Derek Zoolander's School for Kids Who Can't Read Good.

[Pat G]

My kids are in kindergarten this year, and of course are learning to read & write. Which is terrific!

Constantly reading their home reader books and writing notes to us.

As a parent, what do you do when they come across a particularly difficult word?

I find it amusing beacuse my kids take a run up at it, they'll go back to the start of the sentence and then read quickly till that point and... still fail at reading it. Garbled sounds and guesses ensue.

Instead of this, I'm trying to gear them to automatically spell out the word and then sound it out joined together (eg Rebellion would be reeeeebbbeeeeelllliiiiioooonnn, instead of their current Are. Eh. Buh. Eh. Ell. Ell. Eee. etc etc etc)

What have you tried? What has worked for you and yours?

[bigm141414]

Wait, you have kids? How the hell did I miss this. I always imagined you as a night on the town bachelor type. Weird.

Anywho, carry on....

[Thrillho]

My oldest, when he was starting to read, would almost never read out loud, so I'm not entirely sure, but I do remember he'd just stop, look at me, and just wait for me to tell him what the word is.

My youngest either garbles, or goes with the word that sounds the closest (she read "organic" as "organs", etc... "Farmers' Market, Organs, Fruit" is terrifying when you think about it) but she's really good at guessing.

My middle child, who was upset that my youngest was reading before her, has leapt ahead in comprehension and she will bulldoze through a word five or six times, letter by letter and syllable by syllable, and usually get it right.

[Pat G]

Nice, it is very cool to see how they learn individually. haha, always good for a laugh kids are.

Athena, will have to check out that website with them tonight, is it tablet friendly?

Thrillho, that is impressive, reading silently from the start clever kid!

@Bigm, you can have the On the Town Bachelor hat now, i've done my time.

[Lammis]

Well, all of these are really good strategies and obviously it comes down to whatever works for your kid. Oh, I'm an actual teacher, so I'm not blowing smoke, I promise!

One strategy is to get them to have key 'memory' words i.e. easy words they know on site as a 'chunk' and don't need to spell out. Then when they get to these harder words they can base the pronunciation of them as a chunk (kind of like the old 'hooked on phonics'? if you get my meaning?). They do this because sometimes individual letters change sounds when combined with other letters, so it can get a bit confusing for some kids. Also, once you're better at reading if you're not spelling out every word, it's much faster. It's great for them to spell the word, but don't get suuuper stuck on it if they're feeling like it slows them down.

Honestly, in the end it comes down to practice and more practice. So it's fantastic that you're reading with them and showing an interest in having them be great readers. That's what really counts!

[Sloth the Enduring]

I'm an actual teacher too, but I teach middle school science, so when it comes to beginning readers I am blowing smoke...

Kindergarten is so much more academic then it used to be, I really don't think you need to worry about it too much at this age. Just keep practicing reading a lot using whatever method seems to work. Trying to help them break the words into chunks is a good strategy, guessing using the beginning and end sounds helps some kids, simply telling them the word at this stage won't do them any harm either. The only thing that matters is that they practice every day.

*gives you gold sticker for reading with your kids*

Sad anecdote: I teach at an inner city school and my students were asking what I did with my own kids after they found out I don't have a video game system and when I told them we read together every night they were incredulous.

[shortstuff]

Did you know there are houses with *no* books in them? I know. Doesn't make sense to me either. You walk into a house, and something feels vaguely...wrong. Its too tidy. The walls are bare... and gradually it dawns on you - there's no bookshelves.

Houses without books? From someone that loves to read - How can this be? Walks awaying thinking how can they not have books

[leadchipmunk]

I don't have kids, though I do like stopping by these threads for when/if the day comes that I do I'll hopefully be more knowledgable. It is good to hear that you are reading with them, so many parents don't do that anymore, it makes me sad.

