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on: December 16, 2012, 01:35:39 AM Top
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Thanks for chipping in Kerileanne! Just to say Kiwimum that I back up the suggestions given. I never used the Preschool Prep apps so had no idea how much they cost, but if I could give one EL gift to my loved ones it would be Preschool Prep the ultimate package. It works quickly too. We had huge success with colours, shapes, numbers and sight words 1/2. I'm sure it's doing a good job for Douglas with blends and diagraphs, he started reading just as we got into those DVDs, in addition to Reading Bear I'm sure it'll build his ability to keep decoding more words. Glad you've now got those apps in your toolkit! Lots of well wishes
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on: December 10, 2012, 09:37:45 PM Top
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My DS read his first easy reader (one of the Brill Kids very easy readers) from front to cover last night!!! Before last night, he would give up after a few sentences. This is the first time he went from beginning to end, I really couldn't be prouder. A few notes (sticking points, interesting observations etc): 1) I worried a lot about what he ought to be demonstrating Some parents on here will remember me posting about him not liking me reading to him etc. Well what worked with that was changing the books to ones he liked and easing him into a new story by discussing pictures first and talking about the story during play time when there was a connection. Basically it's important to get support/advise from here so you can keep modifying what you do until you get the result you want. 2) For me it was a multi-attack approach My husband almost lost his mind with the resources I kept buying (but hunny it's to make it easier for YOU I would say, so you don't have to look for and print materials!) Sometimes DS would get tired of one thing and I could use something else more. LR, My Montessori House, Youtube, YBCR, Preschool Prep and Reading Bear combined made the biggest impact I think (we used more though! Jolly Phonics is one that DS loved on a personal level I have to say, he would NOT sleep without reading it and singing with the actions for months). But I do feel that this really upped his screen time. And I don't think it was the only way AT ALL, I just didn't have a clue what I was doing and also my DS was full time carer of my son so I needed to make it easy for everybody to keep up with. 3) Somethings took months of repetition and then when he got it, he was flying. E.g we spent months doing first line section of Reading Bear (words with A), ages doing the slow sounding out, before we could move on to fast sounding out, before he could sound out on his own, before he could blend, before he recognised most words I mean I thought it would take a year or more to finish RB at the pace we were going. But E words went much quicker and he seemed to know all the I words (at this point he was asking me to move on ) I know this is standard from what I've read here, but I found it surprising non the less. 4) DS knew a lot more than he was willing to demonstrate. Again standard. But annoying non the less! I gave up very early trying to 'show off' his skills because he made it very clear that was never gonna happen. But I knew that he knew somethings that he was not prepared to show me just for the asking. The rule of focus on input forget about output i.e. no (or little) testing was important. I think it was really only with Reading Bear that he usually had to sound out, but even then I didn't force it if he didn't want to. I would definitely say I encouraged him even when he resisted, sometimes he just needed sometime to get used t something, but if he persistently refused I would leave the matter. I have to say that I feel a key element to his getting to where we are now is keeping his stress levels low, he is a VERY attached baby (still breastfeeds even) and we use gentle discipline techniques. A stressed brain doesn't function as optimally, so I feel this was really important. 5. Native reading was pretty important in our journey especially running my finger under the words while reading, getting him to read a few words when I was reading to him, reading out road signs, food packets etc. We had flash cards of sight words stuck on a display and generally lying around Books always lying around and handy. We spelt out words during his bath time, LeapFrog fridge magnets that sound out phonics), a Jolly Phonics poster by his chair next to the dining table so he could play with it while or after eating. One thing I would love to have done but didn't get round to was labelling stuff around the house, plan to get round to this eventually for him or 2nd baby whenever we have one! I know it sounds like a lot, but it just became part of our lives, part of parenting him. Quite frankly we don't know any different as DS is our first child, so its just what it took for us to live our parenting philosophy. 6. Moving forward what's next: More reading practice so he can read for longer periods of time, and slowly building his reading levels and comprehension (vocabulary building). We are more focused on math and french now and I want to really establish that as well (maybe Mandarin too). Very important to me is getting his day to have a more consistent rhythm, with time to practice life skills and build academic readiness like using worksheets, number/letter stamps and sitting still! I would also like to be more consistent with bible studies, and finally to take music lessons further than what we do with LMs. But all in all I am pretty confident I can cover our aims. I have to say that discovering EL has completely changed our family and approach to parenting and I have loved every minute of it. You guys on this forum are AMAZING and I cannot thank you enough for every resource and book recommendation made on here. My DS is never going to be a stereotype. In fact he's not going to be 'ordinary' (as the word is understood) and I am just fine with that. Why have him be ordinary when I can give him the gift of having the skills, talent and work ethic to pursue whatever dreams he has? Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!
