Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Early reader: sight memorization vs. phonics

we never did any formal teaching of reading or having him read for learning or practice. he just learned from following the words while I read to him I think. He could read at 2 for sure because he would question things I typed to DH on IM "Mommy, what are you telling Daddy about bubbles?" etc He just learned and read at his own pace. he's 10 now and always had a super high reading level and comprehension so I never thought about any of it. They had him on a 3 yr accelerated track in his gifted elementary and the word "phonics" has pretty much never been mentioned in his education. I wouldn't worry about it.

I've seen those phonics puzzles you are talking about. I don't think that's any fun for a kid

My DD wasn't an early reader, didn't have the same desire to be read to or attention span DS had early on. I bought her some BOB books in gr K and she "got it". We just let her read anything that appealed to her after that, board books, early readers, Level books, Rainbow Fairies, whatever got her interested. Now at age 8 she is a great reader, above gr level and has fantastic comprehension too.

DS (3.75) sight reads (self-taught) at probably an 8 year old level now. He always knew the basic letter phonics but that was it. Because he can read fluently and has a huge vocab phonics/decoding is now developing as well (probably also because he wants to write/type the words). I wouldn't push phonics if your child is enjoying reading at present. IF he can't work a word out just tell him what it is, otherwise you can potentially slow down the fluency and make reading more frustrating. DS would just tuck that word away and read it in other contexts next time. Enjoy. The tricky part then comes with finding appropriate content...

Reading eggs is worth the Price, to me. Others have said Starfall's premium site is worth the price, to them. Others have said screen-time education has attention defecit costs, to them. Go Reading Eggs! Yay!

My DS now 5.5 was an early whole word memorizer, we never worried about it. like Mr. W DS has a huge, polysyllabic vocab and will often try to match unknown words with words he has heard. Someone on another thread had a hilarious example of what theIR dc thought the word sounded like, mine has moments like that too. DS has leapt enormously from those early days but I have noticed that some phonics ideas might help - so I started mentioning some of those things from starfall which I will never get out of my head - when two vowels go a walking the first one does the talking - but we did them so young he actually doesn't remember them. So this thread reminded me that I was thinking of going back on starfall just to watch a few of those again, and see if it helps. Or I might just leave it alone - when his pre-k teachers would do some stuff, he seemed to find it new and somewhat interesting, go figure! Basically he is in really short period of time getting better and better at matching his verbal vocab with his reading vocab. What he never does is ask what a written word means, whereas if you use a word he doesn't know he will always ask for a definition.

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They are a brand new set of puzzles, so you might be right. I actually picked them up at our local parent-teacher store the day I posted my question, and he played with them for hours yesterday -- but the excitement of a them being a new toy may wear off soon

Bobbie -- Yeah, I think I will do that from now on. It's what I was doing before, until he started getting into the phonics lessons on Starfall, which led me to think he might be ready to start sounding words out.

For us, the double E song on starfall is the all-time-fav, lol, he busts out into song everytime he sees it anywhere we go. Looking back especially after what he showed me he knew with the new phonics puzzles yesterday, I think he's definitely capable of learning them -- but I agree that it may just turn a fun thing that comes easy into something that looks more like a chore.

Then again, it's hard to tell because he's very much into non-fiction books about science and memorizing facts. I would think reading books about the layers of the sun would be a chore, but that's his idea of a good time, lol. (Before I realized he was gifted I fought him on checking out those types of books for almost a year before I finally broke down just to show him how boring they would be Only to find out that he'd actually rather have a non-fiction book about science read to him everyday for a week than any cartoon-dump-truck book on the shelf, lol.)

Because I'm so weary of making it un-fun for him, I always make sure that when my husband or step-daughter wants to read with him that they do not make him do anything he doesn't want to do, and that they do not make him sound anything out... I always tell them, just give him the word, even when you know he knows it. They think I'm so overprotective of him, but balancing the nurture vs. pushing aspect of such a young reader is such a fine line sometimes. :-/

Meet The Phonics by Preschool Prep may be of interest to your son.

My son enjoyed Meet The Sight Words when he was younger.

He might also like to spend some time "Between the Lions".

That is the same in our household! Actually non-fiction is great for early readers as the content is fine and it is something they are interested in. DS loved the Usborne Beginner series (few space ones as well as animals etc). He could read a lot of the small words initially but it didn't take long to be reading the names of planets etc. Much more interesting than early "reader" type books. We did a lot of shared reading to begin with, and even now tend to read a page each as he still enjoys being read to. It opens up a whole new world again to them when they realise they can read! (no more watching the news for us with the sound down as DS reads the headines)