excited about 3 days of phonographix

I am glad too hear that the phonographix is working so well. I will be starting it with my son on Monday. He is much younger, 6 yrs old and entering first grade.

I have read the book over and over because I am nervous and don’t want to screw up!!

It is comforting to know that it is working for others!!

K.

I did phonographix last summer with my then 7 year old. He now reads above grade level.

I think doing it in the summer is really the way to go. The way they learn to read at school is different and I think at times a little confusing for them

At first don’t be surprised if you see just an increase in phonemic awareness with slow reading as they practice sounding out words. Overtime I saw my son integrate his phonemic awareness to read much faster but it took alot of practice.

Buddy reading really helped, he read a page then I read a page.

I’m doing it this summer with my 9 year old, rising fourth grade son. We started in Chapter 4, and it has helped him slow down and LOOK at the individual “sound pictures” so his reading has become moderately better after only one week.

I can see the improvement - of course, he says it’s “boring!” :) I can’t wait until we get to Chapter 5!

I have done it for 3 weeks with my six year old and have seen amazing results ! Good luck!

I am confused maybe you can offer some advice!!

I have read the book a bunch of times and I am still not sure what to do. I know that you need go chapter by chapter. However, in the section, teaching the basic code, it says to start with the blending game and finding sounds around us.Then there is the three sound word building, it says under readiness that your child should be doing the previous lesson, (finding sounds around us) with at least minimal success before I attempt this lesson.

So how long do I do the first lesson, won’t he get bored doing the same lesson over and over? What is minimum success??

I am so afraid that I will not be doing this right and he will get bored and not want to do it everyday!

Also, he did not do very well on any of the assessment test. On the test that assessed the basic code he only knew about 4 of the sounds in the alphabet.

Thanks
K.

I would say that once he has mastered some (not all) of the sounds you could start cutting up some of the letters that he knows and asking him to put words together. My son loved doing this and it was great motivator.
Then keep going back to add new sounds that he doesn’t know.

One thing, when you are working only refer to the letters by there sounds. My son had such a tough time in the beginning with the idea that the letters were actually pictures of sounds. I had to stop him from calling the sounds by there letter names. I remember he used to sound out words using the letter names rather than the letter sounds. So we had to banish all letter names for awhile. This was hard to do while he was in school because they were always using letter names there.

That is part of the reason I want to work on this for the next 10 weeks, before school starts. I also have to keep reminding myself to ask him the sounds and not the name.

He knows about 4 or 5 letter sounds now. Once I see an improvement shouldn’t I go lesson by lesson??

My confusion is how long do I keep doing the same lesson??

Thanks
K.

I went lesson by lesson but I jumped around a little as well. Is he having alot of trouble with the sounds?

I seem to remember when I cut up the letter and gave them to him as pictures of sounds he seemed to grasp the concept. He was holding a sound in his hand not a letter. Then we used the sounds he was holding to make words. It was a very powerful concept. I think before that he didn’t understand that those squiggly lines were actually sounds. He thought they were something else.

I wouldn’t get stuck on how much time you need to spend on each chapter just work a little every day and as you go about your day when you see a letter point it out as a sound.

Ok, thanks for the advice!

I order handwriting without tears also, the phongraphix people said when we are doing those lessons, to refer to the letters as sounds as well. So he will really be getting a double dose of phonographix everyday, without knowing it!

Thanks
K.

Hi K.
The key is to keep it fun. When the child really shows frustration stop and back track. Linda has given some excellent advice. A bit of advice from mistakes I made as a beginning teacher years ago. Don’t push too hard, if it becomes too frustrating for the child they will shut down and it will take you twice as long to get them where you want them. Again if you see some frustration, take notes and address specifically what is giving your child frustration. Ex. My son was having difficulty remembering the symbol for “g” and writing it. The next day I skipped the phonographix lesson and we focused on writing “g” and saying out loud the “g” sound as we did it. We also practiced “e” because that was giving him difficulty. We practiced with chalk and sponges then moved to paper and pencil. Probably spent about 15 minutes total on it. The next day his recall of “g” and “e” was much better and frustration level was manageable. Keep going and follow your instincts. You know as your child’s mom just how far you can push without shutting him down. Don’t worry just be observant and really note where he is having difficulty and address it.
Good luck!

vb