McRuffy's Phonics: Experiences?

[Lovedtodeath]

From what I understand this is a three year program and it includes all LA. Correct?

 

Has anyone used this program for the long haul with good results that they can report on? I worry that someone loves it right now, but when their child is 10-12 years old will report that it didn't work as well as they had hoped. KWIM?

 

Thank you!

[LadyAberlin]

There is someone on homeschoolreviews.com that I think has used all of them or at least almost all of them. I'm not sure if she posts on here or not. So you might try over there if you don't get any responses or not. Yes they cover everything. I still use FLL 1+2 because we were already using it and I like it.

[muffinmom]

I've only used the first grade year so far. And yes, we loved it. I'm ordering for 2nd grade. I cannot imagine that in a few years I will be sorry, because it just seems to be so thorough. I'm a English major and language is very important to me. I like how methodical it is, how organized and easy for the teacher to use. My son has loved all the accompanying readers. He wants to read them in his spare time too. The only thing I would add is that if you want your child to have more writing experience (not handwriting) at this age, you could supplement a little. They offer occasional opportunities to write a short story based on the readers. This has not been an issue for us because ds writes stories on his own for fun.

 

But, obviously, I have nothing to compare it to, since this is the first child I have homeschooled. So I will be interested to see what others say.:lurk5:

[Lovedtodeath]

It sounds like it is just the right combination of different elements, like what I have done with DD by combining several programs and making my own worksheets. I could use something done for me for DS when I teach him. I don't think I will want to do all of the planning and experimenting by then. kwim?

 

So are you done with phonis after the 2nd grade? (Phonics in K, 1st and 2nd?)

[muffinmom]

Honestly, I haven't thought about it! I'm just taking year to year and finding out as I go what the next step is. I don't even know what the standard wisdom is on what to do for 3rd grade.

 

ETA: You will really appreciate the "pick-up-and-go" aspect of McRuffy's. You may already have viewed the samples of the Teacher's Manual. Takes so much stress off the teacher.

[Lovedtodeath]

 

Honestly, I haven't thought about it! I'm just taking year to year and finding out as I go what the next step is. I don't even know what the standard wisdom is on what to do for 3rd grade.

I meant with McRuffy Phonics. I would hope they would be through all that they need to know after the 2nd grade program.

[muffinmom]

I meant with McRuffy Phonics. I would hope they would be through all that they need to know after the 2nd grade program.

 

Looks like the McRuffy program in 3rd grade is assuming most kids have mastered the phonics by then and is primarily applying it to more complex words. The TM sample has a good explanation of their approach in 3rd. Looks like they do a good bit of story writing.

 

This year I plan to dip into some other programs in anticipation for what lies beyond 2nd grade...to see how they compare to what I've experienced with McRuffy.

[Alicia]

We have used McRuffy for about 7 different children in our extended family homeschool. I am/have used both the black and white and the new color editions. I am currently using 3rd grade and K - again, but in color versions this time. My first McRuffy users are now in 6th grade and 4th grade.

There are absolutely no regrets. Both kids are now in public school and in gifted/highly gifted language arts and social studies. We moved to New Zealand and those two are my nieces.

 

I'll just address the new version changes and the 3rd grade changes. The new editions are worth buying over the old. There are more multisensory choices more activities that are actually doable, and more depth. The stories are VERY engaging to kids both boys and girls. The stories often continue over more than one book, setting kids up for more mature outside reading. It is very helpful to have the voc. words outlined on the back of the readers, in the teacher guide lesson by lesson and then as specific separate activities in the new Language and Reading workbook (L&R). L & R also covers the 8 parts of speech this year with parsing, poetry concepts, writing, dictionary skills ect. and punctuation. As it is now a whole separate book but integrated with the readers the depth is much greater than in the black and white workbook. The method is spiral so that concepts build and repeat. However there is not such a large gap in time between the repetition of concepts that the child forgets. We have had this problem using Saxon for math. When a concept repeats it does so with new elements that have been covered added in. I dont like the way writing is taught so I will add Writing Tales in about 2 months once copywork, narriation, and dictation are truly nailed. My kids are 8 this month doing 3rd grade. We did Explode the Code as extra practice which we finished last year. This year as they are done with ETC we did the online version (no shipping charges) for review. Yeah overkill, they lived ;)

 

Spelling & Phonics workbook spends much time repeating/reviewing spelling rules covered in previous years but with more challenging words. This is similar in approach to using something like Explode the Code for k-3 then going on to Megawords. Same concepts, more advanced usage. If you like a workbook approach McRuffy will work for you. S & P also goes on to cover suffixes, prefixes, abbreviations, plurals ect. There are I believe 4 test through the year that cover material from both books. 3rd grade also has some hands on learning included.

