Schooling my Adopted Daughter In phonics has been a trial for her.
She was turning 6 when we brought her home, and could read and write some chinese.
She had to learn to speak english and I have taken my time to teach her to read going very slowly. But she was frustrated. HAted reading in general because in china its very hard to learn to read. She was very confused by Sounding it our and letter blending. listen to a Chinese speaker and you will hear their words are very short and and they do weird things for example "ko ren" is the word for people but its made up of 2 words "mouth and body". So its not blending more than a few sounds at a time.
I sat and was thinking and praying about how to make it more fun for her to learn and Dick and Jane popped in my head.. Now as a dyslexic Dick and Jane helped me learn to read. But I Know its is a terrible way going the whole word reading bit. then it occurred to me. Is Chinese writing phonic? no.. HImm she was essentially taught whole word In China. Maybe it would work for us.
So at the book store I found a dick and jane book. I brought it home and read her the first story till she had it memorized. Then she was pointing and "reading" it each day as a reward for doing the reading lesson. So happy she was to have success. Then One day as we labored slowly though our reading lesson we hit the word "little". Wait she knew this word already and she had that AHA! moment when I made her sound it out. She looked at me with big eyes and said MOM its liiiitttle.. It makes Little!! Mom Little! And from that point on she has understood Blending.
Now she still reads a Dick and Jane story every day because SHE CAN.. lol And she is getting excited since even the new stories she can read even tho she has not memorized them but she can sound them out.
thank you Dick and Jane...
