heartofdakota.com

Hi all!

So we spend the summer easing into LHFHG with my 5 year old. She's already reading so we're using Emerging Readers from Beyond. We're now picking up speed and in a good groove.

My question is this (and it pertains to the Emerging Readers and the LHFHG storytime)... usually my daughter answers the questions fine but when she doesn't know the answer I'm not sure how to handle it. I feel like I read somewhere what we're supposed to do but I searched FM the forum and couldn't find it. I think we're supposed to guide them through finding the answer (makes the most sense to me) but I wanted to make sure. Do I have her reread the passage that has the answer for ER? And for storytime do I reread the passage with the answer? (If it's a specific question like that?) The LHFHG guide does sometimes say to start them off and guide them (especially for narration answers, so I've been doing that). Maybe it was something CM I read but I thought I'd read somewhere that we only read to them once and if they miss it we do not go back but that doesn't seem right to me... how will she learn how to answer some of the questions if I just trust her to eventually figure it out without guidance?

Thanks for your wisdom, ladies!

Is it a rare, specific question that is unable to be answered for the ER books, or is it daily? Is she reading fluently, or is she having to sounds out most words?
Ideally they shouldn't need to have something re-read. Occasionally is fine, especially if they know where to find the answer. On narrations, getting then started is expected at this age as well. But you shouldn't be rereading the whole lesson.

It happens maybe once every 5 or 6 lessons that she doesn't know the answer or doesn't answer it correctly. She doesn't struggle at all with reading. She reads the ER without stumbling; she knows all the words already. Here's a couple of examples of questions she struggled with - "Can you explain what the Lord's prayer is telling you?" And "How would you describe Daniel?". For the second one she was telling me what Daniel DID instead of what that tells us about him. It took a few leading questions for her to get to that point.

There have only been a few questions for the LHFHG storytime that she didn't answer correctly. An example is the question "Why didn't Reddy Fox quarrel with Jimmy Skunk?" She didn't pick up on the fact that Reddy had respect for Jimmy and though he wanted to quarrel with him thought it was wisest not to. I don't think she connected that with the fact that Jimmy was a skunk!

In terms of narration sometimes she just needs prompting and a few leading questions to remember all the parts. About half the time (guessing here) she misses one or two of the things that happened in the story and when I prompt her with leading questions she almost always remembers then. (I've read some more on narration on this forum and have a better idea on helping her. Right now she's doing more of a summary instead of narrating).

I think a lot of it then I'd her age. I definitely wouldn't rush through LHFHG as a result. It only gets harder, and it sounds like although I'm terms of basic skills she is ahead, the mental maturity is average. So I would consider stressing LHFHG through Bigger out to 3.5-4 years, so she doesn't get to things too early!

We are! I'm doing the 3R's 5 days a week (and will find other read aloud for us both once she finishes LHFHG & Beyond ones). But the guide were doing 3 days a week and she won't finish that till Jan 2019 (we started in June). Then we'll take another 1.5 years to do Beyond, putting her in Bigger Fall of 2020 when she'll be just a couple months shy of 9.

So for now, just coach her through the answer?

Yes. Those are tricky questions, so helping her is fine.

Sounds like she's doing fine and struggling only with things that are very abstract - totally normal for her age!

I personally don't think there's a right or wrong answer here. True, CM said to read things only once, but much of that is due to wanting them to pay attention (which it sounds like she IS doing), as opposed to not understanding. I, personally, with others waiting for my time (see my signature ), would sometimes read a portion again (if I thought that re-reading a part might make things clearer) or simply answer (as a statement, or formed as a leading question) myself, to help her gradually understand a) what is even being asked for, and b) what her answer could sound like in the future. I certainly wouldn't stress over it.

Blessings,