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Bethany
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| Posted: Jan 25 2008 at 9:31am | IP Logged
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I'm struggling with teaching my 5 1/2 DD to read. Unfortunately for her, she is my first attempt at teaching a child to read. I think it may be my own frustration and not anything she is or isn't doing. She knows all her letter sounds very well (thanks to LeapFrog) and is pretty good at blending sounds together when I walk her through it. However, we can walk ourselves through a word and 10 seconds later she's completely guessing. We'll work on a word family and she'll understand and do well, but when we encounter two words of the same family in a sentence she makes no connection and it's like we're at square one.
We're using CHC's Little Stories and some BOB Books. She has always loved to be read to, but I'm getting frustrated with trying to teach her to read. Does all this sound normal when first learning or is it a sign that she isn't quite ready? Should I try something else?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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Bethany
Wife to Mike, Mommy to Amelia (6/02), Sarah (10/03), Martha Grace (10/05), Rebecca Anne (12/07), Laura Catherine (3/10) and Reed Michael 7/4/14.
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LLMom
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| Posted: Jan 25 2008 at 9:57am | IP Logged
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wait, is my best advice. I have been through several later than average readers. My current dd learning to read is almost 7 and is about where your dd is. We have slowed down and I am mostly just reading to her and playing a few phonics games with her.
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Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
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Lara Sauer
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| Posted: Jan 25 2008 at 10:01am | IP Logged
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Since she is your first, you are no doubt much more excited and anxious than she is! 
However, I have now successfully taught 4 of my seven to read and I can assure you each one learned differently and at a different pace, but they all learned and they all love reading.
I have found the reading is a lot like learning to walk. Some kids take off immediately and are running almost from the get go while others are more hesitant, crawling for a long time, then slowly cruising along the furniture and finally taking hesitant steps before feeling comfortable enough to walk unassisted.
However, once it clicks, it clicks. At 5-1/2 your daughter is still very young. For instance, my second son, I didn't even start trying to teach him to read until he was six. We struggled all through kindergarten. I was frustrated because he could tell the difference between the "G" on the Green Bay Packers helmut and the "C" on the Chicago Bears helmut, but couldn't remember those same letters when they were on a blank sheet of paper.
However, that same boy, by the age of 9 had finished reading the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy! Today, at the age of 13, it is almost an impossible task to find enough books for him to read. I am sure he has read well over 20,000 pages at this stage in his life!
My only advice to you is to be at peace with where ever your daughter is today.
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Sarah M
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Hi Bethany. I would bet that if you wait (even just 6 months or so), you'd see a big difference. I did Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with my oldest when she was 5, and it was torture for both of us. I ended up bailing at about lesson 70 (yes, it really took that long for me to get up the guts to quit), and we bagged phonics all summer. This school year we've been approaching learning to read in a much more relaxed way, and we both LOVE it! We're doing activities from Wow! I'm Reading! and she plays around on Starfall, but I don't require her to do any amount of it on any given day. It's all seen by her as fun and games, and I'm amazed at how much better she's learning this way. If you have Elizabeth's Real Learning, she has some great ideas in there for working with sight words before introducing phonics.
My dd has taken off this year in reading, and I really think it's because I'm not as anxious or demanding as I was last year. It's amazing how well they read when they want to.
Blessings on your journey! Hope that helps!
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Nina
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| Posted: Jan 25 2008 at 1:40pm | IP Logged
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Bethany,I also suggest that you wait.Keep playing the games and read to her.If she likes when you read,eventually she'll get more interested in reading on her own.
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Bethany
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| Posted: Jan 25 2008 at 2:13pm | IP Logged
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Thank you all for your responses! Giving it a break was where I was leaning. Since I have a six week old, my patience is not the best at this point  . She does like Starfall and I'll check out other books for fun ideas. My second is only 16 months younger that my oldest, so maybe I can find some ideas for us to do together since she knows her letter sounds also.
Thanks again.
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Bethany
Wife to Mike, Mommy to Amelia (6/02), Sarah (10/03), Martha Grace (10/05), Rebecca Anne (12/07), Laura Catherine (3/10) and Reed Michael 7/4/14.
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humanaevitae
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My just-starting-to-learn-to-read 5yo son likes to play bingo and other such games with sight words. He has memorized quite a few of them (words like the, of, they...) He moves quite slow at blending words together and it takes a lot of his concentration. I think it motivates him to be able to know some words easily.
We really like the book Reading Reflex.
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Teacozy
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Bethany,
My dd is 8 and just now showing an interest in reading. We had her at a private school for K-1 and her reading skills were very delayed. Now that she has an interest in reading (thanks, in part, to the wonderful books we've been reading aloud together) she's really starting to take off.
I've been using some of the suggestions in Real Learning and it's helping.
(Also note that we just had her eyes checked and she is far sighted and has a lazy eye - the doctor said she's probably been experiencing double vision and blocked vision. So this factors in to her reading as well.)
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teachingmyown
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Two resources that have worked well for us:
Alpha-phonics, plain and very simple, a cuddle-on-the-couch approach. Worked quickly with my first two at age 5.
Explode the Code, workbook approach that I used for the next three. My #3 child took longer to learn and really preferred the workbooks. If you start with the pre-reading books- get ready, get set and go for the code, then she will feel successful right away. I like the fact thatthey control the speed at which they go. Child #5 taught herself to read with this series when she was 4!
I am just getting started with my 4 yr old, and she is using this series.
FWIW, I really disliked CHC's phonics even though I do like much of what they publish.
The best advice is what others have already said, relax, let her take the lead. It will happen, and sometimes it seems to happen overnight just when you think the child will never read!
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Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
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Paula in MN
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I started my ds6 with CHC Little Folks at the beginning of this year, and it really never caught on. Now we are using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and it is working. He also loves to play Starfall -- begs for it, actually!
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 Paula
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Reading Help Needed!
