medawyn Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 I've been using I See Sam with my 4yo (along with a hodge podge of other materials; I'm a phonics nut), and we're about halfway through level 4. I downloaded the books onto the iPad, and he LOVES getting to "read on Daddy's iPad". Levels 1-4 is one set; levels 5-8 is another chunk of change. Are they worth it? I've really liked the incremental steps in the first levels. It's perfect for my kid who picks up phonics quickly, but is still really young so too much information at one time is a bit of an overload. Are the next levels still fairly incremental? After level 4 would you be able to switch to "real" books, or should I stick with the readers until more material is covered? I have looked at the scope and sequence, but that doesn't tell you much about how each story progresses, kwim? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Incremental, but as boring as Hades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medawyn Posted July 27, 2017 Author Share Posted July 27, 2017 Incremental, but as boring as Hades. Mind numbingly, poke my eyes out boring. But DS loves the books. I don't know if it's the lure of the iPad or the fact that he feels successful while reading them, but I'm trying not to mess with success. Or go blind. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Dd and I hated the books after level 4, but they were necessary for her because she wasn't ready to continue without the incremental structure. After finishing all of 'I See Sam,' we spent two months on ElizabethB's phonics vids, and she was reading on a year 7 level until she went to school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medawyn Posted July 27, 2017 Author Share Posted July 27, 2017 Dd and I hated the books after level 4, but they were necessary for her because she wasn't ready to continue without the incremental structure. After finishing all of 'I See Sam,' we spent two months on ElizabethB's phonics vids, and she was reading on a year 7 level until she went to school. I'd like this, but of course, I can't. But it's helpful, thank you. I might see if there is a way just to purchase Level 5, and see where that lands us. Not that there's a whole host of interesting reading material at this early stage. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixpix5 Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Incremental, but as boring as Hades. I have not read these books but I laughed so hard at this. I think this will be my new saying "boring as Hades" so hilarious. Which is made funnier because we had a fat, lazy flame point Persian named Hades. Just great imagery :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoutingmom Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 You can get an ebook version for free from www.3rsplus.com Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 (edited) Here are the free Blend Phonics stories. Also boring as hades, but I think all books for that age are boring. I wrote them and tried to make them as interesting as I could, but I'm no Dr. Suess and it is hard to write a good story with limited sound/letter choices. They are PDF, so should be able to be downloaded into iBooks and read on the iPad. They go to a higher level of phonics than the first few levels of the I See Sam books. Story 19 adds in 2 syllable word and syllable division, I would start there. Don Potter wrote the comprehension questions. I am not a big fan of comprehension questions for that age and for supremely boring stories, but he says his students really like the questions and many people want comprehension questions, so there you go. I skip the questions with my students, although most of my students are remedial guessers so I just do word lists with them until they quit guessing, but I have had a few students with speech problems and no guessing problems who I have used the stories with. http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/blend_phonics_stories.pdf You could also try the sentences in Webster's Speller, focus on the "4th grade level words," "5th grade level words" aspect of it, that is always motivational, and it is in PDF form, here is how to teach the syllables and it: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html You could also download some good older phonics books, Pollard is fun, you need to get Google Play on your iPad and then they load. If that works well, you can start a thread asking for suggestions. The stories and sentences are more interesting because if the sound has not been learned yet to move the story along, she puts in a little picture of the word, for example, she will write "Jack has a cat and a [box]," with the box being a picture of a box or a trunk. Or, "The [bird] sang," with a cute little picture of a bird in line with the text. https://books.google.com/books?id=e5AAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=first%2Bsynthetic%2Breaders&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false Pollard has a whole series, here are the collection of links from my page, the link above is the first reader, but the First Book for Little Folks is also good in that range of phonics, the Pollard books are about halfway down, scroll down a ways. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/phonicsandspelli.html Edited July 27, 2017 by ElizabethB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 The owner of the 3rs plus read website was one of the original authors of the I See Sam books, he updated them. He has samples of each of the series on his website, and it looks like they might have free electronic copies currently if you e-mail them. http://www.3rsplus.com 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoutingmom Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 The owner of the 3rs plus read website was one of the original authors of the I See Sam books, he updated them. He has samples of each of the series on his website, and it looks like they might have free electronic copies currently if you e-mail them. http://www.3rsplus.com Yes I have the ebook versions from there and have discussed the program with him. It is very impressive the things that were considered when they designed the program. Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 (edited) I didn't think they were *that* boring. :) :) I liked the books. My kids needed to ALL the books, and we had to read each one several times for practice. (But my kids are both dyslexic.) When we needed a break, we then went through all of the Arnold Lobel "I Can Read" books, all of the "I Can Read" Bargain for Francis books, and EVERY SINGLE "Step Into Reading" history and science book. (I only did that after they had been introduced to enough of the alphabetic code to read 95% of those books phonetically. I can't remember what books that was after, but I could look through those other readers and just know.) We also did the Sonlight 2nd and 3rd grade readers package too as read aloud practice. Those were very nice books too. After that, we also went through Elizabeth's phonics/blend phonics/Webster's speller (with nonsense words), all of the AAR (first 5 AAS levels), the McGruffy Readers, and now we are using the Sopris REWARDS program. (In other words, my kids need A LOT of decoding practice. So maybe you won't need all of the books.) Edited July 28, 2017 by TheAttachedMama 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 We did all of the sets here. We didn't find the stories too boring. The success of the program was great for my kids. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medawyn Posted July 29, 2017 Author Share Posted July 29, 2017 Thank you all! Things are working so far; DS is enjoying I See Sam and he's learning, so I guess i shouldn't rock the boat. On to level 5! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoutingmom Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 My daughter using I See Sam has just started reading Harry Potter to herself. I knew she was reading well, but didn't realize she was reading that well.... We are using the 3rsplus vesion which doesn't reference the level numbers... but she is almost done "Advanced Reading Instruction 1"... Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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