Forgot the sound of "a"!!!?

[Alice]

My son is 4...he's know the sounds of letters for about a year. We started working very slowly through ETC about a month ago. We're on lesson 3...so going very slowly (the first three letters are all short "a" words, just gradually adding in different endings). He's been doing well, we only do about 15-30 min a day. He's been able to sound out words well and getting better on blending the sounds fast.

Anyway...today for some reason he just blanked on the sound of "a". Just couldn't say it. This was is the middle of the lesson, mind you, where he had already done three or four words with "a" in them. I thought I was going to pull my hair out with impatience although I think I did an ok job of appearing to be calm and patient. I let him get up and run around and be physical and then come back and sit down try again. That did help some but it took him about 10 minutes to sound out the word "lag" because of this.

I know that he's only 4 and I could have just forgotten it for the day. We did cut the lesson short after that but I felt like at the very least I needed to hear him tell me the short "a" sound. I also know that if we are going to homeschool we'll have many more frustrating days ahead of us....

But I felt the need to share my pain. :o
Thanks for listening.

[8FillTheHeart]

Why not simply remind him? They are learning, not masters. I remind my kids sounds all the time when they are learning how to read. One day, he won't need help any more.

[Alice]

Oh, well that's just too easy. :)

That's why I come here I guess...to have the obvious explained.

[kalanamak]

thing I've done for the three R's, and all I have to do is sing "Every letter makes a sound and /pickaletter/ says" and he'll fill it in. Now that he really no longer blanks on this, I'm beginning to say "short a says" so he'll be ready for long A. My guy is 5, but this worked at 4 as well.
I also have a word picked out for each letter that really highlights the sound. Iguana for /i/. I might say -guana, and he knows it. Then, to show me he really is on top of it all, he'll start naming other words, so now we have, at least for vowels, a list of words.
If he is stuck on anything...letter, number, answer, word, I give him two prompts after the first miss and then I tell him and move on. On the rare occ. he is being recalcitrant, I offer him a nap for his attitude, and it magically improves.
HTH