All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[RAchelmum]

jen18j:

Hi, I am not able to order Leapfrog DVD from Amazon anymore. It said against some international regulations. Can anyone confirms this?


Thank you.

Try to get a Vpost or Borderlinx shipping account which would issue u an USA address.
U can consolidate your orders, which in turn ship to SG.

Alternatively, join a Overseas or Bulk Purchase spree & pay to the
organiser directly.

[GreenQ]

RAchelmum:

jen18j:

Hi, I am not able to order Leapfrog DVD from Amazon anymore. It said against some international regulations. Can anyone confirms this?


Thank you.

Try to get a Vpost or Borderlinx shipping account which would issue u an USA address.
U can consolidate your orders, which in turn ship to SG.

Alternatively, join a Overseas or Bulk Purchase spree & pay to the
organiser directly.

Or, you may try your luck in ebay.com.sg. Sometimes there are resellers selling these brand new dvds.

I bought my leapfrog dvds yrs back fr a angmo reseller staying in Punggol thru ebay.com.sg. by cod payment mode. (So if you are not satisfied with her products, you may turn and leave her when u collect the item fr her.. :)) She brought in these stocks herself. If you are interested, I can pm you her contact number. (Btw, im not her representative. I am juz sharing my experience here.)

[jen18j]

Yes pls. Pls let me know her contacts.

I would like to order some leapfrog DVD…
Thank you.

[GreenQ]

Ok. Pls check your pm, jen18j.

[ml15]

I asked him to spell, and I specifically say spell as in give me the ABCDE, not the sound.


I think it’s my fault lah, think I put him into phonics too soon, before he can get his A-Z alpha correctly. I put my eldest boy in phonics when he was 4, and it benefits him so much, so I thot the bro shd follow. But I didn’t realised that knowing the basic A-Z letter is so impt… I always feel that he is learning in his childcare and when we have parent-teacher meeting, the teacher always say he’s ok, althot I did express my worry of him not recognising some of the alpha, the teacher ensure me that he’s still young and will pick it up along the way…Now I must really work hard to get him on the right track.

[chrismei]

tamarind:

Not a generalisation, just my personal observation, based on my boy. Before 3 years old, he cannot sit still to listen to me. I know many other kids like him. In my blog, I gave many suggestions of books that could grab his attention :


http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2009/09/wonderful-books-for-kids-from-birth-to.html

I have also heard one parent that she read the same book 50 times to her child, and he still cannot read the book.

Every child is different, and every child learns in different ways. If a child can learn simply by listening to mommy, then by all means read to him/her.

In my case, my boy cannot learn just by listening to me reading him. His mind will be thinking about a hundred different things, not related to the book. He learns best by reading out loud every word from the page. His progress is amazing by learning to read this way. He is able to read Roald Dahl books after only 1 year plus.

I have just sharing the most effective methods of learning to read with other parents. I definitely agree that parents should read to their kids since birth. But if parents find that no matter how many books they read to the child, he/she is still not reading well by 3 years old, then I would advise them to try other methods.

Also, for a full time working mommy like me, I really don't have the time to read so many books to my kids. So it is important that my kids learn to read as soon as possible. Now they read many books out loud to me instead

Asking the child to read out loud from the book, also stimulates his thinking, and allows him to practice his speech. My boy was not speaking well at 3 years old, now at 5 years 6 months old, he is speaking beautifully, and he talks a lot. Now he reads about 500 to 1000 words to me everyday.

That is why I do not believe that reading to a child is the best way to teach him to read. The best way is for him to read out loud, and to get books with interesting pop-ups that will interest him.

Hi Tamarind

My friend's child is turning 3 next month and able to read by herself. She self-taught her child to decode the word but not blending i.e ing, take -n. She claimed that phonics don't work for her after teaching her child for the past 6 months . However, she will insist her daughter to read aloud 4 series books everyday (pointing to the words) and rewarded her generously. She will occupied her child for at least 2 hrs everynight (8pm to 10pm) by teaching her to read and introducing vocabulary ..her child sleep at 12am as she refused to sleep early.. Her child was recently assessed by a phonic centre called \"The Learning Centre\" to be K2 standard (able to decode). The centre refused to accept the child and commented that no centre will accept her. My friend suggested that i should follow her method as it is hard for me to teach blending too..n decoding of words seems to be \"shortcut\" ....What do you think?

