Which phonics do you suggest for 1st?

[kayben]

Hi, My dd will start LHFHG in the Fall for 1st along with her sister for K. MY 1st is reading (not well, and not fluently) but can read cvc words and basic sight words. My question is which program would work best of the two Carrie suggests for picking up in the middle somewhere. Like, She knows how to read and write all letters and knows all sounds she did Abeka K and so knows how to "mark" vowels and basic rules. I like the idea of Reading made easy with the hands on part, but I read somewhere that it is easier to jump in the middle of The Reading Lesson. (She is a slow learner and easily frustrated... two years in K. IF that makes any difference.)

I have a feeling the K dd will pick up on all of it very quickly although I really haven't worked with her yet. She willl be 5 in Oct and I am going to use this program for her very loosely and see how she does.

Thanks,
Rebecca

[Tree House Academy]

I didn't follow my own advice here (and I probably should have), but I think Reading Made Easy would be your best bet. When I was asking about phonics and have a ds in the middle somewhere, RME was what was suggested to me. You can start in the middle with your dd in 1st, and at the beginning with your dd in K. But I am pretty sure BOTH programs suggested here are excellent. You really can't go wrong as long as you get something and stay the course!

Welcome to the group.

[mansmom]

I say Reading Made Easy as well. I'm working very slowly through RME with my son...so I can't say that I have used the entire books successfully yet. However, I have used many other reading programs and this one makes sense to me...lots of different activites to teach the different concepts. Also she now has workbooks that go along with each lesson and they are AWESOME. So when my son has trouble or gets frsutrated, we spread the workbook pages out for that lesson. When he gets it easily...we do the workbook pages faster. I think it is an awesome program that you can work through at your own pace...my first daughter struggled with reading and I can really see how RME would have made a big difference for her.

[jensmom]

I used RME for my dd for the 1st grade. She had gotten incomplete phonics instruction in her church kindergarten program. We started at the beginning and did more than 1 lesson each day until we caught up to where she really needed more time. I would suggest doing this rather than starting in the middle. It was much better, I think, to start out and not only learn the flow of the program but also to have those great successes early on before it started to get a bit "tougher". We did sometimes as many as 3 lessons per day at the beginning. It was a fabulous program and she is now sounding out EVERYTHING! LOL! She is very happy that she can now read almost anything.

Judy

[spidermansmum]

We started homeschooling Nathan after a couple of terms in school-He knew his letters and some sight words and some phonic combinations.We tried a few things but we found The Reading Lesson worked well.When I started I missed off the first couple of lessons-beacue they were well below his level,over the next few chapters I picked out a few pages to do.If he obviously 'got it' we went on to the next lesson .We are now on week 27 of LHFHG and Lesson 17 of The Reading Lesson.I would recommend TRL because you can skip past earlier lessons and its easy enough to pick through lessons to cover the phonic lessons they havent learnt yet

[kayben]

OK...lol so they both sound great! They will both be scripted for my K'er so that will help also. (I'm thinking of taking two years to do the program for my 4 yr old.) Thank you all and please if anyone else wants to chime in about the ease of use for two levels at one time. Thanks oh and which is more hands on.
Thanks so much for all the warm welcomes. I am officially in as today we did day one of LhTH with my 2 and 4 yr olds. It was awesome!!!!!

[tmcg]

My daughter used The Reading Lesson. Now each child is different and so are the parents so some of what you pick I think has to do with each family's style or needs. I was overwhelmed by Reading Made Easy. I went and looked "inside" the book online and there was too little white space on each page for me. I liked The Reading Lesson because it was very repetitive so if you wanted more practice it was there, but by the time I used it with my daughter she was skipping ahead quickly. To break things up once she learned enough, I had some hand-me down Abeka readers (copyright was 1979!) and I had her read some of those because I found that practice material was hard to come by. So, that was a good combination. Library books often mix complicated and easy words which can be frustrating. So, now I am using The Reading Lesson with my 2nd daughter who is 5 and she will reluctantly sit down but once I put in the CD-ROM she was excited and asking to do it. You would think I had just offered her chocolate cake or something. So, I think the fact that you can use the book or the CD-ROM or both is awesome. It does a good job. My oldest is almost 7 in a few months and earlier this year she was reading the "Little House on the Prairie" books independently. She is just probably good at reading but it did not start out that way.....I thought I would go insane trying to teach her. I started out last year before I had The Reading Lesson and we both ended each session hating it. I think she learned but it was miserable. The Reading Lesson gave me hope that it could be a positive experience. My second daughter made me worry but then the CD-ROM saved the day. I would suggest that you look "inside" the books online and see what appeals to you. Highly recommend TRL, though.

