My son is 6 and is in Kindergarten. He has taught himself to read pretty well and continually amazes me with the words he is able to read. I want a phonics program that moves at a decent pace, and is just a get it done type of thing without a lot of extras. I don't want it to involve a lot of writing because he is just not ready for that. I also need open and go for me. I would like to have some kind of readers that specifically match the phonics he is learning for practice. Clear as mud? My head is spinning from looking at all kinds of phonics programs so I thought I would try throwing out what I'm looking for and see what everyone thinks. Thanks in advance!

Thank you for all of the replies! I have had him start using a dry erase board to make his letters, only making a few, and then we each choose the best one and tell why. I also erase it and make him start over if he didn't form it correctly or rushed through it. To a previous poster, he is now six. I am not expecting him to do anything he is not capable of. My complaint is that he was rushing through writing just to get it done and didn't really care how it looked or if it was done correctly. All I was trying to do is get him to slow down an try his best. I do understand that his fine motor skills are a bit behind, but mentally he is ahead and I only wanted him to care and try. I appreciate your concern though, thank you.

I'm having trouble getting my kindergartener to slow down when practicing his letters. He wants to get it done and over with so fast that he doesn't form letters properly, mostly from the bottom, and very messy, he doesn't even really attempt to stay between the lines or actually follow the dots when tracing. I have no idea what to do or how to help him. I keep trying to tell him to slow down, write as neat as he can, remind him to stay in the lines, start at the top, but it only works for one letter and then he goes right back to what he was doing before. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

My daughter is 10 and in the 5th grade. She reads pretty well, but she complains that she can't remember what she has read. I have no idea what to do to help her. Any advice please?

I have and am about to begin the red book with my daughter. I have looked at the lessons and I just don't get it. It's looks pretty easy and open and go to me. Maybe because I know I have to sit with my daughter the whole time anyway to get her to do her work? I don't know. I was just wondering if there was something about it down the road that I was missing.

I have read some reviews where it is mentioned that LLATL turned out to be more teacher intensive than they thought it would be. Could someone explain this to me? What is so teacher intensive about it?

I think that's it! Thanks!

I remember running across a website before where you could buy and trade used kids books. I can't seem to find it now. Does anyone have any suggestions?

...what else do you use for the rest of language arts? Especially for 1st grade?

My DD has been doing CLE LA for 1st grade. We both liked it and it seemed to be going fine for a while. Now it seems as though it's starting to move too fast for DD. She needs more time to practice with the new things without adding more new on top of it so quickly. Does anyone have any recommendations on either how to slow down with CLE or a different curriculum that may fit better?