phonics?

[laehmichal]

my ds is in need of a phonics curriculum, and i am unsure where i want to go with it. we plan to follow a classical approach, he is currently using saxon math and reading the early reader list. i hadn't expected him to be this far along already, as he will only be 5 in may, but he is plugging along and likes his school time, so here we are. we have worked through a few schoolzone workbooks for phonics and reading comp, but i want something more consistent now. any suggestions?

[luvmy2girlz29]

We are using The Ordianry Parents Guide To Teaching Reading. It's working really well for my 6 yr. old dd. We are also using Time4learning which she loves since it's learning through games. Your library might have The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading that way you can preview it to see if it would work for your child. DD also really likes www.starfall.com and www.progressivephonics. They are both free reading sites.

Korrie

[momto4plus4]

Originally Posted by laehmichal

my ds is in need of a phonics curriculum, and i am unsure where i want to go with it. we plan to follow a classical approach, he is currently using saxon math and reading the early reader list. i hadn't expected him to be this far along already, as he will only be 5 in may, but he is plugging along and likes his school time, so here we are. we have worked through a few schoolzone workbooks for phonics and reading comp, but i want something more consistent now. any suggestions?

We used Explode the Code with my oldest and have started it now with my 5-year-old ds. We are doing the Before The Code books with my ds as he's not reading at all but we skipped those with my dd because she already knew her letters and sounds. Both my kids have really enjoyed the program although my dd did not like the writing part but my ds does.

We also use the starfall website that Korrie mentioned and my dd has loved that.

[yllek]

I was in a similar place with my ds when he was 4. I waited to do phonics instruction until he was 5, and his reading just exploded.

One thing that I wish someone had told me when I was trying to choose a phonics program is that at this age (some say particularly for boys), there can be a huge disparity between what they can read and what they can write. I purchased SSWR, but the work was too pencil-and-paper oriented, even with the music and games, which I thought my ds would love. It was a total bust (and an expensive one at that).

I changed tactics and began to develop my own program using Phonics Pathways as a spine. Ds had been playing on Starfall for a while, and we subscribed to the More Starfall content (totally worth it for us). We also did some Progressive Phonics, but its pace was a bit too slow for ds. I made a TON of manipulatives and games (many coming from this site). These were by far some of the most motivating phonics activities that we did. Ds LOVED these and continues to love playing with phonics games. (Please click on that link and download some files to take a look. I think you'll be very impressed to find this resource. It's all just print-and-go). We read Bob books, made our own simple books, and now he's reading somewhere in the 2nd grade level. We added All About Spelling recently, and that adds another dimension to our phonics study. Lastly, we're doing the activities from Words Their Way. It is not the easiest book to wade through, as it is intended for classroom teachers and has a bunch of educator-speak. But, the activities are AWESOME. I think they really consolidate a kid's understanding of phonics and spelling rules, because they are "discovering" the patterns for themselves. There is also the opportunity for parents and kids to discuss those patterns, find "oddballs" or exceptions to the rules, play games for reinforcement, and develop their own word notebook. Lots of phonemic awareness activities too.

Of course, none if this is open-and-go like OPGTR, but my ds loveslovesLOVES our phonics time. He is going to be a word nut, like his mom.

[StormySar]

Originally Posted by luvmy2girlz29

We are using The Ordianry Parents Guide To Teaching Reading. It's working really well for my 6 yr. old dd. We are also using Time4learning which she loves since it's learning through games. Your library might have The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading that way you can preview it to see if it would work for your child. DD also really likes www.starfall.com and www.progressivephonics. They are both free reading sites.

Korrie

That's what we use and have had great success. Starfall helped my children learn their letters while the book helped reinforce sounds and making words. I am taking a small break between a segment with the book though becaus my daughter was having trouble with identifying the cvc words without sounding them out. we've taken a few months just to play games using simple cvc words and she's doing much better. She also had trouble with the amount of sentances that had to be read at once and we startd working with 2-4 sentences per day and worked up to the long page at the end of the segment we're working on. One thing we did that she enjoyed was started a reading notebook, I wrote some sentences in the book and she drew her favorite part of the story. The small stories grew in length over a few weeks and now she's reading the same amount as she had trouble with in the book - we're almost ready to move on to the next segment.

I can't wait to use the book on my next child!

[Savoir Faire]

I'm not the best person to ask about phonics (My daughter doesn't get them) but my son does seem to understand those...and that's what we're sort of teaching him.

Make sure you're working on letter sounds over letter names. Knowing that "C" is "See" isn't going to help him read "c-a-t" better than knowing the sound names.

We've done a variety of things for my youngest. We have homemade sight word games, starfall.com, and he's just started on Progressive Phonics.com. He's only been doing this for maybe 3 weeks and he's doing pretty well.

Might want to check out the book called the Three Rs. Gives some interesting insight into teaching all this!

[luvmy2girlz29]

Originally Posted by StormySar

That's what we use and have had great success. Starfall helped my children learn their letters while the book helped reinforce sounds and making words. I am taking a small break between a segment with the book though becaus my daughter was having trouble with identifying the cvc words without sounding them out. we've taken a few months just to play games using simple cvc words and she's doing much better. She also had trouble with the amount of sentances that had to be read at once and we startd working with 2-4 sentences per day and worked up to the long page at the end of the segment we're working on. One thing we did that she enjoyed was started a reading notebook, I wrote some sentences in the book and she drew her favorite part of the story. The small stories grew in length over a few weeks and now she's reading the same amount as she had trouble with in the book - we're almost ready to move on to the next segment.

I can't wait to use the book on my next child!

Stormysar,

My dd was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of sentences in OPGTR as well. We take turns reading the sentences which is working much better for her.

Korrie

[Bluegoat]

We've been using the little phonics program, Really Reading, on the Tanglewood website, and my 5 year old seems to like it and is havinga lot of success with her reading. It's five or ten min a lesson, and best of all, it's free.