Reading train - Improve your reading skills

Best reading program for a six year old boy?

I have a son entering 1st grade that cannot read yet. He loves math-can add, subtract, and multiply (a little). His teacher last year was not worried about his lack of reading skills, but his new 1st grade teacher is freaked out. He understands the letters and has great phenomic awareness. He just gets frustrated and irritated when I try to get him to work on it. I need something fun and interesting. My son is bilingual, I don't know if that makes a difference. Here in the public schools students not reading at the end of K are held back. No Child Left Behind at work. Oh the irony. This is why he doesn't go to a public school. His 1st grade teacher is freaked b/c she has 1st-6th grade in one classroom, about 6-8 students. The school environment is actually the perfect environment for him (at least it was last year). This way each child works on their level for each subject-not some forced grade level. Our old teacher retired and a new one has just came in. He started in the public school but the teachers mocked him for being bilingual and biracial and for our denominational affiliation. They used words like "stupid to speak ___________" and were constantly trying to get him to eat pork (which we don't eat). So going back isn't really an option.

Public Comments

1. If your son enjoys the computer, check out www.starfall.com This is a great site for beginning readers, very interactive and a lot of fun! It will also grow with him. We found our son responded much better to someone else working with him on his reading. We paid for tutoring, but also got his older cousins to help - he was much more interested and responsive when it wasn't Mom and/or Dad. Best of luck!
2. Take him to the library EVERY WEEK... get good books, ones that are at a level he should be ready to read at. YOU read the books to him, then get him to read the story from the book WITH you... you reading some sentences, him reading others. I just took my boys to the library constantly and got them lots of books and read to them constantly. I started with books with one word per page, and on to one phrase per page, and on to one sentence per page. If you read the same book regularly, they memorize the text. Me reading to them was fun time. Time with mommy alone. Whatever you're doing to "try to get him to work on it" is making him insecure and is distressing him. It is taking the fun out of it. My younger son, in spite of all the reading I did to him, was a poor reader in 1st grade. For some reason, he didn't see himself as a reader. I just kept reading to him, rereading the same books. Suddenly in 2nd grade, he saw himself as a good reader, and he just took off light a lightening strike. Stop trying to get him to WORK on it. Read to him. Reread the same stories. After several readings, you can change the text and see if he corrects you. After several times, you can try to get him to tell you the story of some of the pages (even if he's not reading the words). Later you can get him to try reading some of the words or phrases. There are also online reading games. I found these by doing an online search for children's online reading games
3. I think it is a boy thing, because I had the same problem with mine. He is 8 now will be 9 in September but any how I tried all those programs hooked on phonics and reader rabbit all of them. He played the games and I am sure they helped some, but what really helped Mike was when I figured out to let him lead me. He is very courious about animals, So I went to the library and got a few books that had a lot of information about animals in it. I let him make up his own board games using the repetitve words. He loved it because he made it so he would play it all the time. We would act out our favorite parts of the book. and then try to guess which part it was. We also rewrote the books Using pictures cut out of magazines or our own drawings. He got to the point where he was begging me to read a book. That is what worked for me. Every kid is different, but it is worth the try. Good luck and believe me I understand the feeling. Mike is now a wonderful reader and loves to do research on the computer all the time. And loves to rewrite stories. So I would imagine he wont have much trouble with book reports this year. The latest board game he made was on the Battles of the Civil War him and his sister love it. He is going into the 4th grade and still uses every thing we did when he was younger to make learning more fun.
4. Tech_girl has a good idea here.
5. My advice is really to just ease up on him. He is obviously strong in math skills and that's great. Be sure to spend time doing that with him -- or letting him do it on his own and giving him positive feedback for being good at it. Frustration and irritation on his part will not help him to learn to read sooner and will certainly not lead to having him enjoy reading. If he learns to read at the beginning of first grade or at the end of first grade, it will not matter by the time second grade comes around. Once kids learn to read, they catch up very quickly with the kids who learned to read before they did. Keep reading to him. Read to him whatever he enjoys. Read to him as often as he will allow you to, and still enjoy it. Try to keep the stress out of it and just do it for enjoyment. Also lots of kids do not learn to read English phonetically because English is not a phonetic language and that is a very difficult way for some kids to learn to read. There is no question that some kids do learn to read by phonetics but, it by no means works for everyone or is an easy way to learn. English does not make much sense phonetically at all and I would discourage learning it that way unless the kid chooses to learn it that way on their own. I'm also not at all impressed with a first grade teacher who is freaked out by a kid who can't read yet. Typically it is the main job of a first grade teacher to teach her kids to read BY THE END of first grade. And even by the end of first grade, there are usually still some perfectly intelligent children who have not caught on to reading yet. For most kids it evens out by the end of second grade and that is when the kids who do not yet know how to read are given extra help and guidance. Tell this teacher to ease up and get a life and get off your case and off your child's case. Also, when your son makes his own effort to read (without you telling him to or encouraging him at all) do not correct him. Let him learn to read his own way. Let him read the same book(s) over and over again if he wants to and let him virtually memorize the book(s) if he wants to and let him read to you and think he really is reading to you even if you know that he memorized the book. This is how children learn to read. Get some books that he likes and get some books that have interesting stories so he will want you to read them to him and get some books with lots of repetitive words in them and LET him read them IF he wants to. Reading at this point in his life should not be work and you will be doing him far more harm than good if you turn it into work for him.
6. www.starfall.com totally free and AMAZING
7. COMIC BOOKS! i could not read well until I started reading something I was interested in.Comic books which are worth a lot if you keep them long enough.In the 4th grade I began reading comic books and in no time I could read a newspaper.
8. I have been reading every night to my kids since before they were born, so we never used a "program." We read just simple, classic books, and when my older child feels comfortable with the words, then he will read (he memorizes the words but I sound them out and point when reading a new one, and they taught sight words in K.) Try LeapFrog: the dvd's are fun and catchy, plus they make some great software and reading/writing books.
9. I don't think that any reading program, per se, is your magic pill. It sounds like your little guy isn't quite ready, or interested yet. Remember that reading requires developmental readiness, and that includes more than phonemic awareness. Take him to the library once every week without fail. Read to him there and take out books. Read to him high interest, higher level texts (3rd grade or so--my son loves to be read Horrible Harry books by Suzy Kline and he is 5). Read to him as often as you can. Books on tape are good in the car also and you can informally frequently check comprehension as you go. Get a few fun computer games (age appropriate and geared toward reading). Exposure, exposure, exposure. That is key to wanting to learn to read, or "exploding the code". By the way, it does not sound like your son's school environment is optimal. I would seriously consider exploring other options. Even retention (which in my experience always requires parental consent--look into that) in the public school sounds like a way better situation than a stressed-out teacher of 6 different grades. Good luck. Don't show him your frustration--just model a love of reading!