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I am just wondering if learning to read is like many of the other childhood milestones, that finally just "click" when the child is ready. Don't get me wrong, I realize that you have to teach them the basics, but isn't that true with all the other things as well?


Patiently awaiting that "aha, lightbulb moment"...........

That's been my experience. C (now almost 7) started reading CVC words at 2 on her own. We started phonics when she was almost 5. Now at nearly 7 she is FINALLY starting to really be able to read. Not quickly, mind you. And although she LOVES being read to, she still doesn't really like reading, but it's finally clicked.

If it is, I hope it 'clicks' soon. My dd (just turned 7) can sound out many short vowel words. She has been learning many sight words as well, but even while reading, she can read a word on one page and the next page she can't remember the same word. I guess some days are better than others, but sometimes I wonder if I'm teaching her right I'm just taking my time through TRL and making sure she gets it. Hopefully the emerging readers will be an incentive for her. She'd rather read regular books than TRL. I have been getting easy readers for her from the library, but I told her she can't read the ER books until TRL is done. I'm hoping we can get to them before LHFHG is finished

This is encouraging...I suppose I have read so much about other kiddos reading so early that I have lost touch with what is "normal", if there is such a thing. Not that I enjoy others struggles, just that I have a tendency to feel as though my son is falling behind. I really need to work on this!!

I suppose I have read so much about other kiddos reading so early that I have lost touch with what is "normal", if there is such a thing.

Sometimes early reading is not really reading in the full sense of the word. I found our son was capable of memorizing some words and sounding out very basic words, but not really ready to move on in phonics until some time after that. Even now we are moving slow through TRL, although he is doing fine, it is not something we can plow through.

Just be patient ladies. 2 1/2 years ago I was scared to death to try to teach my son to read. We used Reading Made Easy. It's a great program, but we started then stopped. We needed to wait for him to really get that concept. He just got stuck. Then we started again. Then a few weeks later we stopped again until he was able to grasp the next portion. We made it through the book in about a year and a half. We started the emerging reader over the summer last year. We would need to stop and let him read other books at a given level and then move onto the next level. A couple of months ago something just "clicked" and he is just taking off with reading! He is 7 1/2.

I have read here and on other boards that some kids just take longer - some even until they are 9 or 10 and they just go. Yes, keep working on it, but they will most likely just take off some day.

HTH.
Laurie

I had to laugh at the title of your post! Having just been through the potty training ordeal, and getting ready to begin phonics again soon, I do believe you have chosen an excellent comparison here! With some dc, potty training just seems to click (my oldest ds). With other dc, they struggle with one or the other parts of potty training (you know what I'm trying to say politely here). With still other dc, every part of potty training seems to be a struggle. Yes, I do believe reading is similar. I think it is important to move through a complete phonics program, keeping in mind to slow down the pacing and review for awhile if dc are starting to really struggle. One thing I've noticed, both of our dc (though they are quite different) hit a pretty big bump in the road when it came to smoothly blending the sounds all together. We had to slow down at that point in the phonics, and then one day, it truly did just click. Here are a few past posts in regard to this:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5453&p=40000
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5047&p=36998
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4208&p=30932

The other thing to consider, if a child finished a year of phonics and still needs another year of full-blown phonics, it seems like it's a better idea to use a different phonics program the next year. Just like with potty-training, there are many ways to go about it, but one way may click better with a different child than another. Oh, and as the pp said so wisely... it's good to be patient! Patience is a virtue I have to work hard to possess, so I believe the Lord refines me in that area in many ways (potty training my toddler this year would be an example) . It is such a blessing to be able to teach our dc to read though - I am so glad I've gotten to do that because the joy at the end of the struggle sure is worth it.

