Korrale4kq-
I actually think this is much more common than we are led to believe!
I certainly would not be concerned or even spend too much time on it in the form of his regular phonics work, as he is progressing very well without it! You could continue to work on it orally as you do other activities.
Some ideas for things/games I started with Alex...they have gradually progressed to much more complicated versions, and can be adjusted to include just about anything you are working on.
1) initially, when reading children's lit written in rhyme, usually with the last word of the 2nd and 4th lines made to rhyme, Alex was in charge of pointing out the rhyming words (as well as any others on the page!). I think this was really helpful as she could 'see' the words and the pattern, often directly above each other. It also led to some great moments to explain things like homophones and the like:)
2) even now, whenever we are on the go, we play multitudinous varieties of 'I Spy'. This can be modified in so many ways...for example, with rhyming, we might say, "I spy with my little eye, something that rhymes with the word X...and he answers, "I spy a..." Or "I spy with my little eye something that starts with the letter 's'....This is amazing gFor powers of observation as well. And you can add in vocabulary, parts of speech, synonyms/antonyms, whatever your imagination can come up with. This is a game our whole family enjoys, and gets increasingly complicated! I love that it really makes her think...such as "I spy with my little eye a proper noun that rhymes with x, and is a synonym for ...."
3. Play "how many?" With rhyming words..."how many words do we know that rhyme with 'go'? Then take turns ( he can be a partner with mom or dad if necessary) coming up with new ones until the participants can no longer think of any. This can be done orally, but we liked to write them on the dry-erase board so we could see the spellings, homophones, etc.
4. Silly sentences- make up a random sentence, and see if he can follow it up with a second sentence that ends in a rhyming word to your final word. ( In the beginning they only supply the rhyming word!) These should be as silly /absurd as possible. Alex always wanted to be the subject of the sentence. Later, the only rules we're hat she must use at least one noun, one verb, one adjective...and end in a rhyming word. Like I said, start simply with focus on the rhyming and extreme silliness, and add more if you choose:) you can keep going in stanzas until you are both giggling
Ex of one I remember in part because she surprised me!
.mommy writes: Alex is wearing a little red bow
But suddenly that bow decided to ...GROW. (Alex's contributions in CAPS)
That silly old bow grew and it grew
Until finally it was the size of her....TISSUE! (Huh? That's what I thought
)
"Wow! Thought Alex, "that was fun!"
And off she ran to find another....SUN!
Anyway, there really are loads of rhyming games you can play/do whenever you get a minute, or are doing the dishes with him near...without worrying about going back to old phonics portions that he already know! With your experience with littles, I am sure you know many more!
I know some friends that do nursery rhymes, and have their LO clap on the rhyming words....