Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Khaleef, Phonics Method & Dr. Seuss

read kak arin's entry on phonics method - how her daughter was taught the actual 'ABC' at home, and the sounds 'Aa' 'Beh', 'Ceh' at school, following the phonics method. well, i'm having the same problem - but the other way around! i started khaleef with the phonics method, and now only he's learning the actual ABC!

kak arin puts up some helpful link in the learning of the phonics method, and interactive bits for the kids. click on the link above for more.

Phonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write that language. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters (e.g., that the sound /k/ can be represented by c, k, ck or ch spellings) and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations of unknown words.
~ Wikipedia

i was introduced to phonetics (the study of speech sounds) while doing my degree, and was involved more actively in phonics method while i was working at a kids' development center. i implemented the method with khaleef as early as when he was 2+, starting with mere 'sounds', and the pattern of combining the sounds to form a word, regardless whether he can recognize the alphabets.


this is my humble understanding of the phonics method, one that i exposed khaleef with:
  1. first flash cards accompanied with pictures to make it easier for him to 'guess' the word - since he's still very young, i just played with sounds - (/keh/ + /et/ = cat), (/deh/ + /og/ = dog), (/ss/ + /neh/ + /ek/ = snake)
  2. don't worry if he's not familiar yet with the whole A-Z sounds all at one go, because through practice and time, he will slowly pick up the rest of the sounds
  3. remember that phonics method is all about the kid listening to the sounds a word makes, and how the sounds combine to make up words
  4. then he 'graduated' to flash cards that comprise of the 'consonants' and single 'vowels' sounds (/b/ + /e/ = 'be') or (/s/ + /o/ = so)
  5. next come the flash cards with more complex combo - (/b/ + /at/ = bat), (/h/ + /is/ = his), (/p/ + /ot/ = pot) - 'ot, at, ee' are the easiest ones to catch on first for khaleef!
  6. when he has already mastered the sounds of 'at, ot, ee' and such, i simply changed the 'consonants' - 'p-at, m-at, b-at, s-at, r-at' to get him more familiarize
  7. after that he moved on to more difficult combo - (/l/ + /ike/ = like) or (/th/ + /is/ = this)
  8. at this time he's ready for sentence cards - and learn more about the different sounds that can come from the simple vowel sounds that he already knows like the 'oo' sounds can be 'ook, oop, ool and oot' - (/t/ + /ook/ = took) or (/w/ + /ool/ = wool)
  9. after he has read a lot of sentence cards and got familiar with the pattern of joining words - like 'I go to..." or "I can see a..." he can move on to short, simple books!
  10. at the same time, he tried to master words like 'a', 'the' and 'I' where phonics method cannot be applied, but occur frequently in sentences


at the time of writing, he's finishing his first ever ever book that he tries to read on his own - dr. seuss' 'the cat in the hat'. the super-cute 'book cover' above was by my sis syida. i highly recommend this book for the quirkiness of its storyline, it's catchy rhyming words and of course, because it contains a lot of phonics-applicable words.

hey, it's by dr seuss! of course it's awesome!

now that he has started reading an actual book, i can concentrate more on not only learning new sounds, but his pronunciation, and intonation, like in story-telling, instead of reading like a robot.

my understanding of the phonics method and the way i implemented it with khaleef may be off and on the spot here and there - but alhamdulillah, so far so good!

try it!


17 comments:

ummikhayra said...

Saya start tahu pasal phonics masa buat CD interaktif multimedia development untuk budak-budak tadika. Time tu saya kerja kat Qdees. Salah satu tadika yang agak terkenal kat malaysia nih.

Mungkin start phonics dengan Khayra bila dia dah 2 tahun++ kot. Kalau syigim tengok playhouse disney, Khayra suka tengok word world. Saya suka cara dia tunjukkan perkataan tu dengan object. Kalau tengok cite tu, Khayra sungguh2 tengok. :)

Fairus Basir from The Juggling Queen said...

tini pun start belajar phonics masa kat sini, klu tak belajar membaca melayu je la. i don't have the advantage like u did syigim, but i'm trying my best nak pupuk die belajar membaca.

Syigim said...

