Ideas please on how to help a reluctant Yr1 boy learn his sightwords.

[Communion]

DS2 is going inot YR1 in Sept.

At the end of reception we were taken aback to be told he was being given an IEP as they were concerned about his progress.

We said we would work with him over the holidays, which we have been doing.

He has done well and acheived his targets in: writing numbers up to 20, now has correct letter formation and has made improvements in his phonics (we have been doing Headsprout as recommened on here) BUT he can't stand his sightwords.

His face falls whenever I get them out, he looses concentraiona and we are getting nowhere.

I know I need to make it more fun, but how?

His retention for any words he does learn seems to be very poor, but I think this is as much about his motivation as anything else.

Please help with ideas.

Also, so you think he sounds very behind for the start of Yr1?

He probably knows about 25 sightwords, all his lettersounds and numbers up to 20 (now), how concerned should I be?

I used to turn it into a game.
Print them out on cards with a double and play snap. To start with he only has to say snap if they are the same and you say 'that's right they say 'here''. If you do it a lot it goes in after a while. It takes the pressure off because he isn't having to read them.
You can put them face down and take turns to turn 2 over and if you get a pair you keep them. Again say them for him and get him to repeat. When you count up for the winner say them again. (only start with a few).
Make a few lotto cards and hold up a card and if he has it he covers his word.

I found it much better because I had a DS who liked games but not reading.

As he got better I had an egg timer and we saw how many he could get before it ran out. Speed was the thing so he was allowed to pass. The next time you try to beat the previous record.

Those are really good ideas Abby thank you, that will take the pressure off.

mrz I think you are rig and we will concentrate on those.

Communion, I remember for ds1 playing hide & seek with the words.
I think we did about 5 each time cutting them in to individual words, i would hide them. He would have to find them & bring them back to me & tell me which words he had found, the words he could read reliably were stuck on the fridge.
He loved the game & seeing the list of words he knew growing each day. We only stuck on the fridge the words he could read, if he struggled I re hid that word next day.
He loved it & would ask to play hide & read!

I think that any game you can think of is good. I like the hide and read one. My DS got very anti, because he found it so difficult, so the games disguised what we were doing!

You can get fridge magnets of all the Reception and then Year 1 words you know? Also, you could try labelling things in your house like table, chair etc (actually these are hard words maybe colours like red etc). You could make the labels together. Keep a diary (can be a picture diary) to get him used to days of week. Use the computer too. Get him to send emails to friends and familyies and real letters too. My dds love getting letters. They even wrote one to themselves once and stuck it in post box with a stamp. Can use mainly pictures with some words.

Try having about 10 words face up on the table and ask him eg "can you find was".

Play pairs with them.

Put one word on each step as you go upstairs to bed with the last one under his pillow.

i think you shouldn't worry about him being left behind. Children don't learn in a straight line IYSWIM. They take big jumps, seem to plateau, then a little jump, etc etc. He will do all this stuff when he is ready. I mean, at the end of the day, so long as he learns to read during his primary years, he'll be fine.

these ideas are great and I am going to steal some!

I got some pen icing and used to ice words on to cup cakes and biscuits. Before anyone could eat their snack, DS1 had to say what the word was. This worked really well till I got out of the habit