We have been using a new site for reading - Reading Bear. It is comprehensive, simple and free!
It teaches how to slowly sound out the letters and blend the sounds to read the words. There are fifty lessons, each covering a different phonics sound/rule, from CVC through to multi-syllable words.
We have been using it for only the last week or so (he's seen four of the short-vowel presentations twice) and already Nikki is reading independently!!!
Ok, so he still has to sound out each letter first, and they are only CVC words, and he has known all the letter sounds for months, but I still think that with maybe 10 minutes 'work' each day it is tremendous progress! Now that he has finally figured out how to put the sounds together, I hope this program will really help with my target of getting him reading simple books on his own by age 4.
The only single flaw I can see in Reading Bear is that it is American and thus the short 'o' sound sounds more like 'ah' and they teach words like 'gas' and 'pants' rather than 'petrol' and 'trousers'. Not really a major worry as the sound can be turned off and Nikki recognises that a picture of a pair of trousers is not the same as his underwear so I can easily explain the language differences when they come up.
This is the first time he saw the word got. We haven't done the short o words because he wants the voice over but I won't let him have it because the accent when sounding out is so different to how I have taught him. He worked it out all by himself!
Linking to Montessori Mondays
This looks like a great resource! Phonics is very hard for my son who has Down syndrome.
ReplyDeleteHi Ali, I came over from the Brillkids forum - just wanted to say hi - I'm glad to have found your blog, I'll make sure to check it! I've been saving Reading Bear for more complicated phonics work for my 4 yr old daughter - looks like it's a great tool, this is a good reminder for me to use it.
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