I finally found "The 3r's" yesterday (it was lost for months) under my bed and read what she had to say about reading and it helped me breather a little easier. We've already covered most of the phonics rules that she has listed in her book. I think I'm just going to let my daughter read for now and do phonics informally through that, and try AAS. I want to read through the books mentioned here, as I find it so valuable to learn about the different approaches. It's not that I don't want to teach phonics, but I need an approach that is different from what we've been doing.

I can see the problem with the spelling. I have the first two levels of AAS, so I guess I'll start that up slowly and see how it goes. Reading and spelling were never difficult for me, so it will be interesting to see how things go with my kids. I really appreciate all the input!

You all are so helpful. I'm looking into the different suggestions. I'm going to get The Writing Road to Reading from the library, as I have heardit mentioned often. I would love to hear from anyone else that has taught this way successfully.

My 5.5 year old has finished Funnix 1 and is reading on a second grade level. We were trying to work through Word Mastery from Don Potter's site but she hates it. She hates any word list style of instruction. I have tried a white board, and a black board, and reading straight from the book. She likes playing ElizabethB's Phonics Concentration Game, but that is pretty much a review for her. She doesn't mind reading stories. Can I just teach the phonics rules as the words come up in the story?

I totally understand your situation. My daughter wanted to start reading lessons at 4 and so we did. When she started putting up a fight, I would always insist for that day, but then either take a break or try a different approach the following day. We just finished Funnix 1 a few weeks ago and we took a break and played ElizabethB's concentration game and read from a Pathway Reader we had. My daughter reads much better in context than with a list of random words, as she's is able to guess what the next word is. So now we are starting with Word Mastery from Don Potter's site. I felt like she needed more phonics instruction than Funnix was giving. Good luck!

I've been looking at these too. I haven't seen the $40 kits, though. Do you have a link?

I'm planning for next year. I have a daughter that is really interested in science. We have *Science Saturday* and she looks forward to it all week. She loves reading, and loves doing "experiments" and loves talking to people about science. I am leaning towards doing mostly interest-led science with her next year, with a bit of BFSU and CK as a sort of spine. Basically I just want to check out a few books on the topic of the week (from CK) and read them and do more if she wants to and move on if she doesn't. I have BFSU and will probably read through it and work stuff into our discussions, but not make it a formal thing. But then, I read about how great RSO is and I kind of wonder if that would be better for her. Any thoughts?

My daughter didn't like RS at first. I really did though. The beginning lessons are pretty easy, so we went through them quickly. I spent some time working with the flash cards and manipulatives so my daughter could see the numbers without having to count. That wasn't terribly fun. We are on lesson 35 now, so I am not an expert at all. My daughter doesn't love math, but she doesn't hate it. There is only one game so far that she wanted to play over and over. I do feel like it is giving her a great foundation though, and she really struggles with writing so RS is a good fit there. I'm pretty sure I'm going to transition to Singapore next year. I'm sort of just bumping this for you. Definitely give it some more time. Other people with more experience can help you out more. :)

I love Rightstart. We do it 5 or 6 times a week for 15- 20 minutes. Usually just 15. My daughter doesn't have much of an attention span for math. Anyways, my experience is limited, but I think it's a great program to start out with. You can make the lessons as long or short as you like.

I read on here that d has a doughnut first and b has a back first. That's what worked for my daughter.

We do math (RightStart), phonics (Funnix), and handwriting (HWT) every day. We do the phonics some time in the morning, generally I wait for a little lull in the play time and swoop in with the Funnix lesson. This usually happens between 9 and 10. After that I let my two girls spend 20-30 minutes playing starfall or watching an educational video. They get to watch Kipper once a week. At 12 or 12:30 my two and half year goes down for her nap, and I sneak upstairs with my five year old to do school. We do math for maybe 15-20 minutes, then handwriting for 5 to 10 minutes. Then we usually read some books or play a game. I send my 5 year old out for "recess" if the weather is nice, and she collects the chicken eggs. After that we do one subject that changes day-to-day. Monday - Literature (extra read-aloud time) Tuesday - Geography (putting together geopuzzles, reading books about different cultures and looking at maps) Wednesday - Art (I use Scribble Art by Maryanne Kohl for art project ideas and the Child-Size Masterpieces cards, along with library books for art appreciation) Thursday - PE (We don't always do PE but I try to have a dance video or play Simon Says or run around outside if the weather is nice) Friday - History (Usborne Living Long Ago and books from the library) Saturday - Science Saturday! (My daughter's favorite day of the week. We use Elemental Intro and keep it super simple with a book, discussion and an experiment/project) I have a 7 month old tagging along during school time so it's difficult to juggle the projects at times. After we finish school for the day I turn on an audio book for my Ker and have some quiet time until the two year old wakes up. We do scripture study and memorization, additional read aloud time, and arts and crafts throughout the day informally. I spend zero time prepping each night. If we go up to the loft to start school and I have to set something up, my Ker will do something from a Kumon workbook while I set things up. We have a lot of fun!

