[csw]

Hi


How is everyone? I haven't been on the boards in awhile..between working and homeschooling and driving her to and from Montessori 3 half days a week! She is slowly getting better..the oldtimers know her story..her math is about 1 grade level ahead or more..speech is still mildly delayed (5 months behind)..she is in a Spanish immersion class 1 hour a week and knows how to count to 20 and all her colors. body parts etc..in Spanish

Here is my question for those of you with slightly older kids..
She is about a month shy of 4.5 years old.
She has known her phonics for a long time and we are now working on teaching her sight words. We have done the Junior Phonics game already..
She understands to sound out the letters etc..and seems to understand how to put them together and she can read a few words ( maybe from memorizing them.)but can't read a sentence.

I saw a few books rec. by other parents..

1) Teach your child to read in 100 Easy Lessons
by Englemann

2) Teach your child to read in 20 Easy Lessons
by Levin

3) Reading Made Easy by Bendt

and Bob early readers to reinforce after you get through the lessons..(Not Bob the Builder)

We already have some early readers. We also read to her everyday..about 25-30 books per week.

I don't believe in pushing kids, but by me homeschooling her I know what she is ready for or not and she is dying to learn how to read more than just a few sight words.
She doesn't seem to like to learn on the computer..so computer CD-rom's are out at this point..

I have read reviews and some rave about the 100 lessons and some say its really boring and the kids can't stand it..any thoughts?

ps..did I spell recommend right? LOL..

[SKL]

My sister was exactly that age when she started to be able to really read. I was volunteering in a remedial reading classroom and the teacher let me borrow some of their books.

The series was the Phonics Practice Readers by Modern Curriculum Press. We started with the short vowel books. She was able to read the first book at the first sitting! And though she went at a halting pace, she was reading with comprehension. It was very motivating and things just blossomed from there. (Previously she knew most of her letters and one sound for most of them, but this was the first time she had ever read a whole sentence in a book.)

The easiest books in this series have just one sentence per page, with about four to six words per sentence. They use a minimum of sight words. As the skills get more advanced (long vowels, blends, etc), the sentences get longer and there are more sentences per page. All the books are eight pages long and are illustrated in color.

I know you can get this set online since I ordered it a few years ago.

If you want to go the sight word route, look into the Rookie Readers series. They have a lot of books that focus on a small subset of sight words, and are well-written and illustrated. For example, "too many balloons" is a cute, easy story that reinforces number and color words in a natural manner. Many of them come in both English and Spanish.

There are many other options out there! Modern Curriculum Press also has a lot of options for sight word readers too - with as few as 29 words per book on up. Since you are a home schooler, you may also be interested in their subject-oriented books. They have hundreds/thousands available for sale individually in paperback, and they are quite affordable. You will probably enjoy checking out their Website.

The Dr. Seuss type books are great too - especially many of those by P.D. Eastman.

I could go on and on - can you tell this is a passion of mine?

Good luck!

[DPline]

No suggestions, but just wanted to say it is great to see an update from you!

[stephjoel99]

My son had the best success with the Bob readers. It just clicked for him with those and now he's reading all kinds of things.

[annaguat]

All of my children have learned to read with Teach your child in 100 easy lessons. That is 9 of them sofar the babies will start in about 1 1/2 -3 yrs. We also own many other programs but I always come back to this book. I generally start at 3 1/2 yrs but I had my 5 yr old start this September, held him back because of his speech, and we are going at a very easy pace. He is almost finnished up and reads very well for his age. We also do phonics in addition and plan to do Alpha Omega Horizon Language next school year. Reading can go at a very individual pace. My now 8 yr old did the first half of teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons and then plateaud. He is now finnishing the back section for review. He turned 8 last September and is one of my slowest with reading. We also do the Bob books inbetween once they get the hang of it. It makes them feel good reading a "whole" book. Best wishes. Anna

[csw]

Thanks so much..looks like the "100 lessons" worked for your kids Anna and the Bob books sound good also.
I will check into the other phonics books/early readers that were mentioned.
How are your kids doing DPLINE?
Thanks again..

[CashCrew]

I swear by Explode the Code workbooks! My oldest son already knew his letter sounds so we were able to skip Get Ready for the Code, but started with that part of the series for the other kids. My oldest went from knowing his letter sounds to reading whole sentences in 20 minutes with this workbook. It just makes it so easy to understand.

[shelbydog]

I just wanted to "second" the Bob Books - they are excellent!!!! My son loves them, and they're really helping. Good luck

[Kimberj71]

We never used a set program to teach our kids to read, but so far our oldest three were all reading before going to kindergarten.

A huge part of reading is just developmental. It will happen when it happens...much like walking. Our oldest daughter was reading simple sentences when she was 3 but our middle son didn't start till closer to 5.

That being said, we take a phonics based approach, learning letters and sounds then getting out the Bob books and starting to read those. I've pretty much just taught them the way that I remember learning....all the phonics and rules. So I started looking for the books I learned to read with in school. And I found them....the kids love that they learned on the same books I did.

The books are by SRA the first in the series is A Pig Can Jig followed by A Pig Can Jig part 2, Hen In A Fox's Den, Six Ducks In A Pond, and King on a Swing. By the time they get to the third book they were branching out into other phonics based easy readers.

Have fun with Ana and her learning to read!!

Kim

[Anne1377]

Hi Cathy,

I have no advice either but wanted to say Hi to both you and Ana. I was wondering where you went!

I hope all is well with your whole family!!

Ana'a virtual twin says hello too!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Diane and Annie