Comparing Pre-school English Reading and Phonics Enrichment

[lucky mom]

Charmaine_chong:

Dear DYJH,

I could share with you what I have gone through.
I sent my son to Lcentral when he was 4.5 years old and now he is in PFS stage (K2 this year).
We started bed-time reading when he was 3yo and thereafter I slowly encouraged him to read out loud daily ( the process wasn’t smooth as he dislike to read on his own).
I tried out many books. Started out with Peter and Jane that was not appealing to him at all. He then read My Magis School Bus phonics series (available in Popular), I can read series- Frog and Toad/ Uncle elephant/etc (available in library), then proceed to chapter book. The first chapter book he read was the 3 books of My father’s dragon , book written by Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, and now reading The Wizard of OZ.
He reads on his own with guidance on NEW WORDS only.
Aside of reading English story book, he recite Chinese classics as well. It takes 45min to 1 hr for both languages. Sometimes when I am busy, I would just turn on the CD and he would recite on his own. Then, I would turn off the CD and ask him to recite.
I have started my 4yo daughter with P&J book 2a now. She is not ready to read on her own. Need to bribe her with sweets to motivate her to read out loud.

hi
iam a newbie, i found this to intersting site for kids.my son is 4.5yo and girl 2.5yo.
iam having many doubts, dont know where to start from but first iam going to start with LC . I joined my son in last jan mean when he was in N2(3.5yo), the teacher said he is very good and in september they promoted to launch pad ,now she says he is very good at first sounds and now they are working on last sounds after this middle sounds,segmenting etc.what my doubt is, i will read story books but not on regular basis,bed time also the same, now he is 4.5yo but cannot read on his own .Is it my mistake that do i need to concentrate more or is it ok for his age?Iam very confused of this.
as ur kid with LC ,how do you feel ?is it worth or am i wasting money?
And one more doubt is reading books to them means how you read ,will you spell the letters or just read the words.my son when reading he wont concentrate on the letters or words ,he just keep on looking at the picture ,when he alone open the book he will explain the picture on his own words but not the exact words which i read-is this ok or am i thinking much.


any other moms please share ur experience

[Imami]

akp1982:

Would like to seek advice from experienced mom and dad.

As my 3 years old++ girl all the while been taking care by my wife at home with mandarin speaking environment (I also speak mandarin to her ).
She is having difficulty to speak english and interact with friends in the PCF 3 hours nursery program. And I start to notice, seems this had affected her self confidence now.
I was thinking is there any english program to improve her english at her age?
Appreciate if there's any opinion.
Many thanks.

Let me share my case. Before my child turned two, he was mainly spoken to in mandarin. I was happy doing this becos I felt that Chinese is a harder language to master in sg context and everywhere u go,English is the main medium. I am confident my child will pick up English easily and that setting the strong foundation for Chinese is more impt at that stage.

When he turned two, his teachers fed back that he could not understand English. in order to help my child be \"functional in English\", I gave him a crash course for 3 months. During that three months, I spoke to him in English and only switched go Chinese to translate. Except for myself, nothing else changed. I didn't tell anyone to change the way they speak to him, didn't change his school or care giver. Even my hubby remained speaking the same, in mandarin, to our child. After the three months, there was no return :slapshead: his command of English had surpassed his Chinese, to this date still the Same. When he speaks in English, he rattles off a wider variety of vocab effortlessly. In mandarin, he speaks slower And in simple words.

U may like to consider trying out what I have done?

[miffy_ang]

Hi, anyone has kids taking phonics class at I Can Read Rivervale Mall or Jan and Elly Seletar? Can comment on the two?

[Karl12]

Hi,

My K1 kid is not able to read. Is it normal?
I have seen small kids reading chapter books although I can’t tell if they are in nursery or K level.
Mine is struggling with basic one liner picture book.

Any advise on Mindchamp reading program? Heard alot on ICR but the advert for mindchamp seems promising.
Appreciate any advises.
Thanks.

[kelyee]

Hi All


My girl is turning 5 end of the year but I feel that she can’t read & pronounce words especially phonics thou she attends PCF and they have outside vendor to coach them.

I am planning to enrol her for phonics class and would like to hear from parents on places to enrol her.

Thanks in advance.

Regards

kelyee

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi keylee,


I would suggest Lcentral ad I see good result in my p1 child.

My k1 daughter (4.5 yo) reads peter n Jane book 4b now. She could blend the words herself nut still need a lot of guidance to help herRECOGNIZE the words. She will attend Lcentral program starting this
I suggest you to read loads of easy story books to her, perhaps 1 hour daily get books like Eric carle, Dr suess, I cab read series, etc to begin with. Teach her letter sound, words begin with the letter , help her to listen to the 1st sound, last sound and lastly middle sound. Focus on this first. Then slowly introduce sight words to her, 3 to 10 words depends on her ability.

The key is parents must read n teach or do revision with the child at home,solely depending on school and enrichment is a bit hard to see great improvement.

Do pm me if u need help or useful websites to begin with.

[bluewaters]

Hi all, my son is now 3.5 yrs old, in Nursery 2 level. Since he was 2, I started teaching him word recognition using self-made word cards. He can recognise a good number of words but I never keep track of how many words he really can recognise. Recently he has shown great interest in wanting to read on his own & I’m currently using the Ladybird Peter and Jane Keywords books to help him to learn to read (now on Book 2a). However, I’m starting to worry that I may not be teaching him well enough as whenever I read to him books other than Peter and Jane Keywords, he will point out words and keep asking me how to read the words.

In school he has started learning the basics of phonics but the school will not be teaching blending words till K1 level. I’m at a loss when it comes to phonics as I have no idea how to teach that.
I’m now wondering if I should enrol my son in phonics/reading programme to help him maintain or enhance his interest in reading on his own. I’m not very keen to enrol him in enrichment classes as he’s already going to school but seeing his great interest in trying to read and my limited ability to teach him to read is just making me all confused.
Hope to get advice on whether I should continue teaching on my own based on word recognition technique (as this is the only way I know how to teach him) or enrol him in phonics/reading classes?
For phonics/reading classes, any advice on which is good - eg: LCentral, I Can Read, etc. Thank you in advance!

[Dec]

Hi,

Anyone heard of young genius Montessori enrichment?
Any feedback of this centre?
TIA

[janiz]

My girl is in n2 now and her cc is still revising the letter sounds with them. I think the cc will start to cover first sounds soon. Is it consider slow? I tot at this level, they shld start blending already? Any mummies can share their experiences? Tks!

[buds]

Hi janiz. Your girl's cc is on track and you're fortunate that the cc is even introducing phonemic awareness because there are centres that do not offer phonics during their cc curriculum hours. Why did you think at this level they should start blending? :scratchhead:


Blending can start at K1. The children are more mature by then to have learnt some of the blending techniques and perfected the pronunciation of their letter sounds.