Monday, April 29, 2013

Sometimes Y

"Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise--even in their own field." ~Isaac Asimov

I'm currently in the process of preparing my sons first grade home school curriculum. He taught himself how to read when he was four and can read almost anything now (he'll be six in June), but he's never had any phonics training, so I decided I'll review phonetics with him to boost his confidence and skill as a reader. This brought me to the letter Y, this mysterious letter that is sometimes a vowel and sometimes a consonant.  I didn't know what made it which, so, in order to teach my son, I looked it up.

Y is a vowel when it takes the place of a regular vowel, as in system, syllable or mystery. It is also a vowel when it creates a diphthong, as in boy (oi).

Y is a consonant when it appears at the start of a syllable where there is anther vowel, as in yam, yes or player. 



Pretty simple.

Tomorrow's post - Letter Z




13 comments:

  1. That is something I have learned today about the letter Y. Good post.

    Yvonne,.

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  2. How did your son learn to read by himself, was it because you read books to him at bedtime? I was recently thinking of how I learned to read and it was because an adult read to me every night and I followed and memorized the words.

    Thanks for stopping at my blog
    Manzanita
    wanna buy a duck

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    1. I've always read to my son a lot, not just at bedtime. I'm not totally sure how he taught himself to read, but I'm sure reading to him played a big role.

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  3. Seems easy until you try to get your child to actually learn it. We homeschooled 5th and 6th grade and he was phonetic challenged. Still, he is back in public school and the highest reader in the school so some of it must have sunk in.

    http://completelycalifornia.blogspot.com/

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    1. That's wonderful that your son is on track now, Ann. Thanks for stopping by!

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  4. It's a letter that bats clean-up. We needed the consonant, and our vowel system is so messed up that it had to step in and represent the actual sound we make for the word 'I.' Y is a trooper.

    John at The Bathroom Monologues

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  5. Love, love, love the quote from Asimov! Y is an interesting letter. In Spanish they think it's a very exotic letter since it's rarely used.

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    1. I know, that quote is fabulous. Interesting about the Spanish. Thanks for your visit, Steven!

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  6. Replies
    1. It's a good one, for sure. Thanks for stopping by.

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