I need a VERY gentle learn-to-read program

[Karenwith4]

Hi

I have 4.5 y/o twins. My son is learning to read quickly and easily by osmosis basically. We do have some phonics type games and we play word games etc but we aren't doing anything formal as that's not our style. His sister is not 'getting it' yet - which is fine by me but she's upset about it. She is also my kid who wants to go to school because she thinks she would learn to read there.

She has asked me to teach her to read but is frustrated by some of our attempts at basic phonics. She wants a program "like they have in school". I however don't want anything really prescriptive and would prefer a gentle games based approach. (Cheap would be good too - lol) We have tried studydog which she will play for a while but computer games in general don't hold her interest much.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? We're secular relaxed eclectic homeschoolers generally.

Thanks in advance
Karen

[Nickarolaberry]

if you do t.v. the learning leapfrog series (Letter Factory, Code Word Caper, Math Factory, etc.) are really good. DD1 really "got it" from that series and then we have been building on that by a lot of reading. She also likes us to spell out words for us for her to write (she likes to write birthday party invitations, lol). If you can pick up a Leap Pad secondhand, that might be fun for her as well.

[HappyHSer]

Can she use a computer?

There's starfall.com.

You could download study dog.

You could get an inexpensive Hooked on Phonics set from ebay.

Happy Phonics from Love 2 Learn is good.

The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading is very "schoolish" if that's what she's looking for.

You can go at your own pace for all of them.