Check out Spell to Write and Read. It's a derivative of Writing Road to Reading with many more helps, games and a wonderful yahoo group that answer any question you have. Definitely taught me to look at our language in a new way!! Christie

I use Spell to Write and Read. My 6 yo daughter has learned all 70 phonograms and can "read" them within 3 minutes. Her favorite is "ough" which says /O/ /OO/ /uf/ /off/ /aw/ /ow/. It's quite a fun game. This program only teaches the 3 sounds of A because the words you listed above use different phonograms. * AR says /ar/ as in car * AI says /A/ as in train * AY says /A/ as in say Did you ever notice that AI and AY are a pair. One may be used at the end of an English word (AY) but the other never is (AI) because English words do not end in I. (spaghetti is not an English word, it's Italien.) SAID is an exception. In Spell to Write and Read there are only 15 exceptions in 2,000 words. READ uses the EA phonogram which has 3 sounds: /E/, /e/ and /A/ (as in meat, head, and great) EAR, HEAR, EACH, TEACH and READ also use the EA phonogram and where it says it's first sound /E/ AIR, HAIR and FAIR use the AI phongram which says /A/. You have to think about how you're making the sound and how it's blending together. say /A/ /R/ and you can get it to blend to be AIR. The r and the l often make our mouths distort the vowel sound as we're "sliding" into the r sound while saying the /A/. Spell to Write and Read has one powerful component, the THINK TO SPELL. My daughter was stuck on HAIR but we kept drilling, "Think to Spell /h/ /A/ /r/" and she got it. I typed this without looking at any notes. Don't be intimidated by vertical phonics. It's an incredibly powerful tool for analyzing our language. You learn the phonograms one at a time along with your child. You learn to analyze the words one at a time along with your child and suddenly it all makes sense! I would absolutely HATE to be unable to explain why the A in father says /ah/. Our children's minds are amazingly flexible and they'll pick up on this stuff before you do. There's a yahoo group for Spell to Write and REad that is active daily with wonderful trainers who are ready to answer any question. I learn a ton from reading the daily digest and get much encouragement from it. IMHO, Vertical PHonics is the only way to go. Christie PHillips

There is no way we could have time to do the activities. I wistfully scan them and think, "Maybe, in 4 years, when we're back to Ancient History again... maybe then my oldest daughter might get excited about some of these activities and decide to do them with my 2nd daughter..." But for the most part, no. We're just quite blessed to even squeeze history in and get everyone fed for lunch and laundry done and baths taken! So basically, I read the story while she colors a page (if there is one), ask the review questions and take her narration, and that's it. We've done 1, maybe 2 of the activities this year. Shoot, I just recently figured out the library order-online and pickup books at the drive-thru feature, so we ARE getting some library books to go with history now too. The best, though, has been the audio CDs. They stay in the car and they're not allowed to "listen ahead" of where we are in school. They request history EVERYTIME we're in the van so we've had to set down the law "NO HISTORY ON SUNDAY" - even Mom gets tired of it sometimes! But its the best review tool ever. Christie P

Thank you! Yes, Pictures in Cursive is what I was looking for. :) Thanks!

Saw one once that had a piece of artwork (a painting) and the student copied phrases underneath that described the painting. "She has bare feet." But I've forgotten the name of it and can't find it online. Christie Phillips

loved it! Thanks for posting that. :) Nice to be able to say that hs-ing is not the cause of all my troubles - I'd just have a different set if they went to ps. I like the problems we have hs-ing. I think I'll keep these. :)

Thanks!

thanks!

Spell to Write and Read,. Very active helpful yahoo group. demystifies the english language using 70 phonograms and 28 spelling rules. teaches kids to read by spelling first, their first reader is their spelling book and sentences in their own handwriting. by analyzing each word sounds first THEN writing it and seeing the visual, it createas a stronger mental connection that they won't forget. Lots of activities and enrichment activities as you go along. spelling dictation videos here:

Just completed Jewish People Word Search. It said "with the leftover letters, after all the words have been found, answer the bonus riddle. Just write down, in order, the letters that aren't yet circled. They spell the answer." My leftover letters, in order, do not form anything recognizable. Also, I don't see a "bonus riddle" for the leftover letters to answer. ALSO - the directions said "all the answer words from the clues are in the word search and only run from left to right." Well, my answers did NOT only run from left to right. JOSEPH was down, ABRAHAM and PHARAOH were all doing down. UR and COAT were diagonal. So did they alter the grid of letters at some point, remove the bonus riddle, and forget to change the directions? Thanks! Christie P

