# Need Help with Reading Lessons



## Whisperwindkat (May 28, 2009)

My oldest daughter started at private school and picked up on reading really easily. Now, I am homeschooling my 6 year old and I am using "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons". I know the Distar method works, but we are having a hard time. I read the parent part and I am presenting the lessons according to the book. She is just not getting it. We are on lesson 17 and she hates it. She was so excited to start learning to read and now she is hating it. What she struggles with is blending the sounds of the words together. For instance when she should smoothly read "sat", she stops between each sound and struggles to "hear" the word that she is reading. I just don't know how to help her and I am beginning to think that we need to change to something else, but I don't want to give up if there is something that I can be doing to better help her through the program. Thanks for any advice. Kat


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## Ed Mashburn (Jun 24, 2013)

Kat- I am not familiar with the reading program to which you refer. What you might want to try is this: go through the reading lessons and look at the words that are being presented. Make cards- one for each word. Present the cards- one at a time to your daughter and just have her sight-word it. don't present more than two or three at a time- let her really learn the word and what it means before you go on.- No phonic analysis- just see and say. Some kids have lots of trouble with phonics, especially early in their reading instruction.
If she has a group of words she knows, without having to phonetically sound out each letter/sound, she will be able to read enough to keep her going.
Early reading can be hard, and if phonics are especially difficult for your daughter, building up a sight-word vocabulary might help her along.
MOST kids pick up phonics at some level or another as they go along. Kids just learn to read in different ways and at different rates.
Can be frustrating- for both kids and parents.
good luck- Ed Mashburn


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## bluefish (Jan 27, 2006)

I don't know if this will be any help, but my dd had hard time like that as well. I gave it up early 'cause I didn't want to kill the love and interest. We started just reading aloud, a lot! We did go through the alphabet/sounds. A says aahh, etc. I avoided the long sounds for quite a while. She got to where she'd point out a letter in the story and tell me what sound it made. For instance, with sat, she'd say S says ssssssss. I would say yes, it does, very good. Then I would sound out the word and then we'd keep on reading. She kinda got a little better with sounding things out, but it really just all came together for her around 7 or 7 1/2. By 8 she was reading pretty well by herself. Now, at 11, I can't keep her out of books. She's reading highschool level stuff. She has read a lot of the 'classics' that I have never been able to stay awake through. She actually loves Shakespeare and Dickens.


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## Whisperwindkat (May 28, 2009)

thank you both. I think for today I am going to try starfall. We used it to teach her ABCs and she loved it. So I think I am going to do some re-inforcement with her today which should be easy for her and give her a boost in confidence. Ed when this program starts teaching actual reading it does teach a lot like you are talking about. It teaches site words along with phonetics and I think the way it approaches phonetics might be better for her. I think the 100 easy lessons is overwhelming for her. Too many different sounds to change back and forth to and from in each lesson trying to put together. Again thank you both.


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## MamaTiger (Jun 11, 2008)

I used both phonics and sight words with mine. It seemed easier for them to get it when there were words they knew and recognized. You can find a dolch sight word list online to use. I did the flash cards for the sight words and we reviewed them every day--but start with just a couple to begin with.

Also I bought a huge phonics type workbook at WalMart and cut the pictures up. I glued them to cards--making sure I had at least one picture--preferably more--to represent each sound. I didn't use long sounds at first. And we used those to learn and review the sounds as well.

Then, after they knew several sight words, I created little books for them out of construction paper using those words with perhaps just one new word in it. This gave them success at actually reading and they LOVED those booklets.

For phonics I used Before the Code, Explode the Code, and After the Code.

I also made up some simple little file folder games to use.


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

It does sound like she might benefit from more practice on basic sounds. I taught all the short vowel sounds 1st, then began reading the little Bob type books...The cat. The fat cat. The fat cat sat...etc. First I read the book entirely. Then, child "helps" read the book. 3rd day child attempts to read it alone, with help from you where needed. Last 2 days, child reads book alone to you. Along with the phonic words (cat sat fat) a few sight words were added along through the story. I simply explained what the words were before we read the story each day, to remind them of those words (example: the, is) If you child still struggles, just let her play Starfall and make it fun. She may just need a bit more time to soak it in. Read to her a LOT. My kids didn't like "100 Easy Lessons" either.


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## Whisperwindkat (May 28, 2009)

Update: She is doing much better with Starfall. We also got out the Montessori letters that I have and she was putting short a words together and sounding them out. I think the 100 easy lessons was simply overwhelming and changing up too many sounds in each lesson for her. She now loves reading and is having a wonderful time. We do read a lot since we follow Charlotte Mason's principles and I am also having her identify some of her sight words that we are working on in our books that we read. Thanks to you all, Kat


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## Ed Mashburn (Jun 24, 2013)

Kat- glad your daughter is doing better. I forgot to mention that the best thing you can do to help your daughter learn to read- and you already know this and do it- is to read with her and to let her see you and other family members reading. 
I can't begin to tell you how many times when I taught early elementary school, we'd have little kiddoes come to us who didn't know how to hold a book. they'd never seen one before. No one else in their families ever read- anything- so these poor kids had no concept of "reading". Made for some tough classes.
Your daughter will do fine- good for you and her-
Ed Mashburn


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

What helped my son the most were train books. They were above his reading level but they had killer pictures of TRAINS! 

We re-read and re-read the captions under the pictures, and he learned those words very well indeed! This gave him a real boost in his reading because there were a lot of words like "and" and "to" and "red" and such. Though, to be honest with you, we read them for FUN instead of as part of his lessons. I did show him how to sound out some of the words at every session, but only a couple and I did not ask him to read them himself. He simply sat and watched and pointed out the picture he wanted me to read under next.


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## Whisperwindkat (May 28, 2009)

She is still coming along well and loving her reading lessons. She read her first "book" to her Daddy yesterday with only a couple small bobbles. She is getting better at putting the letter sounds together into a word, not as stilted as she was. So again I want to thank you all. I think I am going to have a little girl that loves to read. Blessings, Kat


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