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Any recommendations for handwriting and phonics?
Opinions on Rod and Staff or Thinking Skills?

DS will be in first grade next year, but I am praying God will speak to my DH's heart and I can start H'schooling after Christmas break.

Thanks Ladies!
M~

Hi- I'm doing LHFHG this year with all of the 1st grade options... Thinking Skills, A Reason for Handwriting A, etc. I really like all of them and have no complaints!

Marcee,

Sara did a great job of answering your questions. I'll move this post over to the Main Board, so more moms will get a chance to respond too. All new posts on the HOD Board begin on the Main Board.

We're glad you're here!

Blessings,
Carrie

Thinking Skills - my ds6 LOVES it. He's on pg 29 right now. At first I thought this was too easy for him, but a few days he's missed a direction so it's good practice for him to concentrate on following specific directions even though what he's asked to do is simple.

Phonics - I chose to use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons since we had begun it a year ago and finished it after we began this school year. He is reading at a 2nd grade level. I was very pleased with 100 Easy Lessons. I chose to have him move into Phonics Pathways (beginning around pg 50 in this book) to learn more of the phonics "rules" for the rest of the year. I have him pick a book each day to read from our bookshelf - easy readers, Dr. Seuss, Nate the Great, etc.

Handwriting - we do our own thing - I bought a stack of first grade lined paper from a teacher store. I write a few words, sentence, date, the verse of the unit, or something else related to that day and he copies in on the lines below. (He had learned to form his letters last year when he attended preschool.)

Rod & Staff - sorry I can't comment about this, we haven't used it.

We're doing LHFHG for kinder and had already done Do it Carefully and we were partway into Finding the Answers when I found HOD. I've loved the workbooks - the skills are practiced in a bite-size amount in a very appropriate sequence. We actually did R& S Counting with Numbers before we got to Singapore Earlybird in HOD, and that was a great intro to writing numbers and counting. R&S is continuing their workbook series, and "G" is "Going on Eagerly", which we are almost finished with and have liked very much. You can get it directly from R&S or Rainbow Resources. We'll be doing Thinking Skills next. My son's fine motor skills are coming slowly but steadily, so we've been very happy with LHFHG's schedule of doing a workbook 3 days a week and introducing handwriting 2 days a week. (We're actually doing cursive first, and are doing Handwriting Help for Kids "Create Cursive" book.)

For phonics we're almost halfway through The Reading Lesson and it's great for us. You can do as much or as little each day as your child is ready for, and the lessons are simple for both of us - open and go, no prep needed. I know there are a thread or two that compare TRL and Reading Made Easy, and one had Carrie's impression of the programs as they relate to mom's teaching style as well...perhaps someone can find it HTH

Marcee wrote:Any recommendations for handwriting and phonics?
Opinions on Rod and Staff or Thinking Skills?

DS will be in first grade next year, but I am praying God will speak to my DH's heart and I can start H'schooling after Christmas break.

Thanks Ladies!
M~

We did A Reason for Handwriting K, and enjoyed it because it had a nice amount and size of writing, an animal to color, and the next year they got to write Bible verses, so I felt the handwriting would have a deeper purpose. We used Rod and Staff, and the books were just right for my dc. They needed to work on following simple directions, coloring, and cutting, and the R & S books were perfect for that. We used Hooked on Phonics (because we had it from before HOD came out with LHFHG). If I didn't already have that program, I'd probably use The Reading Lesson with a younger child or Reading Made Easy with an older child. My oldest sister has used Reading Made Easy for years and loves it, and I know many other fellow homeschool moms that love The Reading Lesson. All of the recommendations for LHFHG are excellent, so you can't go wrong with what you choose. It's just a matter of preference.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks so much ladies!