EA and MC began reading short vowel words this week. We’re working on the short a vowel sounds in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading.
Their first lesson in this section was encouraging and we ended it with them reading their first Bob Book, “Mat”. But as the week progressed, I noticed a need for more review. Much more review.
We struggled a bit in our phonics lesson today. Actually, I struggled a lot with one of my girls.
I was cautioned by a reader in the comments a few weeks ago to watch my girls and their needs. There may be a time when one progresses ahead of the other. I think we’re starting to reach that point. And I honestly didn’t think I would struggle with that as much as I did.
I think more than anything I was disappointed in myself.
I got frustrated.
I don’t want to get frustrated.
I thought I could handle this. I was a special education teacher after all and taught sixth, seventh and eighth graders to read for the first time.
How hard could it be to teach two bright little four-year olds to begin reading?
Harder than I thought.
After stepping away for a bit, I have decided to change the way that I’m doing some things. I am learning to make adjustments as I go. And my former teaching career is helping me to do this.
When I took a class on teaching reading in college, I remember the teacher explaining that there were two prominent methods of teaching reading. One is a pure phonics approach, much like what is in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading.
The other is an approach using sight words. This is heavily used in many public schools. This professor stressed the importance of finding a balance between those two methods with an “eclectic” method of teaching reading.
It made sense.
Balance makes sense to me.
There are advantages and disadvantes to solely teaching either of the two methods.
Finding a balance between the two and using the advantages of both is the best way to meet the needs of my two very individual learners.
EA has really done well with the phonics approach, but MC has struggled a little. I noticed today, though, with the introduction of using “the” as a sight word in the lesson that she did well.
So, this afternoon I sat down with Photoshop Elements and made cards out of the words used in the “short a” section of our phonics book.
With them, I am going to review sounding out the letter sounds to make these words, but MC will also see and become more familiar with them. In doing this, I will be using the phonics approach but also allowing for her visual learning style and incorporating some use of sight learning. The review and repitition will also be a very good thing.
There was a phrase I learned in my first years of teaching called “monitor and adjust“. As things come up, you must always be ready to monitor what’s going on and make adjustments as needed.
Monitor and adjusting is an essential element to any education, but can be done so easily with homeschool.
I am thankful that I have this opportunity to teach my children as I am so passionate about their learning. I want to see them succeed more than anything and I am determined to do whatever it takes to see that happen.
Below are images of the cards that I made for the girls. They are color coded so that all the words ending in “at”, “an”, “am”, and “ad” are in the same color. You are welcome to save a copy of these and print them out for yourself. As we get to each section of our phonics book, I’ll be making more cards and will post them here as well.
After printing them, I ran mine through my Xyron 900 Creative Station to laminate them and then cut them out. This way, they are going to be much more durable for EA and MC’s little hands.
I may have learned more from our time of homeschool today than EA and MC. I learned of our need for balance, repetition, monitoring, and adjustment.
All were very important lessons for this Mommy!
Note: This post is being linked to “Come Shoot the Breeze With Me!” at A Classic Housewife.
Sarah says
thanks Monica – I might hand write mine on colored index cards. Today I made a matching game with the nine main colors + pink and then wrote the words and they had to match them. We have the Frog Tree Press CD that sings the color words so they have been spelling them while singing for a while now.
My main problem is that they don’t seem to be visual learners – they don’t like to look at something to figure it out, they’d rather guess and reading is visual so i’m at a loss for what to do and I don’t have a reading background….so off to consult the vast array of knowledge on the internet
Erin @ Closing Time says
This is SO true! There are many days when I feel like I have learned as much (or more) than my girls! I’m learning that adjusting and staying flexible is vital!
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Emily says
I use Ordinary Parent’s Guide as well. I have been very pleased with it. We are in the 2nd half with Ethan and I like the thoroughness of the material.The phonetic rules have really helped with his spelling. Don’t you love the Bob Books? I also used Explode the Code as a supplement as well. Have you looked into those workbooks yet? My kids love them. Also the Well Trained Mind forum is one of my favorites and I’ve gotten some great ideas, insight, and support! If you’re interested I’d be happy to send you the link.
I know exactly what you mean by realizing the different needs/learning styles of children. Ethan (1st grade) and Emma Grace(Kindergarten) are 2 totally different students! Its been a challenge to not try to squeeze E.G into the same learning box that Ethan is in!
JESS says
What blessings God provides for us when we get more out of the lesson than we ever expected. I am an MC and have always been a visual learner so I understand exactly where she was at. I am so happy that you could grant the time to step back assess the situation and move forward taking so much out of it. Love you guys and love the flash cards!
Pat says
These were wonderful! I think you are doing a great job. All their life you will be monitoring and adjusting so don’t get frustrated because whether you are teaching them to read or teaching them to drive, it will be an adventure. I bet as they get used to it, the speed at which they learn will pick up. I’m sure you remember from teaching that everything has hills and valleys but it will all be worth it.
.-= Pat´s last blog ..Dictionary =-.
Shari says
Saw your blog in my blogfrog & thought I would stop by. I will be back to read more when I am more awake! Time to hit the hay, to be ready to worship tomorrow.
Shari
.-= Shari´s last blog ..Friday Fall Finish! =-.
Amber @ Classic Housewife says
Oh there is so much truth here! My oldest daughter did very well with a relaxed phonics approach with a little bit of sight recognition thrown in. But trying the same approach with my second daughter wasn’t getting us very far, very fast. She has a different personality and a different learning style. Like you, I began printing out phonics cards like the ones you have here and working on word families. She is very hands on, more left brain and can’t sit still very long – so having her match the cards to their word family works well with her. She also compares herself to her older sister a lot (they are 6 and 9) and is very competitive. She expects more of herself than what her sister did at her age, because she’s comparing herself to her sister at this age. I began hearing a lot of “I can’t do this, I’m not good enough.” After I began using the flash cards and started showing her how many “at” or “an” words she COULD read, she started gaining more confidence and I began hearing more “I CANs.” And in only a few weeks she’s come so far! As you said, it’s so important to monitor and adjust. =)
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