Kindergarten Reading Help

Archive for January, 2010

I decided to ask this question in homeschooling as I feel that people here might be able to give me a more long-term view of this.
My 4 year old daughter is a Japanese/English bilingual. Even though we live in Tokyo, until recently she has been “stronger” in English. She is uses only English when talking with me and also joins in with my ESL lessons for Japanese kids. She can read the alphabet and enjoys writing letters (and her name).
She has just started Japanese kindergarten this year and has learned a lot more Japanese and has just started to recognise Japanese letters.
Her kindergarten is pretty relaxed (which I love) and she won`t be formally taught any kind of reading or writing skills until the end of next year, when she will be 6. Once she starts elementary school she will start learning Japanese letters in earnest.
She WILL NOT be taught to read or write English at school (although she may have a minimal amount of foreign language-ie English- instruction)
Basically if I want her to be able to read and write in English it will be my responsibility to teach her.
I am wondering if home-schooling parents could give me some advise how best to do this.
As she has just started kindergarten this year and she has a LOT of new things she is learning, we haven`t done anything formal for a while.
I read to her every night and she loves to make cards or shopping lists and try to write down people`s names or food items. She does like trying to recognise letters in signs while we are out.
She is really interested, so I wonder if I should do some formal structured things with her now. I also wonder if I should be giving her some handwriting work to do to help her form her letters better.
Should i take advantage of this interest now to teach her….or just let her do what she wants for the moment and not worry about teaching her anything for a while.
Also any suggestions about how we should continue as she gets older. What should I teach…when and how should I teach her.
Any help and advice apreciated!!

I was going to use Lifepacs this coming school year with my DD for kindergarten. I like the workbook set up. But I just got a Sonlight catalog in the mail. Wow, I think it would be more her style. She LOVES books, and even though she likes the worksheet we have done so far, I think she will really enjoy the reading based curriculum. (I will have to get used to it though i think) Has anyone used Sonlight? Did you enjoy using it? Any thoughts on it will be helpful thank you.

My daughter will be 14 in January. My ex husband is not her birth father, but has been in her life since she was 18 mos. old and adopted her when she was 5. Her birth father lives in another state and talks to her monthly- he is more like an uncle to her, but they get along very well.
However, my daughters relationship with her dad has been deteriorating steadily since she started kindergarten, well before our divorce. He stopped reading to her at night, saying that he was embarrassed that she read better than he did (he is severely dyslexic, but has never saught treatment). He then consistently started remarking on her intelligence, and not in positive ways. It was as if he felt insecure around her, and subconsiously resented her for it. He was also always insecure about her relationship with her birth dad, no matter how insignificant it was.
For the past few months my daughter has been complaining about going to her dads. We have joint custody and she spends half her time there, along with our son. A few weeks ago she told me that she doesnt want to go there any more at all, and that she would rather not speak to him at all. She wants to cut off all contact.
Although I have had problems with my ex (he can be emotionally abusive, and at 6’4″ and 250#, fairly intimidating. He also left bruises on our son once about 3 years ago. Authorities recommended anger managment, and told him not to do it again) I know he loves our daughter and just is crappy about showing it.
Is she old enough to make this decision? I dont think he will welcome her back if she changes her mind, and I am afraid he will say hurtful things to her in this process. I’m worried about how it will affect her when he doesnt fight for her and I’m worried about my son being there alone. I’m worried he will go nuts on us and that the courts wont back her up and then it would just be akward for her there. What should I do?
ps, sexual abuse is not an issue here- positive of that.

I can’t believe some of the lame questions being asked here. It seems like there are a bunch of kindergarten kids in here especially when you make an attempt to read their sentence structure. Is it just me or is this site being bombarded by people who lack any form of formal education.

I have fairly solid windows os background and even speak dos. I want to try using ubuntu on daughter’s system, which does have xp..but is crashed so bad, that I can’t retrieve even explorer to operate. Of COURSE, she does not have the legal install disk for xp, so can’t go there, for the time being.
My # 1 goal is being able to get in, and salvage her photos and such that she did not have backed up. I can run a dos window, but it is so tedious.
So.. if I have ubuntu desktop 7.04 (now downloading).. please explain in kindergarten language, how to open/read/install an “iso” file .. what to expect.. will it protect what is already on the system..
After I get the data files safely moved off, it isn’t an issue, even if I install an old win 2000 copy. Or maybe make it dual boot for her, and get her learning.
Help, please…

it’s about the book “for one more day”
2.“You can be a mama’s boy or a daddy’s boy. But you can’t be both.”?p.21?
I think it’s strange thought, but it actually happened in my life. In fact, I’m a mama’s girl until I entered college. I found out the lack of father’s love and I start to chase and cherish it. As Chick’s theory, “Kid chase the love that eludes them.” And for me, it’s my father’s love. I think perhaps parent’s the love is always around us but just depend on whether open your arms and let love in.
3.“MY MOTHER WAS ALWARS WRITING ME NOTES”
My favorite part is the note Posey gave to her son in kindergarten. Because he could not read yet. It shows a mother cares about the love inside the note, not the words. I still remember my Mother wrote me a note when I was going to take the College Entrance Examination. She drew a smile and cheer up for me. I was surprised because it was the first time and we seldom express our love felling though we do know the feeling is always there

My son is 6 years old and has been through 2 years of pre school. He is now in Kindergarten and is struggling to read. He has fallen behind the other kids in his class,and he relizes this. He has ask me before “why am I stupid”? This is so hard and heart breaking. He is so sweet and precious. He is enrolled to start sylvan learning center in the summer but What can I do right now to help him. Im afraid he is going to hate school if he continues struggle this way. any advice?

If you have , can you help me with this question:
Why do you think Laurie turns into a “swaggering character” when he begins kindergarten? Explain.

I have a 17 year old son who was diagnosed as being mild cognitive impaired. He has a moderate hearing loss in one ear that wasn’t discovered until kindergarten. He has always been behind in school. He still can not read. Just words like dog and cat. I have bought him reading programs and had him work with a tutor. It’s like he has some kind of block with reading and writing sentences. I’m wondering if he will ever be able to learn how to read? Can anyone be taught to read? I’m hoping that eventually he will catch on to it. He is smart in math and other subjects – just not reading.

Do you believe in homework nightly for SR and JR kindergarten?
My daughter was getting tested and at one point started developing nervous habits b/c she was tested so much and at one point we were told to put her in special ed b/c she couldn’t spell out how she sounded out all the words properly-for instance reindeer-she’d spell wendeer and flower she’d spell flwr. We didn’t put her in it b/c she’s at the top of her class for reading, along with the rest of the circumlum and thought this should of been considered something she’d learn, she’s 6 after all.
She’s reading books nightly and should it seem like a big deal if she can’t spell every single word properly –after all isn’t that what learning is about??