"Zac is a rat. Zac sat on a can. The ants ran to the jam. Zac had a pan. Zac had a fan. The ants ran and ran. Zac had a nap."
It was a fairly long process, but he did it! I was very excited to see that he could sound out /Z/ /a/ /c/ and /a/ /n/ /t/ /s/. (I want him using phonics more than sight words.) Maybe he was using picture clues to figure out some of the words? He still needs help going from individual (choppy) sounds to smooth blending. Once I help drag out the sounds together, he can blend pretty well. His little accent gets in the way at times, though. Sometimes the words don't sound exactly the same phonetically as when he says them.
I am not a pro, so I'm a little (ok ... a lot) confused as to where to go from here. I guess we'll keep finding books with short a words/families and then move to the other vowels? This is when I wish I had some background in elementary ed. I'm finding that there is SO much to teaching a kid to read!!
So far, he's just been going at his own pace. When he seems interested in something, we go with it. He went in this progression: capital letters, lower case letters, letter sounds, first letter of words, trying to spell short words phonetically, blending by ear (I drag out c-aaaaa-t and he interprets), reading short a words. He also has picked up on a few sight words like the, a, and I, but is sounding out words like in, is, and but. I don't know if this is the order that most kids read it, but it has been the flow of how Joel has picked up on things.
Since his big accomplishment, he has really been excited about reading (although it has to be his idea). During nap, he's been pretending to read to himself in the dark aka retelling stories by pictures. He's also been trying to spell words with letter magnets and puzzle pieces. He told his Ma last night that he couldn't spell off because he only had one f. He could spell of though. Crazy! He must get this from his daddy.
Baby's awake. Enough details for now!
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