De-Programming

I'm going through De-Programming right now:) I've finally learned that there is Absolutely NO Perfect Program out there that is going to *Change Our Lives*. I've come to the decision that we aren't going to use a phonics program right now. Reading Reflex looked great as a program; however, I don't think it fills what we need right now.

Right now, I think DD5 is fully ready to gain the tools for advanced phonics WITHOUT actually reading. All programs incorporate a system of
1. learn a new skill (ex: ay says /A/)
2. practice new skill within words (ex: day, may, say)
3. read a story or practice reading a series of sentences.
4. some may incorporate writing the words, too.

We're going to plug away at #1 (learn a new skill), but I am going to limit our practice of the new skill. I think I am going to put reading on hold. We'll continue to work on our 250 word cards, since that is going very well. I'll teach the new skills that apply to our 250 word cards, so that she can understand the mechanics behind what we are reading. But I'm really not so sure that we are going to read any books or do a whole lot of practice right now. I'm OK with where we are at and I have FAITH that -when the time is right - I'll have an avid little reader. In the meantime, we're 4 weeks away from finishing our K math, we're having a blast with our science, and DD5 is finally getting in to handwriting (something I put on the back burner until recently). I'm letting go and just trying to have more fun with schooling.

Everything I needed to know...I learned in Homeschool!

Homeschooling has taught me many things:

1.) Yes, it is enough. Repeat after me: Yes, it IS enough.
In the library today, a wonderful, well meaning mother recommends a book of children's poetry. Immediately, my mind is spinning, as I flip through the book. My children wouldn't like this, it would be torture trying to read this to them! Do we do enough poetry? Obviously, they aren't getting exposure to all the things that public schooled children get - the teachers there teach poetry. Am I doing enough? You know what? My children have been exposed to poetry. And one day, 10 years from now, my daughter might pick up a book on poetry. It might become her favorite thing in the whole wide world. And then she can make up for all the years that I didn't "formally" teach poetry. Yes, it IS enough.

2.) Gaps can be fixed. Easy!
By the end of K, my dd was reading very slowly (and still is reading very very slowly...LOL). We had attacked sight words phonetically, so she was sounding out words like "was" "and" etc. Whereas the public schooled K kids were running through easy readers in a breeze. I did some looking online, and yup - we had a gap. We lacked Fluency. Easily resolved: we drew up all the common words on flashcards. We still taught them phonetically. We sounded them out, again and again and again. We worked only on those words. By the end of a week, she could take the first 12 words and read them on sight. When we see them in books, she instantly recognizes words such as "are" and "one". Gap filled and I am happy with her progress.

3.) That magic moment really will happen. It really will!
Oh, it takes sooo much faith. I'm still waiting for our Great Big Reading Magic Moment. You know, the one where she wakes up one morning and can read the cereal box, and everything else that falls before her eyes. I'm waiting for the day when she can read "game" without reading "gu - a- m - ee, no I mean gu - A - m" (long pause between sounds). But I have faith that that Magic Moment is going to come. It has come before - my dd, slow to do anything new, finally ate solid foods (at 10-11 months, no less), rolled over (9mths), walked (14mths), dressed herself (3+yrs), etc. We had a magic moment the other day: I pulled out math and said ceremoniously "Today, we will learn to count by 2s". DD5 says "oh, do you mean 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 - like that?" Me: "Um, yeah, like that". That was a short lesson:)

Reading Reflex

The hunt for the perfect advanced phonics program continues...but I may have met my match with Reading Reflex.

Chapters 1-4 are pretty standard phonics: you learn sounds, you blend them together in to words. It includes all the basic short vowel sounds, and double consonants (ll, etc.)

Chapter 5 is where it gets interesting! First, consonant digraphs are learned (sh, ch, th, & I think wh?) and follows the same format as chapters 1-4. Next comes the advanced sounds. First, you learn all the words that make the long O sound. You spend about 1 week on each sound. So week 1 would be the long O sound. You read words with o-e, oa, ow, etc. You study your words and put them down on paper. You read stories with the new words in them, etc.

