1st reading lessons

Tell your child that when we talk words run together, the way water runs out of a faucet.

However, each word has its own letters. Each word can stand all by itself, the way water can stand in a glass. 

 Ask your child if his name has its own letters? Yes. Let's look at the letters in his name. What are the letters in his name? Does his name have all the ABCs?

No. His name has a special small group of letters that always need to be printed in the same order. Say: "All words have their own letters, always the same letters, always printed in the same order."

While reading an easy-to-read story with your child, let your child point to each word as you move his finger from one word to the next.

After you read a page or two, ask if your child can remember one of the words in this story. Help your child remember one, like: cat, kitten, dog, puppy, bird. Then, look through the page, pointing to the chosen word.

Tell you child that his chosen word always has the same letters and the letters are printed in the same order. This makes it easy for us to find the word when we are looking for it. 

Let's see if this is true. Can we find the word again in this story? Let's count how many times we see this word on the page, and in the whole story.

End this lesson by asking your child to print his chosen word on a sheet of paper you can keep for the purpose of listing his new words. Let him print his name at the top of the sheet.

You may like to look at my Panda bear book. It does not practice letters except for the tricky set of b, d, g, p, q. The Panda teaches many very important reading lessons.  I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. 

 
Have a fun with reading, Mary Maisner

short vowel add ed to a short vowel word

Ask your child to say and print the vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y      All the other ABCs are called consonants.

Step 1: Print and say with your child: hope, tape, ride, meat, scare.  In these words, the 1st vowel says its name.

Rule: when a vowel says its name, it is called a long vowel.

Step 2: Short vowels are the same letters but when they are the only vowel in a word, they usually do not say their names.

Print and say with your child:
hop, tap, pet, tip, scar

Ask your child to point to each word as he reads the list 4 times. Be clear that your child hears o differently in hop than in hope. And, the a in tap is not like the long a in tape.

To add ed to a short vowel word, you must double the final letter: hop > hopped; tap > tapped

The explanation which you will need to teach your child, eventually:

Step 3: You say:"The reason vowel o says its long sound in hope is that the 2nd vowel e reaches back to poke the o. When we write: the rabbit hopped in front of me. we print a 2nd p before we add ed. Now there are two consonants between vowel o and vowel e. Vowel e can reach back around one consonant but not two consonants.

When there are two consonants between o and e, we have protected the o from being poked.
This rule works for all short vowel words.

Children needs lots of practice with this skill. I have created the Vowel Power book to help your child master this and many other vowel lessons. It also teaches a special comprehension method. The book is full of color pictures, short and long stories, and fun skills practice. 

I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you. All books are brand new and include my contact info; email or call for help.  Be sure your child is ready for any challenge!  Have fun reading with your child. Thank you, Mary Maisner

Change y to i reading help

There are very clear rules for adding endings to words that end with y.

Step 1: Adding ing is easy, just do it.
Look: hurry  hurrying;   obey  obeying;   fly  flying

Step 2: When adding something other than ing, look to see whether a vowel or a consonant come before y.

Example word: enjoy. 
Letter o comes before y. Is o a vowel or a consonant?  Letter o is a vowel.

Step 3: When a vowel comes before y, it's easy, just add any ending.
Look: enjoys, enjoying, enjoyed, enjoyment, enjoyable

Step 4: When a consonant comes before y: change the y to i then add the ending. And, s always needs to be es.

Example word: candy. Letter d is a consonant, so change y to i for candies, candied
Remember: s always needs to be es.

Example word: cry. Letter r is a consonant, so change y to i for cries, cried, crier, crying no change for adding ing, just do it.

Children needs lots of practice with this tricky skill; being slow causes many problems. 

I now use eBay as my website, people trust it. Search: Instant Reading Help Vowels.  Or,  Instant Reading Help changing y to i. Or Instant Reading Help plus your child's grade level for books full of tips and tons of fun stories and skills to help your child love reading. 

 Be sure your child is ready for any challenge!

Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a great day,  Mary Maisner

Reading skills: fun ways to build interest



This painting is called the Phantom Crane.
It was done by the American painter W. H. Beard (1824-1900).

Buy two sticky-note pads which are large enough for your child to write short notes. You use one of the pads to stick notes in surprising places for your child to find: on the fridge, in the bathroom, on doors around the house, inside a book your child is reading, on top of a shirt your child likes to wear, in his chair at the table, in the car, etc.

Start out using easy words, say things like: I love you. Have a good day.Today is Monday. Did you eat the cookie, etc.

Slowly build toward more challenging words, like: Yesterday was cloudy and cold. Did you eat your vegetables? Did you hear the dog barking in the night? Did you hide my umbrella?  You can leave jokes, riddles, math problems, words with missing letters, etc.

Invite your child to leave you notes and give him the 2nd note pad. Be happy with any notes your child leaves for you. Appreciate the notes and praise your child's thoughtfulness and imagination; this will encourage both of these traits. 

I have created a few books to help your child be a star reading. My books teach a special comprehension method plus tricky phonics and tricky sight words. Lots of color pictures, lots of stories, and lots of smart skills.

I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you. All books are brand new and include my contact info, email or call for help. Help your child be ready for any challenge!

Feel welcome to leave a question or comment.
Have a great day,  Mary Maisner

Back to school ready for reading

English developed over many centuries through the weaving of several languages. This explains why English has a few letter-sound components that do not seem to make sense.

Tell your child that English is an ancient and special code. Then, be sure your child revisits and reviews the tricky components until the tricky bits become "instant."  Helping your child have fun with reading is really important.

Tip 1: Review the ABCs in order; sing the song if you know it. Then, ask for a word that begins with each letter.

