almost-four-year-old and Phonics Pathways

[Lfwfv]

Hi all,

 

I started 100EZ lessons with my son when he was 3.25. He loved it, especially the stories at the end of each day. He thought they were hilarious. He finished a few weeks ago, and after reading so many posts about needing to follow up with a comprehensive phonics program, I have started him on Phonics Pathways. He is really reading pretty well already (finished Bob books collection 1 and 2 from Costco, and is onto the final box). I am actually impressed with how many blends 100EZ lessons has already introduced.

 

He is dreading Phonics Pathways :( I tend to try to do at least a page from the easy 2 or 3 letter blends to build fluency, and then skip over to the four letter words and/or somewhat newer material for him (lik the -y suffix) every day. After that, we work through a Bob book and are on Collection 3. He loves that part, and dangling that carrot of a Bob book is the only way I get him to finish PP. He helps me read books throughout the day a bit too, and reads signs etc. He is reading pretty well already, but a lot of the level 2 readers would still be a bit out of his reach I think (Frog and Toad etc.). I have ordered the first two Treadwell readers and Pathway readers from Amazon and plan to use those after we finish the Bob books. He will also continue to review Bob books for a while by reading them to my dh at night before my dh reads his bedtime books to him.

 

I wanted to stick to Phonics Pathways to make sure that we 1) covered all of our phonics thoroughly, and b) got a lot of fluency practice in.  I also looked at OPGTR, but it kind of annoyed me and didn't seem up my alley. Maybe I need to take another look....

 

Is it necessary to read all the word lists from Phonics Pathways to build fluency, or is it enough to read a lot of easy readers and use Phonics Pathways as a guide (for me, not every using it with him) to make sure I'm not missing any sounds/blends along the way? I do usually make an index card with words that some of the newer harder Bob books introduces and have him sound those out several times over a few days, and he doesn't seem to mind that. Ex. the book introduces "ou" (we covered that in 100EZ lessons too, but only on a couple of words, so I wanted him to see that it can be used in many different words), so I'll write out "mouse, house, out, our, foul, etc.", and then we read through those each time before we read the book (minimally four readings). Is that enough, or is something like Phonics Pathway really the only way to get this kind of thorough phonics practice in? He loves reading right now, but hates Phonics Pathway, and I want to find a way of progressing him that doesn't squelch his desire to continue to read.

 

thanks!

Tanya

[Cake and Pi]

If he hates it, I'd try something else.  Since he really liked 100 EZ lessons, you could try continuing with Funnix, which is a computer-based program (that you still sit down to do together) by the same author that teaches in a similar way.  You'd want to do the placement test with him, but he'd probably test around the beginning of Funnix 2 if he just finished 100 EZ Lessons.   I have a copy and think it looks pretty cool looking, but admittedly haven't actually used it to teach because I acquired it after DS#2 was fluently reading, and then DS#3 taught himself and didn't need it.  I may still get to use it with DS#4 though!

 

FTR, my DS#1 and DS#2 both learned to read with 100 EZ Lessons, and after they finished I didn't any formal phonics with either.  We went through the list of books in the back of 100 EZ Lessons and then sat together for the kiddo to read aloud from whatever interested him from the library, which was a big chunk of the Magic Tree House series for DS#1 and all the Ninjago graphic novels for DS#2.  For the last 9 months or so I've had them read aloud occasionally from the McGuffey readers and free-read silently whatever they want and they've both continued to progress with  their reading abilities.

[Kiara.I]

If he hates it, why not just read with him?

 

I never was taken through a reading curriculum at all. If he's reading, let him read. Teach any other things that come up on the fly.

 

If you notice problems later on, remediate. But in the meantime, don't teach him to hate reading. He's still very young!

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

What you are doing sounds just fine.  For very young kids, PP might be better by transferring words to a whiteboard instead of on the crowded book pages.  PP has lots of funny sentences about Gus the Pig once you get to the sentences, and hopefully he'll like those.  My kids did!  