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on: December 13, 2012, 11:22:18 PM Top
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Thanks Mela Bela!! We're using Preschool Prep for blends and diagraphs. At this point DS is learning very quickly and I want to have enough resources to engage him for the next months if possible. He brought a book to the kitchen while I was cooking and started reading aloud, pointing to each word. He likes to read fast as well, he doesn't like to pause after each word really blown away by what EL can achieve. Hi Kiwimum, glad it was of some value to you! I haven't had the chance to record him yet, I'm trying to create the impression for him that its a pretty ordinary thing (compared to for instance the song and dance I break into when he goes potty), but I will try to record him doing it soon. It is pretty exciting so I understand following baby around with a camera Unfortunately they are all paid items but Montessori House was not too expensive. Preschool Prep though really opened the EL doors for us. I got it on sale but it was still an 'ouch' buy. That said we didn't really use it so much for the reading ... I mean, he knew phonics so never used that DVD, the sight words dvd1 was great, dvd2 he learnt very quickly by the time we got to dvd3 he knew most of the words - I presume from me running my finger under the words while reading. Their readers are pretty good though, I much prefer their readers and BK readers to Bob Books which have ridiculously small print (on same page as pictures) and so far DS is not inspired by the storylines in them, whereas the others are about things that hold his interest. The first DVD of Montessori House really helped with his blending (that and the printable books are not too expensive at all), really helped, so by the time we started doing Reading Bear he had some previous experience of blending. Can't say I know too many free options other than starfall and literactive which read out stories. But I strongly recommend the Native Reading book (even just the free chapters on author's website, which is all I read of it) those tips were really invaluable, esp running finger under words while reading (just a habit now) and having them read words they know during story time and all over the place. Your LO will be there soon no doubt!!
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on: December 13, 2012, 07:01:48 AM Top
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Thanks for this post, I have been taking notes as my 19 month old is having a verbal explosion at the moment and reading more and more words. I need to keep the camera away and just give her input!!! I mostly just read her books and do LR and now and again review YBCR books and DVDs. I've tried to show her Reading Bear but because its new to her we dont do much. Are the Montessori House, Preschool Prep, master reading programme and Jolly Phonics all programs that you have to buy to get access to? Im keen to find as many free extra options to help her progress at this stage. Its very exciting tho isnt it. Yay for all the littler readers out there!!
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on: December 12, 2012, 06:07:59 AM Top
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Thanks Mybabyian! Still feeling pretty chuffed about it, he read two easy readers tonight (with a bit of help also) and is breezing through Reading Bear - decoding words like a dream Still trying to get clear on my focus moving forward (slowly getting there) but I suppose its a nice problem to have! Lots on here to help me.
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on: December 11, 2012, 03:06:41 AM Top
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What wonderfully fantastic news!? CONGRATS to you and your little one! I know it took months and months of hard work on your end, so good job sticking with it! And good job to your Little One for cracking the code! For me it was a multi-attack approach Yes! I agree, "layering the learning" was KEY for us, too! You can absolutely use just one program or two (little reader and probably reading bear as a free supplement would be my top choices) but it goes so much faster and sticks so much better if you apply the immersion method to literacy! Everywhere they look there are words in their naturally occurring environment, they cannot HELP but learn! Moving forward what's next: More reading practice so he can read for longer periods of time, and slowly building his reading levels and comprehension (vocabulary building). Yep, now comes the steps of staying consistent to get him fluent. As long as you stay in your routine, you'll do great! Keep on introducing those words. Not that you want to buy any more materials (haha) but to ensure DD was moving along, we went through the Hooked on Phonics "Learn to Read" Series. From our previous work, she was already able to go up to about 2nd grade with very, very minor issues. (WE only worked on the decoding part of the program, I did not have her read the long books. We would take turns as appropriate with the easy readers, but there are short stories in their books that she built her way up to reading over time. In the beginning, she could only do half a lesson, but towards the end she was able to do one or two at a time., like you noticed, gaining momentum and things went faster. Using a curriculum once we finished with the LR curriculum helped ME stay on track and ensured I was hitting all the bases. After that, we moved up to Master Reader using