>> ummikhayra, i know qdees. penah keja ngan diorang punye competitor hihi ;)

yup, ckp camne pun, tv shows do help in dvlping our kids' vocab or understanding of d world ;) kita kena pandai guide them :)

Syigim said...

fairus, the best we can do as parent is be there for them! encourage, buy them books, read with them and compliment their abilities!

tu la i hope bila khaleef stat skool nanti, sambung je dr yg dia dah tau :) my fear is the skool has a diff phonics menthod, confuse kang si khaleef! :P

Unknown said...

Syigim,
thank you for this posting. I sedang berusaha gunakan kekdah phonic juga untuk my kids. so far, alhamdulillah, menunjukkan kemajuan yg memberangsangkan.

Hanz Jamaludin said...

Sygim, i like to make my boys macam guinea pig when it comes to education...ekekeke...my eldest starts with Peter & Jane series which used whole word approach & only at 5 plus, baru introduce phonics...so his vocab widen but i can see he's a bit confuse when it comes to sound as phonics starts late.

For his lil brother, i will start phonics soon baru peter & jane kut...

Btw, my eldest i teach him 123 dulu baru ABC..& the youngest i dah start ABC now & delay with the number symbols recognition but counting objects, yes..

We lurve Dr SEUSS!!! Got plenty of them!! Toungue-twister!!!

Fairus Basir from The Juggling Queen said...

Syigim : Baik cikgu! :) (*wink). Tapi memang kagum how easy it si to teach young kids pakai phonics nih. I bought this set of books from Malaysia yang ajar budak membaca pakai phonics, sebab i pun x mahir phonics (almaklumlah, belajar membaca dulu mengeja satu2).and really surprised by Tini's ability to catch up those things. And yes, I compliment her everytime.

ummikhayra: Agree with u. My daughter pun cepat belajar tgk word world, tapi sayang kat Dubai xde wordworld. :(

Syigim said...

missFridaNorm, phonics seems easy for the kids once diorang dah dpt catch pattern dia. lepas tu mmg senang nk develop even smpai spelling ability :)

Syigim said...

hanz, i pun nk get khaleef the peter & jane series one day. khaleef pun stat with phonics first, then only blaja 123. now still confuse between 'g' and '8' !!! adoi..

well, as 1st time mommies, sape lagi kita nk experiment kalo x our 1st child? hihi..most important is we know we have his/her best interest at heart kan.

my dream is to have a whole shelf of dr seuss! tp mahal la! beli sikit2 :P

Syigim said...

eh fairus, buku dr malaysia tu yg ajar membaca dlm bm ke? coz i want to get one for khaleef oso lah. kang bm susah nk baca plak :P

Fairus Basir from The Juggling Queen said...

syigim: BM and English. Nanti I masukkan kat blog, I link article u yang ni ye? I bought both, my mom dah bising dah banyak isu I nak kena catch-up when it comes to the kids. Tini cakap Melayu bole, counting fail! Nak ajar mengaji, fardhu ain. fuh!! She's still in process on everything.

arin said...

semalam, me + hanum belajar phonics using one of the links yang kak arin refer to in my blog. tapi pembelajaran terhenti sebab zara terjatuh tepi kerusi dek sama sebok jugak nak belajar sama..:(

Syigim said...

>> fairus, lega u kata tini pun susah counting, bukan ape, psl khaleef pun!! i dah risau dah :P hihi.. bab ngaji tu laaagi lah. nanti opah & tok dia dtg suh ajar alif ba ta lah ;)

>> amboi kak arin... si bambam pun xsabo2 nk blaja phonics..smpai tjatuh2.. hope ok n xde benjoi2.. ade sound tu yg dia nk nyebok tu.. :P

ummiluqman@azma said...

syigim thanks for the posting.. skrg ajar luqman little reader and iqrak a ba ta, kira phonics jugakkan hehe.. ini tgh mencari source untuk phonics..will try dr suess

Syigim said...

ummiluqman, really nk expose khaleef to iqra' as well! :)

dr seuss is fun! silly fun storyline :)

Yuslinda said...

welldone syigim..tabik spring kat u..khaleef dah boleh baca...good job..nanti share info2 yg berguna lagi ya...

Syigim said...

thanks kak linda.. but he still needs a lot of prompting & guidance. ;) pelan2 :)

check out these postings too!

Related Posts with Thumbnails