Advice for my slowly emerging reader

[lmercon]

My 7 yo first-grader ds is doing Beyond this year. We are loving it! I'm so much more satisfied with how this year is going over last year. My concern is in his reading. He is still "painfully" decoding almost every word. His sight vocabulary is increasing but is still quite limited. He reads veeerrrryyyy slowly to the point I nearly fall off my chair in boredom! It seems as if he approaches each word one letter at a time instead of looking at a whole word to see if he recognizes it. I think he works so hard at it that the letters start to swirl in his head. Sometimes he makes the most ridiculous mistakes or makes wild guesses that aren't even close. Oh, my! Working with a beginner reader is sooo hard! I have to be careful because I can get really frustrated at times. I may have to slow down after Amelia Bedelia and stay in the step 2 readers because he is no where near independent with them yet. The funny thing is his comprehension is really good. He pays close attention to the storyline. Therein lies my question. He is constantly leaving the sentence he is reading and looking over the pictures, making comments on the characters, acting silly when the story is funny, etc. It's cute and great that he is engaged, but it just adds to the torturous long time it takes to get through a chapter. Should I continue to allow him to divert his attention and just refocus him in a minute or two, or should I do something about it - possibly creating a window in a 8X10 sheet of paper so that each sentence is separated out from the others? Is anyone else struggling with controlling their frustrations with their emerging reader? I know we need to be reading more than the assigned readings per day, but I can't bring myself to sit through it again most days. He really is adorable when he reads, and most times I feel so sweet towards him. I feel like a bad mommy when I get frustrated at the wild guessing or decoding when he should know the easy word. Some days he does great and other days he acts like he hasn't seen a word before. Okay, I'm rambling.....
Thanks all,
Laura

[yayadaisy]

You must be talking about my son!!! He is 9 though and does the same thing. Sometimes it is so hard to be patient when they have read the same word over and over and still have to sound it out every time! He does have a learning disability, but still we have been working on this for over a year now and are just starting the Reading Lessons after doing 100 easy lessons. We found it progressed to fast for him and had to much going on, on each page. But their is a light at the end of the tunnel. Compared to when we first started his is really doing well. Yes, he does still sound out most of the words but he does it so much faster now. I am now just starting with my 7 old year daughter and she is having a hard time also it is just something that takes time and some get it faster than others. My 7 year old is not going at the speed my 9 year old is ,but she is remembering more words by sight so who knows how it will be next year!!!! Just keep going sounds like you are doing a great job. We are not even doing the books just the Reading lessons for now. That is one great thing about home schooling you can speed it up or slow it down for them!

Happy home schooling!!!!!!

Sheila

ds 9 doing BLHFHG
dd 7 doing BLHFHG
ds 5 doing pre school work
ds 3 doing pre-school work
ds 1 tagging along for now
baby due in April!

[my3sons]

One thing that helps my ds is to let him look at the book and its pictures first. I also let him "practice" reading out loud the part he will read to me. This has made a significant improvement on his reading out loud time with me! Before, when I used to just have him read it to me right away, he would stop mid-sentence to study the pictures, or he stopped mid-way to think over what he read ( and yes, with Amelia Bedelia - to have a good long laugh about what was happening! ). When he's read it over and studied the pictures for awhile, I have him tell me when he's ready - and then I tell him it's all about reading the best he can out loud to me. It's a little thing that's helped him a lot. It might be worth a try for your little honey! I do also think that sometimes dc just need more phonics instruction - but only you can know if that's a possibility or not.

In Christ,
Julie

[netpea]

if he is getting lost in the sentences at all you could try using an index card to cover up the words under the line he is reading. I do that with my dd or she gets confused which line she was on. My 8yo ds tends to read too fast and then miss the whole point. He also looks at the word as a whole and instead of sounding it out if it's new, he just makes wild guesses. So I don't think I'd be overly worried if your ds is sounding out each word. Once they decide to quit sounding out, it can be equally frustrating as they make guess after guess. I have to remind myself to be patient...

[MamaMary]

Hi Laura,

I have four sons and the first two have been painfully slow in getting started with their reading. We were doing a special program called Neurodevelopmental therapy for their processing issue's and one of the best tips my therapist gave me was to use the "Dick and Jane" books. I use these in addition to the emerging reader. It builds confidence and skills. You are doing a great job. Remember that many famous men who have done GREAT things with their lives did not even read until well after 12. (George Washington, Albert Einstein, etc) Keep up the good work Laura!

[water2wine]

Are you having him read aloud to you? I find that really helps to have them read it first to themselves then read a good portion to you aloud. It sounds like some of it is the squiggly boy thing that they out grow over time but just adding about the reading first to himself followed up with aloud to you. I have had a lot of success with this. Then if the get too squiggly or are obviously decoding it for the first time I send them back and have them read it more carefully before the read it to me. Of course questions can be asked at any time but if they do not have questions then I expect that they have decoded without me first. If they come to me and have not decoded it themselves I will give them a bit of help before I send them on their own again. They get used to the system after a while. Hope something here is helpful to you.