the computer program only (I would often play it in front of them) and now she is doing the story cards. After that, I plan to do the old school Hooked on Phonics "Your Reading Power" SRA reading comprehension program. It's a bit dry in terms of illustrations, etc, but it is very comprehensive. It's out of print, but it is "classically solid." Learning to read and comprehend doesn't really change with the times, so the materials are still good and you can get them on Ebay. I passed over buying the set at the thrift shop once and regretted it ever since! I just wanted to share that with you in case you get stuck for ideas at some point. I already recently learned that the Ladybird Peter and Jane series goes much, much higher than I originally thought (I was under the assumption they were more like "Dick and Jane" sight words readers). They are actually graded readers that go up level by level. So, that is another option we are looking into now. I would like to do a very detailed blog/video review of the master reader program soon, so keep an eye for that if you are interested. Well done Momma, well done!!!! TmT, thanks so much for your encouragement and advise, you already know that I was basically trying to walk in your footsteps I have been reading through loads of posts here and on Well Trained Mind and Sonlight forums to get an idea of how to proceed (obviously without purchasing *too* much more ) and really would appreciate a preview of your HOP review. I previously planned to get it but then thought I could try Daddude's and Robert Levy's approach of just getting stuck into children's books (whilst using something like the Kumon Reading list for levels). I currently use BFIAR and planned to eventually move on to Sonlight, with Saxon for math, and I've read Abeka's Language Arts programme is very good, but I'm not 100% sure how to get DS ready to bridge over to these comfortably, or if he'll need a bridge if we just keep reading (although I like the idea of him having some structured LA programme to get him used to the idea.) - to this end I was thinking of starting Reading Eggs tomorrow (quite cheap and also has a comprehension programme) and maybe when he's older consider JG Reading? What more do you feel can HOP add to these, esp their Master Reader program? And do you currently follow or plan to follow a core curriculum with your LOs whether you homeschool or afterschool? Thanks in advance T
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on: December 11, 2012, 02:18:23 AM Top
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What wonderfully fantastic news!? CONGRATS to you and your little one! I know it took months and months of hard work on your end, so good job sticking with it! And good job to your Little One for cracking the code! For me it was a multi-attack approach Yes! I agree, "layering the learning" was KEY for us, too! You can absolutely use just one program or two (little reader and probably reading bear as a free supplement would be my top choices) but it goes so much faster and sticks so much better if you apply the immersion method to literacy! Everywhere they look there are words in their naturally occurring environment, they cannot HELP but learn! Moving forward what's next: More reading practice so he can read for longer periods of time, and slowly building his reading levels and comprehension (vocabulary building). Yep, now comes the steps of staying consistent to get him fluent. As long as you stay in your routine, you'll do great! Keep on introducing those words. Not that you want to buy any more materials (haha) but to ensure DD was moving along, we went through the Hooked on Phonics "Learn to Read" Series. From our previous work, she was already able to go up to about 2nd grade with very, very minor issues. (WE only worked on the decoding part of the program, I did not have her read the long books. We would take turns as appropriate with the easy readers, but there are short stories in their books that she built her way up to reading over time. In the beginning, she could only do half a lesson, but towards the end she was able to do one or two at a time., like you noticed, gaining momentum and things went faster. Using a curriculum once we finished with the LR curriculum helped ME stay on track and ensured I was hitting all the bases. After that, we moved up to Master Reader using the computer program only (I would often play it in front of them) and now she is doing the story cards. After that, I plan to do the old school Hooked on Phonics "Your Reading Power" SRA reading comprehension program. It's a bit dry in terms of illustrations, etc, but it is very comprehensive. It's out of print, but it is "classically solid." Learning to read and comprehend doesn't really change with the times, so the materials are still good and you can get them on Ebay. I passed over buying the set at the thrift shop once and regretted it ever since! I just wanted to share that with you in case you get stuck for ideas at some point. I already recently learned that the Ladybird Peter and Jane series goes much, much higher than I originally thought (I was under the assumption they were more like "Dick and Jane" sight words readers). They are actually graded readers that go up level by level. So, that is another option we are looking into now. I would like to do a very detailed blog/video review of the master reader program soon, so keep an eye for that if you are interested. Well done Momma, well done!!!!
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