Phonics concerns for 5 y.o.

[jnjlangston]

I am doing Little Hearts with my 5 year old for Kindergarten this year. Lately he has been very bossy and not wanting to do school. He loves everything in the curriculum except for phonics. We are using Reading Made Easy and are at lesson 47. He seems to be able to do it okay, sometimes with a little prompting with the sounds of the vowels. But he says he doesn't like phonics because it is boring. I feel like we are too far in the program and too financially invested in it to change phonics curriculum. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[StephanieU]

Mix it up with some Bob books or games. Five is young for formal education, especially if you follow Charlotte Mason's ideas. We often put our phonics curriculum on the shelf for a week or two and do something else.

[MomtoJGJE]

I agree, especially if that's the only part he balks at. I'd put it away a couple of weeks and come back to it fresh after that.

[jnjlangston]

Thank you! I appreciate your input! I guess I just have to let loose a little bit and not be so concerned about staying with the pace... I guess that is the nice thing about homeschooling. I'm still learning...

[mrsrandolph]

I am a certified reading specialist. YOUR CHILD IS YOUNG. I agree with Charlotte Mason's slower long term approach. Don't stress. Your child will read when ready.

[Carrie]

I just wanted to mention that Reading Made Easy is designed to be done 3 times weekly with review of word cards in between. So, if you happen to be doing it daily, downsizing to 3 times a week would be preferred. Also, you can easily divide one lesson into two sessions spreading it out even further. Often keeping it short and sweet goes a long way with a 5 year old! Think of doing it in very short sessions of 10 min. or less!

As phonics gets more challenging, it isn't uncommon for kiddos to balk! Slowing down, having days off, and spreading it out will help you keep slowly progressing forward without the battle!

Blessings,
Carrie

[jnjlangston]

Thanks Carrie! What I had been doing was the main lessons every other school day (2-3x a week) and then would do the review worksheets on the other days. I hadn't even begun using the flash cards because I didn't know how to incorporate them with everything else we were doing since we were also practicing writing the sentences. I think it was just too much. We took 3 weeks off for winter break and this week are reading some Bob Books and he loves them. Next week, I will probably be going back to Reading Made Easy but at a slower pace, perhaps not doing all the handwriting but adding in the flash cards for review. Thanks!

[Carrie]

Thanks so much for popping back to share! It sounds like you are doing a great job! If your son is loving the Bob books, I would just go on with those for awhile. Then, when you decide to pick Reading Made Easy back up, with the young age of your child in mind, I would set aside the handwriting pages of Reading Made Easy for now and just keep on plugging gently with the reading lessons (breaking a single lesson up over multiple days to keep the lessons really short for awhile. You can actually do the entire Reading Made Easy program without the handwriting pages (as they were added on later).

Blessings,
Carrie