While I agree with this, I am a DA fan. In fact, I just did a season 3 marathon over the last 2 days (DH was out of town, LOL, and I plowed through!) I do love the show, but yeah...it is a fancy soap with accents. (I'm also a Big Bang fan...love some Sheldon.)

We do crafts. I've deemed this week "snowman-winter-snowflakes" week. Next week is "gingerbread-man-&-house" week. Week after that is "tree-Santa-elves-Polar Express" week. :p We read appropriate books for the theme and I scoured Pinterest for several fun activities.

The "Let's Read" series (EPS/Bloomfield) has no pictures. The format is generally a 2-page spread; the first page with phonics/sound practice and the second page with a few sentences/a story.

Did some Christmas shopping for myself! Amazon Gold Box deal of the day = Downton Abbey Season 1 and 2 "limited edition" boxed set (UK version) for $23.99. Sweet deal! I'll cave! Just thought I'd share, in case anyone else was looking for a reason to shop for oneself... :D

My 6 yr old is bright, but slow to read. She's reading books with short vowel/CVC words.

I use the NIV1984. With my kids, we read the NIrV.

I generally have bought Singapore from CBD (Christian book distributors), especially if I have a free shipping code (like this time of year). I think they ship faster than RR... AAS is available for purchase on RR, sonlight's site, and IEW.

I voted other. LOL, I guess we're currently using this approach. We've tried: OPGTR, ETC, R&S Phonics 1, HOP Learn to Read K-2 We returned without trying (for various reasons): Alpha-Phonics, Adventures in Phonics, CLE LTR, OPGTR & ETC (the 2nd time I purchased them, LOL) Right now we're waiting on Primary Phonics to arrive in the mail... We also use Reading Eggs, which DD loves (but I don't know how much this helps). DD6 made the most progress with R&S Phonics 1, unit 1 (which got her over the blending hump) and we may go back to it -- I don't know. But we needed some more CVC practice in actual books, and Primary Phonics offers that for where we are right now...

I'm specifically looking for one that lists the name of each piece and the composer (not just the name and current artist performing it). Want one with a broad range of artists and their best-known works. What do you love? Thank you!

Just for reference (in case anyone else is curious), the "sight words" they teach in level 1: a, is, in, on, the, yes, no, {and 7 color words} So yes, easily taught phonetically.

Thanks. I found that thread almost immediately after posting (figures!)

Let me preface with: I LOVE SINGAPORE. Love it. It's the one thing that we are consistently completing on schedule this school year. That said...... (uh-oh ;)) I'm tired of juggling the books. At this level (we're almost ready to start 1B) we rarely use the Textbook (just the HIG and workbook), though I fear we may need it as concepts become more difficult. But I love how the HIG has "Enhancement" sections and games for concepts; my DD really digs those games! (We play the SM games WAY more than our RightStart Math games!) But I'm considering MM for next year (or instead of moving on to 1B). I'm being drawn to the simplicity of a single text... Talk me down, please! (Or not... :D)

I've been able to edit old posts (pre-new forum) on the SALE forum but I'm not allowed to post a new thread. I do have over 50 posts, I'm signed in. What am I missing? Did I do something naughty?

I feel like I have used, purchased & returned, or extensively researched *every* phonics program on the market... So how is it that Primary Phonics just recently popped up on my radar? Somehow I've missed it on my many CBD.com searches (and it doesn't show up on any of the phonics threads here that I can find -- well, it's mentioned on 1 thread as having good readers, I think). Is the program just that bad? (The program, in fact, looks pretty good! Apparently, it's from the same company that does ETC? But it corresponds with a series of readers and optional comprehension workbooks). I'll confess, we've been in a rut lately. R&S Phonics worked fabulously well for us for a while, but since we weren't using the accompanying reading portion, we were lacking something. I also have OPGTR, but just can't get into the groove with it. (I have the pdf & plan on using it to make sure we cover all our bases....) Primary Phonics looks like what we've been looking for (and I confess, I took advantage of the CBD free shipping code and ordered the first 3 levels). Anyone else use this program? Why isn't it ever mentioned here? :confused:

Oh my word, thank you for this!! I've been impatiently waiting for DA to air and it's been driving me NUTS.

I was just thinking what the OP posted earlier this week. But then I remembered, we started in July. So isn't this kind of our "February"? :)

My girls are 4 and 6. In the last year we have read: Beatrix Potter collection My Father's Dragon trilogy Little House in the Big Woods & Little House on the Prairie A Bear Called Paddington Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Stuart Little (which we didn't love at all) Aesop's Fables collection Mother Goose collection

I'm changing our phonics. Again. I was using R&S Phonics but was just missing *something* since we weren't using the Reading part of it. We dabbled a bit with OPGTR and ETC these last few weeks, but returned them. I just don't care for them (which I should've known, since this is the 2nd time I'm giving them a go). We're switching to Primary Phonics. I'm also dropping the formality of our Little House study and just reading whatever we want. Right now we want Paddington. :D We'll probably pick back up with Farmer Boy after we finish that. Keeping our math, keeping our science, keeping our handwriting as is.

My DD6 is a 1st grader. I held off on WWE this year because she is just now picking up on reading and has always been writing-resistant. We are not doing any formal writing. I'm thinking of using WWE1 next year (2nd grade) but after that I'm tempted to just use the writing that's a part of R&S English (which I plan on using for grammar starting in 3rd). So... is it worth using WWE for just the 1 year or is the benefit of the program cumulative? I'm starting to wonder if I should just find a more "traditional" writing to use next year as a stop-gap (and then maybe as a supplement once we start R&S). Thoughts or opinions?

:grouphug: I don't have any suggestions, really. Just commiserating with you.

You're not. I wasn't a fan. :)

LOL, well I guess I'll add it back to my wishlist for next year. :D

Ah, yes. This is what I meant for the grammar stuff. The lists (which I've seen described as chants.)Thank you.

Thanks, that helps me a lot!

So there aren't tracks of the chants for the different grammar rules covered?