wait 'till you help him read his first words!
c always takes the sound of s if followed by the signal letterse, i, y: cat,/cent Sometimes two
consonants go together to form a different sound, like the ph which has an f sound. Did you read
that sound in the title of this page? Many reading programs make a big
deal out of "blends" such as "st," but s and t say the same thing together
or apart, as do tr, ld, and a bunch of others. Here are some true
two-letter phonograms.
WHY
SHOULD YOU TEACH YOUR CHILD TO READ?
Because
this little person would rather be with you than with anyone else in the
world right now. He is biologically and emotionally connected to
you. You can teach him one-on-one. When a teacher has 20 to 30
children in a class, few students will be getting the exact help they need
at any particular time, and the process will take longer and be less
successful.
When early America had the least resources, parents
taught their children to read from the Bible. Then came a few
schoolbooks, such as the McGuffy Readers. Take a look at them and you
will be surprised at how little information it took to teach a child to
read -- just a few pages of letters and their sounds. You'll also be
surprised by the depth and breath of the vocabulary and reading assignment
early American children mastered in their log cabin schools that met for
just a few months in the winter.
Today we are a culture in decline
in many areas. The reading, writing, and vocabulary skills of our youth --
or the lack of them -- is frightening. A few more generations like
this and we'll be back
As a parent, you must set the example. You
must love learning and reading, and you must read to your children from
worthy books. What you sow in their hearts now, you will reap in their
adulthood later.
If you thought your child's first steps were
exciting, wait 'till you help him read his first words! Then keep on
reading together. Read to him a lot; let him read to you as he progresses
in his ability. Share paragraphs or thoughts from things you are reading,
and you will establish a deeply satisfying bond that will keep you
together into adulthood.
WHEN SHOULD YOU
TEACH YOUR CHILD TO READ?
"I'll be candid with you -- I'd never send a
child to school
who didn't already know how to read."
So said a BYU professor and reading specialist on
KBYU-TV several years ago. Recognizing the seriousness of the failure of
our government schools to teach reading, this good man encouraged parents
to teach their own children to read before they start school.
I
used to say there is no hurry because once a child can read you will no
longer be able to take him through the check-out line in the grocery
store. Now the pictures on the magazine racks tell worse stories than
the text ever did, and they are only one "voice" in a lage chorus of
unsavory messages assaulting our children with pornography. And what
parents are able to protect them from will be rehashed for them by their
classmates anyway.
What are the chances that you child will be
ready for his first reading lesson on a particular day of the September
following his fifth birthday? What if all babies were required to walk on
an arbitrary day in the daycare facility?
The home school movement
of the past two decades has shown us that students can begin formal
studies as late as eight or ten, even twelve or fourteen, and be caught up
with their peers in a few months.
WHAT IS
PHONICS?
Were you able to read the title of this paper? If you
could, you already know more about phonics than you may fhave realized.
The two letter phonogram ph has the sound of the letter f , and you probably read it just phine. If not,
don't worry, you'll soon see that this is not so
difficult.
Language is one of the great gifts we have received from
our loving Creator. Adam and Eve taught their children to read and write,
and to keep family histories (Moses 5:5-7, The Pearl of Great Price).
Unfortunately, our language is not "pure and undefiled" as it was in their
day, so we do have extra complications. We have an alphabet of 26 letters,
each the symbol for one or more sounds. Some combinations of letters such
as ph are put together to make a sound, giving us a
total of 70 sounds made from the 26 letters of the alphabet. We can put
the letter-symbols for these sounds together in unlimited combinations to
make words.
When I started homeschooling my children in 1975, I
gathered all the phonics program I could find and analyzed them to see the
differences. I got a newspaper roll end and laid it across my ping
pong table, then put headings for the various sounds. Then I listed the
words under their sounds. The first colum was the "short" sound
of a which had a long list of words such as at,
hat, fan, tap, and so on. The last was the "four-letter phonogram" ough. (We unerline it to show that the four letters
make one sound.) Actually, I had four columns for the letter a because it has four different sounds, each with a long
list of words. (Don't panic, most letters have only one sound.) The ough had the most sounds -- six -- but there are only
a few words with each sound.
PHONICS vs SIGHT
READING
Babies can learn to read by "sight reading" which means
they see words as a pictures. This movement was pioneered by Glenn and
Janet Doman who wrote How to Teach Your Baby to Read, and I know
people who have done used program successfully. I suggest your read the
reviews on Amazon and decide for yourself.
SIght reading seems to
work well for babies, but the window of opportunity seems to be gone by
school age. Teaching an older child to memorize words as pictures is
neither effective nor necessary. Why are there so many reading programs
out there? In the public schools there are so many programs because
curriculum is a large industry. Since most classroom reading instruction
is so ineffective, there is also a hope that something new will work
better. In our big-government society, spending more taxpayer money is
always seen as the primary solution. For homeschoolers, many retired
teachers who have used phonics rather than look-say methods and have had
success in the classroom have published their own programs because they
thought their method was what caused their success. In reality it was the
simple act of teaching letters and their sounds, and doing so in a
nurturing atmospehre, that brought success. The multitude of programs
availalbe stand as proof that personal involvement and a paper and pencil
will bring success to most families.