Next, you learn the ow (as in ouch) sound. You read words with ow, ou and anything else that makes the ow (ouch) sound. Again, the words are sorted on paper (ow words go under ow, ou words go under ou, etc.) You read stories with those words in them. And then...you study these words from another angle. Notice that ow has now made 2 different sounds: long o as in snow, and ow as in now. Next, you do a sound sort. You have make a paper with 2 columns: long O on one side, ow as in now on the other side. You read a word, your child decides where that word goes according to sound. By the end of this week, your child can read long o sounds, ow as in now sounds, and can also tell you that ow can sound both ways.

Another trick in the method is to write the words on the white board and have your child underline the separate sounds in the word. NOW would be N OW.

By chapter 5, the book has the student writing these words, however - I spoke with someone certified in the method and found out that it is ok to use non-writing methods. We can sort words in our pocket chart, with magnetic letters, or on a white board.

I'm kind of excited because I think this might actually be THE BOOK. And its only $10-15.

Auditory Learners & Learning to Read

I found this article about auditory learners, and more specifically how they handle reading (scroll to the bottom):

http://www.cuyamaca.net/eops/DSPS/resourcesaud.asp

I have noticed my DD5 seems to be highly auditory, but does well with hands-on methods, too. I have trouble getting her to "LOOK" at a word. She turns her head to the side as though she is listening, LOL. My phrase "LOOK at this" is repeated often in our lessons. I have trouble keeping her visual attention.

Lately, I have realized that my DD5 is probably going to get at this reading thing pretty slow. Besides seeming very auditory, she also just plain ol' likes to take her time. She is in no hurry to take the training wheels off of her bike (when we lived in the city, all the neighbor kids had theirs off around age 3, and the late bloomers were about 5, LOL - she's 5.5 and absolutely NO interest). I'll wait until she wants to take off the training wheels, but I'm wondering if that will happen at age 7? 10? 20? I was struck by the descriptions of an auditory learner in the above article, regarding the need to talk. DD5 is so outgoing - I hate to stifle it any, but sometimes I just have to step in and curb it a bit (like, when her desire to talk is rude to others). I wonder what she'd be like in public school. I'm sure she'd have lots of friends - she has lots of friends now! - but I wonder how she would do academically in a stifled environment like that. On the other hand, I sometimes wonder if she'd do better reading if I brought a 5yo study group together (not sure how I would even do such a thing). She draws so much out of conversation.

I'm not 100% sure that she is auditory, but I've had this inkling since she was a preschooler. I'm not sure how to cater to her needs for phonics. We seem to have math under control: lots of verbal repetition, and hands-on experimenting. I guess its just the same thing for phonics - and LOTS of patience!

Silly woodpecker

For over a week now, we wake up to the sound of drilling around 7am. It goes on intermittently during the day and quits around 5pm. We thought there was some work going on nearby. It was odd that we could hear construction sounds so loud, when everything seems so far away on 10 acres. One day I realized that the sound was reverberating through the fireplace, which was making the sound quite loud in the house. Listening closely, I decided "it sounds like a woodpecker!" We didn't see anything in the fireplace, or up the chimney. Outside, we saw the culprit: a woodpecker was sitting on the metal screen covering our chimney. He joyfully peck-peck-peck-pecks all day, relishing the sound that his clever beak makes on metal. It seems to be more satisfying than the hollow sound on wood:)

We seem to have more swamp area right now on our land from all the spring rains. Its beautiful, it looks like we have a few ponds. The frogs are very busy there, croaking out a variety of sounds. We hear a reeeeet-reeeet, and crick, crick. We took a walk down there to see what all the noise was about. Everywhere we looked were frogs, floating about in the water. We saw red colored, green colored, and some brownish looking frogs. I hope to find some frog eggs or tadpoles down there soon that we can collect and study. We saw the head of something swimming through the swamp - I'm sure it was a big turtle!

It was a difficult choice, but I have decided that we will study Plants first, this season, for our Life Science. I have picked Evan-Moor's ScienceWorks for Kids 1st-3rd grade. It has about 10 sections with experiments we can do on plants, and log books we can write our observations, and also some mini-books we can make. I haven't actually placed our order yet! I'm hoping to make a final decision on a phonics program before I put in my order.