heartofdakota.com

Hello,
I have been using Heart Of Dakota Homeschool, and we really enjoy the program.I am using Litttle hearts for His Glory with my six-year-old.he just turned six in August.The program is going well, with the exception of phonics.We are doing the Reading Lesson.I have been taking it very slowly, and doing review. Currently we are at day 40 of school, and he hasn't been able to complete lesson 4 in the phonics. He recognizes his alphabet letters, his for phonemic awareness is very good. He will often say words and come to me and ask if they start with the letter that he thinks they start with. He's usually right.He's able to see letters and say the sounds. When it comes to reading sentences, he turned his head away and says it makes him too tired,and words blur. He says it's easier to read the single letters that are spaced about 2 inches apart. He just gets overwhelmed when he sees a sentence.He loves to be read to, and enjoy school. He's starting to hate phonics because it's such a struggle for him. I'm wondering what to do, what program to try? Is he too young , Should I be waiting to do phonics? I've tried a reading highlighting strip and it helps somewhat. I've checked his Eye movements ,and he seems to be tracking fine.

Have you tried covering up words? My daughter does best if we use an index card and slide it to the right as we read.

If you son just turned 6, yes, he is on the young side. My oldest is a scholar (and a great reader now), but his reading was slow to take off. He was 7 or 7 1/2 before he was reading well.I used The Reading Lesson with both of my boys and "slow and steady" was our motto. I would just take a certain amount of time (we started with 10 minutes) and go over what you can go over in that time. I agree with the pp to use a card to cover up the other words. Don't worry about progressing through the book in a certain time frame. Just make it fun (we always cuddled on the couch) and let him enjoy slow success as you move along.

Thank you for the input! I will keep on persevering! I have tried covering up words.I felt like we should be getting through the program by the end of little hearts for his glory. But now I'm realizing that I can do beyond little hearts for his glory next year and also use the reading program.that removes some anxiety...

If he doesn't like the phonics program right now then I'd put it away a couple of months.

If he likes the program just fine but not actually reading, then I wouldn't push that at all right now.


A little background about my family....

I started phonics with my oldest when she was about 6. It was just like you described with your son. It just wasn't working. And since in my mind it was "supposed" to be working we ended up with both of us in tears a lot of the time. So I put it away... she started reading on her own in a couple of weeks.

With my second, phonics was working, but that year I took from Thanksgiving until after her birthday (Jan 5) off from school. She started reading on her own right before Christmas.

With my third, I decided to test just waiting. No phonics... just doing everything else with school and seeing when she started reading. She was just shy of 7 when she started taking off reading.

My 8yo has just now started reading. She started getting the idea about 8-9 months ago, and just in the past month or two its really taken off. A year ago she couldn't read the most basic words unless she just knew them by sight. Now she can read Frog and Toad books (Emerging readers set) with very little if any help.


All four of them had lost their first four baby teeth and then started reading. I truly believe it is very connected. Not that actually losing teeth makes them start to read, but that until they reach that point in their growth and development they aren't ready to read. Obviously there are exceptions... but from talking with my friends, even the ones who had early readers, their teeth were wiggly or coming out when they started to take off reading.

This was very interesting to read, thank you so much for taking the time to reply.I like the relaxed attitude that you took about phonics, and they are all reading well! Good advice...he has only lost two teeth at this point...

Such good thoughts here already! I am wondering if you have the CD-ROM for The Reading Lesson? It really is a good way to motivate students, as well as a good way to practice the lesson more. Here are a few comments about the CD-ROM...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9276

Also, if you haven't had his eyes tested lately, that may be a good idea. It's amazing how quickly that can change as kiddos are growing!

Finally, I'll share of the things that helped our kiddos learn to read from a previous post...


A few things that helped our dc...
Doing "Little Hands to Heaven" - it taught them a sound and an action for every letter. The fingerplays, flashcards, and letter activities are wonderful!

Watching "Leap Frog" DVD's. They are inexpensive, 30 minutes long, and available everywhere. They teach letter sounds and blending well.

Giving rewards, just little ones, for small gains at first. For example, I might have a jar and every time ds reads a word properly for the day, he gets a mini marshmallow or chocolate chip or skittle or whatever. He may get 10 if he reads 10 properly. Maybe every 10, he would get a sucker too. Or, if you don't believe in this type of reward, you can give a sticker for each, and when he receives 10, let him do something special with or on his own (i.e. build a lego tower or watch a short video). Rewards really did make a difference early on in our sons' reading progress, and we found after awhile, we could just drop them, and then reading itself was the reward.

Always putting my finger under the sound being read and not sliding it to the next sound until it is read right. Then later, always putting my finger under the word being read and not moving it on until the word is read right. Then still later, always putting my finger at the start of the line and not moving it on to the next start of the line until the sentence is read right. It is an easy visual cueing system.

Using a black dry erase marker and markerboard when dc are having difficulty sounding out a word. I view this as me partnering with the child to help. I simply set the manual or book aside. Pull out the markerboard and jot the word he's struggling with one sound/chunk at a time, having him say them for me. For example, if the word was "glass", I'd write...

gl (pause for him to say it) a (pause) ss (pause)

Then, I slide my finger under the whole word to signify it's time to blend it all together. He loves this, and it works like a charm! The other day I forgot the markerboard, and he came to a word he was stuck on, after a few tries, he said, "MOM - where's the markerboard? I'm waiting." toe-tapping, arms crossed on chest. Wow, is that what I do?!? Anyway, it's easy, it works, and he needs it only occasionally.

For some of our dc, having some time on their own to sound out each word without me next to them helped. It gave them a chance to "practice" without me watching, and helped them not to feel so put on the spot. If ds is not sure about reading from the book, you could really just write each word on a markerboard one at a time and do your lesson like that, with you referring to the manual just for your own information. One word on a markerboard is much less intimidating than a page. It also doesn't seem like a page is being repeated, even if it is a repeat of what was done yesterday.

Another trick is to pronounce the first sound the loudest. Teaching this tip usually helps with sounding out words.

One more idea that worked for our dc was to use a rubberband to stretch as we were saying each sound and then snap it back when we blended it.

Have you heard of the BOB books? They are inexpensive, funny, and excellent for beginning readers. We went through these as we did our phonics, starting about in the middle of our phonics, when I knew he would be successful with them. The first set begins with CVC words in a pattern. These books are inexpensive and available at most books stores.

I hope some of these ideas help, but keep pressing on! It WILL click, and though it takes time, it is so worth the time and effort to get there!

In Christ,
Julie

I agree with these other ladies and would urge you to relax and not make it a battle. When he's ready, it will come easily. There's no standard or needed pace for it. This is the benefit of homeschooling! They don't have to be at someone else's pace, just at their own pace. If it becomes a big battle now, he may end up hating reading for years. That's what happened to my oldest with writing.

Yes there can be issues that need to be addressed, but at 6 years old it's too soon to worry about that. Just give it time. Either keep going slowly or just set it aside for a while.