TRL vs. A Beka K4

[mommy3]

I posted this same question on another forum and I thought I'd go ahead and ask it here as well since everyone here is so helpful! I am trying to decide whether to do ABeka K4 phonics or TRL this fall with my 4 year old twin daughters. They will be finishing up LHTH next month so they know their letter sounds. Does anyone have experiece with both of these programs? Pros/Cons? Is TRL really a complete program?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

[shaffer96]

We started out with TRL this year, but my daughter kind of hit a wall with it around lesson 7. We switched to Mcruffy phonics because I already had it at home. She really enjoyed that and did really well with it. Then she seemed to hit a wall with that too and she started to dislike reading. So, we stepped back and took it easy for a while. She is a young K and I didn't want to push her too hard. I bought Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read and we did a lot of review. We have bounced all over with phonics this year! Now, we have gone back to TRL starting at lesson 9. She is really enjoying it now and is able to keep up and understand it more. She is reading quite well, despite my indecision! I think some kids really need to learn the phonics rules and other don't need them as much. TRL does a great job teaching kids to read, but it doesn't really teach the phonics rules. So if you think your child may need those rules, then Abeka may be a better fit. I think for spelling purposes teaching the rules is essential, but maybe not so much for reading. I have always been curious about Abeka and I am drawn to the colorful workbooks. My daughter does really well with workbooks and she loves doing them. All about spelling and Spell to Write and Read are both programs that teach all the spelling/phonics rules if you are interested in that. There are very few sight words to memorize with these two programs because they teach the rules for every little thing. Some see this as a plus, some as a negative. I know Abeka teaches some rules and phonics, but they also teach many sight words.

[my3sons]

I think "The Reading Lesson" is an excellent phonics program. Here are a few posts you can read about it...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5541
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2503

In Christ,
Julie

[mommy3]

Thanks for sharing those links Julie! I'm going to go with TRL!