when to begin TRL?

[mommadonna]

How fluent does a child need to be in letter recognition and sounds to begin TRL?

Its time for me to get off the fence and make a decision here....I have been flip flopping back and forth between lhth and lhfhg for a while. I think that my son is ready for lhfhg, but we do still need to work on some of the letters. I was thinking about starting half speed and incorporating some of the letter activities and My ABC verses and such each week until he has really mastered the letter sounds. So do I go ahead with TRL or do I wait about that until he is more solid?

Thanks so much!!

Also...can someone please link me to a materials list for lhfhg???..thanks

[MamaPajama]

I'm debating this as well. My 4.5 yo DD is doing LHTH this year and L-O-V-E-S it so far! She already recognizes all of her letters and knows her consonant and short vowel sounds. She told me the other day she wants more school. I had considered including her on the LHFHG story time with her brother, which I still may do. (Due to a virus, my son hasn't been able to do school in a week, so she would be hopping in only one lesson late.) I'm also considering beginning her on TRL if she's interested. I don't want to deny her "more school" if that's really what she desires, but I definitely won't be pushing it. We already have the Beyond guide, so I figure if she really takes off with it, she can just follow the Emerging Readers schedule with her brother next year.

Also, to answer your question, TRL will teach the letter sound, so if he doesn't know them already it's not a problem.

[Kathleen]

Donna,

I was going to say the same thing - TRL will teach the letter sounds as you go. So you can start anytime. I think how well they know letter sounds would determine how quickly you want to move in TRL. If you read the intro to it, it gives some ideas of pacing for different aged kids. I know that when we started, we did a couple of pages a day...and the reviewed those the following day and added a new one. We did the reviewing of a page or 2 from the previous day for the 1st couple "lessons". Plenty of practice using those sounds will cement them.

Kathleen