Arwen at Walk Beside Me sent us a set of her trap door readers (which Bear calls "sliders") to try out. They have really helped Bear with her blending. Bear loves them and wants to read her sliders everyday and I haven't even finished cutting them all out.
You can buy them here.
A question: Bear is really good at playing the blending game in which I say the sounds and she tells me the word they make. For example I say /g/ /r/ /a/ /s/ and she says "grass", but she has a hard time blending when she is the one saying the sounds. Although the trap door readers are helping, are there any other things I could be doing with her? Should I even try to work on it with her? Or just let her be until she's older (she's 32 months). I have never pushed the reading instruction - she started sounding out words and then I decided to be a little bit more directed about teaching her to read - but maybe she isn't ready and I should wait? I'm much more used to teaching 3rd graders! I have no idea what to do!
She is young still but if she's interested go for it! What I have tried to push with my daughter is to use her finger while she says the sound, pointing to each letter as she says the sound. Then the 2nd time she slides her finger faster under the letters to help say the sounds faster until it sounds like the word (blending the sounds). I hope that makes sense, I'm terrible at explaining things!
ReplyDeleteI just purchased the trap door readers today. I still have to put them together. Its good to hear that Bear enjoys them. I love all of the activities you do with her. I have been reading your blog for some time now, your post always possess great creativity. You always seem to follow Bear very well keep doing what your doing.
ReplyDeletehmmmmm..... I'm not sure I have any super great tips because my boys are struggling with the same thing. I think a lot of the words they know are because they memorized it rather than sounding it out.
ReplyDeleteBut, I want to see what tips other people have.
I'm no expert, but my son, who is 2 1/2, has been reading like crazy lately. A lightbulb really went off, and he is able to read sentences in many of his books! One thing that really helped with him phonetically sounding out his words, as much as I hate to credit videos with anything, was the BBC show Alphablocks. The shorts are available online, with little quizzes at the end. He LOVES them. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/#/lb/alphablocks/alphablocksgames
ReplyDeleteI'm totally with you. What to do? I've really backed off with L now although I'm sure that if I presented her with these trapdoor readers she be totally into it.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...wow, grass is pretty advanced. With Koko, we did more simple words orally like c/a/t and she would start spelling words by herself and blending them. She liked to do this before she went to sleep after we turned off the lights. I bet if you wait, she'll start spelling words by herself. I am also more used to teaching older kids!! (3rd-8th) It's been a great adventure "teaching" my children. They've taught me so much.
ReplyDeleteI agree with people who recommend to start with CVC words. And I also agree with Lynn - in our experience it was truly a light bulb moment when suddenly blending worked out. And one thing that I noticed - after this milestone reading became more and more "whole word" - Anna cannot spell words that are more than 3 letters even though she can read them just fine.
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