Thanks for all the input. I will try to go the route of only reading it once. I agree that they can rise to the level of our expectation. Though her wordy narrations come too fast for me to write it down (if I expect to be able to read it later!) So I do have to STOP her and make her pause so I can catch up. She has already improved. She's comfortable answering in complete sentences... and I'll have to think about whether to correct at the moment or afterwards. (She's not yet reading what we're writing. Maybe when she's at the level of reading it, I can have her read it and we correct it together.) Yes 0 I do have the AG and we use the Narration Questions. And I like the idea of reading their summaries to her afterwards so she can get an idea of what we're going for. (I enviously drool over the crafts and projects but we have NO time for them!) And I'll try to ask, "tell me one thing you remember" :) I have uploaded the SOTW CDs to my computer and can make a playlist that only includes the chapters we've already covered. She loves to listen to them during free time, and I figure it's 'free' review so, once we've read it and narrated it, I see no problem with her listening to them as often as she wants. Thanks for the input! Christie

My 6yo DD is getting into the routine of narration. However, I have noticed certain things... :) "So, what happened in the story?" "I don't know." So then she wants me to read the entire thing again! I'm thinking of letting her listen to her History on Sunday afternoons with the CD so that when I read it to her on Monday it's not so new and she will have heard it more than once. (I like to actually read it to her so I can elaborate or answer questions.) I do the review questions, but then she would rather I write down her answers to the Review Questions and let that be her narration. I've discouraged that but will use leading questions (as little as possible) to try and get the narration started. Once the narration does start - it can go for an ENTIRE notebook page (in my handwriting). She includes every single detail. If it's a Bible narration, she wants to quote everything everybody said. I can tell for this little woman, summarizing is going to be difficult! So, any ideas on how to teach summary? I tried to encourage only 3-5 sentences and got about 8-10 today. :) And how much editing do you do as they talk? Sometimes what she says isn't grammatically correct, or she'll start the narration with "They" rather than saying "The Egyptians". I do verbally, gently correct and have her restate it, but with such run-on sentences as she gives, it's difficult! (I've actually had to limit her to one joining conjunction per sentence. Yesterday she gave me " A and B and C and D" where A, B, C and D were all stand-alone sentences themselves! :) It's funny and challenging! I do see where this process is going to produce better writing because we can be working on these things in her thinking before it ever comes to the point where she's writing it down on paper herself. Thanks!

I so feel your pain! My husband's schedule is different every day and every week. Sometimes 6a-4p, sometimes 10a-8p, sometimes 3p-1a or 4p-2a. Most weeks he works Saturday and Sunday, so his two off days are during the week. Even if he is off, he sleeps at least until 10 or 11 am. I get up at 5, walk, shower, dress, do basic chores (load of laundry, unload dishwasher) then the kids get up at 7 am. Dress, make beds, hair - breakfast at 8 am - brush teeth, clean table and school at 9 am (mostly 9:30 am). School til lunch, but still we're pushing it to get it done before lunch, so maybe lunch is at 1 pm - or else we have a subject or two after lunch. (Oldest is 6 and this is our first year of 1st grade. New subjects this year include SOTW, Cursive First and Spell to Write and Read) My main headache is what to do with almost 3yo who doesn't take a morning nap and refuses to stay in the playroom (gotta remember to put that gate up!) Was just brainstorming that we could do subjects that the 3yo likes (Bible, History and Cursive) before lunch mainly because there are coloring pages in Bible and History that she can color, or the hands on manipulatives for Cursive (wall clock, salt box, tracing raised letters) and then try to save Math and Spelling for after lunch when 3yo is "supposed" to be napping and not distracting me and my 6yo! Anyway - it's always a challenge to try to find what works and when you do find it, it'll change in 1-2 months! But my DD has helped! She wants to visit a friend tomorrow and I was wondering out loud how to get our school in. "Mom - you know how I sometimes get up with you early and go walking? What if we do school then (5 am) before breakfast then we can visit our friends?" Well - it is my rest day from walking - so if she's game... why not? ;-)

My 6yo is starting to work some word problems in her math (Math Mammoth) and I'm having her underline the numbers in the problems (i.e. Jack has _six_ cars....) so that when she gets to bigger and longer word problems, she will be in the habit of underlining the important information to make it stand out. (you know how they always love to throw in something that isn't required to solve the problem!)

