ight
ould
ood
eam
ing
ent
L
kn
n

are all single sounds.

It helps Evan to see words like that. So when I read to him I sometimes
cover the beginning or ending sound he does not know. Then he feels his
way to the word. I also made word domino cards. We play with them just
like with dominoes but by matching sounds to make a word. This has led
us to the use of a dictionary. He made a match with BR and EAM. I had
no idea it was a word. He found it immensely satisfying that there were
things that (1) I did not know and (2) you could find in this big fat
book. The mystery of the big fat book was revealed to him. He sometimes
just flips through the dictionary, fanning the pages, just for the heck
of it. It's very interesting to see the different kinds of sensory
relationships he has while their learning.

I don't know if I've announced this before but Evan is starting to
read. He can actually take a Level 1 or 2 book, like from the "I can
read" series or an Eric Carl book, and sit down and work his way
through it. It's cool to hear him swirling the sounds in his mouth.
Sometimes he makes up the pronunciation or the word. It's such an
awesome moment, when he works through the hurdle of a word. Just a few
months ago he would get frustrated and stop. Now, he just tries
different things. He's getting less and less discouraged by not knowing
how to do something.

Now Aidan will sometimes bring him a book or a Yugi-Oh card so his big
bro will read it to him. They'll spend a good 20-30 minutes there
'reading' sans adult. It's just too cool.

l i z a
=========================
www.culturekitchen.com





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Penn Acres

"kazooz wrote...about reading...

I have found that just telling them the word and going on has worked best for our 8 yr olds. Sometimes-(Rarely) I can say" it is spelled and you say it the same as"....
Stephanie will take that in more often than Kara. Neither of them remember all (or even most) of the time. If I say anything more so it sounds like a bit of "reading instruction" Kara usually either "goes ballistic" or quits whatever she is reading Immediately
We did the phonics book ...."Hundred Lessons" when they were 5/6 and tried "homeschooling" before we moved to unschooling in April 03.
Kara has a lot of difficulty but at this point absolutely refuses to "sound things out and screams that she is never going to :-) I have dropped saying that (almost) entirely with her.Their reading gets better all the time but they do no required reading outloud or reading lessons of any kind. Their reading/writing now is all done in the context of an e-mail they wish to send-signs-notes they write for their games-instructions for their video games etc..
We are truly amazed at how well they read doing it this way. They used to always like to be read to daily but now usually say no thanks. They get tons of books home from the library weekly still.We read some to them if they like-they look at some- Stephanie reads some of them and I dont even know she did until I ask if this should go back to the library and she says oh sure I read it it tells about how....
Neither are "readers"-boo hoo- Kara has dyslexic tendencies and has problems taking in auditory information.
She is the computer-video game whiz. Can totally concentrate on solving them for hours.
And how do I deal with all this? I really try.. usually it is great.. sometimes I brood about what if I am totally screwing up...sometimes like Kara I " go ballistic" unfortunately that tendency has been the bane of my life.

grace
Where the girls friend just phoned and now they want to be 15 miles from here "right away" but have pulled out some toys on the table...so better go and see what the agenda is.



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[email protected]

In a message dated 12/28/03 3:15:13 AM, hksarmina@... writes:

<< Any thoughts on how to help him learn how to

read? >>

Get him to dictate a little story to you and type it out, put it in a large
font, and print it for him.

Maybe take the words from the story and list them separate from the story, or
put them on 3x5 cards so he can sort those he can read from those that don't
look like words to him yet. That way he has a flashcard set of words he
chose. And if some of them are really hard words ("through" or whatever) just tell
him some words are weird (like "weird") and not to worry, because eventually
he will know them all.

Making lists of words that only change in one element can be fun. We have
some pull-strip things we made where you make slots to pull one strip of paper
through. But reader rabbit and some other kinds of computer games do something
like that. You can make home-stuff, though, or just sets of cards or lists
of words, like

pat
pet
pit
pot
put

or

how
pow
now
cow
tower
power
cower

because if you make your own lists you can stop the second he seems
frustrated or uninterested, or you can keep going.


