caedmyn Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 My 8 YO is almost done with level 4 and I want to take a break from Barton for the rest of the summer once we finish it. Any suggestions on what to do for reading practice in the meantime? He could use some extra practice with 3 syllable words. We've been doing the fluency drills along with the lessons so I want to do something different for our break. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Whatever you do, I would highly recommend not taking a huge break from Barton. No more than 3 weeks, actually. I did take a huge break of a couple of months after we made it through Level 4 and ended up having to repeat the entire level. That level covers a LOT and it just didn't stick long term when we took a summer break. It was a mistake I deeply regret. If you are going to take a break, maybe get the leveled readers to read some, and periodically have them do Barton practice pages so they don't forget everything. Besides the two pages per lesson in the lesson pages already provided there are additional pages for tutors available on-line. Have you printed those out? You could use those maybe twice a week or so. Do you have the Spelling Success Barton cards? If you do, you could do some card games maybe once or twice a week so the information/concepts and the terms don't slip away. That way you are still reviewing but it won't take long. I don't have a recommendation for something else to do in the meantime, though. Maybe someone else will... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted June 23, 2017 Share Posted June 23, 2017 Agreed. Do you have the supplemental readers Barton sells? We're going back through all the reading (text and drills) for 4, then I'll have him read the books. We like the Spelling Success games as well. Congrats on making it this far! :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogger Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 I too ended up repeating level 4 after a "short" summer break turned long and yet I'm tempted to take another break. It gets so old. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 I too ended up repeating level 4 after a "short" summer break turned long and yet I'm tempted to take another break. It gets so old. :iagree: I love Barton. Puffy heart love it. But we have to take a hiatus periodically. The kids aren't the only ones whose brains need a break. :) I totally get what you are saying. I try now to keep doing extra practice pages and playing the card games at least three times a week while taking our hiatus to keep everything from completely falling out of their heads. I will say that I have found taking a sort of brief break to do that kind of review and let things percolate a bit has helped DD a lot with retention. She needs to ponder a bit before moving on. I just have to keep reviewing the stuff already learned or she loses everything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 Would some of the higher levels of the I See Sam readers be at his current level? www.iseesam.com My kids enjoyed the stories for the most part and they were very good reinforcement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 What about the High Noon books? Maybe there would be some that would pair well with Barton... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caedmyn Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 I can definitely have him do some of the extra practice pages, and review the spelling rules weekly. We don't have any of the level 4 readers. I'm a bit reluctant to buy any because they seem a little overpriced for what they are, and the two level 3 ones I bought he read once each and then wasn't interested anymore, so I feel like they weren't worth the money. I have levels 1-4 of the I See Sam e-books. I'll have to see if level 4 would be challenging enough for him, or request an additional level. I don't have any of the spelling success games either but will look into them more. Thanks for the suggestions. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted June 25, 2017 Share Posted June 25, 2017 I'd first suggest the Barton supplemental readers to work on what's been taught through Barton, however they are our least favorite supplement. We've used a lot of High Noon books and other stuff here at my home. The biggest problem is that everything else introduces silent e and vowel-r words much earlier and this is confusing to my kids. If you take it slowly, you can introduce some of the new phonics along with the High Noon books. It is hard to find anything with multisyllable words that doesn't also have a lot of other complicated phonics. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
***** Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 I'd first suggest the Barton supplemental readers to work on what's been taught through Barton, however they are our least favorite supplement. We've used a lot of High Noon books and other stuff here at my home. The biggest problem is that everything else introduces silent e and vowel-r words much earlier and this is confusing to my kids. If you take it slowly, you can introduce some of the new phonics along with the High Noon books. It is hard to find anything with multisyllable words that doesn't also have a lot of other complicated phonics. Julie, I have often wondered which High Noon books would be good as a supplement, especially for boys in 6-8th grade. Would you have any suggestions of specific titles they might find interesting for use between Level 3-4 of Barton? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 I've used various HIgh Noon sets with my daughter and now my son. With someone between levels 3-4 of Barton, I would use the Sound Out Phonics Based chapter books. http://www.highnoonbooks.com/listHNB-Phonics.tpl?action=search&cart=14985090155866347&cattrack=Phonicsatoc&xHNBCATEGORY=Sound%20Out%20Chapter%20Books&xHNBSUBCATEGORY=PhonicsAtoC&bobx=1st%20Grade%20Phonics-Based&eqGROUPdatarq=item I'd start with level A1. If more practice in needed at this level then you can go to A2 and A3 which are the same level, but more books. For harder levels, proceed on to levels B and C. They do not follow the same skills at Barton, but the are much more interesting reading IMO. Each level A, B, and C have books from two levels. Set A has level 1 and 2, B has level 3 and 4, C has level 5 and 6. If you can do level 1 books, but not ready to move onto level 2, you might need to buy another level A set just to get more practice. Take a look at the samples of anything at High Noon. They are fairly representative. In a fit of frustration when teaching my daughter, I also bought the High Noon Reading Level 1 intervention program. This was not helpful for her, but it has been helpful in filling in some phonics introduced earlier in High Noon with my son that he had not learned yet with Barton. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
***** Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 Thank you, Julie, that narrows it down for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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