What program is it? I agree "er" is a phonogram of its own.

So our phonics program. Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading does it with "er" as making its own sound and as a syllable. It looks like ham-mer in ours

This is also what we do. I tell her how to phonetically sound out words she doesn't know.

I agree with the others. We're using Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and it introduces maybe a dozen or so sight words for a K-4th grade reading level. Most "sight" words are phonetically decodable once phonics are solidified. We don't do any sight words outside of the ones introduced in phonics. Fluent reading Will come with practice. That's when they sound smoother and get out of that tedious sound out every word phase. It will come in time

She definitely is. Not sure if it's due to the reading or the prize at the end 😂 But I'll take it. I just looked ahead a little and I do wonder if she'll slow down a bit as the words get trickier.

Yeah. That's the practice she really needs. She's wanting to read more complex books but gets frustrated by the longer words. So she definitely will benefit from the last chunk of OPGTR. I just was expecting it to take the longest, not fly through it like she is. Something's also clicked memory wise. She used to have to sound out a word multiple times before remembering it. Now she usually reads it once or twice and remembers it for future use.

I expected the last 50 lessons to take us the longest. I wasn't expecting it to click as much as it has. She definitely needs the targeted practice with multisyllable, but once we cover a concept she seems to get it. We'll see how the rest goes. There's still some difficult concepts left and I'm not sure if she'll rush through them as quickly. She really wants to read mystery books and most that I've found (young cam Jansen and even Bones) have longer words than she's used to tackling. But she's motivated which is great to see.

Yes same with this preschool. The teacher is teaching a class of 17 preschool (age 3) through kindergarten by herself. No aid. And she just started teaching. I don't believe she has a degree in teaching.

I don't have a first grader, but thought I'd pop in to get some ideas to plan ahead. I saw this and I agree. It is my soap box issue too. Even with a kid reading in preschool, I still cannot stand when people hold that expectation for all kids. I have a friend who sends her kids to a tiny (36 students in prek3-6th grade) school and they told her that by the end of preschool they promise that her son will be reading. Preschool! The school is like a mini military academy. No free choice time. Mostly Seat work. And heavily academic for preschool. I want to march down to the school and demand that they show me their credentials and research to support their methods.

That's what I was thinking. If she's retaining it I'll just let her keep going at her pace. She does read to me daily outside of phonics too. Currently reading classic level 2 books like Little Bear and Amanda Pig and such. I did get another book (Wise Owl) to review polysyllable words with her. I like having something systematic to do. Phonics has been the only structred thing we've done since she goes to preschool and we do more informal science and math at home

DD has about 50 or so lessons left in Ordinary Parents Guide. When she finishes the book we plan to go out for a date to a bookstore and get hot drinks and new books. She really has enjoyed doing a countdown for our readalouds in January so I decided to make a similar chart for her reading lessons. I made a square for every lesson she has left. For some concepts we did 2 lessons a day because DD already knew the concept and I just wanted to make sure I covered it. Well now she wants to do two lessons a day every day. Previously we had done 1 lesson 5 days a week Mon-Fri. Now she wants to do 2 lessons (occasionally only 1) 7 days a week. She begged to do reading lessons over the weekend. Is it possible to go too quickly through phonics? She is reading the material in each lesson pretty well and fluently reads the practice paragraphs at the end of each lesson. So the material is clicking. We do review past concepts and the phonograms daily as well. Should I slow her down? I do plan to if things get too hard or aren't clicking. Otherwise she is set to finish phonics this month and I had planned to keep going until May originally...

I agree. But with Ordinary Parents Guide and AAS I didn't have to read an entire manual ahead of time. They were pretty self explanatory. We're also afterschooling. Dd will go to K next year and have a formal handwriting program there (print and cursive) so while we do handwriting (HWOT) it isn't my focus a sense much as reading and spelling are. She'll be learning in Spanish at school so English language arts will be Done at home.

Awesome! On my phone your link doesn't do the look inside. But I'll definitely look once im home

I'll have to try from my computer. On my phone the copy available through Prime doesn't give the Look Inside option. Maybe other listings do. I'll look around.

