Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Sibling Question - Confused

Wow! Thank you so much! This is all really helpful. It is interesting. She does in fact have many sight words and while she knows all of her letter sounds it is difficult for her to use phonics to read. I was worried that she was just trying to differentiate herself from her sister but that simply doesn't add up. I think she would really like the flash cards. Thanks again for the advice.

I'm glad this is helpful for you.

Here's something that worked for DD6 at 5. At this point, she could read by whole word reading, but if she hadn't already memorized the word she would ask me. Got a BIT tedious when she wanted to read Superfudge!

http://www.headsprout.com/

She did this program at a learning center, but you can purchase it independently. She actually did understand phonics enough so that she can sound out larger words that she hasn't memorized, so I'm a happy customer. My hope is that it will benefit her spelling ability down the line, but who knows.

I showed the first set of sight words to DS4 tonight. He did have to sound them out--he didn't know any of them as sight words at all--but he LOVED the flashcards! Loved them! Kept asking to sound out more when I wanted to stop. Did flashcards instead of reading a book before bed. I mean LOOOOOOOOOVED them!

I think that between the glasses and the flashcards, he may be finding his feet with reading. (Erm...uh...his eyes? Perhaps that feet metaphor doesn't really work there...)

Wow! Have you been hanging out at my house?!?

I noticed that my younger DD's eyes wandered all over the page when she was learning to read. Try sitting across from your child and watch her eyes as she looks through the American Girl books.

Turns out my younger DD could see clearly but her tracking and coordination of eye movements were defficient.

I had my younger DD use her finger or an index card to help her keep her place. Also had her do a lot of maze puzzles (both with her finger and her pencil)to develop her eye tracking. The other thing that can help develop tracking skills are sports like soccer and basketball where the child has to keep track of the ball's movement.

My younger DD is reading at grade level. It's not necessarily her favorite thing to do. But she still has a wild imaginate full of complex ideas.

Hope this info helps.