[tamarind]

chrismei,

There are 2 ways to learn to read, phonics and sight words. I think that your friend is using sight words. Some kids with excellent memory can learn to read very quickly this way. But it really depends on the child. Every child is different, and not all kids have superb memory. Kids of average ability will have a lot of difficulty memorizing sight words.

Also, a child may be able to read hundreds of words, but she may not be able to spell them if she does not know phonics. I have taught my kids both phonics and sight words at the same time. They are both able to spell words effortlessly. When they are able to read fluently, they are also able to write in complete sentences without the need to be taught.

I am not sure what you mean by "decoding". She may be using her own methods to teach phonics ? Anyway, there are many ways to teach phonics, and parents should find the most suitable methods for their kids, according to the kids’ abilities.

Honestly, many kids at the age of 2 to 3 cannot even focus for 15 minutes. A child who is able to focus for 2 hours is probably of exceptional intelligence. Even then, I feel that it is not necessary for a child below the age of 5, to learn academically for more than 30 minutes a day.

[chrismei]

tamarind:

chrismei,

There are 2 ways to learn to read, phonics and sight words. I think that your friend is using sight words. Some kids with excellent memory can learn to read very quickly this way. But it really depends on the child. Every child is different, and not all kids have superb memory. Kids of average ability will have a lot of difficulty memorizing sight words.

Also, a child may be able to read hundreds of words, but she may not be able to spell them if she does not know phonics. I have taught my kids both phonics and sight words at the same time. They are both able to spell words effortlessly. When they are able to read fluently, they are also able to write in complete sentences without the need to be taught.

I am not sure what you mean by \"decoding\". She may be using her own methods to teach phonics ? Anyway, there are many ways to teach phonics, and parents should find the most suitable methods for their kids, according to the kids' abilities.

Honestly, many kids at the age of 2 to 3 cannot even focus for 15 minutes. A child who is able to focus for 2 hours is probably of exceptional intelligence. Even then, I feel that it is not necessary for a child below the age of 5, to learn academically for more than 30 minutes a day.

Hi Tamarind

I think she taught her child to decode in such manner.e.g pilow- \"pi\"\"low\" or \"citi\"\"bank\". She applied whole word's approach to decode another word in fun way..reinforced by putting word on the floor and let the child find the object..

[tamarind]

chrismei,

Her method is more towards sight words. Actually kids who have read a lot of books, will be able to figure out how to decode words using their own methods, without having been taught phonics.

But as I have written earlier, phonics is essential when it comes to spelling and reading. There are parents who make their kids write "cat" ten times to learn how to spell it. But with phonics, kids can spell any 3 letter word without the need to practice writing any words. There is no need to learn all the complicated techniques of phonics. Kids should at least know how to join 3 letters to form words, and this skill will enable them to learn sight words very quickly. I have heard of parents who read a book many times to a child, but the child still cannot read the book. This is because the child does not know phonics, and he is unable to remember so many words by sight.

As parents, we should find the best methods that suit our kids. Some methods work well for certain kids, but not others. I believe that we should use a combination of methods, that is, both phonics and sight words, most kids will be able to learn to read very well when they are taught phonics and sight words at the same time.

[sunset_dae]

Hi Tamarind


I notice that when i read P & J books to my child, he will always look at the pictures and not the words. Then he will ask me tons of question while Im reading, like, what is Jane doing? why Peter kick the ball? etc…This interupts the reading process…
What should i do? Have u experience this before?

I started him on the 3 alphabets phonics recently and noticed he is not very keen on it. When i took out the card (which i made according to yr blog), he will become very resistant and keep saying dont want to play cards… what should i do?

**He is 3 yo and knows all the 26 alphabets sounds very well…