heartofdakota.com

Hello everyone,

I haven posted here in awhile so I thought I would reintroduce myself.
My name is Michelle, and I have 4 children (ages 13, 11, 8 and 6)
We have previously have used LHTH and LHFHG - but I took a break last year.
This year I am returning to 'Beyond" and I'm very excited about it. I will be combining my two daughters (ages 6 and 8.)

I do have a couple of questions about the reading portion.
My 6 year old is not yet reading fluently, so I will definitely be using a phonics program with her (We like CLE's Learning to Read.)
My 8 year old has some special needs (apraxia and other issues) and although she is now reading on her own, i think she could still benefit from more phonics as well. My first thought is to leave her in CLE Reading as well. We tried numerous reading programs - CLE was the one that she finally 'took off' with, and she has done so well with it. I love the looks of the Emerging readers, and I do think that they would be at her level - BUT part of me is afraid to switch to something else because CLE has been working (when previous programs did not.) Would it be okay to just stick with CLE reading for her?

also - for the read alouds - do you have any ideas for shorter chapter books? Because of her difficulties, she does not yet have the patience or attention span to sit for longer chapter books like Little House or Charlotte's Web. (she does okay with shorter chapter books - like the Magic Tree House series though)

I would welcome any suggestions as to what we could use for the different categories (biography, fantasy, adventure, etc.)


Thank you so much!

Michelle

WELCOME BACK Michele!!!!

We have chatted so not saying much (well much for me ) but thinking you must know about this but just ion case http://www.heartofdakota.com/bookshop.php
Also wondering if your dd would have a hard time with longer chapter books broken down in little bites. I found with my girls I have to hide the books in between readings becasue they are dying to know what comes next. That has really helped in itself to build attention. I did find it helpful with my Miss P to go through The Reading Lesson after she was essentially reading but not real fluent. It did help. So just a thought there as well.

Anyway mostly just wanted to say welcome back! So happy to have you here my friend!

Thanks - it's so nice to be back!

Thanks also for that link! I'm such a visual person, and it really helps me to see all of the books laid out like that.

That bookstore has been my best friend on more than one occasion. It helps so much that you have it all broken down by exact reading level. Later you might want to get the $5 reading list. Sort of more of the same thing but tons of carefully gone through choices that you know are wholesome.

It looks like you found what you needed with the book descriptions for read alouds. As far as the phonics/reading instruction.....
I don't know anything about CLE reading so I do not know what all is involved with it. But depending on how long it takes each day, you could possibly do the Emerging Readers while simultaneously finishing CLE. My ds was reading at the Emerging Reader level when we started, but I still felt like he needed a bit more phonics. So we actually did both. We did Explode the Code, so it didn't take very long at all and he could do it mostly independently. He solidified his decoding skills, and at the same time was able to gain a lot of comprehension/analyzing/narrating skills from the follow up questions from the Emerging Readers.

If CLE Reading is a full program, this may be overkill and not do-able time wise. In that case, I don't know. It may be better to finish CLE if you both like it and its working and then do the Emerging Readers with Bigger, as they are scheduled (including the questions) in both Beyond and Bigger.

(FWIW, with my youngers, we have done The Reading Lesson and it has been much easier and less time consuming teaching my younger 3 to read than my older 3.)

Anyway, whatever you decide, I just wanted to welcome you back!
Angie

Some of the chapter books are pretty short. My 9 y/o DD just read Dolphin Adventures yesterday. I ordered some others that were smaller books but they were boy oriented. What about Junie B Jones? I bet Carrie or Julie could recommend some good ones for you.

Welcome back Michelle!

Thanks everyone!

CLE is a full reading program - so I think it might be an either/or, but DD is such a bookworm, that I'm sure we could sneak the emerging readers in for her independent reading.

We're not big fans of Junie B, but now that you mentioned her I am reminded that older daughter liking the Cam Jansen series, so those might work for the 'mystery' portion.

Littlelight wrote:CLE is a full reading program - so I think it might be an either/or, but DD is such a bookworm, that I'm sure we could sneak the emerging readers in for her independent reading.

I did the "I Wonder" reader and the LU questions orally with my ds last year inbetween books in the ER set. My ds loved both, so it was a way to do both without making our days too long. He was overcome with emotion when we finished both, he enjoyed them so much. We're pretty much doing the same thing this year with CLE 2 and some DITHOR level 2 books.

Hey, I know you. Welcome back!

Welcome back Michelle!!!

I want to 2nd not missing the ERs. They are really pretty short. The questions are great, but if you think it's too much then you could just give them to her for free reading. And as for the storytime books, really many of them are pretty short. You could just try to pick the shorter ones so that you don't have as many pages to read at each sitting. In fact, for a couple of the genres in Beyond we ended up reading a couple of books because Caroline just wouldn't let me quit!

I was just looking through the posts and saw this one. Michelle, we have a few things in common, so I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Katie. In a few months all my kids will be the exact same age as yours. I am new to HOD this year, but we too will be using Beyond with my 8 yr old dd and my 6 yr old ds. My 13 yr old ds and my soon to be 11 yr old dd will be doing RtR. I am sure I will see you around the boards!

Thanks everyone! Nice to see so many familiar faces here - and meet some new friends!

Hello Littlelight! I have an idea - how about trying just the "Emerging Reader's Set" schedule along with the oral comprehension questions in Beyond's Appendix for a few months? I think that would be good to do. I bet you'd fall in love with it. It is one of our very favorite sets to read - great books, lots of genres represented, with excellent reading skills being taught through the questions HOD has written. It helped my dc be very successful with learning to orally narrate later, as well as learning to think more deeply about their reading - yet in bite-sized, manageable pieces with awesome books that bridge the gap between phonics and harder chapter books.

For read-alouds, I think I would do Beyond's Girl Interest set, but sub in "The Key to the Treasure" (which is the mystery from the boy interest set) for "Ginger Pye". "Ginger Pye" is the only one I think would be longer and more difficult. "The Trumpet of the Swan" is longer as well, but the storyline and style of writing is not difficult to follow. These readings would average around 5-7 pages a day, so not long, and not difficult - wonderful books! Those are just some thoughts - hope something here helps!

In Christ,
Julie