Cahokia is interesting, lots of room, never many crowds, free to walk around. I think it is near the giant catsup water tower, we got a kick out of that, the locals will have to tell you, we just lived there for a few years. The water tower is just drive by and take a picture, nothing to do there but I remember it being either on our way or close to Cahokia. We took both sets of Grandparents to Cahokia and enjoyed it each time. The first time we went on a field trip with homeschool friends. Catsup water tower: http://www.catsupbottle.com Cahokia museum is free and you have a good view of the city if you climb to the top of the large mound. It doesn't seem that big until you start climbing and realize they carried all the dirt up one bucket at a time...it is a lot more impressive after you have climbed to the top: http://cahokiamounds.org/wpress/visit/

Don Potter and I used to correspond regularly with Geraldine Rodgers, now we just email her occasionally with big updates. We both recently emailed her some Webster Speller notes and she got motivated to write another book...she is 92! She was actively emailing and learning through her late 80s. Her latest book is called "The Critical Missed Step," the missed step is syllables of course. http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/BookSearchResults.aspx?Search=the%20critical%20missed%20step She always inspires me to work harder. About her: https://infogalactic.com/info/Geraldine_Rodgers

If you don't have anything for spelling, Spelling Plus, one book for k-6 spelling, Natural Speller for 7-8 grade. I used natural speller for all grades for my daughter but I knew all the spelling rules becuse of my 20+ years of work as a volunteer literacy tutor and my daughter didn't need much help with k-6 level words, it is not a good fit for most for the younger grades. The spelling in Phonics Pathways is good but is not complete.

Phonics Pathways is the most completely secular phonics that goes to the highest grade level of a standard phonics program, 4th grade level. It also has a bit of spelling. Webster's Speller goes to a 12th grade level and was used in schools at the time but many of the sentences are Christian because it was written in the late 1800s, you could just use the word lists. If you teach with syllables, there are some great German resources that are based on syllables, you could compare and contrast German and English syllables. I will find the page and link to syllabic phonics teaching, it includes links to German syllabic phonics. https://infogalactic.com/info/Syllabic_phonics

Nonsense words: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html Do the optional nonsense words in teachers folder, 50 a day, chart accuracy and wpm rate. Also, select nonsense word version of everything when there is a choice. Phonemic awareness test, you may have to start with something like LiPS to build phonemic awareness before phonics will work. https://www.spelfabet.com.au/2013/02/free-phonological-awareness-test/

I would try working on writing with large air writing and then on a white board to get fluency with the motions of each letter. Some fun ways to work on phonics: Fun blending with my cards: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html My phonics concentration game: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html Read, Write, Type, online: http://www.talkingfingers.com/read-write-type/ And, not as fun but effective, Blend Phonics/Webster Speller combo. The motivation when you get to "4th grade level words" like ba-ker and sha-dy is great, plus with Spalding you will need to be working on a lot of different sound spelling patterns so it will be good to get exposure to higher level things, but many boys do better with just learning a bit at a time, especially if they struggle, I have had several boys who had a hard time with Spalding do well with Blend Phonics and Webster. You may have to modify and simplify some of the upper level Greek and Latin things and just do up to 4th and 5th grade words in Webster, but you may be surprised, I've had some kindergarten students read the 12th grade level words broken up into syllables once they learn the syllabary. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html You can also do frequent review of the one page chart here and use it when you are reading books, although word lists are much more efficient than books and sentences. Using the chart makes learning the sounds faster and more fun, also easier on you, less time saying "what does short a say?" etc, at first you just help them look things up on the chart, then they learn to look the sounds up on their own. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/40LChartsCombined.pdf With speech problems, there may also be phonemic awareness issues. You need to fix phonemic awareness for phonics to be effective. You can read about that on my dyslexia page, scroll down about 1/3 of the way to phonemic awareness section in bold: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/dyslexia.html And, a phonemic awareness test: https://www.spelfabet.com.au/2013/02/free-phonological-awareness-test/ If there is a bit of phonemic awareness problem, you can work on spelling and oral blending while fixing phonemic awareness, once you make progress, add in phonics.

If it leads itself to a syllabary, it may be easier for you to teach and understand syllabic phonics with a combo of Blend Phonics and Webster's Speller, here is a bit about syllabic phonics: https://infogalactic.com/info/Syllabic_phonics

What is your native language and does your daughter speak it?

You will most likely need some nonsense words. How to make blending fun: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/blendingwords.html Start with some oral blendng and then use a favorite toy to jump across the sound cards and sound things out. Use the sound cards for a while before moving to word lists and nonsense words, my game makes the nonsense words fun. Tips to help a student taught with sight words: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/remedialstudents.html Phonemic awareness and blending ideas: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l3aBN-qowg2u8BdGYM64pTi Phonics videos: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l0Z941Cy1INrADEO9Sy4ZWz

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

My comments were still pending...I finally got one posted a short while ago by writing one without a link.