Overall I dont have any fear in doing these as my base for lang.arts. I use FLL to drill the things I want memorized like definitions of parts of speech. I have the penmanship books as well as that helps to reinforce the letter forms we have learned, provides for copywork and gives a space for dictation if I dont want to use the sentence printed on the page. Sentences are based on prior and current word list so is great for review. As the sentence is in the teachers manual I often have them write the sentence from dictation, then copy it and compare. Easy peasy. I started without the penmanship books the first year but within a month ordered them. Much the same as people order the WWE workbook even though its all in the main book. There is a choice in penmanship styles. I choose one and stuck with it and did not spend anymore time being obsessive (ok with that at least). I use the penmanship books all the way through starting with whenever he offers cursive as we are Cursive First for the preschool/K years. Dont want to debate it, it works for us for a large number of kids. Expect for one we brought home late (4th grade) from public school.

I will continue with Michael Clay Thompson as I have used them with middle schoolers to great success, had two that were very strong in lang. I will use the first three primary books as a way to integrate what has been covered in McRuffy , probably during summer break, while doing sentence island slowly over the year. I have the grammar island, sentence islance, practice island and music of hemisphers(poetics). I hope to use these as they are intended at the end of grade 3 before moving on to Megawords, as spelling , latin(continuing), and probably Writing TalesII or Aesop in 4th. The Logos School poetry books are really excellent for teaching the mechanics of poetry while McRuffy gives a good intro of the mechanics and writing of different types of poems. I just include this to give you an idea of what regular old kids are capable of when finished with third. I have had 2 others finish third before this year and have tow in 3rd and one in K.

There is a secular version of 3rd grade if you want/need it the religious version has about 4 readers that are religious in a nonsectarian sort of way. We are secular homeschoolers in general but dont pass up good stuff if the religious content is minor. Our schedule took a sever beating when we moved to New Zealand in July as the school year here starts Feb1st and ends at the end of November. So July is the middle of the school year, but they had been on summer break in day camp for 6 weeks so we could pack and be ready. I might not have done the ETC and finished McRuffy 2nd if I had not packed it in our container of household goods that arrived in November.

We love McRuffy and hear there is a 4th grade in the works. I am waiting to see before I ship all that other stuff over here.

[muffinmom]

We have used McRuffy for about 7 different children in our extended family homeschool. I am/have used both the black and white and the new color editions. I am currently using 3rd grade and K - again, but in color versions this time. My first McRuffy users are now in 6th grade and 4th grade.

There are absolutely no regrets. Both kids are now in public school and in gifted/highly gifted language arts and social studies. We moved to New Zealand and those two are my nieces.

 

I'll just address the new version changes and the 3rd grade changes. The new editions are worth buying over the old. There are more multisensory choices more activities that are actually doable, and more depth. The stories are VERY engaging to kids both boys and girls. The stories often continue over more than one book, setting kids up for more mature outside reading. It is very helpful to have the voc. words outlined on the back of the readers, in the teacher guide lesson by lesson and then as specific separate activities in the new Language and Reading workbook (L&R). L & R also covers the 8 parts of speech this year with parsing, poetry concepts, writing, dictionary skills ect. and punctuation. As it is now a whole separate book but integrated with the readers the depth is much greater than in the black and white workbook. The method is spiral so that concepts build and repeat. However there is not such a large gap in time between the repetition of concepts that the child forgets. We have had this problem using Saxon for math. When a concept repeats it does so with new elements that have been covered added in. I dont like the way writing is taught so I will add Writing Tales in about 2 months once copywork, narriation, and dictation are truly nailed. My kids are 8 this month doing 3rd grade. We did Explode the Code as extra practice which we finished last year. This year as they are done with ETC we did the online version (no shipping charges) for review. Yeah overkill, they lived ;)

 

Spelling & Phonics workbook spends much time repeating/reviewing spelling rules covered in previous years but with more challenging words. This is similar in approach to using something like Explode the Code for k-3 then going on to Megawords. Same concepts, more advanced usage. If you like a workbook approach McRuffy will work for you. S & P also goes on to cover suffixes, prefixes, abbreviations, plurals ect. There are I believe 4 test through the year that cover material from both books. 3rd grade also has some hands on learning included.

