Don Potter has a nice Spanish page with many good links: http://donpotter.net/Spanish.htm

My free phonics lessons are designed for older children and adults. They start reading 3 syllable words the first 20 minute lesson, it's very intensive phonics with a lot of syllable division. (For people without high-speed internet, the libraries in the last 3 states where I've lived have all had computers with headphones for public use.) http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/phonicslsnslinks.html For my remedial adult students, I also like "We All Can Read" by James Williams (the one for 3rd grade to adult) http://weallcanread.com/ and Rx for Reading: Teach Them Phonics by Ernest Christman http://www.amazon.com/Prescription-Reading-Teach-Them-Phonics/dp/0912329017/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227464517&sr=8-1 After they get through the phonics basics, I like Webster's Speller and M.K. Henry's words to get them working on 2, 3, 4, and 5 syllable words. I also have some tips for teaching a remedial student here: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/remedialstudents.html

That sounds perfect. I was thinking that outlining might be helpful for him. I looked at the website and it was overwhelming! What does he need to get started? I've seen the IEW products at conventions and liked them, but didn't look closely as we're at least a year away from that level of writing.

They have a lot more here, search prefix and then suffix. There are some fun anatomy ones, but I'm thinking you're looking for something more basic like this: http://www.flashcardmachine.com/prefix-and-suffix2.html

I just finished remediating a 5th grader...he's now able to read just about anything! He can sound out 4 and 5 syllable Greek and Latin words. (He worked through my phonics lessons, then Webster's Speller and M.K. Henry's Words.) Now, his mom wants to work on his writing. He probably has a vocabulary deficit from years of reading below grade level, so now that he can read well, his vocabulary can start to grow. His mom says that he can narrate back a very good essay, but when he writes down something, it is not good. She says he's always surprised when she asks him to read it aloud; it doesn't match what he meant to say, and the sentences usually don't flow logically together. He's very bright: with the help of volunteers from my church, I taught a class of 9 students twice a week for not quite 2 hours each lesson over a period of two months, he progressed faster than any of the other students. (He can also now spell well, so that shouldn't be an impediment to his writing.) Any suggestions? At this point in my homeschool journey, I really haven't investigated writing programs. His mom is willing to spend money for a quality program if need be. She just doesn't know what she needs. (I don't either, but I'm sure someone here does!)

You need to be able to sound out almost everything before reading on your own or you can fall into bad guessing habits. More than all the sounds you need to know and their percentages here: http://www.thephonicspage.org/Phonics%20Lsns/Resources/Letter%20sound%20read.pdf These percentages come from the Hanna Study of the most common 17,000 words in the English language. A great book based on this study is "The ABCs and All Their Tricks," it's worth buying as a reference guide for reading and spelling questions. I use it often. The RRF UK has some nice charts showing all the major sounds you need to know, look at their sidebar to the right, the free downloads, the Phonics teaching sheet and phonics assessment sheet: http://www.rrf.org.uk/ I would work through Blend Phonics as a review, and then Webster's Speller--when you're finished with the Speller, she'll be able to read anything! For Blend Phonics, just do a word or two from each unit for review, use the Blend Phonics Reader. I'd also do some oral and written spelling for each unit. If she has trouble with a unit, do more words from that unit. Blend Phonics is free online here: http://donpotter.net/Blend%20Phonics.htm Then, work through the syllabary in Webster, then move on to words of 2 and more syllables, working through the book from there. (Link below explaining how I used it with my daughter.) Here are some nice books for reading that use the syllable divisions in Webster, they allow a child to read beyond their current grade level because the syllable divisions make it easy to sound out the long words. My daughter needed to see words divided for a few months before she learned to divide them on her own. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllabledividedb.html You may need to teach some syllable division rules and practice dividing syllables. My daughter learned better just seeing them divided, the rules just went in one ear and out the other, but they are helpful for some students. I teach the syllable division rules in my spelling lessons, there are 5 lessons, approximately 20 minutes each. They also teach all the phonics you need to be able to read well. (They move to fast for a 6 year old, though. They're for older remedial students or for parents who have forgotten the phonics they learned or who never learned all the phonics basics in the first place.) http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellinglessonsl.html

Using uppercase helps prevent B/D confusion. Writing the words out on a whiteboard should also hold his interest better than working out of a book. Spelling also helps with the memory for words...if you learn a sound/word so well you can spell it, it's much hard to forget. I used all uppercase for my daughter in K, we switched to lowercase this year. She never had B/D reversal problems. She still has occasional problems with 6 and 9, however. I need to break out the HWT again to help fix that. Many students taught with lowercase will have problems with b and d, and almost all children taught more than a few sight words develop b/d confusion problems to some degree.