Bill- I am working on a secular version, the DVD is in Beta form. The lessons are complete but the teacher hints are not yet done. I have tested it in a public school. The material is free to print: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

I have never had a problem teaching phonics to any of my minority students. I did have one white student from rural Arkansas that took me a while to figure out his pronunciation and help him and teach him phonics, but once I figured out the difference between his accent and mine and what was accent differences and what was lack of phonics knowledge, phonics worked with him, too. I have lived in a lot of different states in my 23 years of tutoring, 21 of it in a variety of different states when we were an Air Force family.

Right. I was, too. Hopefully we can add some better ones and like (or whatever, mostly I hang out here, LOL) the better ones so that any parent reading will see some positive comments. Solutions would be nice, too, and I know that phonics with nonsense words and Webster's Speller has worked very well for my remedial students--including 2 formerly homeless black students from the Los Angeles area from when we live there for a year. Many minority students have also used my online phonics lessons successfully.

http://www.dailynews.com/social-affairs/20170604/75-of-black-california-boys-dont-meet-state-reading-standards I tried to make one but my comment has been pending for 3 hours. (I've don't post anywhere but here usually but this article and the comments made my try to sign up to comment.) Many of the comments are depressing, and there are no solutions posted. This is what I tried to post, it's been pending for 3 hours: If any parents trying to make a difference see the article, I would hope that there could be some positive comments and solutions, not just your standard poor taste comments.

Silent auction is biggest local thing you can do. We had one when I was in Texas for a well supported cause and it made tens of thousands in a fairly small city. It was a lot of prep but also good $. There was live auction bidding on cakes and about a dozen high dollar donations and a silent auction on smaller items, it was a dinner and a bit of profit was made on tickets, too. People went to a lot of the local businesses for donations, there were also donations of a coupon for things like "free lesson at the gymnastics gym" or "free hour at spa." You need good publicity for attendence and a lot of help searching out donations and planning and running the event.

My son was invited to a homework burning party with some of his friends in the neighborhood. I told the mom who invited him that I would rustle up something to burn as homework, we didn't have actual homework but maybe it was all home-work. She thought that was funny. He had fun and ate smores and burned his most recent essay I printed out. When he came home he said it was fun but he didn't have enough papers, all the other boys had a big stack of homework papers, LOL.

My brother found a good gluten free bakery in the area that he would splurge on from time to time...whole bakery is gluten free. Too expensive for day to day use but nice for cakes and bread for special occasions. He is not celiac, but went strict gluten free for a few years but is not anymore. If you want to know the bakery and restaurants he used in the area, let me know and I'll give him a call.

My latest page of my resources for an older remedial student has a lot more nonsense words, they are important for an older student who knows a lot of words by sight, and the Webster's Speller part teaches proper pronunciation of longer words through the schwa accent pattern arrangement. All free to print: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

OPG is good. I have never had a remedial student from it or Phonics Pathways, both good programs that teach to about a fourth grade level.

Upper level phonics, use the nonsense word document in teacher file to track wcpm progress. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

Maybe rock wall climbing?

I have both her books and like them, the word lists are good. Word lists build fluency much faster than stories. It takes some students longer than others. My daughter was reading fluently much earlier than my son when you compare them grade wise--but he also is outperforming her in math and science when you look at them at the same grade. My son went through several phonics programs before he was reading fluently. He got a bit faster every few months, then when he hit the latter part of 2nd grade finally hit 30 WPM and rapidly progressed from there. It takes time and repetition. It went quicker once he had to look up the sounds himself on the chart. (For things learned later like oi, oe, ay, etc.) The word lists in Blend Phonics are also good and free to print.

Most of my remedial students no longer had comprehension problms once their phonics was remediated and they could sound out everything. Free to print, what I use with my students: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllablesspellsu.html If there were sight words learned as wholes, do extra nonsense words.

If you use my one page reference chart, it makes learning the sounds faster and you can look up sounds you have not yet learned: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/40LChartsCombined.pdf I would not do readers with sight words or teach sight words--I have had too many students with problems and who hated reading and were poor readers because of sight words. If you want decodable readers, teach ee and do the I See Sam readers or do the Blend Phonics readers. http://donpotter.net/pdf/blend_phonics_stories.pdf You can also use my phonics concentration game to build fluency in a fun way: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html If you drill the sounds on my chart daily and use them for reference, you should start to see a lot of progress. And here is my how and why to only teach sight words with phonics: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html