Beyond question - not quite an emerging reader but CLOSE!

[arstephia]

My dd will be 6 a few weeks and has a pretty good foundation of phonics. We use Reading Made Easy and Pathway Readers with Explode the Code workbooks for "fun." (It has worked well with all of my kids and the Explode workbooks have never been considered "work"... I have got them sneaking off to do them. ANYWAY, I was looking at the Early Reader's Bible and I don't think she is quite ready to start that, especially at the beginning of the year, but I love the stories and questions in the ER schedule. She is just VERY close and though I am working with her during the summer, I just don' think she will be quite there. I don't want to discourage/frustrate her. How should I handle this? Should I just start those whenever she is ready, even if we are weeks behind in terms of units? Do I read the ERBible stories and other books aloud and do the questions with her as an extension of Bible time/Literature and continue with our other phonics work and then slide her into reading aloud the ER schedule when she is ready to do those books? What did you all do if your dc wasn't quite ready for the Emerging Readers at the start, but ALMOST?

[MamaPajama]

I was concerned about this too, because I thought my DS would be ready for the readers by the time we got started with Beyond. But between our plan to start several weeks early, and the summer getting busier than I'd expected, we didn't get nearly as far in Phonics Pathways as I thought we would. After looking through the guide I realized that phonics/ERs aren't necessarily linked to the rest of the subject matter. So I've resolved to just start him on the ERs whenever he's ready and to continue them through next summer until we finish. I've also decided to do both Bibles, Early Reader's Bible first, and then the Beginner's Bible before we start the actual ERs.

HTH!

[inHistiming]

My plan is also to start the ER's whenever my ds is ready...possibly after we complete RME and possibly before, just depending on his progress. He is already able to read some of the 'easy reader' books from the library, so we will probably begin soon, but I just don't know. In any case, I agree with the pp's that it probably doesn't matter that much when we start, as they are not really linked to the other readings. HTH

[MistyP]

I didn't think my DD would be ready for the Early Reader Bible last year either but she plugged along and was reading smoothly rather quickly. She really surprised me! You can always start the ER's when your dc is ready and add other reading in there....

[Mommamo]

Just start the ER's when your ds is ready. My dd is just now ready and we're almost through with Beyond. I think we have about 6 weeks left or something like that. I still haven't started her on them yet. I'm trying to decide if I'll just start it with Bigger or go ahead and start her. (They're scheduled in both the Beyond and Bigger guide so that if you need to finish up phonics in Beyond then you're not rushed) Since I haven't made up my mind, I may just wait. I definitely wouldn't read the ER books for her though because then you lose those books as a reading practice, if that makes sense. They ease the dc into reading so nicely, and into answering questions and thinking about what they themselves have read.

[psreit]

I've struggled with this also. How do I know when dd is ready to begin the ERs? DD(7) will be in first grade. She had some phonics when she went to kindergarten. We won't be using Beyond this year, but she is reading some easy readers, although she still wants to sound out a lot of words. Currently, we are working through TRL and doing some ETC. This topic was brought up a while back. I plan to begin dd in the emerging readers when she gets through TRL. If that is during LHFHG, I will still begin them. In another thread, someone mentioned, I believe, continuing to do a page of ETC with the ERs. That is my plan at this point. I believe it was Julie that said, when a child can read without sounding out a lot of words, it would be okay to begin the emerging readers. They won't know how to read every single word, even when starting the ERs, so I guess each one needs to determine whether a child is ready. If dd takes all year to do TRL, then I'll wait until Beyond. I did get the Early Readers Bible to begin now. She will need help with bigger words, but for the most part, I think she could read a lot of it on her own. Then when she begins the ER books, I will have her read the Beginners Bible. I'm just letting her practice with library easy reader books along with TRL. She gets so excited when she reads a page without help.

[my3sons]

The ladies gave awesome advice already here! I do think that it's fine for dc to still be sounding out a few words on a page, especially the longer words or more unusual words, such as special names and places. However, if they are reading the words very slowly, and sounding out many words on the page, it would be too frustrating to begin. If that is the case, I'd read some BOB books first, which can be found at most large book stores. The BOB books are short, funny, and inexpensive. I'd continue reading any readers or reading material your phonics program offers, and then ease into the ERS whenever your child is ready. As the ladies so wisely shared already, you may start the ERS whenever it best fits your child - whether that is at the start, middle, or end of a guide, and during LHFHG, Beyond..., or Bigger... You may want to try having your child read just a few of the ERS titles at the beginning of the set and see he/she does though - sometimes our dc surprise us! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie