How do you Teach Blend Phonics or Phonics Pathways?

[PenKase]

I wanted to hear from some of you with regard to this question. I am now using Blend Phonics with my dd5 and it's going really well. We are on unit 6 of BP and today we used the AAS tiles to do the lesson which my dd positively responded to. Last week she wote the letters out on the white board while I dictated them to her.

Here's what we've been doing:



Teacher cooses word and dictates letter by letter
Student writes letter/chooses letter tile
Student blends sounds of letters dictated (Teacher sometimes has to remind student to do this)
Student then says the word
Student uses word in a sentence
Teacher moves on to the next word and continue until ten (10) words are used.
Student then reads corresponding section of the reader that come with the Blend Phonics program (created by Don Potter)

Lessons have been taking 10-15 minutes total since it's just been review so far and dd says she really enjoys "phonics". I decided to incorporate these lessons after finishing up all 80 Headsprout lessons. Event though it's a great program (HS that is) I felt that dd still needed more phonics instruction and found Blend Phonics to be a good fit. Initially I planned to do the Webster's Speller with her but found BP would offer a smooth transition between the two.

I can only think that Phonics Pathways could be taught the same way. I'm only asking b/c they seem very similar to me and even though I have PP, I just couldn't figure out how to "teach" it to my dd5 whom I think is not quite ready to memorize rules.

Any thoughts? Thanks!!

[ElizabethB]

That sounds perfect!

I would teach PP the same way you've been doing at that age, my daughter was also too young to learn rules at that age, we go over the rules a bit now (She's also old enough now to enjoy working from a book instead of from a whiteboard/with magnetic letters (my cheap version of letter tiles!)

We'll do even more rules next year, she's still not quite ready for some of the rules that require a bit more logic. She can figure out the ones that have clear patterns and are simple.

[Tabrett]

I use PP's and just have my 5yo dd read the pages to me. We are now on silent e and have taken a break form PP's to really firm up her understanding on silent e. We also do ETC books. I don't plan on teaching any on the spelling rules at her age. The spelling rules are to be taught the second time you go through the book if you child is young when they start. I also don't do any dictation. I will start that in 1st grade.

[krisp]

I use PP's and just have my 5yo dd read the pages to me. We are now on silent e and have taken a break form PP's to really firm up her understanding on silent e. We also do ETC books. I don't plan on teaching any on the spelling rules at her age. The spelling rules are to be taught the second time you go through the book if you child is young when they start. I also don't do any dictation. I will start that in 1st grade.

Ditto here. We're reviewing the rules now that dd (6yo) is in 1st grade. She was much readier to read than she was to write the words.