People used to learn to read Latin before they learned to read in their native language! Here's a quote from Geraldine E. Rodgers' History of Beginning reading (a great book, e-version less than $10 from Author House) "Until the sixteenth century A. D. in English-speaking countries, beginning reading was taught in Latin, and, in much of Europe, beginning reading continued to be taught in Latin until the eighteenth century. Since beginning reader did not yet know Latin, obviously they were reading print purely by its “soundâ€, and not by its “meaning†(such as Pa - ter nos - ter for Our Father.)" We're waiting a bit, however. If I knew more Latin, I might think about teaching it this early.

It's the truly classical way to go! (Actually, the truly classical way is to teach them to read Latin first by syllables, but that seemed a bit much for me, I don't even know much Latin myself yet.) I explain how to use it in the Webster link below. Working from the white board held my daughter's interest better, also doing spelling as well as reading really cemented the concepts in her brain and gave her something a bit more active to do. We did both oral and written spelling. At the end of working through the speller, they're able to read 3 and 4 syllable words without problem. When they used it in the 1700's and early 1800's, the children read from the Psalms in the KJV of the Bible when they finished learning how to read (and spell) with the Speller. You also start with 2 letter syllable blending, that's a lot easier for young children to process than the common 3 letter words that most phonics programs start with. I have about 20 different phonics programs. However, Webster's Speller is far, far superior to anything on the market today. If your child is reading below 12th grade level, working through Webster's Speller should get them there! (Yes, a 5 or 6 year old can be reading at that level, and correctly pronouncing obscure words from the KJV, the focus on syllables and spelling can't be beat.)

Spelling actually makes learning the phonics easier and reinforces the phonics. I started with just reading with my daughter before K, for K we used Webster's Speller, which does reading and spelling at the same time. The syllables and the spelling in Webster's Speller really made her reading take off. With my remedial students, I've always done some spelling, but I'm doing a lot more lately, oral spelling seems to be especially helpful, but I do both oral and written spelling and find it extremely helpful.

I love the ABC's and All Their Tricks, I use it often. That's a great way to teach spelling. You can find most of the spelling rules here: http://www.dyslexia.org/spelling_rules.shtml And you could also watch my free online spelling lessons with your daughter, they have the majority of the spelling rules: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellinglessonsl.html I was a good reader but a poor speller--I had phonics in K and then Dick and Jane in 1st grade, so I never learned all the spelling rules. After teaching remedial reading with phonics for a while and learning all the sound/spelling correspondences and phonetic spelling rules, I finally learned to spell! You can test her spelling grade level with the Ayres test (higher standards than today's average spelling grade level, they're about 2 grade levels different than spelling norms today on average, and about 1 grade level higher at the lower grades) free from Google books. Instructions on page 37, scale on page 28, lists by letter start on page 51: http://books.google.com/books?id=y0JMAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=a+measuring+scale+for+ability+in+spelling#PPA3,M1

You might try grammar trainer. Although it's designed for autism, it could be helpful in your case. I know a mom with an autistic child who has found it helpful. It looks like the have a demo, so you could try it and see. http://autism-language-therapies.com/

Blend Phonics is a great program! I'm using it with several of my remedial students right now. I'm glad you found it. Here's some free and inexpensive spelling options you could think about: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellingforsucce.html Don Potter has a few more free old spelling programs on his website: http://www.donpotter.net/ed.htm

My daughter did a lot better with the white board than a book last year for phonics, I explain how we used it with Webster's Speller here: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/webstersway.html For some reason, it held her interest more, she also got to see the left to right direction of word and syllables being made as she watched. Also, she got a break to draw on the white board after we finished, and if she started without whining, she got to pick the color of marked I used (this was, oddly enough, highly motivational.) We also take a break after math to play with the manipulatives. She and her brother like to put the green units blocks on their fingers and pretend they are tree frogs. This year, we work mainly out of books, but I'll do some white board work for a change if she's in a grumpy mood and I can tell the books won't work. Also, sometimes I give her a choice, for example, "read 20 words or spell 8."

