Grade 1 Phonics

[sahervey]

What type of curriculum do I use for this? He has finished kindergarten (reading before kindergarten started). He reads at a 3rd grade level, but I don't know how much phonics he has learned. You know what I mean? I ordered FLL Level 1, but it looks way too easy and babyish. Should I go ahead and use it anyway? I have the Emerging Readers, but is that all he would need for the reading/phonics program, or should I also use FLL?

[mater est laetus]

If it's a phonics program you're looking for, HOD recommends The Reading Lesson and Reading Made Easy (used in previous guides - I see you're about to start BHFHG). Progressing through either at your child's pace would help you out with ensuring they have a good phonics foundation and you could move on to one of reading schedules once you're done.

FLL isn't scheduled in HOD so I can't help with the decision to use it or not but I do know it is not a phonics curriculum and would not help you in that regard.

[my3sons]

The pp gave you the phonics programs HOD carries, and both are excellent options. You won't need FLL, as those skills are already written into HOD's core plans, and doing FLL would be double-dipping. If your child is ready for the Emerging Reader's Set, that would be her reading instruction. If you feel she needs not an entire year of phonics but rather just some phonics review, many dc do "Explode the Code", books 1-3 or so, just a few pages a day alongside the ERS. If dd is not ready to read the ERS books and answer comprehension questions about her reading, then you may want to just do a year of phonics with either "The Reading Lesson", "Reading Made Easy", or a phonics program of your choice. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[MelInKansas]

I was in a similar situation to you, although my daughter didn't start reading as early, she was done with the phonics for learning to read, but I felt like solidifying her understanding of phonics, especially some of the more "interesting" rules with letter combinations, was a good idea. We got Explode the Code and did half of book 1 and half of book 2. Both were WAY too easy for my DD who is probably reading on a 2nd grade level. But I didn't really want to jump too far ahead so that's what we did.

I think (but we just started it so I don't know for sure) that Emerging Readers would give her the instruction she needs. I notice that my DD, who can now usually figure out words she doesn't know or ones with tricky spellings from context clues, has started picking up on patterns that I never taught her. Plus since she'll be reading to you for Emerging Readers, you'll quickly be able to help her with words and blends she's not familiar with. The Early Reader's Bible, which I chose for the first part of ER, gradually builds on words they know and adds in new ones. Of course, you may want to choose the other Bible option since it is a bit more challenging.

I was feeling like more phonics instruction was needed, but now I think I'm going to go with the plan in Beyond and just use the reading. I think this would be along the Charlotte Mason philosophy, and will be a lot more fun than a lot of rote stuff in workbooks, for them to learn the rules from practicing reading living books.

[Tree House Academy]

Since your son is beyond the Reading Lesson and Reading Made Easy (if he is reading at a 3rd grade level), I would probably pick up some Explode the Code workbooks to do with him pretty quickly just to make sure he knows the phonics. We used ETC and enjoyed it a lot - we started it when my little one was just learning to read and finished it last year (we came to HOD after ds had already learned to read and started with ETC).

[sahervey]

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I will look into Explode the Code. And Mel, I'm in Kansas too!