清邁第一周… 請繼續閱讀，了解迄今為止我所經歷的最大震驚！

(Scroll down for English) 清邁第一周… 請繼續閱讀，了解迄今為止我所經歷的最大震驚！ + 如何讓 K2 孩子在 1.5 小時內開始學習自然拼讀法：從「不知道」到弄清楚單字並在 10 天內涵蓋 1 個學期的自然拼讀法！ #拼音速成課程

我們在清邁的第一周，我最大的震驚發生在三天：大蕃薯的閱讀程度。 這是一個最近可以自己大聲「讀」完整部《恐龍羅裡：我和我爸爸》(Rory the Dinosaur: Me and My Dad)的人。 我一直都知道他已經記住了這本書，但最近我發現，如果我斷章取義地問「爸爸」這個詞是什麼，他就會不知道。 （順便說一下，大蕃薯剛剛滿 5 歲）。 這是我對大蕃薯教育的第二次震驚。 我的第一次震驚發生在他6個月大的時候，這與我們選擇幼兒園<離開香港的帖子>有關（也許我會在以後的帖子中寫到這一點！）

突然間，他應該弄清楚如何閱讀整個單字了！ （學校裡沒有教過的東西）

下週（可憐的大蕃薯的第二天），他應該讀一個句子！

在驚慌失措中，我給 A 發了短信，她的建議非常令人安心…

如何讓小朋友們混合聲音？ 他能認出 d-a-d，但不能認出這是爸爸 😅

答：這是學習過程的一部分。在一段時間內，他每天都要重複你說的「爸爸，爸爸」。 有些孩子只需要一週的時間就能掌握這個概念，但有些孩子需要更多時間。當你加入新的自然拼讀法時，每天做同樣的練習兩次即可。總有一天他們會明白這個想法。

我是一個沒有耐心的人，所以很高興聽到某種時間框架。 接下來，我給 V（之前在這裡介紹過）發了短信，他是一名幼兒園老師，有一個小學孩子。

V：是的，我教了他非常基本的東西，像是 26 個字母的發音。透過一起閱讀，他逐漸學會了融合和區分特殊單字。

然後她傳了這些照片給我：

對了，我怎麼能將這些概念匯入到大蕃薯的腦中呢？ 我的配額已經不夠了，因為每次我讓他做作業表時，他已經在抱怨他很累，他會稍後再做。 不過他喜歡讀書，讀書比做作業更被動。

經過一番谷歌搜尋後，我發現了這個網站 (this website)，它提供免費的電子書。 看四、五年前的書，我覺得太難了，因為都是句子。 然後我搜尋了 3-4 歲的書籍，找到了免費的 Read Write Inc. Phonics: Sound Blending Book 1。 當我點擊進去時，它是正確的並且遵循他的工作簿中的課程！ 每天做完每張作業後，我都會尋找涵蓋他所學聲音的相應單字（方便地，這本書通常按大致相同的順序排列），並從頭到尾地瀏覽這本書。 第六天（就在前一天學了半學期的自然拼讀法之後），當他讀完這本書時，我感覺他突然有了突破，認識了單詞，而不是每次都回答“我不知道」。 考慮到我是第三天才開始恐慌，這已經是一個不錯的進步了（雖然前三天是在絕望中度過的，所以還是感覺很漫長！）

我想繼續閱讀聲音混合書籍，並找到了每本書中涵蓋的單字清單a list of the words covered in each book。 我決定自己製作書，因為我在清邁買不到它們……我把它們寫在用大象糞便製成的紙上，因為我們去過大象糞便紙公園（下一篇文章將詳細介紹這一點！)

大蕃薯在第 10 天完成了整個學期的自然拼讀，學習了所有第二階段的發音和一些高頻（棘手）單字：

Set 1:

s, a, t, p

at, a, sat, pat, tap, sap, as

Set 2:

i – it, is, sit, pit, tip

n – an, in, nip, pan, nap

m – am, man, mat, map, Tim

d – dad, and, sad, dim, Sid

Set 3:

g – tag, gag, sag, gas, pig

o – got, on, not, top, dog

c – can, cot, cop, cap, cod

k – kid, kit, Kim, Ken

Set 4:

ck – kick, sack, dock, sick, pocket

e – get, pet, ten, net, pen

u – up, mum, run, mug, cup

r – rip, ram, rat, rocket, carrot

Set 5:

h – had, him, his, hot, hut

b – but, big, back, bed, bus

f, ff – of, if, off, fit, fog, puff

l, ll – let, leg, lot, bell, doll

ss – less, hiss, mass, mess, boss

Phase 2 tricky words:

the, to, no, go, I, into

他仍然很難記住棘手的單詞，特別是因為它們無法發音，但我想如果它們被頻繁重複，他就會掌握竅門！

最後，我是如何達到 1.5 小時讓孩子開始學習自然拼讀法的呢？ 每天 15 分鐘（10 分鐘工作表 + 5 分鐘聲音混合書籍中的單字）x 6 天 = 1.5 小時！

如果您對有關自然拼讀進展的更多帖子感興趣，請告訴我。 下一篇文章將是關於中文家庭教育的（應我朋友的要求）！

附： 那麼辛苦又何必呢？ 一位在香港擔任國際幼兒園老師的朋友問道：“在英國，他們不是給所有ESL（英語作為第二語言）的孩子提供額外的輔導嗎？” 然而，根據我的計算，我想知道學校讓他重讀（K2）是否更容易，因為他錯過了整整一年的時間？ 否則，他們將不得不資助額外的導師，而且他還需要 P.1 英語方面的幫助，他會發現這很困難，因為他幾乎沒有基礎。 P.1 末尾還有國家語音評估。 如果結果公佈，學校是否願意讓學生重讀一年，以便他們的成績看起來更好？ 重讀一年並不是世界末日，但考慮到我在這個階段跳過了一年（Headington Prep學校說我4歲的時候就太高級了，無法接受，所以我直接去了P.1），可能是因為我較佳的閱讀技能（感謝我在利物浦的幼兒園），我確實認為值得嘗試。 我認為如果孩子對閱讀沒有信心，就很難享受閱讀的樂趣，閱讀對我來說很重要

這就是我博士論文中的獻詞。

另一篇關於教孩子語言的文章

Week 1 in Chiangmai: Homeschooling a K2 kid in Chinese

Week 1 in Chiangmai….  Read on for the biggest shock I’ve had so far! + How to get a K2 kid started on phonics in 1.5 hours:  from “don’t know” to figuring out words & covering 1 term’s worth of phonics in 10 days! #crashcourseinphonics

Our 1^st week in Chiangmai, my biggest shock occurred 3 days in:  R’s level of reading.  This is someone who could recently “read” the whole of Rory the Dinosaur: Me and My Dad by himself out loud.  I always knew he’d memorized the book, but I recently discovered that if I took “DAD” out of context and asked him what the word was, he had no idea. (By the way, R has just turned 5).  This is my 2^nd shock regarding R’s education.  My 1^st shock occurred when he was 6 months old, which is related to our choice of preschool <link to post on leaving hk> (perhaps I will write about that in a future post!)

As he is about to start primary school in September, I ordered English 10-Minute Weekly Workouts: Phonics - Reception: ideal for catching up at home (CGP Primary Phonics).  I remembered CGP revision guides from my A-level days as succinct and eye-catching, so I was quite excited when I saw they did it for K2 level (yes, I’m quite a nerd…) plus I liked that it covered the whole year’s syllabus in 36 worksheets and was intended to assess the child.  It was mainly to reassure myself that his English was up to scratch (how much was a 5-year-old expected to know anyway?!  He could speak fluent English already!) and to fill in any minor deficiencies (I thought).  He did 1 workout daily, which meant each day he covered the equivalent of 1 week’s topic each day.  The 1^st 3 worksheets were quite encouraging…  They reviewed phase 1 sounds, which is basically just listening and communicating taught before reception. (By the way, the phase 1 resource was forwarded to me by my high-school friend A, who homeschools all 5 of her children in UK!...  Any Headingtonians reading this, let me know if you have figured out who A is!)  After covering the 1^st set of phase 2 sounds in worksheet no.3:  s,a,t,p (I guess they were the easiest!), he started to really struggle, with scores plunging from 5/5 to 2-3/5…

Suddenly, he was supposed to figure out how to read a whole word! (Something that was not taught at school):

And the next week (next day for poor R), he was supposed to read a sentence!

