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Hi ladies-
I am a brand new homeschooling mom, this will be my first year and I have a question about Beyond. I have looked carefully at the placement chart and have decided that my daughter will best fit into Beyond. She attended Kindergarten last year in public school and already went through a K phonics program there. While she did really well with it last year and is reading pretty well, I wouldn't call her an independent reader yet. So my questions is...does the Beyond curriculum cover phonics at this level or do I need to supplement with my own phonics program? Also, if I do need to get a separate phonics program, what do I get? Everything I have looked at starts at a K level and I think that would be a lot of redoing things for her.

I have looked at Explode the Code and am wondering if that would be something good to add to Beyond or if I really need it at all?

Thank so much for your advice,
Rachel

Hi Rachel, I just wanted to say hi and welcome!

I can't answere your question all that well about beyond as I am doing LHFHG with my dd (kindergarten), but from what I understand you will need to supplement a phonics program with it. Other than that I can't help you to know what would be a good fit, as the book I'm using will start us through this year but finish us next year.

I'm sure some of the other fabulous ladies here will help you more than I can.

I think you'll find that you will love HOD though! And again, welcome!

Hi and welcome!

Yes, you would need to have a separate phonics program for Beyond. Explode The Code would be great and you can check out placement over at their website. Or you could look into one of the programs Carrie recomends on the HOD site, although I have not personally used either of those. You could also use something like Phonics Pathways. HTH!

I am not sure about phonics in Beyond since my daughter is in LHFHG, but I use Explode the Code and she is really enjoying it. It is also very user friendly.

One thing you could do would the emerging readers set ... based on your saying she reads pretty well just not independent yet.

hth

Thanks ladies for your help!

I was planning on doing the emerging readers set with her, I am hoping they won't be too hard. I am assuming that the Beginning Readers Set is for a child who is just starting a phonics program, right?

I am totally new to this , so not sure how smart of a question this is but...........how long do you typically do a phonics program? Is it something you do for "years" or just until you feel the child is an independent reader? or even less than that? If my dd went back to public school this year, I am not even sure how much they would be "working" on phonics.

Rachel

HI Rachel! I don't think I''ve "met" you yet, so Welcome

I am not a pro at this...but here's my experience and understanding. In Kindergarten I think that kiddos usually learn short vowel sounds and consonants...but not vowel digraphs, the different ways to do long vowels, special sounds like "soft g", etc. My guess is that your daughter still needs phonics, but just won't need to start at the beginning. The HOD programs have a box in the daily lessson plans that says to do phonics or your reading program...but the actual phonics lessons aren't in the plans. I love this because each family is going to have preferences as to how to teach their kids to read, and each child progresses at a different speed. You could get whatever phonics program you wanted and breeze through the early lessons until you hit things that are new to your daughter and continue from there. (Maybe you could even talk to your dd's teacher from last year to see what all was covered in K. Most schools do phonics for K, 1st, and 2nd grades.)

The Emerging Readers that are scheduled in the HOD guides start at a 2nd grade reading level and go up from there. (These same readers are scheduled in the Bigger... guide, so if you get through phonics part way through the year you can start them and finish the next year. )

HTH!
Kathleen

Rachel,

I just wanted to welcome you to HOD and to the boards! We're glad you're here!

Depending on how well your little honey reads, you could either do the Emerging Reader set along with Explode the Code (to finish out your phonics instruction), or you could first finish out the last half of phonics instruction, using any program you desire (and then move into the Emerging Reader Set).

Of the two phonics programs that we carry, The Reading Lesson would be easier to pick up in the middle (as it uses less coding than Reading Made Easy). However, if your daughter is already reading level 1 and 2 books quite well, then using the Emerging Reader Set with Explode the Code would be fine too.

Let us know if you have other questions. The ladies on the board are wonderful about helping and encouraging one another!

Blessings,
Carrie