DD 6 doesn't seem to be making much progress in reading

[tbarr12]

I am the one who's posted to encourage others that their child WILL read, and now I'm wondering! I have been doing TRL with DD6, but once we got to the double-letter sounds, she got bogged down. So I took a break and just have been using readers to help reinforce what she's already learned. IN addition, I've started using All About Spelling just to get her firmed up on the letter sounds. It just seems that she isn't making as much progress as I'd expect! She still struggles to remember some letter sounds, and can't sight read ANY words -she still painstakingly sounds them out.

Any suggestions on anything I need to be doing differently? I read about 5 and 6 year olds taking off with TRL, and it's discouraging to me. I'm sure the answer is that it will happen in time, but just wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions I'm not thinking of. Thanks.

[HollyS]

My DD was the same way at age 6. Our phonics lessons ended in tears and I felt so much pressure from PS teacher "friends" all around me. Eventually she caught on and now reads better than many of her PS-taught peers! I think she just needed more time. One thing I did that helped was to switch to more fun readers. We read The Cat in the Hat...taking it 1-2 pages a day at first. When we finished, we went back to our regular readers and she seemed a little more excited about reading.

We're now in the same boat with her math facts, and I'm trying not to stress out! I guess I can't take my own advice either.

[mrsrandolph]

As a former reading specialist and the mom of a dyslexic daughter, let me encourage you to relax

She is still VERY young. Don't let yourself be tempted to compare her to what others her age are doing.

The VERY best thing in the world you can do right now is read 5-6 quality picture books a day to her...with her on your lap. You will both love it, and you will she her thrive.

Take heart. You aren't doing ANYTHING wrong. It will come!

[countrymom]

Some children are not ready to read until 7 or 8. Public school (mass education) has done a lot of damage in trying to box our children into age groups that are expected to perform x, y, and z. I would put TRL down for a few months and read to her. You could also do some games with alphabet flash cards. Then try again in 6 months or so. You definitely don't want her to become frustrated and hate reading.
p.s. my two sons are 19 months apart, but their school abilities seem years apart. This is actually quite normal.

[MomtoJGJE]

Both my older two have hit spots where they stalled with their reading progress.... the only thing I did to help them get over the hump was stop teaching them to read. I just backed off and didn't even try to get them to sound out cvc words or anything.... just left easy readers within their reach and read to them occasionally (my kids do not like to sit and listen even to a short picture book)

Each time this happened, with DD1 and DD2, both of them started reading MUCH MUCH better (like over a grade level difference) in less than two months.

[my3sons]

The marker board was a big help to me when I needed to get my kiddos over a reading hump. I used a white marker board with black marker. I wrote the word one letter/chunk at a time. As I wrote each sound, my dc said each sound, and at the end I did a slow line under it blending it. I modeled this a lot. They eventually got it!

So, for example...
c a t
sh e ll
b e ll
sh ou t

I mentioned some other ideas in this post too:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7993

HTH!
In Christ,
Julie

[inHistiming]

I've been there with my youngest ds. He is a great reader now but didn't actually take off until last summer, right about the time he turned 7. We were not doing much of the phonics lessons then, so maybe that would have helped, but we were getting lots of books from the library to read. Some we read together and I also let him pick some he wanted. In addition to that, I required that he choose 3 Easy Readers that he wanted to read to me each week. He seemed to enjoy that. When we finally did start back with RME he was doing great. We are actually now moving through it at the pace of two lessons per day....since he's older now we need to get through, but I want to make sure he misses nothing! Anyway, all that to say...in time your dc will get there. Six is still very young and I think it's just as common for dc not to be reading at that age as it is for others to be great readers. God has designed us all differently. It's difficult, I know, but it will be okay and you don't have to worry. The pps gave great advice too. I suggest trying their suggestions.

[tbarr12]

Thanks for all the great suggestions and encouragement. As I said, I'm the one telling others their kids will read, because my first 2 are awesome readers now. But I just needed to be reminded of the truth, and also these ideas for making things more interesting and fun are really helpful. Thanks again.