Teaching six year old to read

help.... my six year old is really struggling. tried evrything.. books, puzzles, internet, tutoring ..

No learning disability, hearing , eye sight all ok.

Any magic answers out there ?

No magic answer but keep at it and make it light and fun.


Have you tried the Oxford Reading Tree books?


If your child is not interested in even trying you must keep reading out aloud to him/her. Make it short interesting and fun. Maybe some children are just late and will catch up later.

thanks so much for your suggestions.

My daughter was not interested in learning to read at all, so much so that in year 1 her teacher called me to school to tell me that I needed to do something - of course I was mortified!!

The best thing I found was the Ruth Miskin workbooks. I used to find them at Dymocks bookshop. You can get different levels - start with the easiest. Everyday I would do one page with my child. At times my child was not interested and resisted doing any work but I persevered and made sure we worked on one page each day. Then I bought the Oxford Reading Tree books - again start with the easiest. We read one book together everyday. There is not a lot of choice in HK bookshops, try on line.


Sure enough, the teacher noticed a huge improvement after 2 or 3 months and because of the praise she received from her, my child was more keen to learn.


It also takes a lot of patience and encouragement and love and praise.......

it's really helpful to have your child listen to a simple book along with a recording of the words using headphones. i insisted my son do 15 mins a day of Jolly Phonics and it helped him learn, but the tape recordings helped the most.the idea is the kid listens to one book until he/she memorizes it. then another, then another while simultaneously learning simple letters. he/she can spend 2 weeks on one book, just listening to it every day two times while looking at the words. some of the oxford books have the CD's with them.

Not a magic answer but I can tell you what worked for my daughter. Its a program called 'Hooked on Phonics'. I started it when my daughter was 5 and now at age 7 she is reading at a 6th grade level (Just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on her own!)- I swear by it! It comes in a kit (I would start at kit "K"or "pre-K" for your child's level) and you spend 10 minutes a night doing a lesson. From a parent's perspective, Its really, really easy to follow and teach. From a child's perspective - it is really logical and she felt really proud for being able to do each lesson. There are stickers, rewards and books for her to read in the kit. She looked forward to it because during those 10 minutes everynight, she new all my attention belonged o her alone. (she gets lots of other attention from me of course, but kids look forward to any time they know is exclusively theirs :-) My daughter and I did Hooked on Phonics before bed instead of reading a bedtime story. It is readily available in the US, I also saw it at the big bookfair in Wan Chai last year, but I really had to search for it. It comes in programs from Pre-K to Year 5. It is about $50USD per level but it comes with everything you need.


http://www.amazon.com/Hooked-Phonics-Learn-Kindergarten-System/dp/1931020299

Does anyone know where I can buy Hooked on Phonics for Toddlers in Hong Kong?