I just ordered LOE Foundations Level A

[Lecka]

I just ordered LOE Foundations Level A. 

 

I have 3 kids, my daughter is in Kindergarten.  I have afterschooled my older son a ton in reading. 

 

My daughter is doing a lot better than my older son, but it is official, the school reading instruction is just not cutting it for her. 

 

She is picking up a lot and has some good skills, but she has no idea how to blend, and we are getting sight word flashcards and sight word books sent home to practice with her.  She is not catching on to sight words. 

 

I thought b/c she has a lot more phonemic awareness skills than my older son, and knows the letters and their main sounds (just one sound per letter), that she might not need more help than that, but she does. 

 

Has anyone else used Level A for afterschooling? 

 

It looks like a good program, and like it would appeal to her. 

 

She has a great attention span and she is very happy to get one-on-one time and attention like she will get, I will make sure to do something with her afterward, too.

 

I am thinking -- 15-20 minutes a day?

 

B/c she will be home with me this summer, and I can work with her a lot then, I think we have a good amount of time.  My plan/hope is for her to finish Levels A and B before 1st grade.  If she goes faster once she is in a more solid program -- we will just see how far she can go. 

 

She loves school.... today they had a special Thanksgiving feast, and she got a citizenship award at an all-school assembly.  I am very proud of her. 

 

[sunnyday]

I love the look of the LoE materials. I hope it works really well for your daughter! She's lucky to have your one-on-one attention.

[Lecka]

Thanks -- I hope we like it when it comes.  

 

I saw her teacher yesterday, and she says my daughter is in the average reading group and able to blend some at school.  So -- I am glad to hear that, but I just do not think she is catching on to it easily, and I don't have anything to use to work with her right now.  

 

I will report back /wink

[Jennifer N.]

I have used Level A.  Level A's lessons didn't take as long, maybe 20-30min.  Level B's lessons took longer than A.  A good plan would be to push through A as quickly as you can, meaning schedule time for it as often as you can.  I think I went too slow through A since I was afterschooling, I only made time for it 2-3x a week at the most.  I think A works better if you teach more lessons in a week, 4-5 if you can.  Then B is fine for 2-3 lessons a week.  Those lessons are longer.

 

If you have any questions about A or B, I'd be happy to try to answer them.  We are halfway through level C but to be honest, we are taking a break from Foundations lessons right now.  My daughter's reading really took off halfway through level B so I have just been reading books with her or giving her books to read on her own this fall.

 

[Jennifer N.]

PS--I don't think you will have to entice your daughter to do the lessons.  Wait and see how your time goes before promising extra time after lessons.  Because Foundations' lesson are already very active and include many games.  I personally need a break sometimes after teaching the lessons.  Maybe that's just me.  Put your time into doing the lessons in A as often as you can.  A will really help her with her blending.  Get her reading the right way as fast as you can so she doesn't get confused by how her school is teaching reading.  I didn't move fast enough with A and I had to undo some things my daughter's school was doing as they taught her reading in Kindergarten.  I was able to get her into B by spring of Kindergarten and then it didn't matter so much how the school taught reading (ie, patterned text, sight words, looking at pictures to guess words) because she truly knew how to read words.  And this is coming from someone who was trained to teach reading in my master's program the way my daughter's school was teaching her last year.  :)

 

[Lecka]

Thanks so much!  Level A is going very well so far.  It really is cute and fun.  

 

I have ended up doing little sections in-between reading books to her.  It is the time of day she gets me reading to just her, with no brothers, so she enjoys that.  

 

I am already seeing improvement, even though it is not to the point where she can look at a word and blend on her own.  She is getting better at knowing what to do and just needing some help to do it.  Her confidence is going up, too.

 

I am finding that she has learned and is learning a lot in school...... she is just not learning to actually blend and segment, but it seems they expect her to know how.  

 

Today I helped her to spell out the word "dog" and she did a good job!  She did try to hear the sounds to know how to spell it!  

[Lecka]

My daughter has made a lot of improvement!  I am pleased with how LoE is going with her.  Just to update :)  

 

She was just starting to listen for vowels in words in school before break started, so I can be working on those parts with her.  

 

From school we get updates in the teachers letter, but then little books are sent home -- so nothing to actually work on the areas she needs to work on at home.  It kind-of irritates me.  It is my top complaint about the school, with my oldest a 4th-grader now.  I do really like the atmosphere and the way the other academic areas are done.