Just bought MM in March. Printed 1-A and 1-B double sided on fast draft (uses less ink), hole punched and put in 3 ring binder. Tabs separate 1-A, 1-A Ans, 1-B, 1-B Ans, Cum Rev, and Tests. Taking out 1 page a day and having her work both front and back. BTW - I went through both 1-A and 1-B with coloring pencils and it only took one evening to color in anything that really needed color. (Money was the worst! All those pennies! And Money had to be printed as photo quality or the coins weren't clear enough, but it's a small section.) I had priced printing at Kinkos (my original choice) but it was SO VERY expensive!! And there was no way I could tweak it to make it cheaper. In the end, one new cartridge of black ink (only $32) was MUCH cheaper than printing at Kinkos, and I desperately needed it anyway, and now I have about 75% of the ink left over for the rest of the year. So only $3 for the paper, $32 for the ink, and I'm probably set on ink for the next 6 months too.

Thank you for mentioning the website. I am pouring over it now, especially their "Getting Started" section and their games. Thanks!

And how do you find out how many members there are at each level? That would be interesting!

We've gotten to spelling word #50, done 3 reference charts and started her spelling notebook. The main thing is - IT"S SO BORING! No games, just dictation, dictation, dictation! read the word - use in sentence - have her say the word, say the sounds, write the sounds, she reads the word, uses in a sentence. Worked great up til about word 30 - then because it's based upon frequency of use in English language and because you get so many exceptions up front (THERE, THEIR, ONE, HAVE, THEY, etc) it started to get jumbled in her mind. And then I got frustrated because past words would slip - is she just too young at 5.5 yo for this? But she already KNOWS all her first 52 phonograms (though some need to be reviewed periodically) so - just frustrating and wish this was packaged like OPGTR which periodically stops for a game, or a skit, or a poem, or SOMETHING different!

Yes you can still purchase it. Small Ventures Publishing has been purchase, or renamed as Lakemere Publishing. They're online and can answer questions. http://lakemerepublishing.com/ However, there are no online forums or communities or other help that I know of!

Your comments are MOST appreciated and welcome! The funny thing is - this daughter is a MINI-ME is most respects and that is normally why she drives me up a wall. All my negativity, whininess, lack of focus, is bottled up in her! I remember MY mother getting SO frustrated with my inability to accomplish things (I made her late to work more days than not!) And yes, I am a perfectionist who likes order and structure, but is unable to create it for myself due to my own lack of discipline. So I almost need to find help for ME before I can be in a position to help her with these things. (need prayer, much, much, much more prayer!) I also appreciate your line-by-line comments that I WILL be rereading! THANKS SO MUCH!!

Thanks so much for these ideas! We do the timer sometimes for morning chores, and ...sometimes... it helps. The homework idea I really like! If we do get to school before lunch, then it can be homework for after lunch (which is normally her playtime) but if this is a day when school doesn't occur til afternoon, then it can be homework for after dinner... :) That sounds like one of those "why didn't I think of that?" ideas! ... that got me thinking even more... her morning chores are on a 3x5 card everyday with the IDEA that if she does them before breakfast, she gets $0.03 per chore, if after breakfast she gets less. We collect each day's card and payout on Saturday. I made her a 3x5 printed card with school subjects to mark off so she can see how much she has to do and when she'll be done (hoping this will motivate her to get school done). So - she thinks she ought to get paid for doing school too, which I've resisted. But I added it up, it might be a whopping $0.70 more a week if I did - so why not? If she gets the subject done in the initial time - $0.03, if she has to finish it for homework - $0.01... that might work too... :)

OK - I hope 20 more people tell me to relax, that she's only 5! (it'll probably take that many for it to sink in) But I seriously fear that if I stick to 5, 10 or even 15 minutes a subject, we'll get nothing accomplished. She's a master at frittering away the time. Would you honestly pack away the page half-done and say that's all for the day? We'll finish it tomorrow? And I know what she'll do - the moment I say we're putting it away, she'll come to herself and tell me she WANTS to do it - so then we're playing a game. If I say, no - time is up - she's in tears. If I allow her another 5 minutes, she'll probably fritter that away as well... So when and how do I get off of THAT merry-go-round? or what if she acts like she doesn't care and goes to play, and then it takes all week to finish one page, cuz everyday she plays away her 5 or 10 minutes? Do you think she'd eventually come around and say to herself, 'I want to do this?' and focus? She is sharp and does get bored if things are too easy. Thanks for all replies!

