Phonics Pathways question.

[Tabrett]

My dd is a young 5yo. I'm trying to follow PP's pretty strictly. We are on page 69 and have just learned the ending "y". We are very close to learning how to sound out most words that would be in regular readers. She can read blendable vc, cvc, ccvc and cvcc word. We are getting ready to start diagraphs. So far my dd is not having any problems. She sounds out everything very well, but lacks any kind of fluency. I would like to get some readers that would help build fluency and has a real story line. Most beginning phonetic readers lack a real story line because of limited vocabulary. She doesn't have any interest in reading. She only reads what I have her read. I'm hoping reading something more interesting than a Bob Book will spark an interest.

Here is my problem; words like "was" and "said", that are used very frequently in most readers, are not taught until pages 194-197 in PP's. That is a long way off.:001_huh: Maybe even a year away.

Should I go ahead and teach a few "sight words" so my dd can start reading more interesting readers? I have already taught her the word "the" as a sight word, but it is the only sight word I have taught.

Did you teach any sight word or did you just follow PP's and hold off on reading regular books?

Should I hold off on regular books or teach a few sight word so we can read something other than Bob Books, SL's Fun Tale and Reading Pathways?

The words I would want to teach are:

to
was
for
by
are
or
have
they
one
said
was
you
were
see
want
look
open
love
my

Do you think teaching these words would cause a problem later? Her reading is going so well, I don't want to mess anything up.

What would you do or what have you done?

Should I keep doing what I am doing and not read real books till later?

[Narrow Gate Academy]

I would say that your daughter is more than ready to start reading a few books. The key is that you read the books together. Let her read the words that she can, and you read any word that she doesn't know whether its a sight word or rule she hasn't learned yet. I did this with both of my DDs alongside of PP after we finished the Bob books and never had any problems.
The Dr. Seuss books are a great place to start.

I also have never worried about specifically teaching sight words to my kids. They simply learned them because they were used over and over in the books that we read together. We spent one block of time a day reading from PP and another later block reading a book together. Some books I only read words that she needed help with and other I would read the left hand page and she would read the right so we could go through a longer story. The key is to relax and have fun together.

[Ali in OR]

I would teach the sight words as they come up in books that interest her. I would not teach them as a list. For my older dd, she liked the Dick and Jane book that we have. It is very much a sight word book rather than a phonics approach (I would never use it alone to teach reading). But since my dd liked the characters and wanted to read the story, it was a good motivator for learning those words. We also used some Dr. Seuss books like Hop on Pop. I think it's fine to read a book that interests them before you officially cover all of those words in PP. Just teach and explain as you go. Keep it fun and light...a few pages a day of Hop on Pop is about right for my 5 yo right now.

[ElizabethB]

If you do decide to teach them, teach them in groups of exceptions like is done in Alphaphonics:

s as z: is has as

one vowel off: to, do, who

one vowel off AND s as z: was does

Teach them phonetically, saying, for example, for the a in was, "a usually says /a/ in words like this, but in this word it says uh."

Here's how to teach them by phonetic pattern:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html

The UPP pdf link at the bottom is especially helpful for showing their sounds.