We used Bob Books at home. The early books focus on one vowel sound and a couple of consonants at a time. It's small steps, but if you read each night they really start to pick up the sounds. Very phonics driven and it works.
Stay off the Himalayan mountains unless you are experienced.
Thanks again for your posts, hopefully at least a few FReepers will get the message and understand what’s going on and make what is a really a minimal effort to teach their kids to read well before the institutions get their hands on them (math, I’ll admit, is a significant effort, but still well worth it). For if they can read well BEFORE entering school, then, despite their best efforts, their kids will read well, really well (and spell great too!, a bonus of phonics), and there’s not a thing the schools can do to stop that - your kids cannot be ‘untaught’ reading.
“It’s puzzling to me that educational leaders are so resistant to Systematic Phonics.”
It SHOULD NOT be ‘puzzling’ to people on this site. We all know that the Left literally wants to SINK THIS COUNTRY down to Third World status, and the best way to do so is through the (lack of) education of our kids. The teachers themselves are leftists, although maybe not flaming leftists, but still leftists - so they will glob on to their masters, who are the actual BRAINS of this operation. Those are the ones in DC, who control the Leftist agenda. In fact, what would be ‘puzzling’ is if our education establishment actually supported phonics, as that would imply that they wanted America to be a wealthy and powerful country...totally contradicting everything they stand for.
As for myself. I learned how to teach phonics from an infomerical, I think for The Phonics Game...or something. They gave a simple example of teaching sounds, I ran with it, and had my kids reading by age 4, and reading fluently by age 5. Once the kids can read, they will DEVOUR everything they can find with words in it. In fact, it worried me a bit when my mom was lending my kids adult novels at age 7 or so...but it didn’t seem to harm them...and they loved reading them.
So, people, GET OFF YOUR DUFFS, your kids simply WILL NOT learn reading, or for that matter math, to anything beyond a very basic level, from our public schools, FOR CERTAIN, and from what I’ve seen, it’s questionable now in private schools, as they they somewhat follow public schools. If you want to know why Asians and Indians, who do go to our public schools, do so well - ask their parents, EVERY ONE of those kids had serious help outside of school, and it was all done AHEAD of the public school schedule, again, so that the kids were certain to learn this stuff correctly.
I started phonics with my infant daughter. Big flashcards with pics, and my repeating the sounds. I had purchased a phonics program to guide me. I never spoke baby talk, and used complete sentences. By eight months, she spoke in complete sentences, read by two. At age ten through twelve, she was reading The Great Books of the Western World.
Phonics is the way to teach your kids to read.
He was fascinated. What kid isn't fascinated in learning a code?
He learned it all and I didn't say a thing.
Our second son came to us from an orphanage at age five speaking only a little baby-talk Russian. He had significant learning disabilities as well. I decided to use the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann.
And despite His learning, language and communication disabilities, in 3 months he had graduated to the "BOB" books. What a kid!
BTW, don't do "Sight Words." Absolutely useless.
Tommy: Look mommy it’s a frickan elephant!
Mother: Young Man! What did you say?
Tommy: It’s a frickan elephant. The book says so.
Book: African Elephant
I have heard a bunch of free Youboob videos by Jack Hartmann used in public school Pre-K to teach beginning phonics. They are kinda catchy and fun.
“[E]arly reading instruction enhances the child’s brain development.”
Which is why the commie school system doesn’t want to teach kids to read. They want to keep them dumb.
I was reading before I got to school. That’s why I’m on FR and not DU.