You know, this sounds EXACTLY like my daughter with reading. She can totally shut down and act like she's never seen a letter before, but then if I diffuse the situation and get her laughing and smiling, she suddenly reads fluently. It's horribly frustrating at times!

Adding: My daughter could read simple books after HOP K, but it was books such as BOB books (first couple of sets) and Nora Gaydos type books, not "real" books. Also, we also went through the levels quickly and had the K - 2 program done in about a year. K took a couple of months not working on it every day, we flew through 1st and then 2nd was definitely a lot slower with plenty of breaks. After finishing the program she could read level 2 readers.

I liked and used HOP, but I think their grade levels are a little exaggerated. I would say that doing HOP K-2 would put a child at an ending 1st grade level. I don't think HOP K puts a child at an ending K level. They do a lot of beginning and ending blends in the first grade level and don't really move onto things like the silent e and vowel digraphs until the 2nd grade level. Overall, I was happy with the program and I really enjoyed having readers that I knew wouldn't contain words that my dd couldn't decode.

We are just on 1A, but I usually have her do about 20 mins. total, which would include any time I spent talking and anything we do in the textbook orally. Some days she does several pages of exercises in the work book, some days it's only a couple.

Ah, got it. I misunderstood your original post. :)

Is this a misconception? If a child isn't gifted, then he or she likely will level out. Therefore, unless most of the kids at your children's Montessori school were gifted, then most of them would ultimately level out. (I actually know some people who spent a lot of money on Montessori pre-K & and K classes only to be disappointed that by 3rd grade the other kids had caught up. They were never sure if the money spent was worth it.)

I'm an accountant (life long CPA candidate at this point because I will never finish the work requirement and send in the paperwork). I haven't worked since my dd was born in 2004. I would love to work PT, but I was primarily a corporate accountant and it's much more difficult to find PT work than if I had done tax/public work.

I go to bed around 9:30-10:00pm. Up around 6am to surf or read in silence. My husband works out from 6:15-7:15am and I have 7:15-8:15am when he heads to work. If I don't get it in then mid-week, it doesn't happen.

My dd makes hers most of the time and my son never makes his (he's only 3 though). I make our sometimes, but it's not a big deal to me.

I would have some gifted testing done on your daughter. Get the school district to do it, if you can. If we go the PS route, my daughter will be going straight into first grade, but she is also barely after our school cut off and she had both IQ and acheivement testing which support the placement. When I approached the school system with the numbers in hand, everyone was very encouraging and supportive of my decision. I think without testing that supported my reasons, I would have received much more push back from the school district.

Nancy Kerrigan did not come from a wealthy family. I saw a quote from her father that he had always been poor and was willing to continue being poor so that his daughter could follow her dream. I think part of the self selection isn't so much the money, but also the parents willingness to involve their child or children in different sports and then to do everything possible for their child if they show potential and desire. We are by no means wealthy, but my husband and I both are huge sports fans (Olympic sports, not traditional ones in the US) and we would go to great lengths to encourage our kids if that was what they wanted. So, while I think you have to be doing better than barely scraping by, I don't think you have to be wealthy, you just have to be willing to make a lot of sacrifices.

Dollar Store are cheap and accurate. They also have a low sensitivity. Check peeonastick.com for tons of info. about pregnancy tests.

All of my closest friends are +/- 5 years of my age. I have lots of friends older and younger, but the ones I've become closest to are all about the same age and had kids around the same time in their lives.

Thanks for the information. I've wanted to see the S&S, but never badly enough to buy the book.

We've only used EB B and are currently in 1A, but I haven't found the textbooks to be useful at this point, but that's possibly because we haven't reached anything really new to her yet.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I've looked at Websters Speller before, but I'm not sure I'm up to that! I think I'll keep thinking about this, but I'm leaning towards Phonics Pathways, OPG or some ETC books. I think 5 might be a little easy, but that might be a good place to start. I wish I could see some of this stuff in person! (Actually, our local B&N carries both PP & OPG, but I've never done more than glance at them. It's only the ETC stuff that I'm having a hard time finding locally.)

What programs could I use that would continue advanced phonics? Also, are there any spelling programs a little less hands on than AAS or SWR? (Actually, I think I'm thinking of SSRW? Is SWR pretty easy to use?)

:) Anyone?

Both of mine learned them early thanks to the Letter Factory.

My daughter has been through K-2 of Hooked on Phonics and can currently read level 1/2 readers (Little Bear, Henry & Mudge) pretty fluently 30+ wpm) with 1 word per page max that she doesn't know. Do I need to keep teaching phonics or just have her keep reading and assume that more advanced reading will come on it's own? She's pretty young and I have no intention of pushing her, but I also want to give her the skills to be a successful reader. What program would work for me at this level? Thanks for any advice.

We did EB B early this year before starting 1A and if I had it to do over, I would have skipped EB B and gotten the extra practice book to drag out 1A over a longer period of time. The EB book did cover some usual information such as calendars (days/months) and time, but otherwise, I thought it was pretty simplistic.

I think it's easier to get a good workout on a treadmill. With the bike, it's too easy to just spin your legs without any resistance or just lower your cadence, whereas with the treadmill you have to keep up with whatever pace you set the belt.

I did. It was part of the qualification process for admission to a gifted school. I think it useful to know and I think I will have my son tested, too, when he is 5-6ish.

No, I don't and I would never ask anyone else how much money they make. I don't feel the need to know that information about anyone else, nor do I feel the need to share it about our situation.

We're doing 1a and I sit with her the whole time. There are some pages I could leave her to do on her own (e.g., math fact drill), but I stay just to keep her on task and to keep my 3 year old out of trouble.