I wouldnt buy the the old Charge. I got one and it barely held a charge. It seems a lot of people have that issue with the original charge. I got the charge 2 and love it. I need the HR monitor for health reasons. If I didn't I might consider the Alta since it's waterproof.

She's definitely intuited the r-changed vowels and compound words and some other concepts. There still seems to be 30-40 lessons that she would really need. She can read Little Bear comfortably, but kingdom of Wrenly seems a little higher of a level. She definitely needs to build fluency on longer words and reading speed in general. She reads at a decent speed, but it's hard to gauge because she stops and chats so much. So we need to work on reading to to punctuation and such.

That's a really good idea. I think I'll do the lesson with single words if she seems to need it, but just reading the stories is a great idea. Thanks!

I've mentioned before that DD5 is working through Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading. We are a couple of lessons into the R-changed vowels section. DD seems to have naturally learned r-changed vowels from our reading and from playing on her iPad. There are 20+ lessons on r-changed vowels in OPGTR. It seems 2 lessons per concept. Is this much reinforcement really necessary? Would it be possible to move through these lessons quicker? I know r-changed vowels can be tricky for some so would it make sense to give the extra review or would combining the lessons make more sense? DD reads to me nightly and is tackling words that we don't cover for another 20+ lessons. I don't want to miss any of the fundamentals of phonics, but I also don't want DD to get frustrated with reading do to boredom. Any one accelerate OPGTR at any point? I imagine we will slow back down when we get to more complex words.

I also would be hesitant with Where the Red Fern Grows. I read the book in school and it was traumatizing. I sobbed over it.

I would practice blending for a bit. You could do oral blending with say it fast say it slow. So you'd say Caaaaaaaat slowly stretching out each sound and he would say the word fast "cat" I made a blending slide. I think it was on Pinterest. But you have the letters and put one at the bottom and then slide letters down to blend them. We also did racecar blending. I drew a race car track and wrote CVC words on it. Then I had her drive a car over the track. When she got to a word she had to say each sound as she drove over it and blend the word together.

We're on lesson 155 and we do supplement. At that stage I used the following: Progressive Phonics BOB books Nora Gaydos readers We also played bingo and fished for the words. I looked at teacherspayteachers.com for CVC word games. Try writing the words on a dry erase board too.

She's in school but they won't evaluate her since it doesn't interfere with her at school or academically. I'm going to try and talk with them, but her teacher says they're pretty strict about it needing to interfere with school to get services.

Children's doesn't take our insurance unfortunately. At least their psychiatric behavorial department doesn't. She's in school but only half day. And since the behaviors don't interfere with her school day or academics, they won't do the evaluation for us.

I second sewing. My 5 year old can sew pretty independently. Not making anything amazing, but more stitching shapes onto felt or fabric and making doll shirts. We use felt and fabric scraps, embroidery floss, and large eyed needles (with a regular tip). I tried blunt tip needles and they didn't work.

We live in the Denver area and are trying to find a therapist to evaluate our 5 year old. Her pediatrician won't give an actual referral because he insists that it is behavorial. However, her sensitivities have been persistent and she's now having some obsessive behaviors. I'm on the waitlist for one practice which will evaluate. But most others I call need a physicians referral or don't do initial assessments. Does anyone know of any in the Denver area? I plan to fight for a referral when we go for her annual checkup in two weeks.

We have Draw Write Now and the Usborne Big Book of Drawing. But Usborne seems a bit geared towards younger kids. I second YouTube though. That works for my daughter as wel

DD is 5 and reading at around a 2nd grade level. She reads aloud to me and is pretty fluent and reads with decent expression. Only stops to sound out words occasionally and it's usually trickier multisyllable words. When do kids start reading silently in their heads? I remember reading silently in preschool, but I know its usually older. Is this something you teach?

