Teaching Phonics

What a journery teaching Phonics has been for my little Isaiah & I..  He has to learn each step slowly and sometimes in several different ways..  This has challeneged my teaching skills greater than anything I have previously encountered.  At age 5 Isaiah was learning his letters and all the sounds they made and really struggling to write anything that resembled a letter.  We worked thru Explode the Code A,B,C & listened to all the sounds of each letter on StarFall.  He tried so hard yet each step and letter mastered was painful and slow for him.  We did flash cards, games and wipe on wipe off books for writing practice.  We have continued to plug away using Sing, Spell , Read & Write, Spectrum Phonics, Explode the Code and Hooked on Phonics over the last 3 years.  After much work Isaiah can now write all of his letters and numbers, knows all of his letter sounds and can read many three and four letter words.  Today we start out with reading the Beginner's Bible together. He reads a page, I read a page & Bethany reads a page. Next we listen to Bible songs and play with blocks or math toys and let him emotionally prepare for the day ahead.  We go on to do JUMP math a new math in simple steps that is great for the struggling learner, then we read and work on Hooked Phonics 1st grade Orange box.  Then read from Abeka Health.   Isaiah needs a break so he listens to Patriotic Songs and practices jumps, hops, skips and other feats of daring :0).  Next we do Abeka History and then Spectrum Phonics grade 1.  After another few minutes play time we do Explode the Code book 2 and read a couple books about his favorite topic:  science.. we have learned about insects and volcanoes, how cars work  & the planets among other things.  All the kids take a nice long PE Break and have lunch.  After lunch we read lots of stories together and rejoice because we've put in a faithful day of school.  It is sometimes very hard to be a homeschooling parent to a struggling learner.  Slow and steady at the pace that reaches your child has been what works for me.  Along the way Bethany age 5 has gone thru each step with her big brother and has learned to read well.. so I am greatful for that <3
Galations 6:9  And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.