A phonics question, please help.

[Cindie2dds]

I am so sorry this might be long-winded. I wanted to give you all as much information as I could so you could help me with this. My oldest daughter is a natural reader, I don't know how to describe her other than that. She learned letter sounds by two. She was so focused, she then played around with starfall.com on her own and learned how to sound out words. By the time she was four, she was going through CVC books like water and asking for more. Basically, I just kept buying reader books for her and she taught herself how to read. I kind of skipped the whole phonics part, which leaves me in a pickle.

Jordan will be four in July and has no clue, nor the inclination, to learn her letters or how to read. She's a very artsy, tactile, beautiful high-energy child with a short attention span. They couldn't be more different. I marvel at God's Creation with them every day. I need help. I have no idea which program would be better suited for her and when to use one. We are going to be doing LHTH this year, so I figured we would learn letter sounds that way. Then when we move on to LHFHG, how would I know which one to pick? I've looked at both of the ones HOD recommends and I have absolutely no clue which one would fit her because I've never seen a phonics program. I want to help her blossom into a reader by taking her strengths into consideration and wiggling around the weaknesses, but I don't know how.

You can also tell me it's laid out very well for me in LHTH and LHFHG and just chill. That would be okay, too.

Thank you!

[MamaPajama]

I wouldn't worry too much just yet. My DD turned 4 in January and she wants to read, but is not interested in learning how yet. We have Phonics Pathways and The Reading Lesson. If her attention span is short, I would use TRL. PP has short lessons too but there are long word lists that she may find tedious. TRL has some cute pictures and games in it that my DD enjoys (even though we're not really "doing it" yet).

That said, I am letting my DD decide when she's ready. We're doing LHTH this coming year, which will cover letter recognition and sounds. If she decides she wants to take it further we'll do TRL. If not, we'll wait until next year when she does LHFHG.

[Cindie2dds]

Thanks, Khara. The Reading Lesson was my first choice also. Thank you for telling me what you are doing with your four-year old. I never pushed Juliette; in fact, she just surprised me one day when she would read random words. I just stumbled into it, but I know it's not going to be that way with Jordan. I am just going to chill and let Carrie do what she does best, plan for me.

[GinainMD]

For what it's worth, I'm using The Reading Lesson with my third daughter who turned 3 in March. We are using it along side LHTH. This phonics program is perfect for a young learner. Not too much clutter on the pages and short lessons, very gentle. So far we have been very happy with TRL. HTH with your decision.

[Cindie2dds]

It does, Gina, thanks. It's comforting to know I can just sit back any enjoy without the endless searching I've been doing for the past three years. I guess I'm going to get caught up on my laundry and fairy fuzz around the house now.

Blessings!