Dd is 5, will be 6 in april and she still cannot read. I don't know how to teach her. She loves for me to read books to her and I do and she memorizes them fast but she cannot actually read. She is good with math and her handwriting skills are excellent (she can write if I spell but her handwriting is beautiful and she knows allk the letters both upper and lower case and has already taught herself cursive), she counts to 1000 without hesitating at all, you know?

How can I teach her to read? Book recommendations please? I need to know how to teach her to read. She wants to read but sh elikes numbers and artsy stuff more, KWIM? I cannot afford to buy a whole curriculum or anything but if I can get it at the library it's all good! I just need to know HOW to teach her.

Help please?

Phonics Pathway is a great book. Does she know all her upper and lower case letter and the sounds they make?

Thanks Elizabeth.

She knows upper and lower case but we are having difficulty on all teh sounds. She knows SOME of the sounds butnot many, I'd say less than half of the letters' sounds.

Someone asked my dh (he is an educator) this same question recently and he said that studies have shown that some kids are not ready to read until 3rd grade and that our society is pushing kids to learn to read to early.

Just wanted to give you that little bit of info to help you realize that it might just be a normal thing for her and many other kiddos.

Originally posted by APmommyCarrie
Thanks Elizabeth.

She knows upper and lower case but we are having difficulty on all teh sounds. She knows SOME of the sounds butnot many, I'd say less than half of the letters' sounds.

I'd wait until she knows all the letter sounds before starting Phonics Pathway.

Knowing the letters and half the sounds is pretty good for her age!

Maybe she isn't ready yet. The main reason for getting kids to read at the same time in public school is to get them all on the same track and streamline the education process...it has less to do with the individual child than it does the schooling method itself.
My son is four and is beginning to read. A friend's son is 7 and isn't even thinking about reading yet. They are both very bright children. They are just different.

We do a child-led thing...so I'm more likely to lean toward saying she isn't ready. However, you know your child best. For instance, I am dyslexic but no one knew until I took played lab rat for a class trying to find hidden learning disabilities. I taught myself to read when I was 3...so I learned to read around the dyslexia. BUT I was unable to learn around my tendency to also flip numbers. 34? 43? There's no way to know what it's supposed to be.
So, I'd take your cues from your daughter. If she is frustrated because she feels she should read and can't, that may be a clue that there is something else going on. If she's happy with her progress and her abilities, I'd just give her time to do it on her own.
My husband is a teacher and frequently says that no one is ever "taught" to do anything. They only achieve what they want to acheive when they are able to achieve it.

Jennifer

Originally posted by JennyC
My husband is a teacher and frequently says that no one is ever "taught" to do anything. They only achieve what they want to acheive when they are able to achieve it.

I agree 100% with this, and would add "and how they want to achieve it."

Tara

Wow! Thank You for the replies! I really had no idea--I was sitting here feeling bad that she hasn't even begun to read and can not seem to rememebr the letter sounds and thinking I am failing her but--it might just be that she is not ready. It makes sense, it really does. I was feeling pretty inadequate, people around me have been making me feel that as well (I know I shouldn't let that happen but I couldn't help but wonder maybe they were right...).

I still am not sure HOW to teach her though? I excelled at reading. Reading, English, Literature, I was great at all of them and I just don't know how to help her learn, KWIM? But I am thinking htat for now maybe I should just let it lay for a bit. She seems like wants to read, she tells me I need to teach her to read and I have tried with the letter sounds and such but is that really where I start? Oh well, we will work on it slowly. I've not pushed her on any of this and I don't plan to but Dh has been getting worried about the fact that she can't read--but she CAN do so many other things! Oh, the stress! lol! I am thinking she'll be fine though, she is a smart cookie and she will do it when she is ready, that is her personality!

Thanks for setting me a little more at ease with this.

If it makes you feel better, I can think of 4 or 5 kids in our homeschool group, between ages 6-8, who are at the very beginning of learning to read.

Also, Waldorf education doesn't introduce reading until after 1st grade, I believe.

For some children, that age range is the ideal time for them to learn. It sounds like your dd will learn just fine in her own time. :)

Tara

I say, let your dd lead you. My dd really wanted to read. BAD! By 3 she had all her letters and most sounds. She tried to read, and got fustrated. By 4 she had all her sounds. Tried to read again, NOPE. She wanted to look at a word and just know it! Instant reading. But, her brain wasn't quite ready for that. She had various spurts where she learned and read a bit, but it was never enough to satisfy her. So, we totally backed off. Instead, we worked on math and science. She is just flying both! Years ahead of age. Recently, she asked again to try reading. I decided to try a different approach. I got the book: Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. She must have been ready this time, cause we are flying through the book and she's reading in leaps and bounds. A 20 minute lesson takes us maybe 10 minutes and she's mastered it! So, just follow your dd. If reading isn't were her brain is ready to develop, try a different subject. :thumbsup:

Nico will be 6 in April, and she is not reading yet either.... I agree that every child has their own timeframe.

