Emerging Readers Schedule ?Half Speed?

[psreit]

DD will be 8 in May and 2nd grade this fall. We will do Beyond. Although dd is still working in a phonics program, which I plan to continue in 2nd grade, I would really like to begin the ER books. She is reading slowly and will melt down at times if it gets to be too much. Some days she can be quick to read words and other days it seems like she has a mental block and just struggles even on words she read well the day before. I'm not sure how much her vision plays into it as well. We follow up regularly with an eye specialist, so that part is being dealt with. I glanced over the ER schedule and saw the number of pages per day in some of them. I was wondering if it would work to just read half of what is scheduled per day, at least to start. That way she wouldn't get overwhelmed with a lot of reading at once. Has anyone done that? Would it mess anything up? Just curious. I think dd needs something more 'fun' to read than just phonics. Any thoughts?

[krismoose]

We're working our way through the ERs and, while we haven't done less than the scheduled pages, I don't think there would be any problems doing so. You could just look at the questions before she starts reading and stop her once she's read enough to answer 1 or 2 of the questions, and finish up the next day. I know my ds' enthusiasm increased when we started reading the ER books, it really did encourage him to keep on reading!

[Mommamo]

In the easiest Bible I'm not sure you would want to just read half the pages. If I am remembering correctly, it's only 3 pages that they have to read. (It looks like more in the guide because of all the pictures) One thing you might do to go half speed is alternate sentences with her. Then the next day, you would switch who reads what. So you're still going half speed, but you're reading the whole story both days. Also, I think that would probably help her confidence some. I did that a little bit with some other books when my dd was just starting out. Another thing we loved that really got her motivated was the "You Read to Me, I'll Read to You" books. We did those alongside the ERs and had a lot of fun with them.

All that being said, in the later books I think you could probably just read half the pages. You probably could with the Bible too, I just know the my dd wouldn't have wanted to stop in the middle of a story. She loved getting to read the Bible herself.

[psreit]

Thanks for the replies, Kristen and Mammamo. We did try the Early Readers Bible earlier this year and then stopped. I think dd could handle those stories. Maybe I will even have her start reading in that again now. Maybe not every day, but it would be a start. Then I will know how it's going to go. Hopefully till August her reading skills will have blossomed. I really need to start her in those, no matter what. I think, too, that it may motivate her more in her reading.

[HollyS]

I bought the ERs to use with DS at the beginning of the year. He could read it slowly and would often lose interest after a couple pages. I decided to wait until he was reading a little faster. We went back to our McGuffey readers since the readings are only a page a day. Last month, I decided to give the ERs another try and he's doing very well. I'm really glad we waited a bit and I don't have to push him to finish each day.

[psreit]

Holly,
I do have some easier readers here that I was just looking at this evening. I may have her read some in those before I have her read the ER Bible. I don't know if it is her eye situation (she wears prism glasses due to a problem at birth) or if she just isn't 'getting' some of it yet, but some days she just really struggles. Then, some days she does great. Maybe having stories to read will help.

[my3sons]

Pam - I was wondering if she has done the BOB books? When our dc reached the phase they were wanting real "books" to read along with their phonics, we started them on the BOB books. They are short and funny. I purposely tried to have them start on the BOB books when they could really read them well, when they were almost "beneath them". This was so they had the thought, "These are so easy - reading is so easy!" I would maybe wait to start the Emerging Readers if you think it will really frustrate her. We did do both Bibles and extended the ERS easily that way, and enjoyed the extra time that afforded my middle ds to ease into the set. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[psreit]

Julie,
I did get some Bob books, but they didn't seem to appeal to dd too much. I actually kept some readers from our 'retired' curriculum and a friend gave me some readers from another curriculum. Some of them are a little bit easier than the Early Readers Bible. I got one of them out today and gave dd a choice as to what she would like to read, the Early Readers Bible or the reader, and she picked the reader. It has easier words and larger print. I think that her vision is still playing into this reading difficulty. She will see the eye specialist again this spring. She wears prism glasses, but the dr. talked about some other vision therapy using the computer. I'm not sure if she will begin that or not. I think I will stick to the easier readers for now, just to give her practice and something beside the phonics lessons. She did get excited when she read from that today. She even asked to read more than what I was going to have her read. Maybe that will boost her confidence and this summer I will try the Early Readers Bible again. Are the two Bibles read back to back, or can they be broken up with other books? Anyway, that is what I'm going to try at this point. Thanks for the suggestions.

[my3sons]

HOD intended for families to choose 1 of the 2 Bibles instead of both, so HOD didn't schedule them back to back, but rather as an either/or type choice. We did read them back to back, starting with "The Early Reader's Bible" and then moving onto "The Beginner's Bible". We did this to stretch out the ERS. I was glad to have a double dose of the Bible, and my ds enjoyed reading the stories too.

In Christ,
Julie

[psreit]

Julie,
We do have both Bibles. So, if I stretch the ER books for two years using the supplemental titles, I can split them up. Yes, having more Bible is always good.