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Ds has hit a rode block at the end of lesson 15. We have had our struggles all the way through but it has gotten really hard to get him to read from the lesson book. I am thinking of just having him move on to the emerging readers, because I think he is just bored of the same silly stories. Do you think he could successfully make the jump? or should we stick it out.

I haven't used TRL. What does Lesson 15 cover? My daughter routinely claims to "hate" phonics, so we've burned through a couple phonics curricula. The things that have worked better with her are Bob Books (because they're not too hard, but they seem more fun than a phonics book) and using a sight-word program that offers her more practice. Although I've felt nervous about this, a number of veteran homeschooling moms have assured me that phonics is not the only way for a child to learn to read. I think my daughter really wants what she reads to "make sense" and the pat, short, unpredictable sentences in the phonics books we've used have seemed random and annoying to her.

We are using TRL as well and although we have used it since January, we are only on Lesson 5. I believe it goes pretty quickly and we do a couple of pages then review until it's mastered. To make things a bit more interesting, she colors each page on the day of review. If a page needs further review, we mix things up. If there are words that are tricky we write them down on cards and do a quick drill to start our day or a memory type game. I might right the sentences on a white board for a change or put them on a piece of paper with each word cut separately and have dd try to make a sentence out of it.

If I were you, I'd go back to whichever lesson is easy and start reviewing from there. I'd get letters or cubes and have your child write his/her own sentences or mini books. You don't want to push them at a young age to the point of disliking reading. I'd use TRL only as a starting point for games if the book itself is making your child's eyes gaze over (or tears start). I used a different method for my dd9 to learn to read and although TRL is compact and easy, I wish it would give the parent a heads up that some kids need to have MUCH more tactile learning and have more creative play with learning to read. Our other curriculum was mostly games and my dd LOVED reading. I am not using it again because it was so teacher intensive but am careful to make TRL fun (I'd love to have more creative ideas on how to make phonics fun if their are others with simple ideas).

Amy

Thank you. I do think that is part of it. I think he just needs more activities and tires of just reading the page for the day. I think we will try some of the activities you mentioned. That would probably be better then pushing on.

We just had a really bad week this week with it. It has been a struggle for quite some time but this week I almost enrolled him in public school. I just want him to learn and love to read like I do.

Oh, big hugs! I've been there, felt that with the whole process of teaching my daughter to read. She's always been very bright and very verbal. I thought it would be easy to teach her to read, since she could read the easiest Bob books when she was in preK for preschool (before I decided to homeschool). Also, I learned to read very quickly and eagerly as a five year old. Plus, I tutor and have helped a number of Korean children learn to read, so I thought I would know how to do this, or that it would just happen. But it's been hard. There's nothing about learning to read that she really likes consistently. I think she craves something "new" or some sort of excitement to it. A couple times a month, I will pay her a penny for every word flashcard she can read on the first try. That's exciting, not too expensive , and even more fun if little brother is there watching to cheer for her. I also ordered a phonics game that gives us a little break in the daily grind now and then. Sometimes I write a simple, but not too simple message for her on a white board and try to leave it somewhere where she will notice it. Since she "hates" phonics, I try to use words in it that are not sight words for her, but are easy to figure out with phonics, like "vote."

But I will encourage you that I really think that the problem would not be fixed by public school. There will be less focus on him learning at his own level, and less flexibility to slow down or speed up. So hang in there!

rni'smommy wrote:...but this week I almost enrolled him in public school. I just want him to learn and love to read like I do.

Oh, I'm so sorry you are feeling this way! I think that it's so important to realize when we're headed for this and pray, pray, pray about it, for the Lord to strengthen us to carry on teaching our dc about Him at home. I think it's important to realize he'd be feeling this way in ps too, only with 25 other kids noticing his hesitancy to read. I would maybe have a heart to heart with him about it, letting him know how much you love him and that you realize how he's feeling about reading right now. Maybe actually hold his hand and say a prayer with him before reading time, a short, encouraging prayer something like, "Lord, please help little pumpkin and I with our reading time today that it will go well and we can keep learning more and more how to read. I'm so proud of the progress little pumpkin has made, and I pray he continues to learn more and more because I love him so much."

It really helped my dc when we first began reading to set the timer and just quit when it rang. I'd say around 15 minutes is sufficient at first. Then, maybe you can end by having a cup of hot cocoa and marshmallows together. My ds loved that when we did it for grammar when he was struggling with that a little. You could also get the BOB books and have him read those over hot cocoa if you want, but I really do think finishing TRL is important to do. Do you have the computer CD with it? That really is an easy way to have someone else be the teacher for a bit, and it's a fun way to reinforce what was learned. I would definitely get that if you haven't, as it will naturally break up the reading some. HTH, but please consider why you are homeschooling - maybe even writing it out - so you have the big picture of it in front of you at all times. It's so much more than dc loving to learn and loving reading - I have to remind myself of that too. It's about having Jesus in their day, it's about having us be able to wade through their character issues with them (and probably them wading through ours with us too ), it's about having 100% control over what goes into our dc's ears, it's about having them see us as the authority figures in their lives, it's about having family come before friends, and so, so much more. I hang on to those thoughts in the hard times, and I hope you can too hon'!!!

In Christ,
Juile

I didn't use TRL so I can't comment on it specifically. We used Hooked on Phonics. We got to a point where DS could sound out several different words but got sick of just reading random lists of words on the page. So, I went to Borders and found the Now I'm Reading Books (probably similar to Bob books but our store didn't have those). Here's the link to them on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Nora-Gaydos/e/B00 ... 210&sr=8-1 There are actually a few more that aren't listed if you do a search they should pop up. Anyway, each set has 10 readers in it. There are 4 different levels. Level 1 had 2-3 sets of books (so 30 readers) and focuses on short vowel sounds. I bought those and would let DS choose one to read each day after he reads his regular lesson in HOP. He was so excited to be able to read "real" books that had colorful pictures. He loves them! We have no moved on to the Level 2 books which have long vowels. He doesn't always know every word in them but it gives him a chance to practice sounding out unknown words and if he can't figure it out I just help him out. Hope that helps!