One game I played with Nico to help her remember letter sounds was to give her a basket and ask her to find three things that start with any given letter. It was a fun and active game, and if we only did 3 or 4 letters a day, at varios times, it stuck with her.

Actually, Nico is doing way better at writing right now then she is at reading. She doesn't spell everything right, but she is amazingly close most of the time. After reading stories, or going on field trips, I have her draw a few pictures about what we've done and then write a few sentences. She loves this!

Don't sweat it, Carrie! She will be readin when it is her time!!

Oaky, I am atually feeling much better about this now. I guess I am not failing her, whew!

Marcey, thank you for sharing your and Hadyn's experience--I am going to check out that book though and maybe we will try here and there, I found it for a relatively decent price on Amazon so I might just buy it. I figure we can try a little, if she is not ready we will put it away. She wants top read so bad as well, it upsets her when I let her play around on fun stuff on the computer (like nick jr and Alfy on Lyos) and she has to keep calling me over to read the diretions or to read the headers so she can go and do the activity she wants. It breaks my heart.

Yesterday evening though, she showed me that she DOES know almost all the letter sounds, not less than half as I thought (which is what she showed before) and she is familiar with the fact that sometimes e is silent. Where did all that come from, lol! So she might be ready? We will just have to see, I am going to the library tomorrow to see if they have that book to tide me over until I an purhase it.

Thanks for all the advice Mamas, I do feel better, I don't feel like such a failure and I am feeling much less stressed about this whih I am sure will help a lot.
Thank You!

*edited to add*
Meeshi, you posted while I was typing! lol! Thank you as well. We do a letter of the day thing and we draw pictures of things that start with that letter and point out things all day that begin with that letter, she thinks it's pretty fun. I am feeling a lot less stressed now though, I'm feelin all right about htis now. She will; read when she is ready. She an write her first middle and last names without asking me to spel them and she sounds out the letters when she writes them. She an also write Adrian's name and Daddy but she has trouble with Mommy--she gets M and N mixed up a little bit still.

All in time, right? She is so smart so I should not worry about her, I knew that but I couldn't help it though. I guess it is just societal pressure. Sigh.

p.s. siorry for my darn tyupos, I tend to mix letters up, lol! And my Cc key seems to be weird. It was the D earlier, now C. ugh, lol!

I really can spell, lol!

Haven't read through any of the replies, so forgive me if it's repeating anything.

Maybe she's just not ready! Most kids don't really learn to read until they're 7/8 yrs old. Of course there are exceptions. I would just let it go for now, and retry later. My first born was like that and I thought *I* was a failure because he couldn't read when he was 5 :(

I'd just work on letters/sounds for now.

I agree with the others who said that each child is different and your dd will learn when she is ready. I learned to read when I was 4, but my brother and sister did not learn until they were both 6. My parents didn't do anything different with us (my mom read us all a book before bedtime every night). I just really wanted to learn to read those books myself.

This article might ease your worries and give you some neat ideas also: http://home-ed-magazine.com/HEM/186/ndaskcarol.html

HTH!

My dd is 8 and is still not reading well.
I really think she is still not ready, she really STRUGGLES.
But, I think the big push for her to want to do it now is we have started going to things with other kids her age and it is always assumed kids 5 and up read.

We had that experience with 100 Easy Lessons.
Tried it at 3, 4, 5, 6, and I finally sold it.
At almost 8 my dd ASKED for it.
We checked it out from the library and she LIKED it and understood this time around, so I got another copy.
We are still using it. (We sometimes spend more than one day on a lesson)
She is now reading very early readers. YEAH!!!

It has been a frustrating road.
She is my first child, and everyone has wanted to judge my performance as a homeschooler on how soon the kids are reading.
It does not help when you hear of people who say their child learned to read on their own or if I had read to her more she would be reading.
This stings, because dh and I have read to her since she was in the womb, our home is full of books and she will spend hours looking through books.

Anyway, my little rant!

I found one thing that helped my dd was spelling words.
A friend suggested this, and it has been very helpful.
You can find lists online of
age appropriate spelling words.
A good set to start with would be the 'doltch' sight words.


Hope

I'm so glad you are feeling better about where she is. You are not failing her! No way.

My dd is 5.5, very bright, though we haven't started formal academics except for what she has asked for, in a modified Waldorf approach. She followed a pattern similar to Marcey's dd. She wanted to read, and read NOW, when she was about 4, and then again at about 5. She really was not ready, but at 5 we bought some of the earliest emergent readers (like Go, Dog Go, Oh, Cats! and a few others) and she could sight read them. That satisfied her. Said she didn't want to learn how to sound things out; she wanted to be able to read hard books NOW. Um, wasn't going to happen.

Oh, at 4 yo we bought the BOB books and she learned word families and could sound them out a bit. BOB books worked better for us than 100 Easy Lessons because she could do it herself.