You can just add "s" to things and that's a cheap thrill (and a fair scrabble
move too <g>).

Not all the words can take an "s" and that will help him know that there are
combinations of letters which can be sounded out but aren't words.

how
pow
now
cows
towers
powers
cowers

hows pows and nows wouldn't be words, really, but in the phrases "how's about
that?" and "now's a good time" it sounds like it would. I would slough over
contractions and possessives with little kids learning to read unless they
really needed to have one for something. I save all tricky stuff, and usually
they figure it out on their own.

They'll come and ask.

Whatever you do, just do it as a game, not as a lesson. And don't press to
do it. Wait until he presses, because if he's not really ready to get it, he
might feel slow if he tries and it's not happening. So play with words and
sounds, but try to turn off all your teacher/measurer/testing brain parts so
that you don't care whether he gets it now, you only care that he's having a
good time.

Sandra

Penn Acres

l believe that all of of the info re: demonstrating blends-sounds- like "ight" - "ing" etc are great and certainly part of teaching reading if you are homeschooling.
With unschooling, when the child shows an interest in having you play word games or having you show them ways of recognizing and working out how to sound out words there are so many neat ways to play with sounds and words as previous posters mentioned.
However if the child only wants you to "answer the question" ...What is this word? then I find with my girls that just telling them works best .
Kara in particular but Steph also often wants no more information than what they ask for. Right now they will have no part of Scrabble Jr. Boggle etc. although they are on the shelf and we have started games with them. They like "hangman", though and will play it sometimes.
They are more likely to want to play new games with Grandpa as he has no past history of doing compulsory reading etc. as I unfortunately have.
That said- they often have me type out and then print off their stories and they like to read them over to us.
Sometimes they spend hours writing e-mails by asking me how to spell words. The computer is in my bedroom so this usually happens when I am lying down with my arithritic knees.
Right now for them it is all about them being able to control their own time and most of the time I am able to accomadate that with no problem.
grace
on a lovely crisp winter night with a skyfull of stars and moonshine on the snow.

The elk are still standing around the pony's hayfeeder.They feed right beside her, she seems to enjoy their company. I, on the other hand am not happy about feeding 4$ hay bales to elk that are perfectly capable of rustling their own feed ;-) We have quit feeding late in the evening so there are just small amounts to be pawed out of the new snow.

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[email protected]

In a message dated 12/28/2003 7:38:09 PM Mountain Standard Time,
pennacres@... writes:
-=-However if the child only wants you to "answer the question" ...What is
this word? then I find with my girls that just telling them works best . -=-


I agree wholly with that.

If I ask my husband what 15% of $42.35 is I just want the answer, I don't
want him to tell me I can figure it out.

Now that all my kids can read, they ask me for spellings. If someone yells
out "How do you spell 'straighten'?" I'm just going to spell it.

Sandra


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Mary

From: <SandraDodd@...>

<<Now that all my kids can read, they ask me for spellings. If someone
yells
out "How do you spell 'straighten'?" I'm just going to spell it.>>


I'm the same way. If my kids ask me anything I will answer them if I know
right away. If not, I'll look it up and not ask them to. Most times they are
right there beside me wanting to know too. A lot of times if I don't know,
they will say it's okay that they will find out on their own. (sigh)

I know when they started to ask about spelling things or even reading, Joe
would do the whole "well let's sound it out or how do you think it's
spelled?" So I talked to him about that. I think he never really thought
about it, just said that because that's what was always said to him. So he
tried what I suggested and quickly found out that the kids didn't always ask
the same thing, after one or 2 times, they remembered it on their own. He
was impressed. <beg>

If someone always made me try to figure things out like that everytime I
asked, I think I would probably just stop asking and muddle my way through
it on my own.



