Help cementing a phonics lesson

[Mom2Monkeys]

I need help cementing a phonics lesson for my little guy....he's going along quite nicely but "vowel teams" are throwing him for a loop and so are long vowels. We are working with "ai" and long a right now. I've done the starfall.com lessons today with him which helped some, but what else can I add in to help cement this idea? He does "get it" within the lesson and with the worksheets that go with it, but later in the day, it seems it's all nearly forgotten and we start back over...he is MORE than ready to read and tries so hard. He enjoys it, but it's getting frustrating for him. He doesn't want to leave it though, he wants to keep truckin'.

Help!

[netpea]

I need help cementing a phonics lesson for my little guy....he's going along quite nicely but "vowel teams" are throwing him for a loop and so are long vowels. We are working with "ai" and long a right now. I've done the starfall.com lessons today with him which helped some, but what else can I add in to help cement this idea? He does "get it" within the lesson and with the worksheets that go with it, but later in the day, it seems it's all nearly forgotten and we start back over...he is MORE than ready to read and tries so hard. He enjoys it, but it's getting frustrating for him. He doesn't want to leave it though, he wants to keep truckin'.

Help!

Practice it every day for a little while and it will come.

[mariaw]

What helps with my ds in situations like this is to take a break from the concept in "school" and then I do one of 2 things:

1. We play school with his stuffed bears and I let him teach. If that particular topic doesn't come up, I...
2. Enlist his big sister to "play school" with him and do that particular topic.

The process of him teaching really seems to cement it, but I have to stay totally uninvolved. If I try to prompt him or anything, he will balk. But with big sis, he is the model student!!

[pollo_la]

Here's an idea for a "Game" you could play...

Either photocopy a page of a book, or simply type up your own sentences with words that are using the vowel combinations that you are working on. Have him go on a hunt to find those vowel combinations within the words. When he finds it, he can circle it, highlight it, or do even place a small "marker" of some kind on it (let him choose). After he identifies the vowel combination with in the word, have him say just the sound that that combination makes, THEN have him read the word. Take turns, first you find a word and mark it, then he finds a word and marks it. You can even tie in a reward of some kind if he is doing really well (and you feel that he needs the extra incentive), but you certainly don't have to. He may just enjoy the hunt.

Another game you can play is a "memory" type game. Have the vowel combinations on one card and word that has that combination on another card. You flip the cards over and you have to find the pairs. Again, have him say the sound of just the vowel combination first, and then have him read the word that goes with it.

These are just some fun ideas that might vary things up enough to make things start to click. HTH

[Mumkins]

I'd use 'Explode the Code' book 3, it focuses on a lot of the vowel pairs. But I really love ETC. When we come across a vowel pair and the kids struggle I sing "When two vowels go a walkin' the first one does the talkin' " That's from starfall I think. But it usually helps them remeber. I make up songs for everything, it seems to hit with them. We also pretend 'silent E' is a big meanie. He keeps scarring the other vowel so it screams and says it's name. So we just ignore the 'e'.

[tiffanieh]

We have a saying we use here whenever 2 vowels are together in a word (whether it be right next to each other as in your ai reference or if there is an e at the end of the word) and it goes like this:

"When two vowels go walking, only the first does the talking" (and the only thing they say is their name)

So in the word "GAME" the "a" will say it's name and the second vowel "e" stays quite.

[Mom2Monkeys]

thanks for the suggestions! I'll put some to use and am of course open to more

[Kathleen]

Tamara,

When we need a little more time with a concept, I'll rewrite our list of words or sentences from the day before on a little white board. My dd gets to erase them as she reads them. She's still young, so I want to go slowly with her. It seems "new" when we read the words on a white board rather than the book. After a few days of me making up similar words, we're ready to move on a page in the Reading Lesson. Time and repetition are on your side. Slow and steady wins the race. (I read The Tortise and the Hare today...can you tell?)

I love some of the other ideas that you've got here. (I'm gonna have to try some of these!)

Kathleen

[Mom2Monkeys]

We've "kinda" got this down now...would it be wrong to move ahead and come back to it later or should I just stay on this concept til he gets it? We're using RME and there's a good bit of review worked into the new lessons plus even more review in the workbook. That should maintain it on the surface a bit until we're ready to attack it again...and I won't be holding him back since he's ready for the other skills. This vowel pairs thing is just hard to get when I've been pounding it into his head for him to sound out every letter when we read (because he would "read" one or two of the letters and take a guess at the word.) Long vowels are hard...PERIOD. LOL.

Teaching a kid to read is hard work, isn't it?! I didn't have to teach my first (she learned pretty much on her own when she was 4) so I feel so ill-equipped.

[my3sons]

We've "kinda" got this down now...would it be wrong to move ahead and come back to it later or should I just stay on this concept til he gets it? We're using RME and there's a good bit of review worked into the new lessons plus even more review in the workbook. That should maintain it on the surface a bit until we're ready to attack it again...and I won't be holding him back since he's ready for the other skills. This vowel pairs thing is just hard to get when I've been pounding it into his head for him to sound out every letter when we read (because he would "read" one or two of the letters and take a guess at the word.) Long vowels are hard...PERIOD. LOL.

Teaching a kid to read is hard work, isn't it?! I didn't have to teach my first (she learned pretty much on her own when she was 4) so I feel so ill-equipped.

You've gotten some great ideas already here! I did the same thing as Kathleen and found that to be a simple way to review phonics. The whiteboard with black marker writing on fits with the Charlotte Mason idea of the mind taking a mental picture of what it sees and remembering how it "looks right". You could move on Reading Made Easy, but maybe pull out a whiteboard and do a quick review of whatever still needs to be reviewed. You would want to keep this very short. I used to do just about 10 words a day, one word at a time. I would give him a point for each word he got right and shout DING, DING, DING and give him a high 5 when he earned it - like he was on a gameshow. The goal was to get 10 points, and I tallied them in the corner as he earned them - then I'd shout YOU WON! when he reached 10. I used the same words each day until he had them down well. It also helped him see the vowel teams by writing them in a different color, like this:

rain

He loved this simple game, and it made it super easy for him to do spelling words CM style the next year in Beyond. Lee Ann gave some great advice too - practice it every day, and it will come!

In Christ,
Julie

[holyhart]

One thing we have done when Evelyn has gotten stuck on a particular sound or blend, was to turn it into either a game, craft or make a book together.

For crafts, they have always been something super easy like me writing the blend in big bubble letters on a piece of paper and she would get to paint them or glue stuff into them. We would then hang them on a wall and she would see them every day and say them every day till those sounds were just "glued" for her. Or for her sight words, she made her own flash cards. She wroth the word on the top of a large index card, and for every word she knew she would get to stamp a big horse on it (she is obsessessed with horses!!! ). She so badly wanted to be able to stamp each card that she worked harder to learn those sight words.

For games, we've made our own word searches, memory and bingo games.

For making books, I would just fold some computer paper in half (about 3-4 sheets), cover with construction paper and staple them at the "binding". I would write sentences and she would illustrate them. I would include some of the easier words as well as some of the harder words. She had to be able to read the book before she could illustrate it, so she would know HOW to illustrate it coresponding to the story.

And just taking a break and letting her read has been helpful too! It has encouraged her that while, learning the phonics is sometimes hard, it is so fun and rewarding to ba able to actually read!

Don't know if any of these may be helpful to you or not.....