In panic, I texted A & her advice was very reassuring…

 How to get them to blend sounds?  He can figure out d-a-d but not that it’s dad 😅

A:  It's part of the learning process. He has to repeat after you 'd-a-d, dad' everyday for some time.  Some kids need just one week to get the concept but some need more time. Just do the same exercise 2 times everyday while you are adding new phonics. They will get the idea one day.

 I’m an impatient person, so it was nice to hear some kind of time frame.  Next, I texted V (previously featured here), who was a kindergarten teacher and has a primary school kid.

V:  Yea I taught him very basic things like the sound of the 26 alphabets. He gradually learned to blend and distinguish exceptional words through reading together.

She then sent me these pictures:

Right, how could I drum it into R?  I was running low on quota, as every time I asked him to do the worksheet, he was already complaining he was tired and he would do it later.  He liked reading though and it was more passive than doing worksheets.

After some googling I found this website, which offers free e-books.  Looking at the 4–5-year-old books, I felt they were too difficult, as they featured sentences.  I then searched for 3–4-year-old books and found Read Write Inc. Phonics: Sound Blending Book 1 for free.  When I clicked into it, it was just right & followed the curriculum in his workbook!  After each worksheet every day, I would look up the corresponding words that covered the sounds he had learned (handily, the book is usually arranged roughly in the same order) and go over the book from the beginning to wherever he was up to.  On Day 6 (right after covering half a term of phonics the day before) when he finished the book, I felt like he suddenly had a breakthrough, recognizing words instead of answering “I don’t know” every time.  Considering I only started panicking on Day 3, that was not bad progress at all (although the previous 3 days were spent in despair, so it still felt like a long time!) 

I wanted to continue the Sound Blending books and found a list of the words covered in each book.  I decided to make my own books, since I can’t get them in Chiangmai…  I wrote them on paper made from Elephant poo, as we’d been to the Elephant Poopoo paper park (more about this in the next post!)  They look a bit like caveman drawings:

R finished a whole term of phonics on Day 10, learning all the Phase 2 sounds and a few high-frequency (tricky) words:

Set 1:

s, a, t, p

at, a, sat, pat, tap, sap, as

Set 2:

i – it, is, sit, pit, tip

n – an, in, nip, pan, nap

m – am, man, mat, map, Tim

d – dad, and, sad, dim, Sid

Set 3:

g – tag, gag, sag, gas, pig

o – got, on, not, top, dog

c – can, cot, cop, cap, cod

k – kid, kit, Kim, Ken

Set 4:

ck – kick, sack, dock, sick, pocket

e – get, pet, ten, net, pen

u – up, mum, run, mug, cup

r – rip, ram, rat, rocket, carrot

Set 5:

h – had, him, his, hot, hut

b – but, big, back, bed, bus

f, ff – of, if, off, fit, fog, puff

l, ll – let, leg, lot, bell, doll

ss – less, hiss, mass, mess, boss

Phase 2 tricky words:

the, to, no, go, I, into

He still struggled to remember tricky words, especially as they cannot be sounded out, but I assume if they are repeated highly frequently, he will get the hang of it!

And finally, how did I arrive at 1.5 hours for getting a kid started on phonics?  15 minutes a day (10 minutes worksheet + 5 mins of words from the sound blending books) x 6 days = 1.5 hours!

If you are interested in further posts about phonics progress, please let me know.  The next post will be about Chinese homeschooling (requested by my friend)!

P.S.  Why bother?  1 friend who was an international kindergarten teacher in HK asked, “Don’t they give all kids with ESL (English as a Second Language) extra tutoring anyway in UK?”  However, by my calculations I would wonder whether it is not just easier for the school to get him to repeat reception (K2), since he missed a whole year’s worth?  Otherwise, they would have to fund an extra tutor, and he would need help with P.1 English too, which he would find difficult because he would have almost no foundation to build upon.  There is also a national phonics assessment at the end of P.1.  If the results are published, would the school prefer to have a student repeat a year, so their scores look better?  Repeating a year is not the end of the world, but considering I skipped a year at this stage (Headington Prep school said I was too advanced for reception at 4 years old, so I went straight to P.1), likely because of my advanced reading skills (thanks to my preschool in Liverpool), I do think it is worth an attempt.  If a child does not feel confident in reading, it is difficult to enjoy it I think, and reading is important to me:

This is the dedication in my thesis.

Other posts on teaching R languages

 Week 1 in Chiangmai: Homeschooling a K2 kid in Chinese