I agree with these. I wouldn't let her do school work, but would provide meaningful learning activities such as these. My daughter also has a science box. It has a microscope and slides and other science tools. She can use these whenever. We also have a craft bin that she has free access to. My kids do have access to learning apps on their iPads that they can use during iPad time. Some are: Archimedes roost (Montessori math) Teach Your Monster to Read (a favorite) Writing Wizard Leo's Pad Moose Math Bugs &a Buttons (and bugs and numbers) Reading Raven Toca Lab

Thanks! I know it says that teachers never pay and that it's funded by parents paying for an upgrade. Teachers don't automatically have access to the extra content do they?

This is an interesting thread and helpful. I just started my 5 year old on it. :she's only played a little and has done maybe 10 questions. Is it better to have a teacher account vs. a parent one?

My 5 year old just started using Prodigy Math on my computer and she really enjoys it. However, I feel like it doesn't do the best job of addressing incorrect answers as I would like. Are there any similar computer games? I signed up for Xtra Math, but haven't had her use it. I'd prefer something free and she loves the format of Prodigy. We do have Achimedes Roost on the iPad and the free version of MathSeeds. But now that she is using my computer, I am open to more computer based games as well.

I just started prodigy with DD who is 5. But I also couldn't get it to load on the iPad. And we have a newer iPad mini. I had her play on my computer. Which Squeebles app is the one mentioned?

Thanks for all of your responses! She has complained of a sore throat a week or so ago, but never exhibited other symptoms (fever, rash, headache, etc.) and it seemed to be due to dryness. we live in a dry environment and winter can be tough on her. I'll look into the strep test and see what happens there. She has had sensory issues in the past and I do wonder if they're at all connected. If the strep is clear, I will ask for a referral from her pediatrician to get an evaluation.

Thanks. I'll look into it when I'm at our natural grocery store later. I plan to talk to her schools OT and see if they'll see her and give us some pointers.

I looked at that a few days ago. I believe it's normally caused by strep? She hasn't had any strep or viruses recently.

Dd is a newly 5. She's always been sensory sensitive, but not SPD. Her sensitivities seem to Come and go and from what I've tracked, she seems more emotional and sensitive around a big leap in cognitive development. For example, when we were dealing with her sensitivities a few months ago, her reading drastically approved following the season of sensitivity. Now she seems to be experiencing some obsessions. In December she kept obsessing over whether or not we heard her pee and constantly believed she hadn't gone pee. This led to frequent bathroom trips and tantrums. We took her to the pediatrician multiple times and they confirmed nothing was medically or physically wrong. The pee issue seems to have cleared up, but now she's moved onto washing her hands. She was washing them for a long time after bathroom trips. Now she asks if she "picked her nose" because it feels like she has boogers on her hands. She can't be reasoned out of it. If I ask her if she picked her nose, she can say no but then says it feels like that and it leads to tears and frustration. There's no new stressors or changes in life. She goes to half day preschool and yesterfay was her first day back. The teacher said she seemed fine the entire class. I plan to see if the schools OT can see her. Our pedi wouldn't refer us to an OT last year and only suggested a behavorial specialist.

The tough thing with the CVC stage if you're using a pure phonics methods is that there isn't a lot of books with just CVC words. There is the McGuffeys primer and Free and Treadwell has a primer. They may both have kindle versions. Some books start easier and get harder. The first few pages of Hop on Pop are mostly CVC words, but it does get harder. We used BOB Books and Nora Gaydos readers in the CVC stage. Not sure if something like those is offered in ebook form.

I think your time is fine. I also wouldn't count family read alouds as school. But I don't see an issue with giving each subject half an hour. If you use that time great, if not great. DD will go to an immersion language school for K since I am in school still and we can't keep them home next year. I plan to have her read aloud to me daily in English and in Spanish. I also will continue doing LA with her in English since the school doesn't. We will do spelling and copywork. I'll do math if she seems to need it. But the school has an excellent math program.

I'll add that we also plan to start All About Spelling this semester. So once we finish phonics, we start phonics based spelling