Most home schoolers have their preferred Phonics programs for teaching their children to read.
I used Sam Blumenfeld's Alpha Phonics with my two older girls. One was a great reader from day one and powered on brilliantly. One struggled from day one and only really began to read independently in late primary school. Alpha Phonics is now out of print. I recommend it for learning to read and regret that I didn't use for my boys who I think would have done better with the low key approach. I do not think it is the best curriculum so far as teaching good spelling, though. Spelling and rules are just not emphasised and you need to implement it yourself.
After a seven year gap I chose to start the boys with LEM Phonics which is an Australianized version of Spalding. Many homeschooler here are using this course very successfully and producing good spellers as well as good readers. With my experience of one child with problems learning to read, I should have been a little more discerning. I suppose I was trying to cover the areas I thought I had missed and had not yet distinguished the boys particular problem areas.
LEM is great for children who can memorize all of the phonic sounds of each letter in quick succession and keep them memorized! Children who have no problems with the alphabet and learning the names as well as the sounds for each letter. As I said, the course is being used very successfully by many here and is highly regarded, similar to Spalding in America.
Within months (I began my boys on formal phonics together) we had fallen way behind the suggested plan for the introduction of the sounds and after about eighteen months I reverted to my own plan of attack. I utilized the flash cards from LEM but concentrated on the first sound for consonants and the short sounds for vowels.
. I feel that I was too ready to attribute the delays to ~ being boys, being premmies, mum being unwell, etc etc etc. All of which are legitimate reasons why a child might not be learning at the usual pace. I definitely DO NOT think that we should plonk all the the children in age appropriate classes and whip ourselves if they do not meet the standard. However, I found that most of my homeschooling friends dismissed my concerns out of hand. Socially my guys seemed very normal.
Early observations: Neither of my boys were able to memorize songs, poems, scriptures. Neither could say the alphabet, count past ten, name the days of the week, months etc by end of year one. Often, particularly the older, struggled to remember the names of things and people. He was the better at Maths at this early stage though. Though they could usually recall the actual sound we were working on they did not seem to be able to build up a memory bank of sounds and the letters which made them.
They displayed the classic symptoms of dyslexia in the reversal of letters such as b and d, p and q, r and n, We actually investigated dyslexia a little at about year 3/ 4 level but were turned off the professional route by the emphasis on psychological counselling, group therapy and ADHD connections.
Some Phonic Activities: The activities which we concentrate on are designed for children with APD (Auditory Processing Delay) and so quite specific. However, if you have younger children and just want to add to what you are doing, or an older child who is struggling, they may help regardless of the actual area they need help with.
# Daily memorization exercises eg days of the week, months,
# Memory zaps. Short. sharp bursts required. eg Name 5 colours, 5 boys names, 5 basketball teams. This is designed to improve recall. Make it quick and fun.
# MemoryGames. Start with only about 10 pairs and build up. Any pairs will do but ordinary playing cards are a good place to start. (We have built up a collection and expanded this game to phonic blends and sight words and also similar looking words) As they improve you make more pairs to find and more difficult to differentiate. eg they, them, then, big, beg, bag.
# LOTS of word building. Start with simple short vowel words. This can be as simple as lists but my boys respond well to Upwords which can be modified for many simple activities.
# Following instructions. Many children, especially boys :-) struggle to follow a series of instructions. We regularly do an exercise where they must listen and follow the instruction. eg.
1. Write your first name in the top left hand corner.
2, Write you surname in the middle at the bottom.
3. Draw a blue line across the centre of the page.
4. Draw a large green circle in the middle of the page.
5. Draw a red cross above the circle.
You get the idea. We usually have 10 instructions. I read each line once and then once again clearly but they are not allowed to question or change. They must listen.
# Sounds not names. Most children know the alphabet from an early age (TV?) and have no problem then learning the sounds which each letter and combination make. However, for students who struggle with sound recognition this can be very confusing. When we finally went to a Speech Pathologist and she diagnosed APD one of her first recommendations was to only use sounds and not use letter names, which we did for some months with great improvement. This also gave the boys less things to take in, recall and reproduce. We also dispensed with spelling at this time ..
CHAINING
P-U-P
P-O-P
M-O-P
(Sorry about the poor colours)
In the chaining exercise above, only sounds are given. Each coloured block represents a sound. The letters are not mentioned, nor does it need one colour for one sound. So, first I say "pup". Then I have the child repeat pup, then slowly sound it, p-u-p. Now show me it with blocks. In this case each p must be the same colour as it is the same sound. Then I say, "Now change that to pop." Have the child say the letters distinctly. He must change the block which represents the change in sound. Then, change it to mop. This can go indefinitely ~ mob, cob, cub....... As their abilities increase then it can also be done with blends eg. cab, scab, scam, scamp........
THE ALL PURPOSE BOARD
Many of our regular activities are based around phonics sounds and blends. The wonderfully obliging teachers from the Learning Support Unit at Groves (who we are registered with) helped me to bring all of these simple games into an easier format by making up some game boards. Now,you can easily do this, but I was blessed to have it done for me. We can still use our photocopied sheets with a dice but often use this board. When Rae comes, she adds to our collection of cards for the middle and always makes the spinning for the numbers etc at lot of fun.
Phonic sounds/ blends.
Words
We have amassed a large collection of word, phonic blends, vowels, consonants, sight words, rhyming words, look alikes and so on. We use them in many ways but many of them go onto these cards and become part of this game. Rae will add to this collection each week as she comes across a word or combination which is tricking some one up. When they land and have to turn up a card, we vary what they have to do. Sometimes, just read it or say its sound. Then, make a word or sentence from it. Make a rhyming word and so on....
UP WORDS
I have found Scrabble but particularly the Upwords boards, very useful for all sorts of word and letter play. Sometimes if things are hard for children it just helps to be able to hold and move the pieces. The SP encourages them to "photograph" words that they come across regularly that trick them up. Similarly, forming them on a board such as this helps to memorize and visualize the word.
We try to incorporate some of these specialized Phonic activities into our regular daily school routine.
Once again I would say, do not stress or panic if your child does not seem to be learning at the rate you think is appropriate. However, do not wait too long to have it investigated. There may be some quite simple ways to help. My guys' progress is slow and steady but it is progress and I am very thankful to have the advise and support I have in teaching them. Lord willing, they will master this tricky thing we call reading and conquer all their goals!
Thanks to Amy for asking about some of things we actually do. We have a folder full of games and activities which I am happy to photocopy and pass along to anyone who may like to use them.