All my remedial students, from K to age 99, start at the beginning. You do need to go back to the beginning, but you don't need to spend a lot of time on things he already knows, just a few words for each sound to make sure he knows that sound. Spend more time on sounds he doesn't know well. Also, I'd do some oral spelling to really ingrain the concepts in his brain. Blend Phonics is set up very clearly and easily for this type of review, and it's free: http://donpotter.net/Blend%20Phonics.htm You could also try my free online remedial lessons, they start at the beginning, but have a few 2 and 3 syllable words at the end of each 20 minute lesson, there are a few 3 syllable words at the end of the very first lesson. Sight words also might be part of the problem, most of the children I've remediated had a hard time learning phonics because of too many sight words and too much guided reading in their schools. I use a lot of nonsense words to stop the guessing habits, and also don't recommend teaching sight words as wholes, I explain why and show them grouped by phonetic pattern here: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html You can give the MWIA to find out if sight word teaching has caused a problem, give the MWIA level I for his age and reading ability, if he misses more Phonetic words than Holistic words or reads the Phonetic words more than 15% slower than the Holistic words, sight words have caused a problem, and you'll need to break him out of the guessing habit with reminders to sound out every word from left to right and the use of nonsense words. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html Here's a fun game to play to help reinforce the phonics basics, just use sounds that he's already learned when you're playing the game. You'll get a bigger and bigger stack of cards to play with as he improves: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

I have a bunch! Here's my favorite, it makes both nonsense and regular words, very helpful to keep remedial students sounding out words from left to right instead of guessing, but also good for beginners: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html I also play games with magnetic letters on cookie sheets. Give them 6-8 consonants they have learned so far and a vowel and have them see how many words they can make! Once they get good at this, see how many words they can make in 1 minute. Read, Write, and Type is also a fun program. It's expensive, but you can download a demo to see if it'll be worth the money for you. http://www.talkingfingers.com/ Blend phonics is a good free program that you could use to supplement, it avoids word families, and the blend phonics reader avoids them even more and discourages guessing from word shape: http://donpotter.net/Blend%20Phonics.htm Sing, Spell, Read, and Write is catchy but expensive. A free fun alternative is Pollard's series, links about halfway down this page: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/phonicsandspelli.html

It is good but a bit expensive. If you want a similar program that is free online, try Rebecca Pollard's Synthetic Series of Spelling and Reading, the links to her books are just shy of halfway down this page: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/phonicsandspelli.html It does take a bit more work to use, but is a lovely method. She might also enjoy Blend Phonics (also free online, link on page above) if you use it the way it's meant to be used, just do a handful of words from each list and have your student make up a sentence about each word. I'd also add a bit of oral spelling to whatever program you do end up using, it helps cement the sound-spelling relationship into their brain.

I had one student who required so much repetition that I say half jokingly that I'm surprised he is still alive! (Especially since I taught him before I became a Christian.) However, with a ton (and I do mean a ton) of repetition, he eventually was reading at grade level. Some students need a lot of repetition. You could try having him watch Leapfrog's "Talking Letter Factory" and then my online phonics lessons while you're working on other things or with your other children to maximize your time with him. You could also do audio memorization of verses on CD while you're working on other things, and have him do things like recite verses and do oral addition while you're serving lunch or driving somewhere. You can do oral spelling, as well. You might also get more luck with homework if it was something he could do easily without help--listening to verses on a CD or watching an educational movie, but otherwise, I'd just try to make sure he got as much as possible squeezed into the time you have with him during the day. It sounds like he's learning more with you than he could in school, but it is draining to have to do that much repetition. I vary the phonics books I use to help keep myself sane, at least it's a slightly different format each time, even if it's the same sounds and many of the same words.