I think that Athena's suggestion would be the best, don't have the kid start over and sound out the word instead of spelling it out. I still do that when I come across big or scientific or foreign words I don't know. Another thing you might want to do on occasion is to ask them what some of those words mean from the context to make sure they are also understanding what they are reading. I say occasionally because it would get mighty annoying being asked that every time they come across a hard word. Also, don't do this on Dr. Seuss, that man never makes sense.

Did you know there are houses with *no* books in them? I know. Doesn't make sense to me either. You walk into a house, and something feels vaguely...wrong. Its too tidy. The walls are bare... and gradually it dawns on you - there's no bookshelves.

This reminds me of someone on here's sig, sorry I can't remember who.

"If you go home with somebody, and they don't have books, don't f--- 'em"

[Elastigirl]

Did you know there are houses with *no* books in them? I know. Doesn't make sense to me either. You walk into a house, and something feels vaguely...wrong. Its too tidy. The walls are bare... and gradually it dawns on you - there's no bookshelves.

At extremes, it can be a real problem. My mum has worked as a teacher in some very remote outback Australian Aboriginal communities, and there's some kids who start school having never seen a book, or any reading material at all. So things that come easily even to most non-reading kids, like *which way a book opens*, and how you read left to right, top to bottom, and the general concept of the written word representing the spoken word, are all things that need to be taught before you even get started on the alphabet.

How sad. We have bookshelves upstairs and downstairs. And books just laying around everywhere else, because even though I'm a neatnik a don't consider a tabletop filled with book messy.

[leadchipmunk]

How sad. We have bookshelves upstairs and downstairs. And books just laying around everywhere else, because even though I'm a neatnik a don't consider a tabletop filled with book messy.

I've only got a 2 or 3 dozen books, maybe 4, and I'm considering downsizing once I catch up with my reading plans. But I'm still going to keep my favorites, hopefully get hardcovers of them and donate the rest somewhere.

[leadchipmunk]

o.O When we culled our bookshelves recently, and got rid of (donated) the few books we were sure we didn't want to keep/read again, we got rid of about 300.

I can believe that. I don't leave a bookstore without a minimum of $50 of books and usually closer to $100, and that is after the membership discount and coupons... Plus I usually tend to go towards the cheaper books, I'll wait until a series is just about to end before starting it so the first books's price drops considerably. But I do have a nasty habit of lending out some of my books and not getting them back, so that keeps numbers down. And I just got rid of almost all of my books from college that I never sold back.

But anyway, back to original topic. See the above numbers, this is why you don't want your kids to become great readers. Haha

[shortstuff]

But anyway, back to original topic. See the above numbers, this is why you don't want your kids to become great readers. Haha

So true, I have two book shelves in my bedroom filled of my own books that I have gotten over the years. The tall and skinny one is completely filled (the buttom two shelves out of 6 do have my dvds and wii/ps2/64 games on it) and the other one, the short and fat one, the bottom two shelves (out of 4) are completely filled, and I have just started on the next one.

This may not seem like much, but I am only 19

[leadchipmunk]

Hey, there's plenty of non-literate ways to waste a lot of money. If you rate books based on how many hours of fun you get out of them for your money, it's not so bad.

My comment was completely in jest. It isn't money wasted if you enjoy it and either can continue to enjoy it later (as is the case of rereading books) or can use it to create enjoyment for others (as in by donating books).

[zenmom]

Here is what I've learned, everyone learns differently. I was taught to read with phonics (sounding it out) so I wrongly assumed that would work for my own kid. I quickly learned she is a sight reader and phonics just pissed her off because the rules don't always apply. (and why that is was a long discussion that frustrated her too)

What did work was when she came to a word she didn't know she would ask "how do you say that word". I would answer and she would look at the word and repeat it several times. Often we would write it down (her own idea) and later she would look up the definition and write that out too. She generally had the word down after that.

[Pat G]

Hoorah for different styles of learning.

