Can somebody help me with bilingual 5yr old learning to read?

[jamaisjedors]

We are in France, dominant language French but DS1 (5.7) speaks good English.

He won't start to learn to read in French til next school year, but is doing sounds work and some word recognition this year.

My mum (ex. primary school teacher) started him off on the Oxford Reading Scheme during the Feb holidays, but at the moment he's still only learning the words by heart or guessing them.

His French teacher pointed out that he is only looking at the start of words and this is true in English too.

How can I get him to start looking at the whole word and to start sounding things out - he seems to totally blank that way of doing things.

Any tips? Someone mentioned a phonics online programme a while ago?

[Bucharest]

Moondog is your woman!
Headsprout reading scheme is the one she introduced us to- t'is great, lots of fun and had dd reading in a couple of months.

We are bilingual Italian/English, and although I had been doing ORT stuff etc with dd for a year or so (she is 6 now and in first year primary in Italy) I did hold off on the English for a while as the intro to reading in Italian in Yr 1 is very very intense and because Italian is phonetically regular, she was getting confused with English.

She is now working her way through Ruth Miskin's reading books (Superphonics I think) which are a bit more "goey" than the bloody coma-inducing Kipper and co!

[jamaisjedors]

Thanks Bucharest, I thought it was moondog who knew, there was a thread not so long ago but I can't find it.

I will give him a try with headsprout then, I think he needs to do some phonics work.

I was going to hold off on the English for a while too, but my mum thought it was time to start.

I'm a bit concerned that next yr he'll be getting homework to do in the evening so I don't see when we would fit the English work in - already he's tired after all day at school Mon, Tues Thurs Fri, so we only do reading on a Saturday or Sunday really.

[jamaisjedors]

Just had a quick look at Headsprout - I can only see a programme for 200 dollars - is that what you got Bucharest?

[othersideofthechannel]

Jamaisjedors, because of the tiredness factor, I found it difficult to do much reading in English with DS when he was in GS and CP so it was restricted to weekends and holidays. But he still made progress.

And now he is in CE1 he is so much less tired after school so we fit in about 20 minutes every night reading together at bedtime and then often he will read for a little longer after I go downstairs.

[littleducks]

I have only seen the sample lessons on headsprout but I would recommend signing up to a free trial at 'reading eggs' (they only want an email address no card details or anything)

DD started doing it after she was fairly confident with the majority of the phonic sounds for the letters and is now on the next stage making '-it' '-in' words etc. She loves the site (and i am keen on free trial to check it out properly).

There is the odd australianism (is that a real word?) for example dd had to ask me what a 'tan' was as she couldnt drag the word to the corresoonding picture but is good, has improved her mouse and keyboard skills.
There is also starfall for fun phonic sounds, my dd wasnt keen but loads of kids love it

[jamaisjedors]

Thanks both of you.

I tried starfall out a while ago on DS but he got bored really quickly and couldn't be bothered, as osotc says, he is tired after school and really needs something to captivate him if he is going to do anything.

I would like to start something now and then have him do quite a lot during the summer holidays, I think he could make a lot of progress on his phonics in that way and then we could drop back down to once or twice a week reading in September.

DS did the 3 trial lessons at headsprout and LOVED them, he has been pestering me ever since to buy it but I am having payment problems with them (won't accept my card).

For the first time, he sounded out a word, which he had been refusing point blank to do with me!

[canella]

my ds1 is about the same age as yours - we're in germany so he's not going to school until next sept!!

another german mum recommended a book called "how to read in 100 lessons" (or something like that).

my ds1 is a really reluctant reader so although it started off well enough he lost interest as the pictures are a black and white and a bit dull and the stories are plain weird!

but for the first 50 lessons i cant knock it - it is excellent for teaching them basic phonics.

he's much happier playing on alphablocks on the cbeebies website - i think thats the best website around for young readers!

[Gipfeli]

We're doing the Headsprout thing with ds (just turned six, will start learning to read in German in school after the summer). He loves it.

I did baulk at the cost at first but got over that. When I consider what kind of other additonal support we could buy for 200 dollars here in CH, it seems pretty good value.

Also if youre having difficulty paying for it I would trying emailing them. They were really helpful to me and I got the feeling that there actually was a real person trying to sort things out at the other end (not always my experience with online shopping!).

[jamaisjedors]

I have emailed them thank you gipfeli, and spoken to them on the phone, you're right they are lovely!

It's still not sorted though so I will try with a friend's card this afternoon.

canella I will look for the alphablocks site, thanks