Mary B.
http://www.homeschoolingtshirts.com

TreeGoddess

Aw, too cool! I would love to be able to see that sight. I know it's
got to be frustrating to you to be paying for hay (especially at those
prices!), but keep in mind that not many of us have the opportunity to
even see elk. :)

-Tracy-
who doesn't try to deter squirrels from her bird feeders because I like
watching them too ;)


On Dec 28, 2003, at 9:36 PM, Penn Acres wrote:

> The elk are still standing around the pony's hayfeeder.They feed
> right beside her, she seems to enjoy their company. I, on the other
> hand am not happy about feeding 4$ hay bales to elk that are
> perfectly capable of rustling their own feed ;-)
>

TreeGoddess

Hmmm.... that wasn't quite worded the way I meant it to sound the first
time. LOL What I was (badly) trying to say is that I envy your
opportunity to even see elk in your yard. :)
-Tracy-

On Dec 28, 2003, at 11:21 PM, TreeGoddess wrote:
> I know it's got to be frustrating to you to be paying for hay
> (especially at those
> prices!), but keep in mind that not many of us have the opportunity to
> even see elk. :)

Penn Acres

Tracy wrote about appreciating the elk in our field....

We really do deeply appreciate seeing the elk come in..We dont see them all of the time-the snow is very deep this year compared to the last few years..
I always feel a sense of amazement and excitement when they come in close like this. The wildlife in our area is of constant interest to us-not something we take for granted. The elk however have caused some of our neighbours huge costs in feed. Most farmers leave any rain ruined hay in the field for them. The little hay they get from around our pony is very minor now that we have adjusted our feeding schedule. She is a little 32 year old welsh mare and they are three times her size. They are actually very welcome, I just feel a little uneasy because of her size and age.
Years ago they were much wilder as they were hunted quite heavily in our area and their were huge tracts of heavy timber all around us. 35 years ago my husband and I tried to follow the trail of some through heavy fir timber right next to oour fence on horseback and I had to basically kneel on the saddle as they were able to thread their horse size bodies and huge racks thru amazingly heavy going.They are not in any sense tame but are quite capable of assessing danger and as long as you follow your regular paths and routine they only move off slowly-if you stare directly at them for any length of time they move off quickly. It is very exciting to walk on old logging roads and suddenly see a group of them cross in front of you. They move so quietly you really dont see anything.
The girls take them for granted in a way, but are always thrilled if they see the young deer up close on the driveway or front field when they go picking wild strawberries.
We have a number of bird feeders by the house but the squirrels seldom come up to them-they are usually "hibernating"
(they dont really) they just burrow in and "sleep" in this weather and come out when it warms up and raid their cone caches which are out in the field or bush a bit. They are fun to watch but the cats can be hard on them so they are smart to stay away. Luckily for us, the squirrels and the Canada geese are not nuisances around here like they are in some areas.
grace


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[email protected]

In a message dated 12/28/2003 9:49:32 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
My 7-year old son
> is interested in learning how to read (and wants my help),
FWIW -- when my DD asked for a structured way to learn to read, she and I
went online and selected the "100 Easy Lessons" book. We did about the middle
third of it -- the beginning was stuff she already knew and by the time we did
the middle, she was on to books. Now, at 9, she reads up a storm. I think she
was 6 when this "I need to learn how to read NOW" period took place. OTOH, DS
was born reading I think :) -- which is why it never occurred to me to "teach"
DD much in the way of "how to read" -- until she figured out she needed more.
Probably best all around. :)

Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671631985/qid=1072791149/sr=1-1
/ref=sr_1_1/002-1456405-2420020?v=glance&s=books

Nance


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[email protected]

In a message dated 12/28/2003 10:27:22 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
Now that all my kids can read, they ask me for spellings. If someone yells
out "How do you spell 'straighten'?" I'm just going to spell it.

Sandra
Which happens a lot in some of the computer games the kids play -- NeoPets is
one -- they both seem to be learning and having fun -- and they have lots of
NeoPoints! :)

Nance


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