Do your children have trouble reading?

     Are they getting left behind at school?

     Do you want to do something about it?

My Story

     My seven-year-old daughter, Lisa, was having a terrible time at school. She was bottom of her class in reading and writing. And I couldn’t understand why. When I was at school many years ago I didn't have any serious problems with reading and writing. 

     After watching my kid struggle I have a fair idea what it was like to be at the bottom of the class, and it is not good. Your classmates as well as your friends pick on you. And that is not all. Some teachers blame the kids at the bottom for all the class problems. Kids at the bottom just seem to keep getting hammered further down. 

     Her teachers were complaining about her lack of reading skills and I was stuck trying to figure out what to do. 

     Like most kids she had problems with her homework. She just didn’t like doing it. So I limited her TV and computer game time to only one hour a night. That didn’t do any good. It didn’t make one ounce of difference. She just didn’t get the reading and writing bit. 

What was the problem?

     I would read to her every night, following the words with my finger like the experts say, still nothing. I brought a little blackboard she could write on but still no change. There was not an inch of noticeable improvement. 

     I got a student teacher in part time, as a tutor because they were cheaper. Qualified Tutors are usually very expensive. But after a month, do you know what she said. “We were wasting each other’s time,” and quit. She just couldn’t get through to my kid. 

     The student was good. She knew her stuff. She would come in with a sentence printed out on a piece of paper. First they would read the sentence together, then she would cut the sentence up into words. Now, my kid had to put the sentence back together, with all the words in the correct order. After that the tutor would pick a word and cut the word up into phonics, so my kid could put the word back together. Then finally the tutor cut the word into letters, so Lisa could spell the word. My kid then had to try and put the word back together.  

Lisa seemed to be learning but...

     During the process my kid was learning sentences and words and syllables. It seemed like a good system and I liked it, but my kid was just getting nowhere. I thought about getting her tested for dyslexia or something like that. But once kids get a label it follows them around for the rest of their lives. And that is not good. So I put that off until nothing else worked.

How did I learn to read?

     I thought back to my school days and how the Nuns at the Catholic School taught me. This was before the Whole Word Reading Method had invaded our schools. I figured out this system must be hopeless, even my brother's kids couldn't read very well. The Nuns taught me using phonics so I figured phonics must be the way to go. 

To cut a long story short. 

     About a month after I started teaching Lisa on Hooked On Phonics she had a good grasp of decoding words but we had problems with blending. She could break a word up into phonics sounds, no problem. But getting her to join the phonic sounds together to form spoken words took a bit longer. 

     I kept saying to her "Say the word faster and faster." Then she got it. Now she can run the phonics together to make words and as soon as she can hear the word she understands it. Now reading is second nature to her. And she loves books. The library is her second home.

To succeed you must put in the time.

     Anyway to make this program work you must spend some time teaching your kids. Your kids can listen to the phonic sounds but kids love it when mummy or daddy teaches them. And then you know if your children are learning or not. You don't have to wait for school reports to see how well your children are reading. This program is not the type of program where you leave your kids in front of the computer and see if they learn. 

My kid was not the only kid that had problems.

     Looking into this reading problem I found my kid wasn't the only child getting left behind at school. Actually quite a large number of kids are getting left behind. In America according to the US Department of Education's Reading Report Card for the Nation in 1999, "Thirty-eight percent of 4th graders cannot read a simple poem."

     Is your child one of them?

     Even the 2005 Reading Report Card didn't show any remarkable improvement at all. It has basically remained the same for the new millennium . No serious improvement at all.

     Schools nowadays are very competitive places. Kids are there to make it, but some get left behind.

   

Do your children struggle with reading?

     Have you watched your child struggle, and I mean really struggle to try and read a simple paragraph. And have you wondered, like I have, whether you struggled like that when you were learning to read.

     I know learning to read is quite difficult. But I don't remember it being that difficult. What has happened with the schools of today.

     Is the hype over the Whole Language really true or is Phonics the way to go. When I went to school the teachers taught me to read using Phonics. And I'm glad they did. Because  my reading is quite good. 

     But what has happened since I went to school. Why is there is a serious problem with kid's and reading today? I had incredible problems with my daughter and it was only after I brought in the phonics that I learnt some 30 odd years ago did things start to improve.

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     Phonics in a nutshell is all about learning the 44+ sounds in the English language and blending the sounds together to make up words. Because the sounds are the same as what we speak, when we say the phonic sounds as we read, they sound the same as the words we speak. Therefore after hearing the word spoken with phonics we know what the word is. Sounds complicated but very simple. It just takes time to learn the 44+ phonic sounds. 

Your Child's Future Is In Your Hands

     Now is your chance to give your children the leading edge at school and to set them on the path to enjoy reading. It is the same in every school and every country. The child with reading problems is always near the bottom of the class and in time they just give and what future do they have.

     You can be like me and make a difference, but you have to start and you have to keep going. Reading is not easy but with a little help from you and a good phonics program like Hooked On Phonics your children are well on their way to reading success.   

What Happens When You Start Teaching Your Children?

A benefit of teaching your own children is it brings the family together.

You have more of an understanding of where your child is in school, other than looking at the school report card.

You can keep track of your child’s reading ability instead of just looking at homework and schoolwork.

You take more control of your child’s schooling therefore you know what is going on and how well or otherwise your child is doing at school.

You can take pride in teaching your child instead of complaining about the school’s ridged way of teaching.

And after it is all over and your child can read and write, you can proudly say, “I did that. I taught my little girl to read and write”  

     All the best teaching your children:

     Peter Legrove

     Phonics Reading Teacher