So I had thought, well, she isn't ready - because after a few weeks where she was intensely interested in the BOB books she forgot about them...then at 5 I spent a bunch of $ on early readers and she lost interest unless she could sight read the words. Then a few days ago she picked up a book and started sounding out the words! She asked daddy what a few of them were but was definitely sounding out. Last night we put Reader Rabbit Phonics into the iMac and she played for over an hour, and really "got it" - something clicked. She went to bed asking me to wake her up early to read.

Honestly, I had finally gotten to the point where it didn't matter to me if this "clicking" didn't happen till she was 7 or 8. I had similar feelings to yours, and it's so hard in the early years of homeschooling to feel like you're doing everything right, especially if your child isn't academically precocious. Katie spends most of her days in imaginative play and doing arts and crafts. She writes if she needs to, we play with math but mostly do it in the context of life, and we talk about science concepts all the time because she is very interested in them. But overall...we have taken the Waldorf, delayed academics approach. It is a good "defense" to others as to why your child isn't reading or multiplying yet...I just say, "We are taking a Waldorf approach, and not starting formal academics until first grade." (Still not sure when we'll start first grade...when she is 6, 6.5, or 7....LOL...but it works.) Just a thought to take off any external pressure.

Kindergarten has become so academically focused, it's sick. IMO we need to foster kids' imaginations, their emotional literacy, their heart and hands - much more than head.

Anyway just another voice to the chorus - you are doing a great job, mama!

Little late but we too have a later reader... DD just started reading more (she learned how to read three years ago but just wasn't getting any further than cat hat.. you get the idea) this year (when she was 8) and now loves it.. Still catching up to grade level but seriously she is almost there *on her own* now that she is ready :D worked out awesome! I was freaking too but then took a breath when I noticed she would try only when *she* wanted to so I laid off.

good luck!

Reading didn't "click" for two of our daughters until ages 8 and 9. Interestingly, now that they are all adults, those two are the most avid readers! They were just on their own schedules. :-)

I have several friends whose children are very math/writing oriented, and have been slower to read or uninterested in reading. It seems like there is some connection. My dd sounds completely opposite your dd (and they are very similar in age)...she can read almost anything with excellent fluency and comprehension, but she has absolutely no interest in learning how to write. It is funny for she can spell the words out loud (just thinking of the word in her head), but has great difficulty putting it on paper. She has difficulty even writing her name legibly. (and is equally disinterested in anything that has to do with math). I really feel that when she is ready to write, she will show me.

And for when you think your dd is ready...I discovered an incredible reading program. It is an on-line, "game style" curriculum called Headsprout (www.headsprout.com) I looked at several different parent taught reading programs as well, but this seemed to be more comprehensive...it combined several different approaches into one program, and included beginning reader books (that only include words with sounds that the child has already been taught so they feel more successful when reading.
My dd went from not reading at all last march to reading fluently by june using that program! And she begged me everyday to play her reading game...she loved every minute of it! They let you try out the first three lessons, so you get to sample it before you commit to purchasing anything.

christy

Just a few more thoughts on this great topic...

I have a M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction and one thing that I've noticed in surverying school curriculum trends in general in this country is that there is a huge push now to pile things into each grade level & have the kids doing things earlier than ever! I can remember when I was in Kindergarten (1967), we had a half-day program and the focus was on things like weather, colors, letters of the alphabet, numbers and lots of PLAY! More emergent learning activities than structured... We did not even begin to think about reading until well into 1st grade (I was in a Catholic school). We started phonics in the 1st grade and spent a good deal of time on learning letter sounds & associating pictures of things that began with the letter sounds. Then we moved into the Dick and Jane type books which, though repetitive, gave kids the feeling of success because it was easy to decode the words.

Nowadays, the things that were previously done in Kindergarten are started in 3 and 4 yo preschools in America and the work of former 1st graders is to be completed by those in Kindergarten (fullday programs in most places).

What others above have mentioned is exactly right! My oldest son, for example, was very gifted in Math & Science activities in Kindergarten & knew the letters well but just could not put the sounds & letters together well enough to read. He was incredibly upset because there were some little girls in his class who were reading 3rd grade level books. We worked with sounds & phonics activities over the summer between K and 1st grade. It finally clicked for him in 1st grade and he is an awesome reader now in 3rd grade.

See if your library has a copy of Words Their Way also -- it is a phonics based program & will also reassure you that there are certain "steps" to look for along the way (they explain the various learning stages in both reading & writing).

My own DD who is currently in Kindergarten is very much like Hadyn -- she wants to read & read NOW :) She knows all her sounds just fine but wants to look at the first letter of a word & instantly know what it is! She memorizes books when I read to her also. I have finally pulled out some old Dick & Jane books & this makes her happy because she can decode most of the words & it fulfills her desire to "read" right now.