Tip 2: You say a word, asking your child to try his best to write the word. You want to stimulate letter-sound connection, do not worry about correct spelling until much later.

Example words: trip, crab, glass, fan, horse, train, smell, week, will, cabin, stolen, brain, rabbit, rattle, bridge, yank, yarn, fuzz, yummy, and so on.

Tip 3: Check correct directionality of b, d, g, p, and q by asking your child to try his best to print the words: battle, able, behind, umbrella, gap, dribble, beggar, double, argue, symbol, alligator, wiggle, pickle, Snapple, apron, Hugo, arid, abdomen, fiddle, giggle, abandon.

You write liquid, equal, argue, quiet, mango, angry. Starting with liquid, ask your child to point to each letter and name it, "spelling" the word for you.

Yes, these are hard words. As your child engages in more difficult thinking, failure to have the basics "mastered" will be visible. You want to see if letter directionality is firmly anchored. Fixing it early is easy; fixing it later is not because the "confused" response is embedded in the mind and will not be erased. Although a second response can be learned, this is not what you want for your child.

I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. All are brand new, full of exactly what your child needs, include my contact info, email or call for help.
Please feel welcome to ask questions and make comments. Have a great day,  Mary Maisner

help struggling reader

1. Put into the search box of this blog: sight words. Your child must get instant with as many sight words as possible. Do not panic. Pick three sight words a week to practice: ask your child to point to the sight word in stories & print the sight word three times every day.

2. If your child is confusing b / d and p / q / g when reading,  start with b. Ask your child to underline letter b in whatever printed material you have around - newspapers, junk mail, stories, books your child can use a pencil in; 

and, when you are cooking or washing dishes, ask your child to print the letters of words you are going to dictate. Only do 4 a night; short sweet lessons are best. Pick words that have a b at the start or b within the word, like busy, bank, about, rabbit, stub. 

(You are only look for the b - correct spelling is not your goal.)   After your child gets consistent with b, move on to d. Being unsure of these look alike letters is the problem that will hold your child back. Once this problem is in the brain of the child - adults need to work really hard to fix it! Write me, if you want.

Tip: No more stopping to sound out when your child is reading. Tell your child to read the words he knows and keep going. You tell him the unknown words. In several months this method will produce good results. (Many words cannot be sounded out but your child can gather the meaning of the story and keep going. Look canoe means boat; boulder means rock. There are many odd words like these two examples.)

One of my 8th grade tutor boys had not been reading books at school. He was assigned books on tape. After learning my special comprehension method, he made the Honor Roll at his private school. Struggling readers are very smart children, but they cannot help themselves because the lessons crippling their progress are invisible.

I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. All are brand new and come with my contact info; email or call for help. If your child seems to be getting a slow start please get my book. Or, a book, to give you support and structure. If you do not have time or you and your child do not work well together - a common problem - hire a personal tutor to teach my book. My lessons are specific; you will not find them elsewhere. 

Feel welcome to ask a question or leave a comment below. Have a great day, Mary Maisner

Avoid summer reading loss: easy tricks




You can be riding in a car or doing jobs around the house, such as fixing a meal, while helping your child sharpen his reading skills.

Allow your child to give you an oral answer, or use pencil and paper.

1) Your child will need a pencil and paper for this one. Good for any age, goal: competency with reversible letters.

Ask your child to "do his best to spell each word," then dictate words your child does not already know how to spell. You are only looking for the correct direction of letters b, d, g, p, and q.

Possible words: marble, saber, about, nibble, libel, double, dribble, abdomen, bubble, stubble, obstruct, object, tremble, abscond, squabble, quibble, scribble  / muppet, prattle, opal, grapple, pirate, wiggle, wrangle, sparkle, quill, equip. Expect your child to write k for qu.

2) With or without pencil and paper, goal: recognize short vowel versus long vowel.
Good for any age because older kids must know short vowel / long vowel when adding endings, like: ed, ing, er, or s, ly, etc.

Ask your child to name the vowels: A, E, I, O, U, Y.  Teach y is a vowel. 
Remind your child that long vowels say their names. Do you hear o when you say rope, poke, note? Yes. Do you hear a when you say say pain, name? Yes.  A vowel is called long when it says its name.

Now, you write or say: hop. Ask if o is long or short? Letter o is called short. A vowel is called short when it does not say its name.

You write or say: stop. Ask if o long or short?   (Short) 
You write or say: top.  Ask if o long or short?   (Short)  

Write or say these short vowel words: clip, dip, drip, flip, grip, hip, jip, lip, nip, pip, equip, rip, sip, slip, skip, tip, trip, yip  //  nap, lap, trap, snap, slap, map, slam, cram, ham, jam // cup, rub, stub, scrub, bud, thud, mud, cut, shut, put  // bet, met, set, let, pet, get, net, shed, fed, sled

Now, you write or say long vowel words: blame, flame, game, lame, maim, name, same, tame, nail, mail, bail //  treat, beat, cheat, creep, sweep, delete, clean, screen, beam, speed // pipe, ripe, strike, slide, ride, shine, line, side, write  // boat, float, gloat, choke, note, slope, hope, mope, store, soar, close, rose // glue, argue, continue

Being sure of short  vowel / long vowel will matter later when your child is adding ed, ing, er, s, ly, ful, etc. 
I have created a few books that can make a huge and rapid difference for your child. I use eBay. Please search Instant Reading Help. All my books will pop up for you. All are brand new and include my contact info; email or call for help.  All my books teach a special comprehension method plus tricky sight words, and tricky phonics.  Be ready for the challenge of the upper grades.

Write with questions. Thank you, Mary Maisner