How to teach the subject english to my son who is in grade 1

In grade 1 they are expected to learn

1) spellings of lengthy words like "frightened" , "watching" etc..... in KG he learnt the phonetics which most of the time does not help in learning spellings... in the given example i do not know why "gh" exists in the word frightened nor do I know why "t" exists in watching..my question is what is the best way to teach children such spelling...trust me he is completely lost... i am completely lost... and he ends up mugging something...which eventually he forgets... does this happen to only to my child or is this symptom common across... wanted to hear from experienced ladies out there...please let me know how to tackle this... is mugging the only way out ??

Mugging is never a solution,especially not in languages.English like any other language has its rules and peculiarities in pronunciation etc which just have to accepted! Now,the words you have mentioned like FIGHT,'watCH' are blend words where GH and CH are blends.Ideally this should have been covered at school,but you can do your bit too. Identify a list of such words everyday.Write them down,highlighting the blends.Make your son read and write them,and try to use in a sentence.Try working in a systematic way.Like one day,you cover BL,CL,SL etc..then CH,SH...then GH.If you work on a set of sounds together,it will make more sense.Repeat the whole set over a period of time.
Ask your son to look for blend words in books,magazines etc.use them while talking.
2) Grammer like nouns / verbs etc - he somehow can't differentiate between verbs and nouns... for example if I ask is "snake" a noun or verb... he says its a verb.. because snake moves and so an action word :bonk... how to teach him to differenciate between these?

---I'm not sure about this one.Sometimes you need to explain in a different way.Maybe the method of teaching has to be changed. In simple terms Nouns are nothing but names.So you can show a picture and ask what is the 'name' of the creature.f he says 'snake',then tell him that the name is a noun. Verbs are action words,so ask him a question-what is that boy doing ?RUNNING - thats an action ,something he is doing,so thats a verb.Take a sentence and ask him to fill in blanks etc. There are many ways.

3) Punctuations - he does not seem to be getting a hold on when to use a full stop and when to use a question mark...
--Do you read with your son?Does he like reading? While reading a book,these things are easy to explain. Any sentence starting with the WHY,WHAT,WHERE,HOW which ask a question end with a ?

My question is -

1) how to make these concepts clear to them
2) is there any online material available which can make things simpler and meaningful for the child to understand?
I dont know if this is useful,but I find reading books the easiest and most fun way to learn a language.
You can also try starfalldotcom.It has read along stories,which clearly spell put words.It is a nice site

I am quite sure he is not a "dud" ... he is quite clear in his maths, science kind of subjects which has a very clear logic to it... he also enjoys these subjects... but english probably turns him off... as he cannot assign a logic to these things...
No child is a dud,dear.Every child has his /her own way to learn things.One might be interested in science,so may pay more attention to that,some like language.Its true for us adults as well.Its a learning process,lots of patience..which I also dont have,but I'm trying.Hope this helps.Let me know

 

Dear Swt Charu
Lovely thread....
Dear Racr
wonderful explaination....
Look forward to more such from erudite Ilites

 

thanks swt.charu for starting this thread, or else we would not have such a nice response from "racr"
i wanted to quote all the replies but it would become lengthy!
and i really liked the way racr suggested about blends...and also about the noun/verb differentiation!
though these things look so easy to us now, the real test is when we have to teach these to kids!

i was looking for some good place to make my DD to read ....will take a look at starfalldotcom!

 

Vjbunny,
Thanks for the kind words!Coming from you,it is deeply appreciated:bowdown

Outofbox - thanks for the appreciation (like your IL name! mine sounds weird,but couldn't come up with anything at that time)
starfall is a nice site,as it give you the option of reading by yourself or if you click on a word you don't know how to pronounce,you hear the audio. So it gives a choice to the reader. A child needs constant re-iteration,so repeating the same sound 'n' number of time does the job!

One can also check out the Ladybird series in blends.They have specific books for different blends.It may be a bit basic,but uses the words in sentences,which explains the meaning well.

 

hey swt.charu,

racr has dissected it well..no mugging up.. and don't break your heart or your sweat over this. he is just 6. he will get the knack of it soon. only keep feeding the curious mind that would want to know why it is prounounced this way in some places and that way in another..

make learning fun. read headlines from newspaper..or if you find it gross for your child..how about taking out young world or the magic pot. now you need to ask him to pick out same phonetic words, and homophones, and the likes..

play scrabbles or word search, you can always print them and work with it for his age..
read name boards, read street names it is fun, but makes him interested.

A child who love logic, thinking skills, need not love grammar yaar.. my son is in 9th and has a classmate who is bad in his english work but does amazingly great in maths and sciences..

Now reading stories to gethers, and asking him to enact, and when he does, asking him good questions like what, how, when, where, why.. those will give the answers for verbs, adjectives, nouns, and lots more..

and to guide him, we need to prep and brush ours, maybe this will help you. (Aww no way i am going to ask you to dust that wren and martin..)
Language in India

and jumpstart series also is a good one..

 

I am delighted with his explanation, impeccable logic and good instincts! The correct emoticon here is :kiss
Note that 'snake' can be a verb as well, as in: "The traffic snaked slowly along the narrow, winding streets, as I sat fuming in the car". Snake (v) = move slowly, creep along.
So, give the little guy some extra points already!
English has so many exceptions that that phonetics is only partly useful. It is probably not taught very well either.
I agree that the best way to teach spelling is to build stronger connections between eye and ear and hand. Note that reading and writing go together. They were both rather late inventions in the history of civilisation - only about 6000 years old. If you cannot read, you cannot write. In some sense reading/writing is less 'natural' than speaking which has a strong innate, genetic component.
So encourage reading, not simply by reading to him, but having him read. He will automatically develop a feel for the language. Make spelling a game. Be very attentive to his interests and find him reading on those topics, no matter what.
Most of all, remember that children develop at different rates, so don't panic.
There is nothing wrong with memorizing spellings of words. There really is very limited logic to most spelling in English.
Practice is key.
Try using spaced-learning & memory techniques. I still use this for myself, I recommend them highly.
See: Welcome to the Mnemosyne Project | The Mnemosyne Project
You will have to put in some effort and make flash-cards to get started, but if you plan to remain an involved mother, then the effort is worthwhile. These techniques are based on the neurobiology of learning and the transfer of new material from short-term to long-term memory. If implemented carefully they work well. I use them routinely for myself.

 

Hi Swt Charu

Same here dear Hopefully will learn some thruogh your this thread

Sokansanah

Thats really good explaination we do really miss those small details a lot...