Parent: I think what you are saying is, don’t depend on school to teach phonics?
Dr. B: Squeak globally, act locally.
Parent: Huh?
Dr. B: Advocate for the teaching of phonics in your school system, but teach it to your kids at home, before they even get to school.
Parent: Easier said than done.
Dr. B: Why do you say that?
Parent: When am I supposed to squeeze phonics instruction into our busy days?
Dr. B: It doesn’t have to be long and complicated. Besides, too much phonics at one time can be pretty boring.
Parent: So lump all the little should’s together, and get them over with? Take your vitamins, brush your teeth and study your phonics?
Dr. B: That doesn’t sound very appealing.
Parent: Nope!
Dr. B: So how do you get your kids to take their vitamins and brush their teeth?
Parent: The vitamins taste like Sweet Tarts, so it’s more a matter of limiting them to one-a-day.
Dr. B: And the teeth?
Parent: That’s just one of the bedtime tasks necessary before story time starts.
Dr. B: I’m glad that Bedtime Ritual is working for you.
Parent: Oh, my yes. It works great. Now, are you going to add phonics to the bedtime “to-do’s”?
Dr. B: That would probably work, but then it takes on the same appeal as teeth brushing and face washing.
Parent: Necessary drudgery?
Dr. B: Something like that. Are you pretty good at holding to the limits of when story time ends?
Parent: Yep. It was briefly a source of conflict, but they’ve adjusted.
Dr. B: Good.
Parent: Max just gets started early and has extra time for stories and Zoey has a flashlight in her bed she uses to prolong stories for herself.
Dr. B: So, Max will have a Roth IRA before he’s twelve.
Parent: And Zoey will be trying to get him to invest in her latest venture.
Dr. B: What if you tacked on an extra five minutes of phonics at the end of story time?
Parent: As in stretching the limits?
Dr. B: As in linking extra time with Mom or Dad with phonics practice.
Parent: Doesn’t that open the flood gates to other requests for extra time?
Dr. B: You don’t think you can handle those requests for exceptions?
Parent: Actually, I don’t mind them. I’m willing to listen to a well-crafted argument.
Dr. B: Good. Let me know how it turns out.
Later
Dr. B: So, did you try the Phonics at Bedtime?
Parent: Yeah. Actually, it’s been working pretty well.
Dr. B: How did you present it?
Parent: I said, “Do you want to do ten minutes of word games before lights out?”
Dr. B: And you explained that it was extra time?
Parent: Yeah. Zoey asked if we had to tell Mom.
Dr. B: Ha. She thought she was getting away with something?
Parent: Yeah. Max wasn’t so sure he wanted to do it. He thought it was kind of like breaking the house rules.
Dr. B: How did you handle that?
Parent: I told him it was up to him. He could have lights out at the regular time, or he could do the extra word games. His choice.
Dr. B: What did he think?
Parent: He wasn’t quite sure he wanted to do some silly games.
Dr. B: What did you do?
Parent: I basically shifted gears and explained to him the idea that phonics was like the key for breaking the code of how to read.
Dr. B: So, you told him what the payoff was for the time spent?
Parent: Yeah, that’s kind of how Max works. He wants to know the “why”, the “what”, and the “how”.
Later
Dr. B: How’s the Bedtime Phonics plan working?
Parent: It’s been easier than I would have guessed.
Dr. B: Good. So, tell me what you’ve been doing. Have you been using a program like Hooked on Phonics?
Parent: I tried to use the Hooked on Phonics activities, but each kid had other ideas.
Dr. B: Is that good or bad?
Parent: Just the way my kids operate.
Dr. B: Now I’m really curious.
Parent: Well, as you might have guessed, once Max recognized that phonics provided him with the secret decoder ring, he wanted nothing to do with the fun and games activities. He just wanted the basic nuts ‘n’ bolts of letters, sounds and rules.
Dr. B: Ha, that kid will do well in life.
Parent: As long as you have enough red meat to feed him.
Dr. B: So he’s making fast progress?
Parent: Yeah, he wants to incorporate decoding into story time.
Dr. B: Are you keeping up?
Parent: I’m having to read ahead in the How to Teach Phonics materials, so I can be ready to explain a new rule or exception.
Dr. B: The English language has lots of those exceptions.
Parent: Yeah, and Max is not crazy about them. He says they should have done a better job of inventing English.
Dr. B: Ha. I like that. Well, he’ll love Spanish, then. And Zoey. Can’t wait to hear what she’s done with the curriculum.
Parent: Yeah. As you might have guessed, we got off the main roads right away.
Dr. B: Give me an example.
Parent: Well, as soon as she learns the sounds letters make, she sets about inventing her own words.
Dr. B: With her own meanings?
Parent: Of course.
Dr. B: Are the words phonetically, correct?
Parent: Yep. However, she is the only one who remembers what the words mean.
Dr. B: Ha. She turned the world upside down. Good for her.
Parent: Guess this is how it feels to be a new reader?
Dr. B: Yeah. Especially one who has not acquired a large verbal vocabulary to map onto the newly decoded words.
Parent: The teaching manual encouraged sounding out nonsense spellings. But …
Dr. B: Only Zoey would think to define the words.
Parent: Yep. The world according to Zoey. That attitude can get old sometimes.
Dr. B: Her personality will serve her well in the long run.
Parent: Did I tell you she flunked her Montessori School Entrance Exam?”
Dr. B: She did what?
Parent: Yeah. We went for a visit and Zoey was doing her own thing. The teacher asked, “Is she always like this?”
Dr. B: And you knew it wasn’t a good fit?
Parent: Yep. School has to fit the kid, not the other way around.
Dr. B: Absolutely.