Oh I forgot about Wise Owl. That actually seems like the perfect follow up to OPGTR. I mainly wanted a systematic way to do syllables. I had planned to do AAS and could easily add Wise Owl. Do you have any pictures of the inside so I can get an idea of what it's like?

Don't you have to read the teachers manual 1+ time to really teach spalding? That's my main hesitation. AAS and websters seem more open and go

She knows how to read fairly well and we plan to finish OPGTR. I'm not sure I have the time to really learn how to teach a Spalding. I definitely couldn't read the manual multiple times before starting. I'm in grad school and my reading time is pretty taken up with class materials. Otherwise I would do Spalding, but I'm not sure I can commit to a program that I need to learn before teaching. Webster seems a little more open and go

Pre-Reading is not worth the money. Pre is the only level that I did (we switched to Ordinary Parents Guide) and if I had the time and energy I could have done it all by using Pinterest and free resources. It goes over letter recognition (upper and lowercase) and phonemic awareness (rhyming, recognizing beginning and ending sounds, clapping syllables), and letter sounds. You could do all of those by pulling together from different websites and resources. We used leap frog for letter sounds. We do blending and rhyming and the other phonemic skills through play. Definitely don't need the Pre Level

I know the two programs are different and that Webster's can be used to teach reading. I was pretty set on teaching DD to spell with AAS, but then got looking at Webster's again. DD has about 50 lessons left in Ordinary Parents Guide which will get her to a 4th grade level decoding. I believe she'll need extra practice with multisyllable words which is what got me looking at Webster's. If I use Webster's, I won't need another spelling program correct? Also, how quickly do you go through it with a reading child. Would 1 lesson be 1 day? I am thinking that if I use it, I will have her write each syllable as I do it. I plan to write it on the white board and have her write them on HWOT paper. I saw the thread on a schedule for Webster's that ElizabethB did a while ago, but I would have to adapt it to our schedule and DD would be able to do the c and g sounds initially since she already knows the rules that apply to them. Webster's also goes to a higher level so I didn't want to rush her. Our other option was to do AAS and I was going to buy levels 1 and 2 this spring to start with her. But Webster's is free and it seems like it would really tackle multi syllable words.

I'm not an expert and my daughter is much younger. But the absence of vowels in many words would raise a flag for me. Has she done a spelling program?

I think it's fine to ditch AAR if it isn't needed. What level are you using? I would have her read aloud to you regularly (if you're not already) so that you can catch any common errors she may be making. We don't do a formal science this year. It's been more interest Led around here. My dd is big into science so she's normally exploring some aspect of it and asking to do experiments. We're not disciplined with HWOT either. It trying to be more regular with it though.

What about spelling? My 5yo is a little behind your daughter in reading level (about a mid second grade) and we are finishing up Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading really soon. It goes to a 4th grade level. Next, we plan to start All About Spelling. I plan to buy the first two levels and get through at least level 2 by the end of K. We'll start level 1 this spring. If your daughter is reading well, I see no problem with starting a spelling program. That way she will reinforce the phonics without doing a formal reading program. We're also using HWOT K this year. My dd will go to school next year and I believe they also use HWOT in the classroom.

They have a preschool book that my daughter loved in prek. We use the Kindy one now, but I see no reason why a 4yo couldn't join in.

My lefty forms some letters incorrectly too. She had excellent handwriting for her age, but tends to start from the bottom or other incorrect positions. We're using HWOT

Play games and lots of review. We played silent e bingo. Added E to words to make the vowels long. Fished for words. I didn't use AAR but my daughter took a bit to get the silent e and some rule breakers. What helped was lots of review. Lots of fluency practice. Eventually it clicked and suddenly she could read them without any struggles. It seems like it's abnormal struggle many readers have. Your son sounds like he's doing excellent. Check ou teacherspayteachers.com for games and review. It's free or cheap for downloads. I usually search the rule breaker I'm working on with her.