Perhaps Headsprout? There is a free trial. www.headsprout.com Jennie

Something that might help quite a bit: Alternate reading every other word with your child. [You can do this either before she reads the book/page/sentence on her own, or after.] I recently began doing this with tutoring students, and wish I had begun years ago. It definitely helps build their fluency in a less-stressful way than plowing through the sentences/pages/book on their own. Plus, it has the neat side effect of increasing their accuracy. I find the student really focuses on the word I read (sometimes the student can't help but vocalize it!), whereas if I read a whole sentence, the student might not follow along well (or at all).

Life of Fred did not work for/interest my dd. We went through 2 or 3 of the elementary books. I very much wanted her to like it and learn from it, because there is a lot beyond math in the books, but alas.... By the way, I can't imagine LOF being a primary curriculum. We have liked Math Mammoth (I afterschool) and Singapore (Primary) Math. A supplemental program for (primarily) grades 3 and up is the "Key to" series: Key to Fractions, Key to Decimals, Key to Percents, etc. I this the series is fabulous for helping students master these subjects.

The research that I have read on mastering math facts indicate that it is best to: 1. Achieve 40 facts a minute in a "See/Say" format (problems written on a sheet, or flashcards laid out on the table). If writing the answers, then 60 digits/minute - note that answers often have more than one digit. 2. Start with very few facts and get those to the mastery goal, then add in just one or two more, and get them to mastery goal. Eventually, start pulling out very well mastered facts for less frequent review. When students are introduced to too many facts at a time, and then they correctly respond at a slow rate (or worse, give wrong answers), it is really hard for them to master any, and it is really hard to add in new facts. Often the new ones end up "messing" up the supposedly learned previous facts. It may seem crazy to get a few up to 40/minute when you feel like you should be adding more, but it helps the child's brain to store them in long-term memory, plus the boost to self-esteem is remarkable. Does this approach work? I have used it with about 4 students, and it made a huge difference in not only their retention of the facts, but in their view of themselves as math students. I did not insist on this rate with addition facts with my dd, but after learning about it, I used this approach on multiplication facts. Three years later, she still thinks multiplication facts are "easier" than addition, and she is indeed more fluent with them. Of course between timings there needs to be instruction and focused practice on any new challenging facts. Introduce a new fact by using a previously mastered fact, e.g. "5x5 = 30, so what does 5x6 - which is one more five - equal?" (BTW, it is extremely difficult to shuffle through flashcards at the pace of 40/min. I provide practice with flashcards in my hand, shuffling through them, but I assess by putting the flashcards down on the table and pointing at each one with a pen as the student responds with the answers.)

For books that are far more interesting (and thorough) than the Bob Books, I recommend the "I See Sam" books. They are available at: www.iseesam.com or www.3rsplus.com There are several previous threads on this series. For a program, per se, the Abecedarian program is both effective and very affordable. www.abcdrp.com There is a downloadable placement assessment and there are samples of the program on the website.

Perhaps your child's speech therapist has a recommendation? The following isn't a program and it's not for a child, but may be helpful for you as your child's teacher. I had rarely thought about the position of my tongue, etc. when saying most sounds, so this video (and others by JenniferESL on youtube) was helpful in teaching me enough to be able to help tutoring students of mine who were struggling in reading and were also in speech therapy. Pronunciation of English Vowels videos:

The I See Sam books are indeed perfect for extended practice! Additionally, the stories and characters are very engaging (far more so than the Bob books), particularly in the first 3 sets. As mentioned above, the first two sets are downloadable for free from a few websites. The other, later sets, you can purchase from: 3rsplus.com iseesam.com

I See Sam books

One quick word of advice if you use the Kirk-Hegge drills: Some of the lists have words that rhyme if you read across the rows. I always avoid this with my tutoring students, because then they tend to look at the first letter and simply rhyme with the previous word. This defeats the purpose of teaching them to look at all the letters in words! So, with some of the K-H lists, students should read down the columns.

I too started with 100EZ Lessons (as an afterschooler). My dd got to about Lesson 60. We switched to the Kirk-Hegge Drills that you link to. Dd's initial learning in 100EZ Lessons was definitely important, both because she learned lots of the alphabetic code from it, but also because it taught me a great deal about teaching reading, which I doubt would have been the case if I had started with just a list of words. These two programs helped turn a struggling non-reader into an excellent reader. I found a way to be sure that my switching programs did not create gaps in learning: I kept track of my dd's knowledge of the alphabetic code. One neat tool I didn't find until later is the code chart available on the Phonics International website (there is a North American version of the code chart). I love the Kirk-Hegge drills. Kudos to Don Potter for providing a huge number of free phonics resources on his website.

The Revolution (History Channel; 13 episodes-long). DC (13) loves it. DC (9) likes it, but there are some sections of it that are questionable in terms of age-appropriateness. It definitely focuses on the war aspect of the revolution, rather than the Continental Congress aspect....

Phonics is essential. Some people just "pick it up" on their own, but if they are strong readers or spellers, they know their phonics (by which I mean the connections between letters and sounds - I am not referring to rules). I think of it as a body of knowledge that needs to be learned in order to read very good literature accurately and in order to be an excellent speller. The cool thing for home educators is that there is a huge variety of phonics programs from which to choose. And if one doesn't work well for your particular child, you can switch. Most are pretty affordable. Some programs emphasize rules. Quite a few do not use rules in their approach. Some include movements to help students remember letter-sounds. Some require just one book to purchase. Some provide lots of different materials, include letter-sound tiles, matching decodable readers, handwriting guidelines, etc. Some focus just on reading. Some include spelling as a core component. Some are scripted. Some are more free-flowing. Some are in-between. As for becoming a good speller, there is very compelling research on how early phonics teaching (specifically synthetic phonics, i.e. with a focus on the blending and segmenting of sounds) has a large effect on spelling ability.

This is what I do with Math Mammoth, because this way we are: 1. Mixing subjects that are harder conceptually for my dc with those that are easier. 2. Keeping several subjects fresh in dc's mind. I am an afterschooler, not a homeschooler, however. I am interested to hear if others do the same thing with MM.

I suggest looking at Abecedarian, in conjuction with the I See Sam readers. There is an Abecedarian placement assessment at abcdrp.com. The lessons move pretty quickly from activity to activity, so the student doesn't feel bogged down. There are free supplemental materials for fluency practice at the letter-sound, word, and text levels. There are also placement assessments for the I See Sam readers. Best of luck with whatever decision you make.

Go ahead and start with Level B, since your child placed there. You can always fill in, as needed, on sounds. Also, A & P doesn't really start introducing spelling rules until Level B.