Ok, can someone talk me through the different methods of teaching kids to read please?

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

Am probably going to homeschool

I want an overview of the different methods of teaching reading

Yes I know some kids pick it up by osmosis but I need a backup plan. I'd like to at least have a feel for a. signs of readiness and b. phonics vs (is it) whole word teaching.

And what do people reckon to

The Reading Reflex?

Oh should say ds is only 3 and am not looking to start teaching reading any time soon but have just realised I have no idea about this. None at all. Not even anything to rebel against.

Vague feeling that they shouldn't learn til later but absolutely zip idea why.

Also in Steiner schools as I recall writing taught before reading? Thoughts?

[FrannyonFire]

Try this , Filly, a fab book

then lend it to me because some arse borrowed mine and didn't return it.

What are your feelings on this? Do you teach other things? If so, what, and why?

[FrannyonFire]

Oh how funny, I didn't look at your link first, I think it's the same people

[FrannyonFire]

Have checked, yes it is

after reading the book I linked to, I was ready to sign up to be one of their tutors - it's completely compelling and entirely plausible

Can you lend it to me if you get it, seriously?

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

yes but it will be bathwater stained

but this is the phonics method, yes?

What if ds turns out to be a whole word reader? Will I have wasted £16?

[FrannyonFire]

buy the one I linked to for £1.20 and then decide

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

I will say that there are 2 things that always put me off any book like this

1. When the author puts their academic qualifications on the front cover (XYZ Ph D. )

and

1. When people talk excessively about Science

Is it honestly good? I will trust you because you know about Clangers (they are fab, I am knitting ds one for xmas)

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

ah feck it, have bought

ta

now can someone please just tell me what to think, please? I have been making decisions all day.

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

no I havent bought

its from the us and they want to charge me shipping

they can feck off. I'm off to ABE.

[FrannyonFire]

I honestly loved the Why children can't read one

buy that one for £1.20

then make your brain go and have a lie dowm, oh but first tell me why I should go to London tomorrow

[singersgirl]

Can I join in? I'd recommend reading the "Why children can't...." book as a general introduction, and then I would suggest teach reading with the Jolly Phonics handbook (also available from Amazon). Even if your son has the ability to be a whole word reader, he will need to know phonics at some point, and sooner rather than later would be my recommendation.

"Reading Reflex" is pretty good but it is more designed as a remedial programme for slightly older children who are struggling than as a very beginner programme. You could use it that way, but I would recommend Jolly Phonics for a young beginner.

I taught DS2 with Jolly Phonics when he asked to learn, and it was very easy to do.

[loopybear]

Children learning phonics first is the key to reading. Jolly phonics is a good scheme and is availble from Early Learning Centre. We teach Jolly Phonics from nursery through the songs and then using the flashcards.

Children are never to young to pick up a book. Start off sharing stories together. Then move to picture books get your DS to describe the picture and then move to telling a story from the pictures. And then start with simple word books, there is a huge selection of phonic based reading books. Your local library and children's centre will be able to help with this. Hopefully this is helpful

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

loopy we do all that really, (god spend 2-3 hours a day reading easily. easily. and then ds gets another hour of dp.

hmmm

what I want really is a book that will talk me through the differnt methods. I have no idea

Franny have you gone? Ok post very very soon and I will lope down to get the book

I love london, my dad and brother drive me nuts but...god, do you have to go shopping? Is ds with you? God, just take him on a sightseeing tour (for the riding on the top of the bus thing, not cos he needs to know about the houses of parliment) and so on. And buy him lunch somewhere nice. Or not so nice. My kids love yo sushi (I don't think its that healthy really but somehow admitting your kids like sushi is a bit precious on MN)

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

and if its just you...


let me just say...


CHARING CROSS ROAD

(second hand books. Oh and Foyles wrth cwrs)

Am getting all now.

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

also I am 90% sure I learnt using the whole word method. Its how I spell-I recognise the shapes of words. I don't spell anything out

And ds is already recgnising whole words

what if he is a whole word reader and I screw him up for life using phonics?


and what is this synthetic phonics lark?

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

oh and, and this is my final post for a bit

the phonicsy style books are bascially pants IMO. I want something that I, and thus ds, actually feel inspired to read. So far Dr Seuss is the only phonicsy book I can find fitting the bill.

Ideas?

[threebob]

How 3 is he? If you spend this long reading I am sure he will start to let you know that he knows words.

For instance ds was getting confused between a book where a Petrel shared a cave with a tuatara and why is that the same as fuel for the car. So I wrote the word Petrol down to show him it was different.

Weeks later reading Captain Duck I ask ds if there are any words he knows on the page. The first word is "he" which he knows - he confidently points to a word and says "that says Petrol mummy".

I was quite sold on Jolly Phonics - but he prefers to learn a word at a time, and then learn words that look or sound similar. (Learn he, and then her and then here etc). I'm not even sure that is a method.

