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"A grace period of two months"? It still sounds too pushy, to me.


OK, I've got hyperlexic kids, but I also helped raise my sister's kids at this age. What worked - ANYTHING by Leap Pad. We actually found the Phonics Desk worked better AFTER difficult child 3 was reading whole words - different kids learn in different ways. The Phonics Desk helped difficult child 3 go back and learn the Phonics side of reading. But if they're not ready, they're not ready. Give him the skills he needs now, that he can adapt further later on.


Let him use the computer, under supervision. Get him into mouse skills and learning to recognise/read the menu bar. One of the first words difficult child 3 could read was "quit".


We also played games with words and letters we saw while driving. We'd also go for walks and read the numbers on the letterboxes. I'd get difficult child 3 to feel the numbers as well. Then he would run on ahead to the next letterbox, waiting for me to catch up.


easy child 2/difficult child 2 was an exceptionally gifted 4 year old. She was four and a half when she started K, I had to get special permission at high government level. She was following me around the house with blackboard and chalk, wanting to play hangman, but she had NO idea how to spell. Well, not much idea. She'd been writing her own name since 2, but hadn't made a lot of progress beyond that. She knew her numbers to 9, probably double-digit numbers, but otherwise - nada. She WAS doing basic maths with the low numbers. But she started school straight into a K/1 class, not the straight K. And she picked up reading very fast, once she was there.


I tried the Glenn Doman "Teach Your Baby To Read" method with easy child & easy child 2/difficult child 2 with no benefit. easy child started school at four and three quarters, was reading within weeks. difficult child 1 was reading by age 5 and a half, because he started K at age 5.


As Sara said, sometimes they're just not ready - bright kid or not. difficult child 3 was reading several years before starting school, but didn't have the comprehension to go with it. His pre-school teachers would get him to read the roll, to help him begin to see the relationship between the words on the page and the child in the room with that name.


Something I did for difficult child 3 that you could try - I made little books for him out of a sheet of paper. You fold it, then fold again, and again, each time in half. Then staple down one side, stickytape over the staples and cut the pages open. Then on each page, draw one thing and write the word under it. Try to work with words he needs to read ('stop', for example; and his name) and if he rips it up or loses it, it's no big deal, you can easily make another one.


But maybe the best thing you could do is simply read books to him. Give him a love of books and reading and this will set him up. Or get him to watch his favourite DVD, but with subtitles on. Only do this where the subtitles are word-for-word the same as the spoken text.


It all helps. But don't sweat it - I think the school is being a bit overoptimistic on this.


Marg


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