I have put the "I See Sam" PDF's on my kindle, but the print was a little smaller than I would like. Those also have pictures, which you don't want. It would be pretty easy to make your own readers by typing them up on your own and then exporting as a PDF and sending the PDF to your e-reader. That way you could have the font and size just as you wanted and no pictures.

Yeah, my daughter loves listening to audiobooks, but she would NOT listen the the JW SOTW. Luckily, we just checked them out from the library.

This is THE most helpful post I have seen on HWOT. I ordered some of the stuff for K and it should be here this week, but I'm wishing I got the CD now. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to type this up, I'm excited to get started!

I will keep an eye on your blog to see how this goes for you! TT really does look great, but as with MM, it's not as time-tested as I would like. Could you tell me what you really disliked about MUS?

Thanks for the input so far. I am happy with RS for now, but it IS teacher intensive. I have two younger daughters and would like to have at least one more baby, so I would like something less teacher intensive for the future. It is worth it right now for me to spend the time with my daughter because I do think it is a great program. From what I have read though, people like it less in the levels after B, which is when I would like to switch. The problem is, MUS is the program I feel most comfortable switching to right now, and it has the different scope and sequence that makes the transition more difficult. I'm not interested in Saxon or Singapore or a program that is not secular. I've heard a lot of good things about MM, but I would like a program that has been around for longer than MM. My daughter is also really sensitive to cluttered pages. I have looked at TT too, but the reviews have been really mixed there. One that really stuck out to me said that their child did really well within TT, but they weren't able to transfer the skills outside of it. I do realize that it depends on the student, but I can't try out all the programs so I'm trying make the best choice based on other's experiences. Sigh, after all that, does anyone have any advice? Really, I'm all ears if you want to talk me out of MUS. How does anyone ever choose?!

We are working through RS A right now and I really love it. My dd5 likes it too, but she's not really begging to do more math, which is fine. She understands what we're doing and enjoys it enough, but is more interested in reading and art. I do not want to use RS past the B level. I am pretty sure I want to switch to MUS and stick with it through elementary math. I really love RS, and I wouldn't mind doing it through B, but I do want to start MUS with alpha. Should I just switch after we finish RS A? Should I go through B and then start on MUS Alpha? I'm not sure that I want to do 2 years of first grade math. Is RS B not to be missed? If you've worked with these two programs I would appreciate any advice!

I don't have time to link you up, but there are several threads that have discussed this. I know because I just was reading about this last night! Try an advanced search using "mus" searching titles only in the high school forum. It sounds like mixed reviews, but there are some that think it is not challenging enough. You could also search for Demme and find a thread with his response to those who think it is not challenging enough. Hope this helps. :)

We are on Lesson 95. We both like it SO much more than 100 EZ lessons. We were on lesson 80 in 100 EZ, but backed up to 60 in Funnix. I've really seen an improvement in my daughter's confidence. We aren't using the worksheets though. My 2 1/2 always wants to do a lesson after her sister. We do one exercise from the lesson each day. We are now on lesson 5. I really don't have any desire to teach her to read right now, but she wants to do what big sis is doing and so far it has been easy enough for her. I think we will hit a wall soon enough though, and that is FINE. ::tongue_smilie:

E.B. White books are a huge hit here. :)

Thank you Elizabeth! It's nice to hear from someone who has actually used it. :001_smile:

Bump!

My daughter just turned 5 in December. She would be starting K in the fall. We have been using Funnix for reading and that is going well. I think I would like to introduce spelling in the fall, but I want to keep it pretty laid back. I know AAS is a great program and highly recommended. I just don't know if I want to use that for a 5-6 year old. It seems pretty pricey and perhaps more involved than I want right now. I read about Spelling Plus in a couple of threads, but I can't find much info about it. Does anyone have any experience with it? Should I just bite the bullet and use AAS?

Oh, you wanted a single favorite item!? I guess I would say RS A then. :)

I'm not an expert, but so far we've really loved Right Start A Kumon Amazing Mazes Carson X Scope Wooden Pattern Blocks GeoPuzzles E.B. White books and audiobooks