Portrait of Homeschooling, Family
Today Gracie, my four year old, wanted to learn to read. So we got out the ABeka K4 readers, the one where you read the letter sounds and blend words like C-A-T. By the fifth book I was wanting to quit, but she wanted to finish all ten. I rushed through the last five books, telling her the sounds of the words, though she could have done it herself.
She's known her letter sounds since she was 2 1/2, when we discovered The Letter Factory Video by Leap Frog. Forget about a phonics program. Run out and get this video, it'll save you months of teaching letter sounds and the video is fun and entertaining, even for adults.
Now as for Timmy, my six year old, you'd think I was asking him to read French or something. I have to bribe the kid with PS2 playing time just to get him to read past five minutes.
So is this common? I've always heard girls are eager to learn and do seat work. I could sure use a willing student after three reluctant boys!
3 comments:
My son was ready this fall to learn to read at age 5. We are using 100 Easy lessons and I really like it. Most days he is excited to do it. He likes that he can really read and feels very empowered by it. Although there are moments when he stands on his head as we go through the lesson. The writing part he dwaddles and takes 20 minutes to write 10-15 letters.
Littel girl sits there through the lessons repeating all the sounds after her brother. She is not yet 3.
Thanks for the recommendation on the video.
Good question. I've always heard that, too, but I don't know if it's true. But thanks for the video advice, I'm going to look for that today!
Very common. It isn't so much that they don't want to learn or do, but more that maturity level and interest at this age are very different. My irls would happily sit for an hour and sound things out and do all kinds of school work. My son only wants to sit for a few minutes. I have learned to cram things when working with him, no long explanation, just info and details because that is what he wants. This was especially obvious when in a kindergarten or first rade classroom (I have worked in both). In general the girls are calmer and more willing to work on small motor (writing, drawing, coloring) and thinking activities (group discussion, problem solving, being read to), the boys, in general, more willing to do large motor (sports or active involvement like catch the ball then spell the word) or physical activities (like using manipulatives, tactile tracing, or letter dice.)
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