Oh we will start requiring Bible reading this year. So that may be her only truly "required" reading.

This is us as well DD is only 5.5, but reading fluently around a 3rd grade level. Right now I control what books we own so her reading content is a little filtered, but she doesn't follow a list. I read from good books for our family read aloud and for our audiobook as a family. I may have DD do the Mensa for Kids book challenge, but not necessarily in strict order or all on her own. I do encourage certain books, but no requirements yet. This may change since she's going to a language immersion school and may miss some of the great earlier books that are typically read in school. But we still may do those as read aloud.

DD is 5.5 and is a strong lefty. She holds her scissors correctly as in she places the thumb in the top and her fingers in the bottom. She cuts well and can cut out objects and cuts shapes (hearts, circles, squares, triangles, diamonds, etc.). However, she holds her wrist oddly while cutting. Instead of having her thumb facing up while cutting, her thumb is facing down. It's as if she twists her wrist the opposite way that most people do while cutting. I've tried to correct it, but she says it is painful. She has special left handed scissors. Any tips? Worth correcting?

DD will start at a Spanish immersion program for K. We won't do much as far as formal academics for the first semester. She has no hw for K. Since she's reading on a 3rd grade level, I will still require her to do 15min of reading aloud to me (she reads throughout the day to herself and siblings). I'll also reinforce some spelling rules casually. We will start more formal devotions for Bible and I will combine this with journaling and have her use a primary journal (drawing and writing space) to journal a sentence about our bible study. This way we can touch on grammar and spelling informally. I want her English LA skills to stay on track so we will add in spelling eventually. Nothing too formal though. We do the zoo and museum memberships and plan to go regularly. She also does ballet and will begin piano in January. She's reading The Curious Kids Science Book (for fun) and I plan to work through the experiments with her for science. I love the idea of cooking that involves academics.

This is how my daughter reads as well. She puts her finger or a bookmark above the line she's on rather than below

This. If she doesn't want to move forward in the lessons don't. 4 is incredibly young to push them to read. If she's enjoying learning to read, that's great. But If she is fighting it then stop where you are. Let her read Cvc words and Books that use those words, but do not force lessons. Many kids know their letter sounds and are able to rhyme and recognize sounds in words YEARS before they're ready to read. Blending is a developmental skill and not one you can force. Let her learn at her pace. If that means camping out at cvc words for weeks, months, or years then that's what she needs.

We did afterschool reading in preschool. DD did start sounding out CVC words on her own, but then asked for me to teach her. I'm not sure that she would have picked up on phonics naturally on her own. We did Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading daily through preschool. If I hadn't she would have been bored and frustrated. She is starting a Spanish immersion school and I plan to after school English LA once she is settled in there. I plan to do phonics with her brother in preschool as well since he is starting to piece in together and crack the code. I would rather do phonics early than have them learn by sight on their own or in school. But, if she hadn't learned to read in preschool, I definitely would after school in reading. I think that reading instruction 1:1 is incredibly effective. And as a parent I see it as my job to help my child if they are struggling in an area.

We have the younger versions "my first illustrated math/science dictionaries" we love them. I would definitely buy the others

Teach Your Monster to Read is one of my kids favorites. Little Writer. Kindle Brainpop Jr. Audible

Yes ours is K-8 for this exact reason and I was glad they were upfront about the test scores.

DS (3.5yo) just started blending sounds together and OPGTR will definitely not work for him right now. I plan to do our own thing for a while. Using a movable alphabet of sorts to Teach reading. We'll use the OPG as a guide but have a more hands on approach.

That's helpful. We finished our phonics curriculum (Ordinary Parents Guide) back in March and have been slowly building up stamina with longer words and such. I do plan to review the English phonograms with her this summer to help solidify them. But she's reading at a 2/3rd grade level

Here (CO) they have to be 5 by October 1. My dd will be a few months shy of 6 when she starts K. You can test into K to start early if you turn 5 by Dec 31. Red shirting is somewhat common but not incredibly so.

Zoey a Sassafras (stem and magic) Mercy Watson (2nd grade level but so fun) Sophie Mouse Who Was series Cynthia Rylant books My dd reads a lot of high quality picture books as well

DD will start K in a Spanish Immersion school this fall. It is 100% immersion and all of her core subjects (math, language arts, science, etc.) will be taught 100% in Spanish from K-2. Art, music, and PE are in English. From 3rd up 80% is done in Spanish and 20% in English. The exception is math which stays 100% in Spanish. My question is what should I expect for her English skills? She is currently reading at a 2nd/3rd grade level and writing simple sentences to describe pictures she draws. She does a lot of reading in English between picture books and early chapter books. I've heard that it is not uncommon for kids to drop in their ability or not progress. I do plan to continue to gently do some English LA such as spelling. I'm not sure how formal I would do it, but we've just been doing it gently through copywork and reviewing the phonograms. Has anyone had experience with a kiddo in a language immersion program? Did you after school at all?

We used OPGTR after doing the pre level of AAR. It was incredibly effective especially if you're kiddos don't need all of the games. And it goes to a 4th grade level so you can't beat the cost.

It's definitely not an all in one for us. We use it for the grammar and for the phonics review. But DD is reading above this level and I'm not in love with the spelling (this list anyway).

I also use Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and used it with my daughter starting at 3.75. We didn't do the first 27 lessons because it covered letter sounds and she knew those through play. For letter sounds I'd highly recommend Leap Frog Letter Factory. At the beginning I wrote out the lessons on a white board or notebook because my dd got overwhelmed by the font and words on the page. I also made my own sentences using DDs name because she preferred that. But I LOVE OPGTR. It got my daughter reading well and able to use phonics skills to break down unknown words. She's now reading on about a 3rd grade level and can decode higher than that. I love how straight forward it is. It covers a lot and prepares kids to read well. You also can't beat the price. We did supplement with Bob books, Nora Gaydos readers, other beginning readers, games, and Teach Your Monster to Read app.

I have the Basic Reading Series by SRA. My daughter enjoyed them but we didn't use them as much as I'd hope. She kind of flew by that stage. But the stories are nice and they held her attention.

That's how Level 1 is as well. The random lists and then the spelling in the lessons through dictation.

The spelling isn't challenging, I just don't like the lists since they seem random and based off of high frequency words. I prefer phonics based spelling so we use whatever phonogram we're working on as a basis for spelling. Level 1 seems to start pretty easy. My 5.5 year old has been able to keep up with it so far. We're not too far in though. I'm guessing the level of writing expected increases between level 1 and 2. My DD placed into level 1 on the old assessment. The old assessment just did Reading and didn't have the spelling and grammar portion. So she placed into level 1 and almost into level 2. She wouldn't have passsed the level 1 assessment that includes spelling though. But level 1 is a good fit.

We are using level 1 with my Ker. We may not do all of the LA aspects of there's diagramming and such, but the K level was way too much review to keep her interest. I do love how it is all in one. We don't do the spelling lists and just focus on the spelling in the lessons

Your friend was given false info. I recently saw some stats and it said that something like 10% of kids enter K knowing how to read simple words. I suspect that's pretty typical unless you're in an area such as NYC or D.C. where early academics are pushed to the extreme.

I didn't notice that you said Biscuit. So I'd say early 4. Dd started reading CVC words around 3.75. DS isn't there yet and he's 3.5 next month. But he also seems to make bigger leaps and hide skills. I suspect he'll read before Kindy. At 5.5 DD is now reading early chapter books like Magic Tree House, Sophie the Mouse, and Zoey & Sassafrass.