Overall I dont have any fear in doing these as my base for lang.arts. I use FLL to drill the things I want memorized like definitions of parts of speech. I have the penmanship books as well as that helps to reinforce the letter forms we have learned, provides for copywork and gives a space for dictation if I dont want to use the sentence printed on the page. Sentences are based on prior and current word list so is great for review. As the sentence is in the teachers manual I often have them write the sentence from dictation, then copy it and compare. Easy peasy. I started without the penmanship books the first year but within a month ordered them. Much the same as people order the WWE workbook even though its all in the main book. There is a choice in penmanship styles. I choose one and stuck with it and did not spend anymore time being obsessive (ok with that at least). I use the penmanship books all the way through starting with whenever he offers cursive as we are Cursive First for the preschool/K years. Dont want to debate it, it works for us for a large number of kids. Expect for one we brought home late (4th grade) from public school.

I will continue with Michael Clay Thompson as I have used them with middle schoolers to great success, had two that were very strong in lang. I will use the first three primary books as a way to integrate what has been covered in McRuffy , probably during summer break, while doing sentence island slowly over the year. I have the grammar island, sentence islance, practice island and music of hemisphers(poetics). I hope to use these as they are intended at the end of grade 3 before moving on to Megawords, as spelling , latin(continuing), and probably Writing TalesII or Aesop in 4th. The Logos School poetry books are really excellent for teaching the mechanics of poetry while McRuffy gives a good intro of the mechanics and writing of different types of poems. I just include this to give you an idea of what regular old kids are capable of when finished with third. I have had 2 others finish third before this year and have tow in 3rd and one in K.

There is a secular version of 3rd grade if you want/need it the religious version has about 4 readers that are religious in a nonsectarian sort of way. We are secular homeschoolers in general but dont pass up good stuff if the religious content is minor. Our schedule took a sever beating when we moved to New Zealand in July as the school year here starts Feb1st and ends at the end of November. So July is the middle of the school year, but they had been on summer break in day camp for 6 weeks so we could pack and be ready. I might not have done the ETC and finished McRuffy 2nd if I had not packed it in our container of household goods that arrived in November.

We love McRuffy and hear there is a 4th grade in the works. I am waiting to see before I ship all that other stuff over here.

 

Wow! Thanks so much for this review.

[Lovedtodeath]

Thank you Alicia, I hope you don't mind questions. Do you think I could use the K, 1st and 2nd programs and then switch to How to Teach Spelling? I mainly need to know if the children have covered all of the phonics concepts needed for reading, so that I don't have to worry about any gaps there.

 

TIA

 

Carmen

[kristinatucker]

we have used mcruffy for grades K - 3 for reading and math. Im a big fan of the company. I really dont have anything specific that I didnt like about the program but my son was still struggline with reading so we switched to a mastry approach vs spiral.

I dont think you will regret going with Mcruffy if you choose to. The owner/writer is great if you call with questions as well.

 

Kristina

[Lovedtodeath]

I have never heard of a mastery vs. spiral approach to reading. Could you explain how that works?

 

I am a little worried that it looks like it takes 4 years to get through phonics. DD will be done by the time she turns seven. She has always been reading way above level ever since we were less than halfway done, though. So maybe I shouldn't worry about it.

[kristinatucker]

I think a strong foundation in phonics is fundamental to all the other subjects going well so I personally would not worry about the phonics. The Mcruffy is combines phonics and language arts . For 3rd grade my ds was learning about blending larger words and understanding their meaning in the phonics/reading book but in language arts they are learning the rules for verbs, nouns, prefix, suffix etc. Its a well rounded program. If your daughter is reading above grade level then I think that this approach (spiral ) is best. If you have a struggling reader like my son its best to go with mastery.

Spiral is basically you learn a concept and then go on to the next thing but you continually go back and review concepts that you learned previously.

Mastery means that you completely master the concept before moving on. My son really needed to understand the rules of phonics since he was struggling so we had to switch the method.

 

Kristina

[Lovedtodeath]

Thank you for answering my question. Do you mind telling me what you switched to and how it worked better for your son? I am actually looking into McRuffy for my 2 year old, when we start with him.

[kristinatucker]

We switched to Christian light. I LOVE it so far. They are sort of inbetween mastery and spiral but they really really make you learn the rules to phonics and spelling. My daughter was already reading pretty good for a K but when we started her in this she just took off. Honestly she is not that far behind being able to read what my third grader can read. The third grader is my struggling reader and I have seen more improvement with his understanding of our language and how to sound out words in this past 6 months then I have in our two years of homeschooling together.

For K you start with a series called learning to read which takes about a semester and then you go onto the level 100.

It is Christian based so if your alright with that you may want to look into them. I love their stories in the readers. They are like sitting back and reading a good ole little house on the prarie story together.

Both my kids love them and they learn through the stories alone.