I'm poised to dive into teaching Chloe phonics and I'm kind of nervous.Chloe can identify all her uppercase letters (and most lowercase), her numbers and she's even picked up writing a few letters on her own. I think it's time to move ahead so we can keep challenging her.
She's always been super interested in books and reading so this might be the right time to start. I want to be careful though to keep things fun and light so we can maintain her enthusiasm and love for learning.
I'm nervous for a few reasons. 1) I didn't learn to read through phonics! I simply memorized words and then built up my sight word vocabulary. I figured out phonics much later on in life. 2) I don't yet have a phonics curriculum or strategy. So far we've used the Leap Frog dvd Letter Factory which has been terrific! The animated characters travel to different rooms which contain each letter of the alphabet. Each letter then makes its sound and does something visually to depict the sound. For example, the A letters get scared by a monster and they scream, "AAH!" in their fright. The other cool thing about the dvd is that it uses the same song throughout that we sing now all the time. Chloe catches on like wildfire when music is involved! 3) Phonics seems like the first big learning concept in life. I'm nervous I'll teach something incorrectly or not using the best method. Yikes!
Now I need to tap into my blogger resources . . . At which age did you teach your children phonics? Is it true that girls generally start learning phonics earlier than boys do? What curriculum would you recommend? (I've heard good things about Phonics Pathways).
5 comments:
I definately think that girls start learning faster than boys. I think that I was reading by age 4. I'll have to double check that one with my mom, though. I can't imagine Gavin reading in antoher six months.I have slowly been developing my own preschool curriculum simply by scouring the internet for different ideas that I think will help him the most. We are going to start "home school preschool" in the fall. There are so many things on line that you can pick and choose from. So far I've found games, Bible verses, Bible stories, songs, worksheets and so on all geared toward a specific letter. I am planning on tackling one letter a week.
I'm very interested to hear what people have to say about this. Kayla also learned her letters from the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD and the beginning of phonics from the LeapFrog Talking Words factory DVD.
We saw the Leap Frog Word Whammer (toy) on sale for $9.99 a few weeks ago and bought it with some money my mom had sent. My mom just gave it to her this last week, and Kayla is having so much fun making words with it. She gets so excited when I tell her to put a word (i.e. cat) into the whammer and she sounds it out and puts in the letters and then when it says cat, her face lights up at her accomplishment.
It's definitely not a curriculum -- just fun but since you said you're wanting to keep it light, maybe it's something to consider. It's just short vowel sound words and only three letter words so it is limited. You can look it up on Amazon. I'm sure there are reviews.
When I saw how Kayla took off with this, I was thinking about doing more with her so like I said, I will be interested in people's responses.
My mom did the A Beka Book 3 year old kindergarten curriculum with me, and she said I was reading the beginner books when I was three so I would say it's definitely not too early for phonics. My mom is a very good teacher -- it definitely wasn't that I was smart. Our girls are growing up! I can't believe they'll be three in August!
As you know I did a letter a week with Caleb starting back in Sept and about a month ago we started doing a hooked on phonics pack someone gave us - I'm amazed - Caleb is doing so good. First go through the alphabet saying the letters then go through saying all the sounds - Once she has mastered these move on to words one group at a time start with words ending with at, then an, ap, ag, and then ad. now we are on i words starting with ig, id, it, in and ip. Thats as far as weve got they have little stories frequently throught he book and then Caleb has also read 4 books that came with it. We had 2 lessons on sight words - and, the, is and on so far. but that's about it for trickiness. I would get some kind of alphabet letters to practice with and a magna doodle to teach with. just see if she is ready..if not wait a while and try again. Calbe turned 4 the end of Jan.
My only drawback is wondering if he'll be bored in preschool, if we send him b/c he is farther ahead then many kids.
We have that DVD too!! For his second birthday, we bought him the Word Whammer that makes up 3 letter words. He likes to make the words on that even though he gets frustrated that there can only be 3 letters at a time:). He always wants to spell the word "truck". I think that Leap Frog toys and tools are very well done. Michael is already quite good at identifying his letter sounds. It gets a bit tricky when he asks about words that start with "ch" a "sh" etc. but I'll give him the two letters so he will start to associate them correctly.
All of this "teaching" on my part has really been a result of Michael's desire to learn and his many questions. He words it in a funny way though. He'll say, "What starts with truck?" instead of, "What does truck start with?"
I had not heard that girls learn their phonics more quickly than boys do but maybe I'm out of the loop. He has his mama's art abilities so he's not too great at making any letters except for "o" and "m". He tries to copy what I do but it's not always legible:). This is where I would have said that girls have an advantage over boys. Girls usually have great small motor skills and boys generally have the edge with their large motor skill coordination.
There are actually some individuals who absolutely cannot learn to read using phonics. They simply cannot "hear" them. I have two friends (sisters) who are that way. They both received extensive tutoring to learn to read and spell. Though they will never be great spellers, they have overcome so much to get to where they are now.
Have fun and let us know what you learn!
My honest opinion - it's not right or wrong either way (as far as when you start) - but really look at your goals, desires and motives for her. First of all, she's three, so I don't think you should be stressing about her education - yet ;o) My aunt, who's been teaching for at least 35 years, told my mom once that by part way through first grade, there was no difference academically between those who had done kindergarten and those who hadn't. However, today they'd have you believe that your children NEED to be in at least K-3 on, or they'll get left behind. Parents are pressured to give up more and more direct influence in their children's lives. She's only a kid once, and those early years are so formative . . . I'm assuming your goal for Chloe is to be a Godly woman who knows and loves her Saviour and is willing to do whatever, whereever for Him - how best can you equip and influence her for this goal?
Sorry if you were looking for a lighter, more "practical" answer, but these are the thoughts I had in regard to your post.
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