James (3.5) can’t rhyme and he can’t tell me the first letter or last letter of most words. He needs HEAVY assistance.
He can read well, his comprehension and fluency is really good. He is about 2nd grade level. Phonetically he is about intermediate. He has CVCs down pat as well as digraph, blends, endings like -ing and -ed. We are working on long vowels but he seems to know them. It is hard to tell because he knows most words I have him sound out.
Does anyone think I should work on the rhyming and beginning/middle/ending sounds? Or should I see if it just comes naturally. Should I wait? I have been leaning towards waiting because frankly if he can read does it matter if he can complete a lower level phonics workbook with those requirements?
I actually think this is much more common than we are led to believe!
I certainly would not be concerned or even spend too much time on it in the form of his regular phonics work, as he is progressing very well without it! You could continue to work on it orally as you do other activities.
Some ideas for things/games I started with Alex…they have gradually progressed to much more complicated versions, and can be adjusted to include just about anything you are working on.
initially, when reading children’s lit written in rhyme, usually with the last word of the 2nd and 4th lines made to rhyme, Alex was in charge of pointing out the rhyming words (as well as any others on the page!). I think this was really helpful as she could ‘see’ the words and the pattern, often directly above each other. It also led to some great moments to explain things like homophones and the like:)
even now, whenever we are on the go, we play multitudinous varieties of ‘I Spy’. This can be modified in so many ways…for example, with rhyming, we might say, "I spy with my little eye, something that rhymes with the word X…and he answers, “I spy a…” Or "I spy with my little eye something that starts with the letter ‘s’…This is amazing gFor powers of observation as well. And you can add in vocabulary, parts of speech, synonyms/antonyms, whatever your imagination can come up with. This is a game our whole family enjoys, and gets increasingly complicated! I love that it really makes her think…such as “I spy with my little eye a proper noun that rhymes with x, and is a synonym for …”
Play “how many?” With rhyming words…"how many words do we know that rhyme with ‘go’? Then take turns ( he can be a partner with mom or dad if necessary) coming up with new ones until the participants can no longer think of any. This can be done orally, but we liked to write them on the dry-erase board so we could see the spellings, homophones, etc.
Silly sentences- make up a random sentence, and see if he can follow it up with a second sentence that ends in a rhyming word to your final word. ( In the beginning they only supply the rhyming word!) These should be as silly /absurd as possible. Alex always wanted to be the subject of the sentence. Later, the only rules we’re hat she must use at least one noun, one verb, one adjective…and end in a rhyming word. Like I said, start simply with focus on the rhyming and extreme silliness, and add more if you choose:) you can keep going in stanzas until you are both giggling
Ex of one I remember in part because she surprised me!
.mommy writes: Alex is wearing a little red bow
But suddenly that bow decided to …GROW. (Alex’s contributions in CAPS)
That silly old bow grew and it grew
Until finally it was the size of her....TISSUE! (Huh? That's what I thought :biggrin: )
"Wow! Thought Alex, "that was fun!"
And off she ran to find another....SUN!
Anyway, there really are loads of rhyming games you can play/do whenever you get a minute, or are doing the dishes with him near…without worrying about going back to old phonics portions that he already know! With your experience with littles, I am sure you know many more!
I know some friends that do nursery rhymes, and have their LO clap on the rhyming words…
Thank you Kerileanne99 for great mail with excellent ideas!
Korrale4kq you are such a great parent and your son is progressing well! Probably your son is already processing the information and it is just waiting couple of more months before showing the talent! I would continue doing some small exercises everyday and maybe focus on one small step each week and sometimes even leave the whole area for a week or two until he shows the interest. I think Doman’s philosophy was to give more attention to areas where your child is not progressing but I wouldn’t want to push it either.
I will try and add more fun rhymes into our day. But I have decided that I am not going to sweat it. Other than spelling I don’t think he NEEDS to be able to rhyme. And I think I have time before he needs to be able to spell.
If he didn’t have such an aversion to music and songs I think things would be much simpler.
We do a lot of rhyming games - just coming up with a list of silly rhyming words. Nonsense ones count! But I give extra praise for real words! The game tends to evolve as my DD will throw in something different after a few words and I tend to just follow her lead.
You could think about simple spelling if you thought he might be interested. I’m not sure my oldest (just 4) could answer “what sound is in the middle of cat?” but she could certainly spell it with ease using spelling tiles or much more laboriously by writing. Do you have an iPad? If so Montessori crosswords app is fantastic for this and you can start with CVC words. Or else using spelling tiles? I did it because I was worried that my DD was not really getting the phonics concepts. We are nearly at the end of AAS level one in this way using a related app and its definitely made a big difference.
Yeah. I do have an iPad. Just haven’t found the perfect app that interests him.
I am not worried. I just wondered if anyone knew of a convincing reason to why kids NEED to learn rhymes and beginning/middle/ending sounds beyond those being a precursor to reading. We have surpassed that and he shows no signs of slowing down.
I can see the benefits with spelling. But I am sure I have a few years before we need to be concerned.
And I can see the advantage or rhyming and alliteration if he were composing poetry or lyrics… But I don’t see him needing that yet.
I am just theorizing that rhyming is more “busy work” than a necessary educational steps.
I know Kid’s minds are sharp but not all kids mind are same. Some kids teach some times/days and few kids take more time to teach anything. So you can give some time and you can also spend much time with him. And when reading children’s lit written in rhyme, that time last word of the second and fourth lines made to rhyme, This type of technique is really helpful as teach the pattern, often directly above each other.
