ruth beechick
The White's
Becky,
Ruth Beechick's great little books are a set of 3 small books: A Home Start
in Reading, An Easy Start in Arithmetic, and A Strong Start in Language.
All are written for grades K-3, are about 30 pages long and give practical
advice on how to start. You can find them in just about any homeschool
catalog (www.rainbowresource.com, www.lifetimeonline.com) The BOB books are
small paperback books that come in sets of 6-8. Each book introduces 3-5
letters/sounds. They have cute pictures to go with the "story". You can
find them at any bookstore, I think even Target has them.
We have always read to our children, daily. I think that gives them a very
strong start, as they love to read. When Dillon seemed like he was
beginning to try to read I began by introducing sounds of letters (he had
known his ABC's for a long time). I actually began with his name,
introduced the D sound & showed him other words with the D sound. The we
used to BOB books which introduce 2-3 new sounds (phonics) with each book.
We went through 2 sets of BOB books, doing 1-3 a day. Once he got that far
he understood what we were doing as far as decoding, so I began to introduce
real books.....books he had enjoyed me reading to him like Mercer Mayer's
Little Critter books. Then we progressed to Henry & Mudge type books and
other "reading" chapter books. Now he reads whatever.
I think it very important to know when the child is ready not only to begin,
but when the child is ready to move out of the instructional mode into
actual reading. That leaves the pleasure in reading rather than making it a
lesson. We did not cover every letter sound before beginning to read, to
have done that would have spoiled the excitement of learning to read. We
did have a time daily when Dillon would read to me, so I could help with the
decoding and letters sounds we had not "done" yet....also it let me see how
he was progressing. He rarely reads to me now but reads to his little
sister a lot.
As far as phonics vs whole language or site reading, that depends on the
child. Some pick it up easily with just phonics, others will be later
readers using site words. Other use a combination hence whole language.
You just have to try one & see how the child does to know which will suit
her.
Cindy
Ruth Beechick's great little books are a set of 3 small books: A Home Start
in Reading, An Easy Start in Arithmetic, and A Strong Start in Language.
All are written for grades K-3, are about 30 pages long and give practical
advice on how to start. You can find them in just about any homeschool
catalog (www.rainbowresource.com, www.lifetimeonline.com) The BOB books are
small paperback books that come in sets of 6-8. Each book introduces 3-5
letters/sounds. They have cute pictures to go with the "story". You can
find them at any bookstore, I think even Target has them.
We have always read to our children, daily. I think that gives them a very
strong start, as they love to read. When Dillon seemed like he was
beginning to try to read I began by introducing sounds of letters (he had
known his ABC's for a long time). I actually began with his name,
introduced the D sound & showed him other words with the D sound. The we
used to BOB books which introduce 2-3 new sounds (phonics) with each book.
We went through 2 sets of BOB books, doing 1-3 a day. Once he got that far
he understood what we were doing as far as decoding, so I began to introduce
real books.....books he had enjoyed me reading to him like Mercer Mayer's
Little Critter books. Then we progressed to Henry & Mudge type books and
other "reading" chapter books. Now he reads whatever.
I think it very important to know when the child is ready not only to begin,
but when the child is ready to move out of the instructional mode into
actual reading. That leaves the pleasure in reading rather than making it a
lesson. We did not cover every letter sound before beginning to read, to
have done that would have spoiled the excitement of learning to read. We
did have a time daily when Dillon would read to me, so I could help with the
decoding and letters sounds we had not "done" yet....also it let me see how
he was progressing. He rarely reads to me now but reads to his little
sister a lot.
As far as phonics vs whole language or site reading, that depends on the
child. Some pick it up easily with just phonics, others will be later
readers using site words. Other use a combination hence whole language.
You just have to try one & see how the child does to know which will suit
her.
Cindy