BOOKS WE RECOMMEND FOR PARENTS TO
STUDY:
The Writing Road to
Reading by Romalda Bishop Spalding
The ABC's and All
Their Tricks: The Complete Reference Book of Phonics and Spelling
by Margaret M. Bishop
HOW TO TEACH YOUR
CHILD TO READ
CONSONANTS
All letters have a name and a sound. The name is useful for
talking about reading but is not used in reading itself. Most
consonants use only their sound, which you can figure out by simply
listening to the first letter of words you know: b-baby, d-dog, f-fish,
m-mom, s-snake
A few consonants use another consonant's
sound:
otherwise it has the same
sound as k
g sometimes takes the sound of j when followed by the signal letters e, i,
y: giggle/giant
s sometimes sounds like z: bees
y thinks it's an i at the end of one syllable words: my, by, cry
y thinks it's an
e at the end of two
syllable words: baby, Sally, happy
and sometimes y just seems
confused: bicycle, psychology
| ch - cheese ch - school ch - chef |
th - thin th - that |
ph - phone | sh - shop ti - nation ci - social si - mansion |
VOWELS
a e i o uVowels have several sounds. Unlike
consonants, they do say their names. When they do, we call it the
"long" sound, although it doesn't really take longer to say than the
"short" sound. The long sound is marked in the dictionary with a
straight line above.
The most-used vowel sound is called
the "short" sound, although it isn't necessarily shorter than the
"long" sound. In our home, we called the "short" sounds the
"Goldilocks" sounds and, like the dictionary, we draw a "smile"
above them.
Which do you think takes longer
to say, the "short" or the "long" sound? Many letters are silent, for no good
reason that we know of. Start watching; you'll find
them. |
Goldilocks "short" sounds | |
|
at |
| |
|
enter |
 | |
|
in |
 | |
|
on |
 | |
|
under |
| |
| ("long" sound) name |
("short" sound) Goldilocks sound |
|||
|
a |
a -
ape ay
- day ei - weigh ai - air |
a - hat | a - ball au - Paul aw - law |
a - again |
| e | e -
me
ee - seed ea - sea ei - either y - baby |
e - leg ea - read |
||
| i | i - smile igh - light y - cry |
i - big | i - radio ie - field |
|
| o | o - no oa - boat ow - own |
o - hot | o - do oo - soon |
o - look |
| u | u - cube | u - up | u - rule ew - chew |
u - put |
|
two-letter |
ar - car | or - corn | ou - foul ow - brown |
oi - foil oy - boy |
er - ir - ur - ear -
wor mother's first burst: learn words |
TEACHING IDEAS
1. Can your child remember the
sounds of a few letters? Write an m on the back of his left hand and an e
on the back of his right. Have him hold his hands up. Can he blend
the two sounds together? Then he should be ready to learn to read. If not,
patiently wait. There is no need to hurry. Once he learns to read you will
no longer want to take him through the check-out lines at the grocery
store.
|
2.Teach your child a few consonants (the easy part) and one vowel (the hard part) at a time. Dictate words. Let him write on paper, chalkboard or whiteboard. Work only while it's fun. |
|
|
 3. Early American schools were sometimes called
"blab" schools because the students were taught their vowel sounds
by recitation. You can do this for
fun. |
4. Write words or short sentences on 3x5 cards or small pieces of paper. Staple several together to form a book. On the cover put some circles. When your child reads his book to someone, that person puts his initials in a circle.
5. You and your child could each start a notebook. Put each vowel sound on a page and collect lists of words. Also collect spelling rules and strange and interesting words.
6. Help your child keep a journal and write letters. Write your own simple books about things that happen in your family.
7. Read to your child often. In the words of LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, "Read. Read. Read....The mother who fails to read to her small children does a disservice to them and a disservice to herself. I takes time, yes, much of it. It takes self-discipline. It takes organizing and budgeting the minutes and hours of the day. But it will never be a bore as you watch young minds come to know characters, expressions, and ideas." Read from the best books. Read about the heroes of our nation. Read stories that build moral strength and character. Read the scriptures. Did we mention: here is a person who would rather be with you than with anyone else in the world right now. Cherish his company. He’ll be gone soon enough.
8. Make sure your child has a
healthy diet. Many reading difficulties are caused by food allergies
(especially dairy), blood sugar highs and lows, and immunization
damage. In our home we eat fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and
grains. What about protein and calcium, you ask? Elephants are
gentle animals who eat only plants. Plants make them strong and give
them plenty of calcium. We humans digest our food with
enzymes. Since cooking destroys enzymes, in our home we try to each
lots of our food raw. Animals have bacterial digestive
systems. When humans eat meat, milk, cheese, or eggs we also eat the
bacteria, and the bacteria can make us ill. Our family has found
that we stay much healthier on our plant-food
diet.
TEACHING WITH
MUSIC
Sing, Read, and Write with
Brite by Janeen Brady
CD and book #1: teaches the alphabet in
three songs, so your child is likely to really learn the letters
Parents can start playing these tapes when their
child is just two or three, even though he may not be ready to read for
several more years. When he is ready, a phonics foundation will be part of
his knowledge base and will help assure his success. Use the tapes at bedtime, naptime, in the car.
Purchase from http://www.britemusic.com. You can
have the CD's and coloring books sent to you, or you can download them
from the website. You can buy the whole set or just one album at a time.
CD and
book #2: uses Goldilocks to teache the five short vowel sounds (this is
the most important album)
CD and book #3, #4, #5: teach the consonant
sounds and help the child sound out words. Great for practice
because the child can do it on his
own.