[Shortkaik]

Between 7 and 8, it was amazing how much Amy has improved in her reading skills. But she still comes across words she can't manage, and she'll usually just guess at it. It depends on the word, but we'll try to catch it and get her to either sound it out or piece it together. We'll cover up parts of the word and say "well, what does this part say? And what does this part say? And what do you get when you put those together?" If it's a particularly difficult word or a word she might not know at all, we will say it and explain it, and have her repeat it and do the sentence again. She usually gets it down pat after that.

[Rivanariko]

Did you know there are houses with *no* books in them? I know. Doesn't make sense to me either. You walk into a house, and something feels vaguely...wrong. Its too tidy. The walls are bare... and gradually it dawns on you - there's no bookshelves.

...No... Books?

We've only got about 4 bookshelves, but I really want to get a new one for my craft room, because the taller books don't fit very well and end up having to sit in a pile. Husband and I have been talking about wanting to move toward a more minimalist lifestyle, but the idea of getting rid of books doesn't cross either of our minds.

I don't have kids, and I teach horseback riding, so not much help on the reading front other than a kudos for all of you teaching your kids to love to read. Books were by far the best thing that ever happened to me. They opened so many doors in my life, and allowed me to experience things through them that I couldn't do in real life (yet).

[dshale]

Here is what I've learned, everyone learns differently. I was taught to read with phonics (sounding it out) so I wrongly assumed that would work for my own kid. I quickly learned she is a sight reader and phonics just pissed her off because the rules don't always apply. (and why that is was a long discussion that frustrated her too)

What did work was when she came to a word she didn't know she would ask "how do you say that word". I would answer and she would look at the word and repeat it several times. Often we would write it down (her own idea) and later she would look up the definition and write that out too. She generally had the word down after that.

I agree. I have two boys (5 and 3) and what worked for one doesn't necessarily work for the other. I am struggling with my youngest on certain things because I can't seem to get what works best for him.

[flourless]

In our house, an unknown/unguessable word is always pronounced "Aloysius" (al-ə-wish-əs). That was an adult cue to play "see what clues there are, and what words makes sense". We'd usually wander into definitions if she looked clueless after we pronounced things, but over time she learned to guess the word before we led her to it.

[Lefeux]

Hey, there's plenty of non-literate ways to waste a lot of money. If you rate books based on how many hours of fun you get out of them for your money, it's not so bad.

In passing, my husband (with a little help from me) has about $20K worth of comics in a loooot of long boxes. He hugged and thanked me once in nerdy joy after hearing another comic-collecting husband online complain about how his non-nerdy wife "made" him get rid of all his comics. This is why nerds should marry nerds. We understand each other.

I have a crap ton of Magic: The Gathering cards. Fortunately my wife being a closet nerd (at least until we started dating. Now she will wear a shirt that says talk nerdy to me with pride) hasn't given me any problems about my collection. She didn't even bat much of an eye when I dropped a goodly sum on about 200 higher priced cards to restock my playable collection. Hooray nerds.

Oh and yeah i have like 500 books in my house. Its so bad I have a 4 shelf dvd rack that is full of paper backs....because hey it makes a great book shelf.

And with the advent of e-readers, I can see more houses w/o many books sadly. Love the feel and smell of a new book.

[leadchipmunk]

And with the advent of e-readers, I can see more houses w/o many books sadly. Love the feel and smell of a new book.

I can't stand e-readers. I too love the feel and smell of new books.

[Absidey]

From the other end of the spectrum of advice here; something I remember about learning to read.

There was a leap from sounding out the letters to sounding out words that came in a moment of inspiration. I was sounding out the word "lap" and horribly frustrated because I could not yet it. Luh-ah-puh doesn't sound like anything, really. It felt like hours I stared at that word, my mom wouldn't tell me what it was, and I was wanted to just give up, and then, suddenly, I got it, and the entire concept of "sounding things out" was something completely different in practice. I don't think anyone could have told me how to do it, I had to get it myself.

I don't know why I remember it so clearly, but, eh, I held on to weird things.