HTH,
Tammy
dd, 6 yo, 1st grade
dd, 5 yo, Pre-K/Kindergarten
ds, almost 3, Pre-K

[kayben]

Tammy,
Thank you so much for the suggestion to Look inside the books. I will definitely do that. So the CD Rom, is it like a computerized version of the book and you can flip through the pages on the computer? Or is there an interactive piece to the CD's?
Thanks
Rebecca

My daughter used The Reading Lesson. Now each child is different and so are the parents so some of what you pick I think has to do with each family's style or needs. I was overwhelmed by Reading Made Easy. I went and looked "inside" the book online and there was too little white space on each page for me. I liked The Reading Lesson because it was very repetitive so if you wanted more practice it was there, but by the time I used it with my daughter she was skipping ahead quickly. To break things up once she learned enough, I had some hand-me down Abeka readers (copyright was 1979!) and I had her read some of those because I found that practice material was hard to come by. So, that was a good combination. Library books often mix complicated and easy words which can be frustrating. So, now I am using The Reading Lesson with my 2nd daughter who is 5 and she will reluctantly sit down but once I put in the CD-ROM she was excited and asking to do it. You would think I had just offered her chocolate cake or something. So, I think the fact that you can use the book or the CD-ROM or both is awesome. It does a good job. My oldest is almost 7 in a few months and earlier this year she was reading the "Little House on the Prairie" books independently. She is just probably good at reading but it did not start out that way.....I thought I would go insane trying to teach her. I started out last year before I had The Reading Lesson and we both ended each session hating it. I think she learned but it was miserable. The Reading Lesson gave me hope that it could be a positive experience. My second daughter made me worry but then the CD-ROM saved the day. I would suggest that you look "inside" the books online and see what appeals to you. Highly recommend TRL, though.

HTH,
Tammy
dd, 6 yo, 1st grade
dd, 5 yo, Pre-K/Kindergarten
ds, almost 3, Pre-K

[spidermansmum]

Congratulations on your first day of HS the littlies

[tmcg]

[quote="kayben"]Tammy,
Thank you so much for the suggestion to Look inside the books. I will definitely do that. So the CD Rom, is it like a computerized version of the book and you can flip through the pages on the computer? Or is there an interactive piece to the CD's?
Thanks
Rebecca

Rebecca,
It is interactive and fun. If the letter is "n" then there may be a picture of a nest and if you click on it an egg cracks open. There are 5 sections for each lesson including fill in the blank to complete the word and some other things my 5 yo loves. It does coordinate with the book chapters so if you do both it works okay.

Tammy

[kayben]

This sounds like a plus! My dd's love the computer, starfall.com etc.
Rebecca
this just might make my choice!
Thank you Tammy

Tammy,
Thank you so much for the suggestion to Look inside the books. I will definitely do that. So the CD Rom, is it like a computerized version of the book and you can flip through the pages on the computer? Or is there an interactive piece to the CD's?
Thanks
Rebecca

Rebecca,
It is interactive and fun. If the letter is "n" then there may be a picture of a nest and if you click on it an egg cracks open. There are 5 sections for each lesson including fill in the blank to complete the word and some other things my 5 yo loves. It does coordinate with the book chapters so if you do both it works okay.

Tammy

[kayben]

Thank you!! And how is your little man doing this week? We did day two today and love it. But I think schooling a 3 and 4 year old is a little easier than schooling the whole crew!!
Rebecca

Congratulations on your first day of HS the littlies