 

But yes, just reading is fine.  Somewhere around 2/3rds through PP, my son just took off with reading, so we put away PP and just used books form then on.  

[desertflower]

My ds was similar. I ended up just letting him read and studying PP myself to teach him along the way.

 

I would try to make it fun and short either by having him run around after every word or writing in different color markers on the board. At that age I think 5 mins is fine. But of course, I would just watch and see.

 

Of course continue reading to him. :)

[Lfwfv]

Thank you so much to all of you for responding and sharing your thoughts and experiences. The comments were all very helpful.

 

I decided I am going to cut way back on the PP, and just stick to a couple minutes of it per day. I think i was doing too much...trying to use it to review, work on his current skills, and simultaneously progress him, and it was just too much list, after list, after list before we got to the Bob books. I am going to stick to 1/2-2 pages of PP per day (depending on the difficulty). That way, we'll get through it eventually and I can know he has that foundation under his belt, but I won't use it as my main method of progressing his reading right now. I think I'm going to use the Bob Books, followed by the book suggestions in 100EZ lessons, Treadwell and Pathway readers, and then move onto the I-Can-Read-type book series from the library. I will pre-screen them and make my index card word lists of new/hard words from him for each book.  I think he will be able to tolerate the couple minutes of PP, which will satisfy my slightly-OCD need to know we are finishing a comprehensive phonics program, and then we will progress in his reading with the index card word lists and easy readers. At least, that's the plan I am going to try out for now.....haha 

 

And yes, we read to him a lot. I read a lengthy Biblewise storybook daily, we read some poems (AA Milne right now), read a novel or longer story of some sort, and then my dh reads to him a bit at night. He listens to books on tape during quiet time, and I read other random books and board books (I have an almost-one-year-old too) whenever we can throughout the day. I definitely don't plan out cutting out the read-alouds...probably until they are 20 :D

 

Thank you all for indulging my craziness!

Tanya

[Ellie]

Hi all,

 

I started 100EZ lessons with my son when he was 3.25. He loved it, especially the stories at the end of each day. He thought they were hilarious. He finished a few weeks ago, and after reading so many posts about needing to follow up with a comprehensive phonics program, I have started him on Phonics Pathways.

 

 

But generally when people talk about following up with a comprehensive phonics program, they are not discussing children who are not yet four years old. Phonics Pathways is too much, too soon, IMHO.

[SilverMoon]

In that situation I'd just read good books together and let a rules based spelling book take over when he's around 2nd grade age or so. Shelve PP for now and let the BOB Book or reader be the lesson for the day.

[Lfwfv]

Thank you for the additional thoughts and responses. Things have been going much better the last couple of days...2 minutes of PP, and then a lot of reading in Bob Books or whatever else we have lying around that's appropriate. We are laughing and enjoying the stories together, which feels great, and he hasn't complained about the PP at all given it is super short.

 

thanks again!

Tanya

[LMCme]

I agree that a rule based phonics program might not be appropriate developmentally for a 4 year old...  if the goal is to have him reading fluently and well, you could try something like Dancing Bears (which is light on rules) at a rate of 1 page per day to start, then go faster as he gets into the serial story which he might really enjoy if that was what drew him along in 100EZ lessons.  They are light on rules, mostly focusing on building progressively more complex phonemes and new blends.  Think of it as an immersion language course where the language he is learning is written English.  Make sure you preview the serial to see if it is right for your family, though.  It is hilarious, but does involve a horse getting drunk on oat beer and such.  The entire text is available as a free preview online so you can read the entire story.  All that said, it is list heavy, but again you just pace how much you're reading and realize that his primary reading instruction isn't coming from there but from the other reading you and he are doing.

 

At some point he will want to learn some rules, but that will be more like 6 years old, by which point he may already be reading fluently.  If that happens, he can learn the rules as part of his spelling program.