We chose to go with Math Mammoth this year which is a mastery based program similar to Singapore. It may be preferable because the author, Maria Miller, has everything from her graded curriculum (which is the Light Blue series) arranged in topical form as well (the Dark Blue or Blue series) So each book in the Blue series starts from basic concepts and takes you to mastery level without worrying about what "grade" you are in. Great for filling in the gaps for an older student without making them feel bad for having to work below grade level. Here is her page with guidelines to help you know which Blue books you might need (and they are all affordable: $3 - $7 each) http://www.mathmammoth.com/placement.php Here is a page recommending which of the books can be studied simultaneously: http://www.mathmammoth.com/study_order.php Hope this helps! ALSO - you can email Maria Miller your placement results from her placement tests (http://www.mathmammoth.com/complete/placement_tests.php ) and she says "You can also email me with your test results if you have trouble deciding which Blue Series book you should use for such remedial work." I've emailed her several times for various things (i.e. made a suggestion or found a typo in the answer key) and she always emails back within 2-3 days! HOPE THIS HELPS!

My DD (5.5 yo) is so distracted all the time. We'll be in the middle of quoting a scripture passage - in the middle!- when she interrupts with a random thought about squirrels or something later in the day. When drilling her phonograms, I had to say that if she didn't START to give me the answer in 5 seconds, it was going into the 'missed' pile. Her eyes would be somewhere else in the room, and she'll be talking about various random things. What really gets me is - when I'm giving her spelling words - she forgets them! I'm frankly S&T (sick & tired) of having to repeat the word 2, 3 or 4 times before she starts to write it down. SCHOOL TAKES FOREVER when it really, really shouldn't! (and, most regrettably, I end up losing my cool over her lack of focus and she ends up in tears) So - how in the world are we ever going to dictate sentences when she can't even remember 1 spelling word in enough time to write it down? (I do want to give her credit - she does a pretty darn good job during reading lessons. Her body is all over the place, but I can tell her mind is focused and she works hard to sound out the words, and rereads the sentence if she didn't comprehend it the first time. But, between sentences or even in the middle of a sentence, I'm tapping the page to get her to read the NEXT word!) So, I am also open to suggestions for how do you gently get a distracted child to focus and complete work without being a broken record, cutting them off in the middle of a story (in other words, always disrespecting what they want to tell you) and/or loosing your cool? In the back of my mind, I tell myself, "If she was in public school, she wouldn't be allowed to engage the teacher in any conversation she wanted during the middle of a lesson or to talk while the children are supposed to be working..." So - need to enforce some focus/discipline, but desperately need a new method other than getting mad! (Is it just lack of maturity? But #4 is due soon, and I'm SO dreaming of the day when she'll focus, get the subjects done one at a time with minimal oversight, and school will be over in 1 or 2 hrs rather than our short Kindergarten easy load taking sometimes 3 hrs to complete!) Thanks in advance for all suggestions (and prayers!)

My DD is 5.5 and we've had a full K year so far. She'll be 6 on Oct 1st, but is ready for first, I believe. Bible - Scripture Memory and Catechism memory Math - Math Mammoth 1A & 1B - 2 pgs per day. Just started it last week. (previously did Saxon K and finished in March) Reading - OPGTR (currently on lesson 94). Average 3-4 lessons a week. Some days we review a previous lesson because it needs time to sink in. 1 lesson a day overwhelms her after about 2 wks. Phonics/Spelling - Dettmer's Phonics for Reading & Spelling - though I'm having a bit of heartburn & trouble with it right now. Searching online for different ideas to make it fun again... Handwriting - GD Italics book B Not Yet Implemented ... but coming soon! History - Big Picture Bible Timeline (just to fill in Gen 1 - Gen 11) then SOTW Ancients Grammar - First Language Lessons 1 - though SWB recommends not starting this til at Lesson 140 in OPGTR - so trying to press on in OPGTR! Writing - Writing with Ease 1 Science - planning on the recommended biology: animals, human body, and plants.