Not sure where to put this thread

[Heidi {AK}]

I'm an educator very interested in afterschooling my DD4, as she is actually in a K3/4 class, rather than a K4/5 class, and is ready agewise for K in 2011-2012. She is a student at the Christian school at which I teach. I think she is proficient in the tasks listed in several kindergarten readiness brochures I have found, as well.

She knows her numbers, colors, shapes, letters, and is now writing her letters, both uppercase and lowercase, as well as spelling CVC words. She knows 24 sight words, and can comprehend fairly lengthy stories.

The reason she was put into this class rather into the K4/5 is because, two months ago when school started, she was not reading or writing.

Her teacher came to me today and told me she spelled, "cat," "dog," and "duck." I know she also knows how to spell "frog," as well as others. She said she was going to be looking for reading readiness activities for her, and I asked her to let me know if I can help her look for activities for her to do. I then thought, "I am planning to HS at some point, so I should really take charge and offer some ideas of things I want her to participate in." This is a small school, and her teacher is a colleague of mine, and she has said in the past she would welcome a partnership between the two of us in educating my daughter.

I'm not interested in pushing her, but I do want to strike while the iron's hot. What kinds of ideas do y'all have to enrich her reading readiness? Ideas a friend gave me are:
* Pull out already-read Dr. Seuss and P.D. Eastman books, as well as others, and re-read with the emphasis on reading the words in the books
* Tangrams - with the emphasis on putting together differently-shaped and -colored pieces to make the desired shape
* Sequencing, focusing on higher-level patterns
* Puzzles, with the emphasis on alphabet and words, or mixing two puzzles together and having DD separate puzzle pieces, then assembling each puzzle

I thought, too, that I would pull out the Five in a Row curriculum guide (a literature-based unit study approach) and offer the books as well as activity ideas designed to pull out art, social studies, applied math, science, and language arts from each book. We've done these before, and I'm just thinking, read, read, read to her!

I do read to her, but not as much as I'd like since I'm working now. I don't think this is forever; we are military and we'll move, so I will have to give up my job sometime. I think we'll be homeschooling by 1st grade, whether that's two or three years from now. I think it should be two years away.

[EmilyK]

Well, I'm feeling very humble about my ideas right now, but for what it is worth, I would read to her as much as possible. I had more time and energy to do that with my first at that age and I think it was great for him. We got wonderful picture books from the library, read books more at his level, you name it. I was tired from work but it was pretty sedentary. We also listened to books on tape from an early age and also got ones from the library that were books and the accompanying audio. One of my regrets is that I didn't do that more with my younger son. I was more tired and busy. He didn't take off with reading as quickly --- could be unrelated, of course, but I wish I'd read to him more (I did read to him some of course, just not as much as his brother). I'm trying to make up for lost time now but at 8 he has his own strong ideas!

[MBM]

What you're doing already sounds wonderful.

Regarding reading, books on tape were lifesavers for me. My son would listen while he played with toys or colored, etc. (and I did other things such as chores). He eventually memorized some of them. A few that worked for us:

Jim Weiss recordings
The Hobbit
Edgar Eager's stories
The Secret Garden
Many other classics
Poetry Speaks to Children
A Child's Introduction to Poetry

It's fine to go a bit above grade level, btw.

When you have the time, you could sit with her and read fairy tales, Aesop's Tales, mythological stories, short non-fiction books and other books you think might be better to read together and then discuss with her.

If I could wave a magic wand and do things over, I would have begun The Iliad and The Odyssey at least by middle school. Memoria Press sells a good version for that age called The Trojan War by Olivia Coolidge.

You might want to post this on the elementary board for suggestions, too. You're bound to get some excellent advice.

HTH. :)

[JudoMom]

I would start a phonics program with her.

[Heidi {AK}]

Thanks, everybody! MBM, thanks especially for the book/author lists. I'll give those to the teacher and between her and me we'll make sure we keep up the library box. :)

One question. I got OPG a while back and DD has not been interested in the least. I think it's because she picked up info along the way, and found the rhymes tedious. We have tons of manipulatives and we taught her the phonetic alphabet. Should I just find the lesson she wouldn't know, like blends or long sounds, and make that our starting point? She won't sit still for longer than 3 minutes with the lessons.

[FairProspects]

If I were you I might wait until January and try the new All About Reading that is coming out with your dd. OPGTR can sometimes move too fast and be too dry for very young beginning readers (you can modify it using magnetic letters or a white board, but it does take more effort). If the new AAR is going to be anything like All About Spelling that they already produce, it should move at a good speed for littles and introduce fun activities that will keep younger readers engaged. I think I'm going to try it with ds#2.

[Shay]

I'd do the Five in a Row (sounds great!) and lots of pattern blocks. I loved Singapore's Earlybird Kind. math and I used tons of hands-on stuff (from around the house)for that. For teaching reading, I See Sam (the first two sets). You can collaborate with the teacher on doing those books at school and home (I did that when my son was in kdg.) She'd likely love the fun animal characters and you can print out free progress charts and coloring pages---easy, fun, and highly effective. I can see that a 4yo would consider OPG boring--it moved way too fast for my ds.

