Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Phonograms

Does anyone know what phonograms are?

Because apparently I really suck at them. Every day Big Kid comes home all charged up about phonograms and I have a very limited idea of what he's trying to convey (something with phonics and hand gestures). Then he asks me to repeat after him and I screw it all up and he's pissed and we all end up frustrated.

I swear I'm doing a reasonable imitation of what he's doing, but he swears not. Just wondering if we have any kindy teachers in the closet who could educate me.

Maybe it's Phonigrams? I don't even know.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know about the hand gestures, but here's a link:
http://www.all-about-spelling.com/phonograms.html

All they basically are are the sounds letters and their blends make.

Another link:
http://www.janbrett.com/phonograms/phonograms_main.htm

TentCamper said...

you've got me. I have no idea...but then again.. I can barely understand what our kids are saying ...they talk so damn fast

Jenn said...

My aunt is a grade one teacher and she tried to explain it to me - I don't get it either. This'll suck when my 3yo goes to kindy. Crap. Here's a website that explains it. I don't understand the website either. Double crap.

http://www.all-about-spelling.com/phonograms.html

Solei said...

Sorry I can't help at all, but I feel your pain! My daughter needs help with her homework already! Kinda makes me feel like I have homework, because I ultimately *have* to sit down & help her. Apparently that's something mothers do.

I even wrote a letter to my daughter's 5th grade teacher to let him know I didn't appreciate the homework.
(I didn't actually send it to him, just posted it on my blog!)

Good luck!
=0D

Joy said...

All of it makes me feel dumb. My son is in 1st grade and it doesn't get any easier. They have all these ways of learning now that are suppose to make it easier on the kids but really it makes it harder on the parent because we don't understand.

My big one is the level of trust that is put upon my son to acurately tell me what his homework is-that is right he writes it himself in the agenda everyday, and most days I have no clue and end up calling another mom to make sure he is doing the right thing.

Unknown said...

I guess you secretly hate me b/c I'm a non-commenter, but an avid reader. You entertain the hell out of me.

Anyway, I used to teach kinder, and if it's what I think, it's basically visual phonics. It's the hand gesture of the sound that each letter makes. Not to get confused with sign language. Visual phonics is a great way to help kids distinguish each letter and for kids to realize that each letter makes a sound. Some of the gestures actually correlate to the movement the tongue makes when saying the sound. Be very happy that BK is learning this. My oldest 4 1/2 is in pre-k and I so wish they were learning this, but I don't want to bombard the teacher with the "hey I did this when I taught" b/c even though I'm confident I was a better teacher, I keep it to myself ;)

Sorry for the long comment, but great work on here. LK reminds me on my youngest, he's 19 mo and very into "exploring" EVERYTHING!
Louleu

Piece o' Coconut Cake said...

Uh, isn't it an old-fashioned record player?

Renee said...

Darn, as a home schooler of a 1st grader and a kindergartener, I should totally know this stuff, shouldn't I?! Waaaaaaah - I suck!!!! My kids are gonna be dumb. :(

-The Renee

Melanie Sheridan said...

Great. Now I'm worried this is something my kid should have learned but didn't.