Homemade Mini Flashcards for Phonics & Word Recognition

Lately, I have tried out another method to help Ryan with phonics and word recognition. I have decided not to teach him solely on phonics. To speed things up, I have decided to get Ryan to recognize simple and frequently used words. Adding phonics into the mix to help him remember and recognize the words did help. At this stage, he has yet to learn the full fledge phonics like the sh, oo, ou and different sounds for the same letter. I have decided not to wait for the school to teach. So, I have blended in word recognition. Why did I do this? I believe that both phonics and word recognition are beneficial to the child but not in silos. Some easy words, will have to be recognized easily and with the help of phonics to pronounce and 'remember' the words. Some enrichment classes like Vital Years use word recognition to help children with their reading skills. Kindies like my son's emphasize on phonics. No right or wrong I think but I feel that my sons should get the benefits of both methods.

Initially I started off pasting flashcards on my cupboard. (See: http://joanne-momsays.blogspot.com/2009/05/pasting-flashcards-on-my-cupboard.html) The freshness and the fun to it was dying down. So, I had to think of something new to engage my son especially at this age. I cut up some small squares from hard papers and wrote easy common words. I would flash the cards out one by one to get him to read and spell out the words to me. If he gets stuck, I'd ask him to try using phonics to remember. Along the way, I would put several cards together to form sentences and get him to read out the sentences to me. Another way to repetitive learning. The last game is to have all cards laid out on the table and Ryan gets to collect the cards by taking the cards that he knows how to read. The goal is to collect all and he gets a reward (stickers :))

After a few nights, I noticed that my son improved a lot and gained new confidence. I'm advancing to the next step by giving him more words and reading storybooks with him. He recognizes some words that he learnt from the flashcards and he is very proud of his ability to read them. Ryan is a child that needs a lot of praises and encouragement. Not sure if it is true for most kids. But encouragement and praises give him more confidence and enthusiasm to learn more. I feel bad for pushing him and I'm trying not to get too hard. But Ryan has a late start and in another year, he will be in a chinese primary school. I get so worried for him that if he can't follow, he would become depress and lose his self confidence, just like when he first started kindy (see: http://joanne-momsays.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-son-was-slow-in-speech-development.html). I hope I'm doing the right thing.