[Mum2FunkyDude]

how to teach your baby to read

[FrannyonFire]

I am still here

am going alone but must absolutely NOT go to Charing Cross Rd or spend anything on myself all day (except swopping the trousers of stupidity)

I am Christmas Shopping and nothing else

(dp has dug out a train voucher he got when he was very delayed once, and we have hatched a cunning plan of putting it all on the credit card and paying for it next July>

[Hallgerda]

I taught mine to read between the ages of 3 and 4 using the Ladybird Tom and Kate books (which work on repetition of the most common words) with a bit of phonic back-up (I covered the multiple-letter sounds in the order we met them - obviously I did the individual letters before starting).

I tried rather harder with DS1 than with the others (PFB and all that...), and he recognised some whole words (car, van, bus, mummy) before he got the phonics "logic upgrade". I worked out that he might be able to do so because he was reading two-digit numbers. We did quite a bit of walking around reading car names etc. in the street. I started teaching him to read after he was clearly trying to put sounds together because he had chickenpox and I was confined to the house with DS1 (3 years and 4 months) and DS2 (2 months) for a few weeks and needed to do something!

With DS2 and DS3, I had a better idea of what I was waiting for, and started on the reading scheme as soon as they were starting to put sounds together (which happened in the January after they were 3 - which may well say more about the lack of more appealing things to do in January than about the reading readiness of my children).

I have to say that Tom and Kate, while significantly less nauseating than Peter and Jane, are not the most fascinating read out. I wonder whether that's a bit much to ask from a learning-to-read series though - the basics just are a little tedious.

[singersgirl]

I don't think you can screw a child up with phonics! If they have a good visual memory, they will learn whole words at the same time as you are teaching them phonics, and will quickly become fluent readers. Not only will they use their whole-word memory to read words they recognise like 'here' and 'come' and 'dangerous' and 'emergency utility vehicle', they will also use phonics to build up words they don't know, like (eg) 'hazardous chemicals' or 'ancient civilisations' or 'yectofantriplutoniczanziptomiser' (an approximation of a nonsens word my 5 year old read confidently the other day in his reading book).

All 'synthetic' means is that you teach them all the letter-sound correspondences explicitly and show them how to blend them together to make words. Many children work out these rules for themselves sooner or later, but it can't help to tell them up front.

My older son knew some words before school and learned easily the whole word/mixed methods way, as lots of children do, but I taught DS2 at 3y4m when he asked me, using Jolly Phonics, and he is the most amazing reader for only just 5. Mind you, he might have been just as amazing a reader if I'd taught him another way, but I stand by the phonics.

On the subject of 'boring' books, book aren't boring to your child if they can read them. DS was delighted to sound out words, and we continued to read lots more interesting stories together, with him pointing out words he knew in them, until he could read them all himself.

This is a hobby horse of mine, as you can probably tell! I'm sure your DS will enjoy it however you teach him.

[Hallgerda]

I agree with singersgirl that you can't screw your child up with phonics. Indeed, I've come across quite a few children screwed up by a lack of phonics. It's not a "learning style" that some children have and others don't, but an essential part of reading.

[Gobbledispook]

I can't rate phonics highly enough either. Ds1 has done brilliantly using phonics - his reading is phenomenal for a 5 year old - he was already on the year 2 reading books when he was only half way through reception and he'd only started learning his phonics sounds 6 months earlier.

Now in year 1 his reading is amazing - he can pretty much read any word he comes across, plus his spelling is brilliant. So far 10/10 every week (bar one week 9/10 ) - he uses his phonics to make his first attempt and then it's really easy to just point out the differences (so this week he started off with 'Saterday' and he only had to 'learn' that it's 'u' not 'e'). Much easier than not having phonics and having to learn the whole word from scratch.

Another good one he did though was 'Yestoday' for yesterday!! Ha ha! He got it right in the test though!

[Peridot30]

HI my sons school uses the THRASS method for reading which concentrates on the different sound each letter in the alphabet makes eg the letter a sounds different in apple and baby. DOnt know how to do links but its easy to find on internet.

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

ok this is a daft question possibly but have worked out my resistance to phonics

I read in whole words. Obviously I can sound out words but I really really don't...I have loads of words that I just mispronounce cos I've only ever seen them written down .

But...I suppose what I am concerned about is that with phonics...I mean do you have to keep sounding out the words, or once you've learnt the phonics method do you basically learn the word and then recognise it every time you see it?

Does that make sense? Sounds kind of dumb but...I'd just like some reassurance here!

Oh also I am a pretty fast reader (I actually read by dividing a line into two chunks, my eye only moves twice) which I always assumed is cos I use the whole word method...but might not be be...any thoughts?

I am probably concerned about nothing...phonics just seems such an odd concept to me really, dunno why.

[Hallgerda]

Fillyjonk, no, if you learn to read using phonics it doesn't mean you sound out every word you ever read for the rest of your life. After a while you just recognise them by sight. That's the point to the reading schemes that contain loads of repetition of common words. But knowing how to sound them out really helps with the unfamiliar ones (and, even if you do that, you won't always pronounce them correctly if you never hear them, because English is like that ).