Phonics with ds

LisaTX · **Posted:** Fri Nov 01, 2013 11:49 am

is coming along slowly, but surely. No miracles, but I expect it will be a gradual thing and not an overnight change. The biggest thing with him is making sure he is *reading* the word and not just guessing. I am slowly, but surely, breaking him out of that habit. That is the main reason progress is so slow with him. Dd is moving ahead faster because, while she occasionally guesses a word, she has not formed that habit. I also think she has better eye-tracking skills, or whatever you call it. I am still doing eye-arobics with ds to strengthen his skills of reading the word from left to right (sometimes he will say "felt", instead of "left"). I am definitely learning patience through all this and it is paying off, as he is starting to catch himself when he is guessing instead of reading. I think there is hope yet for him.

It is also helping with his spelling. The other day, he was writing a word and started to ask how to spell it and then remembered his phonics lesson from the morning and was able to finish spelling the word correctly on his own. It is nice to see his confidence growing. I've noticed that since I've stopped forcing him to read books, he has been more willing on his own to try to read words and sentences, where before he refused to try to read things unless he was forced to.

The only thing that still confuses me is that he will get the vowel sound wrong sometimes, even though he knows his vowel sounds. It seems like just carelessness to me. Like if the word is "damp" he might say "dump". He is still doing that far too much for my liking. I don't know if that has anything to do with his eye tracking or if he's just guessing or trying to read it too fast or what. I think it's just carelessness.

Anna1111 · **Joined:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:14 pm **Posts:** 8115

That is WONDERFUL news, Lisa! Thanks be to God!

I was wondering how you were doing (I've missed you on here) but didn't want to pry.

There are very few "miracles" in school or parenting - Slow, Steady *progress* is a HUGE blessing from God.

My DD sometimes gets the wrong vowel sound on a new word, too - there are about 180 rules of English phonics, and it's just really easy to pull out the wrong one when you're trying to learn them - rather like hitting a wrong key in typing (which I do all the time) - long established habit will help in time : )

I am SO delighted to hear this good news! : )

LisaTX · **Posted:** Fri Nov 01, 2013 1:15 pm

I've been pretty busy and haven't really had time to get on. Plus, dh's laptop (which was our main computer) broke. He thinks it's the hard drive. So I pulled out my laptop, which is in really bad condition and I just kept as a back up. If I walk away from the computer and it goes into sleep mode, for some reason it won't let me type anything, the keyboard just doesn't work at all, so I have to restart it to be able to type anything, lol. It will probably be a few months before we can get dh's computer fixed or get a new one.

Anna1111 · **Joined:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:14 pm **Posts:** 8115

Have missed you on here - hope your computer situation is better soon. BTW- we're pretty content with our little under-200 el-cheapo model for many applications. (Asus, I think?)

LisaTX · **Posted:** Sun Nov 03, 2013 5:01 pm

Thanks, Anna. Is it a laptop and can you print from it?

Anna1111 · **Joined:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:14 pm **Posts:** 8115

WE have a laptop Asus Eee Pc ( I THINK it's this one http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1000HE-10-1- ... B001QTXL82 and we paid less than $200, I think) - we don't use it all the time (dd uses it some at home), but we use it when we're on the road. I believe you can send things to a printer from it (we haven't had a working printer at home in ages, so it's only an assumption on my part). It's a little slower than the big ones (sesame street.org games freeze up now and then), and I haven't figured out a way to keep several things open at once, but overall, we're pretty happy with it - especially considering the price : )

LisaTX · **Posted:** Sun Nov 03, 2013 5:44 pm

Thanks, I'll mention it to dh.

Forum rules

Phonics with ds

Who is online