I've found that many children who have comprehension problems are actually suffering from not enough phonics--they know enough to get by, but not to a fully automated level, and usually, they do not know some of the more obscure phonics rules and sounds and syllable division rules. When they over-learn the phonics basics, their comprehension usually improves (although there is a period of slow-down initially as they get used to sounding everything out correctly.) I have a 5th grade student now who supposedly had comprehension problems, she was actually missing some phonics skills. She was reading at grade level, she can now read above grade level and can sound out 3 to 5 syllable Greek and Latin words. I'll re-test her next week to find out how much she's reading above grade level, but I've listened to her read and am sure it will be at least one grade level improvement, and maybe even 2 or 3. She worked through my phonics lessons, portions of Webster's Speller, and a few pages of M.K. Henry's Words over the last two months.

You're welcome! I hope they help.

Have you tried both oral and written spelling? I do a lot of oral spelling with my daughter and with my remedial students, it is helpful. (I also do some written spelling.) You can do oral spelling in the car for extra practice. (We are having trouble with addition, not spelling, we've started doing oral addition in the car for extra practice. My 3 year old seems to be learning a few that way, too!) Spelling rules are also helpful for older children. My daughter is impervious to rules, but she's a good speller and learns by the patterns, I show her groups of words in similar spelling patterns. Here's a link to a page with some good spelling rules and a link to my free spelling lessons, which also include many spelling rules: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellingforsucce.html

Yes, that's the best reason! I learned trumpet first, then piano, bass cleff is a bit hard for me still, even after 3 years of piano lessons. I can read treble cleff in my sleep. So, piano first, at least long enough to get the notes memorized, at least 6 months, probably a year minimum. You could add a second instrument after a few months, but I wouldn't drop piano until both cleffs were learned well enough that they will be remembered for life.

When my daughter was in K last year, she couldn't/wouldn't (she could not/would not explain herself) break up most 2 and 3 syllables on her own, even after she had learned all her phonics basics. I would break up words for her, then she would sound them out. After a few months of breaking up words for her and working through divided words in Webster's Speller, she learned to break them up and sound them out on her own. It may be a developmental thing, I don't know. At any rate, here's some example divided books to try to see if she can decode them when they're divided for her (syllable division pronunciation rules based on Webster's Speller. Short version of rules--open syllables: ba, bi, ma, mo, end in a long vowel, so ma as a syllable is long a, not ah, pronounced as in ma-ker. Closed syllables, ab, bib, ob, are short, as in ab-stain. Unaccented syllables, especially unaccented open syllables, often schwa) http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllabledividedb.html

I had those books in K when I was growing up. I then got Dick and Jane in 1st grade. I see sam taught me enough that I was a good reader, but a poor speller (I just worked through a few of the Sam books, enough to get the basic knack of sounding out the words, but not enough to learn all the phonics rules and patterns.) After teaching phonics for a while and learning all the phonetic spelling rules, I am now a good speller. Any good phonics program will work together with any other good phonics program, they all complement one another. I sometimes use 4 or 5 different programs with my remedial students, my daughter has worked through 2 complete programs and bits and pieces of others (when she has trouble with a sound, we do that sound from one of my many phonics books.) Sight words, however, often confuse a student and tend to slow their phonics progress. A program based on sight words will not work well with a good phonics program like "I See Sam" or "Explode the Code."

I'm glad your daughter was not one that was harmed by it. About 30 to 40 percent of children have a problem when exposed to the Dolch sight words. I've tested hundreds of children, that's about the going rate. I've never found a problem with a child taught in the Catholic schools--they use a good phonics program with only a few sight words. Schools that use pure whole word methods run about a 60% rate of children with some degree of problems. But, since I've seen so many who were harmed so much by sight words, I want to make sure as many people as possible know about the possibility of later reading trouble. A third grader I'm currently remediating can't even read her homework. After about 20 hours of remediation, she's finally at the point where she is starting to be able to sound out some simple words again, but it's a long, hard struggle--you have to undo a lot of guessing habits. One 5th grader I worked with was totally remediated after only 6 hours of work and was reading a bit above grade level, but most remedial students take a lot more work--way more work than it takes to wait a month or two and be sure you're on the safe side.