I have mentioned before that we use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.
We have had success using it with four children so far.
The thing is, some days it isn't so "easy" depending on whether the child is experiencing short term memory loss that day.
Remember Dory in Finding Nemo? How she would forget she knew the person she was talking to before the end of the conversation?
Some days that's how things go with our reading lessons. Here is a sampling:
Child: (Reading "Dan ran and ran and ran.") "Daaaaaaaan... raaaaaan... aaaaaaaaand... raaaaaan... aaaaaand... went."
Mom: "No, it's not 'went'. Look at the sounds."
Child: "Daaaaan... raaaaan... aaaaaand... raaaaaaan... aaaaannnnd......." (Looks to Mom for the answer.)
Mom: "You just read it two times. What do the sounds tell you to say?"
Child: (Guessing) "Dan?"
Mom: (Trying not to sigh) "No. Do you see a "d" in that word?"
Child: "What word?"
Mom: "The. Word. You. Are. On."
Child: "On? Dan ran on?"
Mom: (Closing eyes for a very prolonged blink) "No! You are guessing. You don't guess when you read. You look at the sounds. What do the sounds say?"
Child: "and?"
Mom: "No. Point to the word and sound it out."
Child: (whining) "You made me lose my place. Can we start over?"
(Mom's head explodes and her eyeballs roll under the kitchen table, thus concluding the reading lesson.)
20 comments:
I've had to dig my eyeballs out from under the kitchen table a time or two. I can so relate.
I tried to use 100 Easy Lessons twice, because I had heard from so many people about how wonderful it was. Both times, I decided that I absolutely hated it. I went back to
Alpha Phonics, and now have 10 avid readers. My youngest(7) is now reading books to me for his reading lessons!
Yes, I remember the frustration. When this happens, I've found it profitable to take a week or so break from reading lessons. This seems to let it all 'come together' in my child's brain, and the lessons will resume much more smoothly.
You taught me how to read, didn't you? Therefore it should be extremely easy and the baby should be reading a Thesaurus by now, right? Anyways, I love to read about these episodes you live with! It makes my life seem so so boring in comparision!
Great post! I have that exact session at least once a week with my six year old kinder-girl! And it doesn't help that I can't remember before I was able to read chapter books!
OH it's all so familiar!!! But not from teaching my own children--from teaching Reading Recovery. Oh it can be painful.
And I'll never forget hearing the teacher across the hall from me, as the student kept looking up and searching her face intently for some clue, say..."I looked in the mirror this morning Anthony. And there were no words on my face at all."
Cracked me up!
Love it!! Now I"m wondering if I could ever teach my child to read without losing my mind, forget my "specialization" was reading:)
Doncha just wish you had the short term memory loss when that happens?!
And sometime there are tears with the "but I don't know" wailing. It almost make me wish I had put her in school to learn reading. But then there would be other problems.
Mmm...yes. You have been at my house lately, haven't you?
The first letter. THE first letter. Make the sound of the FIRST LETTER IN THE COTTON-PICKIN' WORD!
Please?
word: map
mmma... mmma ... mmma ...
pat?
So glad to know I am not alone. Sam is my first completely green one to teach ;)
Oh a knot formed in the pit of my stomach as I was reading your post.
I.CAN.SOOO.RELATE!!!!!!!!!!!
It worked beautifully for my first 2 kids, but with my 6yo dd I wanted to cry and hide and pretend reading didn't matter!
Thank you for letting me vent! hugs,E
Thanks for the laugh. Or should I start crying because this reminds me so much of what happened as I worked with my 6 year old son this morning?!
Oh my word!!! Ya'll must be in my house! My almost 7yo ds tries to guess ALL the time. It's so frustrating. Thanks for the laugh! And the encouragement that this book worked for 4 of your kids. =)
I had one of those days last week with my 6 year old, but with math. My husband actually had to take over, because she insisted she didn't need me to teach the lesson- she already knew it, yet she kept doing it wrong. She then proceeded to tell Daddy that he teaches better. (Yet I'm the one with the teaching degree?? Go figure!)
Just found your site- enjoying it.
Jen
God's Shining Stars
Creative and Curious Kids!
Oh my good heavens - I knew I was nervous to teach my two year old to read in a few years, and you hit. it. on. the. head.
That is just her daily personality!
ROFL 100 ez lessons is the one I have a love/hate relationship with. Sometimes I want to say "QUIT looking at me! It is not writtin on my face!" lol...but I dont....I just have to make sure I cover up the picture before the little sneaks see it and guess the sentence instead of reading it!
First of all, this is hysterical! I come to this blog from my favorites for comic relief-and always get it! I was considering using Wordly Wise at some point for vocabulary. I think it starts with 4th grade level. Kathy Duffy has it in her top 100 picks.
Another thing, I'm trying to teach my twin girls to read. I am working on consonant beginning blends (using sing, spell, read, and write). I was holding up the card for cl-trying to get them to say "cl" as in clue and give me a word that started with "cl". One child would say "cl", but then kept saying "color" and "cold" and other words that had an o in the middle-uuuggghhh!I said nothing about an o! I agree with a previous poster about waiting a while and coming back. We were having problems with the consonant-vowel blends and took like 6 weeks and just did a little abc manuscript review from time to time. When I got back around to it, it totally clicked and they looked at it and got it. Without me having to do anything. Makes me feel kinda useless-in a good way:)
LOL! That was funny... I could SO relate to that! lol!
I thought of this post the other day when I read on HOTM online that the author's daughter was like the movie "Groundhog Day." She said, "She goes to bed at night and wakes up the next morning completely alphabet-free."
CRACKED me UP!!!!
Just wanted to let you know I linked to your post here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/deovolente/723985/
I know you wrote it a while ago, but it is so SPOT ON and too funny not to share!
Hope you don't mind.
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