Good to know, thank you :-) Do you just start with the first lesson and keep going or is it a pick and choose type thing?

I was looking at the gallery on my website and it made me hesitant to order. My kids don't know how to shade or anything like that (neither do I). Do the lessons start out slow and build on themselves? Thanks!

Home Art Studio DVD + read the art sections in the Core Knowledge Need to Know books?

I know a homeschool mom who swaps watching kids with another mom that has kids her age. On Tuesdays, Mom#1 has the kids from 2-5 while the other mom runs errands, etc...and then on Thursdays it's Mom#2's turn. The kids get a chance to play 2x a week :-)

I like the thought of easy to store. Do you have a link or pic?

I really like those stools! I was looking at something similar for our kichen bar the other day. :-) Do you think a 6 year old could touch the floor while seated?

:)

Just what I wanted to hear :) Thank you!

:)

I'm considering these spelling workbooks. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with the TG....is it helpful/needed?

I think I remember seeing extra practice-type pages for upper levels in the freebies section of the lulu store. :)

Really? Ug. I wish level 1 had the top line. I just bought it in pdf form. I'm planning on penciling in a top line with a ruler :-/ LOL.

Okay good to know! thank you!!! :)

I'm interested in using this workbook in manuscript form. It looked like there were several formats in the pdf. The manuscript sample pages looked like there wasn't a top line....right? Is it possible that there is a different format that includes a top handwriting guideline in the actual download? Thanks!

I agree with Syllieann! I use a pointer above the letters to help remind my son to look and blend through at each phonogram. It helps him not guess at the whole word. It's almost like smoothly running your finger under the word except that I do it above the word. I think the good news is that even if she is sounding out each and every word laboriously, that she is not guessing yet out of frustration. You really want her to be sounding out...which she is doing :)

This is why I asked about her blending:http://righttrackreading.com/blending.html My son made a lot of progress with fluency once his blending was better. We took a break for a couple of weeks from AAR1 and used Phonics Pathways to work on blending and it helped a bunch. Also, I made the mistake of really focusing on the green cards and (I believe) it caused a terrible guessing habit that took nearly a year to break. I'm warning you, lol, about not teaching too many sight words. This explains it well: http://www.righttrackreading.com/fluentreading.html First, you want to make sure she is blending well and then make sure she is sounding out the words and not guessing....fluency will come :)

Is her blending "choppy" or does she slowly and smoothly blend the words together?

We need some new books :) I'd love some new collections or longer books. We have all of the Beverly Cleary books. Any other ideas?

I See Sam :)

I remember reading something about "Woodland Mysteries" for struggling readers. My disclaimer is that I know nothing about them, lol....so you'll have to Google them and let us know :-) On a side note...yay! ...Just thinking about how far your kids (and mine) have come in reading this past year :-) Good luck!

After working on guessing with explicit phonics, word lists and nonsense words my DS continues to guess a little and make other silly mistakes as well. I think we worked on a LOT of new sounds in a little over a month and he hasn't "overlearned" the new sounds yet. Even though he is guessing some, I'm okay with it because it isn't rampant like it was before. Also, I can tell that he is making an effort to sound out lots of the new words that he does encounter. He continutes making progress in reading, so I'm okay letting him read "Frog and Toad" even if he can make a few guesses from the pictures, etc. Even though he is also 8.5, I think that this is a really fragile reading stage for him as he begins to move on to "real" books. I consider him a beginning reader still and as long as he continues to improve, I'm okay with some mistakes. The other night before bed he was reading a Frog and Toad story and started making lots of mistakes so I just had him put his bookmark in the book and he did much better the next day. I plan on having him review phonics until he is a solid reader. I thought it was interesting in the instructions for Blend Phonics that the recommendation was for the kids to review the same information every year up until 4th grade. I used to think that once we had completed a phonics program that we would be done with reading instruction. That may work for some kids, but for my DS I see how much the review benefits him. My plan from here on out is to do some phonics review including words lists, some reading from the "I See Sam" books, AND some fun reading every day. I'm working on a hunch that "everything else" will work itself out. :) I'd try to let your DS correct his errors as much as possible and try hard not to overhelp (which is *my* bad reading habit, LOL). Maybe a simple, "Does that make sense?" will do if he moves too far forward in the text and doesn't catch it himself. We took such a long break from reading books that I had to re-remember not to overhelp. Letting him comprehend if the text makes sense is an important reading skill and if he can self-correct his errors he will be much closer to reading on his own. Keep us posted! :) :)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This made my day!!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

No it's not, is it? I just looked the word up in The Writing Road to Reading (which is a more than compact resource, lol). It showed the silent e in sense as having no job. There is a cute silent e book here: http://info.allaboutlearningpress.com/newsletter You might look at some basic, easy to teach reading programs like Phonics Pathways (no sight words) and and just mention the rules as they come up. I'd also look at old threads on this forum about using Hooked on Phonics....look for posts from ElizabethB. I remember reading something cautionary.

This should be helpful :) http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/alphabet_code_loring_sequen.pdf

That is a bummer about the price, this sample looks great. I didn't know that there were ALS workbooks, I thought they just had the readers....thanks Michele :)