Should I teach my child sight words

What a beautiful world!

Yes, teaching sight words plus the ABC letter names and basic letter sounds gives your child the strongest tools for success. Aa apple, Bb bear are examples of basic sounds.

Being instant gives your child a huge boost - being slow will slow a child's advancement.

 

Do not panic, start today and build. Sit down with any story and your child. Start with the, put your child's finger under the. Help your child read the as you read the story. 

Once your child sees and reads the without your help, target the word of. Now you are asking your child to read the and of.

(First ten sight words: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it.) 

All sight word lists are the same, no matter the name: instant words, high frequency, Dolch, Fry, etc.  Words are listed by frequency seen in print - not level of difficulty. About 300 sight words make up 65% of all print. The more words your child knows "on sight" the better.

Words like lion, cat, dog have easy meanings and can be sounded out. Kids learn them rapidly. They are not sight words. Sight words are service words which have vague meanings and look alike to children: these, those, there, their, they're, why, who, which, where, etc.  Parents have to help. Learning them in stories is the fastest way to build a strong collection.

The brain likes to have its search and find actions accomplished in 1 / 1000th of one second.   

One full second is a lot of brain time. Your child's working memory will soar when you help your child love sight words -- not pressure to be fast -- instead the confidence of being sure. Put up a list of your child's sight words on the frig, then add to the list.

Credit for this research goes to educators Thorndike, Fry, and Dolch. Later on, Alan Baddeley did research into how long a thought stays in the mind before it starts to vanish. A thought starts to fade and is gone in one and one-half seconds.  This is why you have to keep repeating a phone number until you use it or write down the number.

I use eBay as my website, people trust it. Search: Instant Reading Help. All my books will pop up. Included are a clear list of the tricky phonics rules, plus a one page collection of the most troublesome look alike sight words. The 300 sight words are practiced in animal stories, and taught in the same order used by schools. 

Help your child have fun reading! Best wishes, Mary Maisner

 

help child read

Boost your child's reading using these two bits of information:

1) how the eye works while reading a line of print

2) connection between short term working memory and long term storage memory

Eye behavior:  Just as our heart and lungs are doing their jobs in their own way without any direction from us, the eye is performing magic, unbeknown to us.

As we look along a line of print, the eye is hopping forward a few letters. The eye's magical work is telling the brain what letters and words are coming up next. 

The brain instantly searches long term storage memory to supply the required information before your child arrives at the upcoming letters and words. 

The child whose letters and sight words are strongly stored in long term storage memory is going to soar along the line of print.   But,  if the brain searches for letters and words that are weak or not there, the child gets confused, flustered. Troubles quickly pile up. Luckily, it is easy for parents to step in with the right help. 

There is not enough time at school for the practice required to truly learn the basic lessons that need to be solidly stored in your child's storage memory. This is why so many of our children cannot read at grade level by 3rd Grade. The troubles started in 1st Grade but parents do not see it because reading is an invisible activity. 

Tip: do not stop to sound out - tell your child any unknown words, have your child to keep reading onward. Kindergarten: 1) ignore the printing of backward letters, rarely dyslexia and will self-correct by mid-2nd Grade. Instead, be sure your child can instantly see / say all ABCs and can print and identify b / d and g / p / q. Confusing those five letters when starting to reading in 1st Grade will cause a cascade of bad. Also, teach the 1st 10 to 15 sight words. 1st Grade: instant identification of b / d and g / p /q within words is crucial. Review and extend sight word mastery every night. Read to your child and have your child read to you every day.

Use my search box - top left corner- put in fix reading problem or backward b or how the brain learns to read or high school reading to get help. 

I now use eBay as my website, people trust it. Seach Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you.

My books give you secrets and tips and all the tricky phonics rules and lessons, plus lots of fun, and include my contact info. Research shows only 6 / 50 kids ever catch up from a slow start in 1st Grade. Waiting is never your friend.      Thank you, Mary Maisner

4th Grade reading skills

Be sure your child is instant with the 1st 300 sight words. (My books or download. All lists are the same.)

Help your child remember how to add word endings, called suffixes (ed, ing, er, est, etc) and bits on the front of a word, called prefixes (in, re, un, mis, dis, etc.)   

4th Grade is the year for learning the complex vowels: ous, ious, eous, uous, tion, cion, cian, sion, tian, tient, cient, tiate, ciate. 

Let's review how to add a prefix. A prefix is always hooked onto the front of any word without change: re > reenter,  mis > misspell,   un > unneeded,   dis > disservice, reuse, unused, misused, unreliable, etc.

Let's review how to add a suffix: You must know the vowels a, e, i, o, u, y.  All other ABC letters are called consonants. These suffixes start with a vowel: ed, er, est, en, ing, y, able. These suffixes start with a consonant: s, ly, ful, less, ness, ment.

1st basic skill: add an ending (suffix) to words that end with e:  use, escape, scare   

When a suffix starts with a vowel - just trade one vowel for another vowel: use > used, using, 

unusable, reusable, user      and    escape > escaped, escaping, inescapable, 

inescapably  (trade e for y: able > ably)   and scare > scared, scaring, scary (Look: scar does 

not end with e, scar is a short vowel word, double the r: scar >scarred, scarring, scars.)

When a suffix starts with a consonant, just hook it on: uses, useful, usefully, usefulness, useless, uselessly, careful, carefully, careless, carelessly

Heads up: words ending with ce and ge can trade i and y (spacing, spacy, edging, edgy) but keep ce and ge for other vowels (traceable, noticeable, knowledgeable).

2nd basic skill: Add a suffix to words that end with y: boy, buy, play   or    candy, hurry, sky.  1st look to see whether a vowel comes before y (boy)    or    a consonant (hurry).

Rule: When a vowel comes before y, just hook on any ending: boy > boys, buy > buys, buyer, buying.     When a consonant comes before y:

add ing without change: hurrying, worrying, trying, denying, relying, testifying

change y to i for all other suffixes: hurried, tried, rely > reliable, deny > undeniable

s always becomes es: hurries, buries, worries, tries,      sky > skies, spy > spies, 

berry > berries, candy > candies, deny > denies, testify > testifies 

3rd basic skill: Add a suffix to a short vowel word: stop, hop, scar, plan   and pack, stick

Rule: When adding a suffix that starts with a vowel, double the last consonant of a short vowel word: stop > stopped, stopping, unstoppable  Look: stops ( s is not a vowel)

**pack and stick are short vowel words but they already end with two consonants so there is no danger of changing the short vowel sound, thus no need to double the last consonant: pack > packed, packing, package, packs    and stick > sticking, sticker, sticky, sticks

Or, add a suffix to a long vowel word: share, dream

share: remember the rule for words that end with e, trade one vowel for another vowel:  share > sharing, shared, sharable   Look: shares (s is not a vowel, just hook it on.)

dream - two vowels side-by-side means vowel e is already long so add any ending: dreaming, dreamer, dreamed, dreams, dreamy  (dreamy > dreamiest change y to i for consonant + y)

I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. Look for your child's grade level or change y to i   or add ed, ing     or tion, tious, tient, ciate.  This book covers all complex vowel combinations ous, uous, ious, eous, cial, tial, cious, tious, tient, cient, etc. It is actually fun. All books are brand new and include my contact info; email or call for help. Help your child have fun reading. Thank you, Mary  Maisner