Reading-can someone recommend a complete, idiot proof scheme that we can work through for 30 minutes a day?

[CharlieAndLolasMummy]

And that will produce a competant reader who likes books?

It is for a home educated 4 year old. He wants to learn. He is the sort of child who needs a system, and needs to do something at the same time each day.

I was planning to let my kids frolic and play until about age 7, but ds has other ideas . At the same time, he just isn't really the kind of child who is likely to pick it up by himself-he kind of needs to know the nuts and bolts of something first, but is not so good at piecing stuff together, if that makes sense. He is very mechanically minded, and very much an auditory learner.

It also needs to be pretty efficient and straightforward. He will ask "why" an awful lot, especially with English being such an idiosyncratic language, and he really does not like the answer "because that is how it is".

I don't really want to wade into the murky waters of different methods of teaching reading, I just want something that works!

Many schools use ORT or Jolly Phonics books, but there are other schemes.

Has he worked through all his phonic sounds yet?

Start with a-z, then move onto blends such as sh, th, ng, etc.

He can then start to sound out words starting with simple CVC words, such as cat, dog, etc.

Also look up the reception key words - the list of words children are expected to learn to read by end of reception. Includes words like the, and, at, in, etc.

Some words do have to be sight read too as they can't be sounded out.

And then plenty of books. Even if he can't read all the words get him to identify the ones he does know, and you can fill in the gaps - so like paired reading almost.

Jolly Phonics

but it doesn't teach letters a to z .. it deals with high frequency first

Sorry yes, didn't mean do a, b, c, in that order just most of 1-z are de before the blends. Think the first letters of jolly phonics are s, a, t, p, i, n for example.

Sorry yes, didn't mean do a, b, c, in that order just most of a-z are done before the blends. Think the first letters of jolly phonics are s, a, t, p, i, n for example.

'Jolly Phonics' www.jollylearning.co.uk is centred on 'The Phonics Handbook' by Sue Lloyd. It's easy to use and a very suitable choice for young children 3-6 years old.

jollylearning.co.uk/Introduction_Web_2005.pdf Download the Jolly Phonics guide -practical advice for parents and teachers.

You also might like to look at Debbie Hepplewhite's online teaching programme www.phonicsinternational.com/ which gives clear and comprehensive instruction in the English Alphabet Code. Unit 1 (out of 12 units) is FREE to download (registration needed) with no commitment to purchase further units. The Sounds Book activity sheets are the core of the programme and they include guidance on every sheet right through the programme.

For more information and advice on teaching reading look at:
www.aowm73.dsl.pipex.com/dyslexics/teach_your_child.htm and
www.aowm73.dsl.pipex.com/dyslexics/main_method_3.htm

HTH.

I think a lot depends what your child is like.

The Jolly phonics handbook is a very good resource. Jolly Phonics has the most attractive set of resources for four year olds.

However the pace it recommends assume that you have a very quick learning child. Some children need a gentler programme than Jolly Phonics. I used Jolly Phonics with my son with quite a lot of success, however I had to supplement the word boxes with my own words. My son learnt a slower pace than jolly phonics advocates.

The promethan trust do some books and you can even look at examples on their website. they are great for children with learning difficulties. Possibly the average child might not need quite so much repetition.

www.prometheantrust.org/soundfoundationsbooks.htm

Ruth Misken books are very easy for parents to follow. She explains very clearly how to teach a child how to read and write. I been using Ruth Misken quite a bit with my son although I think he finds it a bit bland in comparision to Jolly Phonics.

I think the important thing is to understand effective ways of teaching reading. Although not to rush your child too quickly into reading books.

Once your child can blend then I would introduce him to decodable books. My son started of with Jelly and bean books. Although now there are quite a few companies that do decodable books.

To make reading enjoyable it is important to avoid a child experiencing failure at an early age.

Thanks all, dp and I have been checking out links and we'll have a look at the stuff in more detail over the weekend.

I have actually realised that although ds can recognise quite a few letters, actually he is NOT learning to read at all, he is learning to WRITE. Everything he can read, is because he has first learnt to write it. This is very much how he is-he learnt to count by learning to add and subtract.

I suspect that none of the reading schemes will allow for this learning style, so I am going to have to bend them to my will somehow, and of course it will take much longer.

It would be so much easier if he DIDN'T want to do this. I do not see what is wrong with playing in the mud for another 3 years

Montesourri advocates learning to write before learning to read. I haven't got any links though.

I believe they use sandpaper letters and refer to the letters as letter sounds rather than names.

Jolly Phonics integrates reading and writing very heavily. Prehaps you can get the Jolly Phonics workbooks.

we're using a combination of Ruth Miskin and the Non-Stop Reader book which I got via an offer on the Education Otherwise website - DD3 enjoys them, but has decided that she doesn't like reading so won't do any anymore.

sv, am EO member, will look into that!

Montessori approach is interesting, will look into this further, I think it might really suit ds.