Picture me reading

As the web page describes, this could be useful for learning those 200 “sight” words - but *only* those words, since they are being memorized separately. So, if money is an issue, I don’t think I”d fork out extra dough just for a product to learn sight words, especially since it can make it harder to learn the other many thousands of other words that are best sounded out.
Our written language is based on the spoken word — those things that we hear. Teaching kids that memorizing words is the key to reading is something they then have to *unlearn* and then start from scratch later, when there are too many words to memorize. Kids who are natural auditory learners can often get away with memorizing words, because their auditory minds file away the sounds and make those connections between letters and sounds without even realizing it. It is the v isual learners who more than anybody else need to learn *how* to listen and process the sounds in words. No, it doesn’t seem fair or intuitive — and yes, you *can* use those visual strengths to make it easier; tHere’s a few tons of research to support this.
I’ll get off my soapbox now…

Ok so I understand that the site words are not a good idea but what about the abc cards?? He needs to learn the alphabet and the alphabet sounds?? Any thoughts

Those look like fun — especially if you had the kiddo acting them out. I remember having lengthy discussions over just what the *best* examples and actions were for letters & sounds when working on the K-12 reading program… but I couldn’t help but believe it mattered a w hole lot more to us than to the kids!! They look like they’re clever and well thought out.

Thanks for checking the site out!! I am always leary when Isee something new that I have never heard about anyone using. I think I am going to try it out just not the sight words!!

Thanks
K.

I agree with Sue that reading is tied to hearing/discriminating sounds. Sounds are represented by letters of the alphabet. Unfortunately English is a complex language where one sound can be represented by many different spellings.

I suggest you check out PhonoGraphix. You can go to their website www.readamerica.net or buy the book Reading Reflex which instructs parents in teaching their children to read. There are many Phonographix tutors who are certified to teach reading (you can get a referral from them).

They actually recommend NOT teaching children the alphabet in a vacuum. They teach every sound in the English language and show all the different letters that represent that sound. So the ‘c’ sound (as in city) could be represented with the letter ‘c’ or ‘s.’ The sound ‘o’ (as in boat) could be represented as ‘oa’ or ‘o[consonant]e’ or just ‘o.’ Etc.

They do encourage children’s visual memory with “scratch sheet spelling.” As a child gains literacy and writes/spells words, they need to figure out if “boat” is spelled b-o-a-t or bo-t-e. I think this is about the only place where visual skills are needed.