In Christ,
Julie

All my kids were different. My son was teaching himself to read at 3 1/2, oldest daughter learned with instruction at 5 1/2, next daughter did not get it till 8 1/2, youngest learned at 6 1/2. But all four are now excellent readers and love to read. The "late learner", she is incidentally a math whiz, but her reading just took some time to catch up. Once she "got it", she quickly surpassed her younger sister who had learned before she did. What I did with her falls in line with HOD-lots of read-alouds, along with gentle but persistent phonics instruction in short bits

Julie,
Thank you so much for the links!! This is what we have going on too, the m..a..p....pat...thing. So relieved to know that this is a normal process. I don't know why I can't find such posts on my own, but I am still learning the ropes of the board.

Thanks for the encouragement ladies and glad you got a laugh out of the subject line!! Have a blessed day...

I tutor Korean kids in English part-time and I have worked with a number of students who were in K or 1st and were learning to read. In fact, I think God used that to prepare to homeschool, because I am so much more geared towards high school content-wise. Anyway, I saw it happen a number of times where it just clicked and their fluency improved so much. They would often go from painfully sounding out words to reading things with quite challenging vocabulary in a matter of 6-9 months. The parents would thank me profusely and I would say, "It wasn't me!" as modestly as possible!

Really, I think at a certain age they are "ready" to learn to read. But that age is different for different kids! And it can be 9 or 10, as I have heard from other homeschooling moms.

Teaching my own daughter to read has been harder--life is funny that way, isn't it? We started with 100 Easy Lessons two years ago. She COULD do it, but it was an insane struggle. We almost quit homeschooling before we started! (She was in preschool at our church.) We started the Ordinary Parent's Guide one year ago. (Those two are the main programs that homeschooling friends we know had used.) She did fine at first, but came to hate it with a passion beyond words! Yeesh. I do think there was a problem with that curriculum, though. It told me to "review" but there was nothing *to* review or provide for more practice other than the few sentences on that page. If I had her read *again* about Fran and Fred and their frog (or whatever!) she hated it even more, and the likelihood was that she would remember it from the day before anyway.

A friend suggested sight reading, so we ordered Rod and Staff's 1st grade reading program. Not their phonics, though. So through sight reading, she learned to read, "God made light." From lesson 2, she kept going with help to lesson 10. She was dancing in the dining room as she proclaimed, "I love this book! Thank you for buying it!" It was a good moment!

Every day is not like that, of course, but we've plugged away with sight reading, and we keep "sneaking phonics in the back door," as I call it. I write little messages on the whiteboard that she can't read with sight words alone--if the message portends something fun for her, so much the better!

So now, at age 6, she can read the New International readers' Version of the Bible, with help, of course. I say, not bad.

I have had two different scenarios with my older 3 dc. My ds (age 9) and my oldest twin dd (age 7) both had the light bulb experience. Ds actually seemed to just come into this world knowing, because we never "taught" him to read, it just happened. My dd1 did have it all just click, one day she was struggling thru phonics and the next she was reading. With my dd2, I love to think of it as the sun rising in the morning. Just like the light slowly coming on at dawn, her reading was a very gradual process where she improved more and more all the time. And before we both realized it, the sun was high in the sky, and she was reading. I was amazed how different all of the kids' learning materialized. It helped me to appreciate and remember how He made them each individual and special for His purpose! I can't wait to see how my youngest ds (age 3) approaches his road to reading. =)

YES

my4sugars wrote:...With my dd2, I love to think of it as the sun rising in the morning. Just like the light slowly coming on at dawn, her reading was a very gradual process where she improved more and more all the time. And before we both realized it, the sun was high in the sky, and she was reading...

I just had to say I loved this description of your dd, Kimi! Your mom's heart full of love for your dd shines through here. You could have had a different outlook and told a different story - perhaps a story of frustration as one child takes longer to read than another - but you chose to tell this story in a loving way, with the sun (or shall I say "Son" ) at the center. When Christ is in our hearts He's in our thoughts, words, and attitudes too. What a beautiful way to describe your dd's reading! The Lord has blessed your dd by giving you to her as her mom.

In Christ,
Julie