[fairytalemama]

Thanks, everybody! MBM, thanks especially for the book/author lists. I'll give those to the teacher and between her and me we'll make sure we keep up the library box. :)

One question. I got OPG a while back and DD has not been interested in the least. I think it's because she picked up info along the way, and found the rhymes tedious. We have tons of manipulatives and we taught her the phonetic alphabet. Should I just find the lesson she wouldn't know, like blends or long sounds, and make that our starting point? She won't sit still for longer than 3 minutes with the lessons.

We started OPGTR when my daughter was 4.75 and skipped the first 25 lessons. It hasn't hurt one bit to skip those. I found that until around lesson 50 it was a struggle, then we started bribing with stickers. We're cooking along around lesson 113 now.

If you're looking for reading ideas, try www.amblesideonline.com (http://www.amblesideonline.com). I've got a list of stuff we're reading at my house here:
http://enchantedschoolhouse.blogspot.com/p/2010-2011-kindergarten-read-alouds_21.html

Good luck!

[mich311e]

I agree with the recommendation - lots & lots of reading!

For phonics we did Hooked on Phonic and it worked for us! My 6 yo 1st grader can read 4th grade level stories. We also use Phonics Pathways but not from the very beginning. Hooked on Phonics was fun and the sticker chart gave immediate satisfaction which kept my son motivated.

Good luck!

[Heidi {AK}]

The Ambleside Online website is an amazing resource! Thank you!!!

[Heidi {AK}]

I'm trying not to be frustrated. DD's teacher said she was on day 2 of not having time to do any extra activities with DD. I know that's a challenge for me as a classroom teacher, but will this drive us to HSing after all? It makes me sad she rose the issue and then didn't have time to do anything about it. She is a colleague...and we are doing extra activities, she and I, after school...

[ack25]

I agree with Five In a Row. It is a great resource and a lot of fun for the kids!

[OpenMinded]

I'm trying not to be frustrated. DD's teacher said she was on day 2 of not having time to do any extra activities with DD. I know that's a challenge for me as a classroom teacher, but will this drive us to HSing after all? It makes me sad she rose the issue and then didn't have time to do anything about it. She is a colleague...and we are doing extra activities, she and I, after school...

I would not worry about whether the teacher can fit in the extra activities. After all, she has other students and they are k3/k4. That age group is generally very demanding and time consuming.
Instead, I would focus on afterschooling with her. I did Abeka's k4 and k5 during the afternoon after lunch and nap. My dd's went to preschool and were out by noon. Even if they would have went all day, it didn't take long to do with the girls and they normally found it a fun treat to work together.

[boscopup]

I agree not to worry about it, especially for preK. Last year in K, my son's teacher was able to give him some extra work at the beginning of the year, but later in the year, she didn't have time. There were 18 other students of varying abilities. I don't expect her to have time to give him special attention all the time. This year, his teacher in first grade has put kids into 3 groups, so she can give special attention to a small group of children. This is working pretty well, though it's still not what I want for my son long term. She's doing the most she can do and it's all I expect from a teacher with that many children to deal with - I'm happy with the teacher. This situation is the main reason we are going to homeschool next year, so my son can do work at his level and his pace, without having to also do the regular level work. In the meantime, I'm afterschooling some, but it's pretty minimal because there's only so much you can do after school. Giving him time to play is very important at his age.

[Heidi {AK}]

thanks, ladies!

[TracyR]

I agree I would start afterschooling. The teachers have other children to teach and that would just not be fair to add more to her plate.
My preKer wants to read. She is stuck in the abc group ( those learning their alphabet) thing is she already knows her letters and their sounds. But she won't consistently tell her teacher at school though she does here at home all of the time. Grrr.
So she can't bump her up to the reading group. Sigh. So for whatever reason my daughter just won't do it at school but she does at home. So I guess I'll have to start reading with her here at home.
My 1st grader reads at almost a 2nd grade level yet she is reading little readers with words and pictures! I can't get her teacher to bump her up with the 2nd graders(where she needs to be) so we do reading here at home.

[ElizabethB]

You can accomplish a lot in 5 to 10 minutes a day! I worked 5 to 10 minutes a day with my daughter in K and by the end she was reading at the 12th grade level!

The key is to not teach the sight words as wholes (how to teach all but 5 of the 220 Dolch words phonetically here (http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html)) and to add in a bit of spelling--I've found with my children and my remedial students that spelling 1 word is worth reading 10 or 20.

My son is going a bit slower than my daughter, but he can sound out a few 2 syllable words now! Here is a thread showing his progress with Webster's Speller (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208407), it's a powerful method. (At this rate, I expect him to be reading at the 2nd grade level by the end of the year and the 12th grade level by the end of 1st grade.)