This year I've been homeschooling my 4 yr old boy (5 this summer). We had a very productive first month of homeschooling. We did about 30 minutes every other day using Bob books, Saxon K and some cutting, coloring or mazes. In that time he sounded-out and read the first two sets of Bob books (he had played with starfall and knew most letter sounds). Once that first month had passed he started refusing to do any school. We stopped because he is 4 and I want him to enjoy school. Around the end of September when he was bored I'd ask if he wanted to do school. Sometimes it sounded like an exciting proposition so we kept on going with Saxon K (which he calls the fun homeschool) and occasionally he would read one bob book for a special treat. Eventually we started with OPGTTR. DS was doing well. He was reading (sounding out?) the passages in the book, but his eyes would glaze over. He was doing it for the special homeschool treats. Once again, the time came when he did not want to read it because he thought it was boring. And to be fair, it is kind of boring. Then my husband got transferred for his job. Between the craziness of keeping a house ready for showings and preparing for a cross-country move by myself and two kids, we did not do any formal school between January and March. He did play in the computer a lot with starfall (which is now boring) and abcmouse (which also became boring) and pbskids. This excessive computer use was because I had 20 showings in 6 weeks. While unpacking after the move, I found a still wrapped set of new Dick and Jane books my MIL got the kids for Christmas. I was very adamant that I would only do phonics with DS based on OPGTR. But since it's been a while since we had done anything I thought, well why not? Let's see if he can read them. So I took book 1 out. All the "Oh, oh, oh." sounded hilarious in my head so I read it out loud in the funniest way possible with faces and voices and all. Then we discussed the pictures. Lo and behold, my child wanted to read it himself. With giggles. I know many of those words are sight words, but in the last two days he has chosen to read the first three books (granted, they seem fairly simple) but he went from sounding out Bob books to almost fluent reading. Since he is more amenable to reading Dick and Jane if I read them first (in my hilarious mommy voice) I am not sure if this is really reading or if he is just repeating. I didn't know he could recognize "yellow" and "blue" we never reviewed those words. Like I said before, he did a lot of computer time during the crazy move so maybe he picked them up then? Should I just go with it? If so, we would move on to what? I feel a little lost since I've never done this before and the logical method (to me anyway) is to follow a curriculum in order rather than jumping around. We had done several OPGTTR lessons and he can sound out words like h-e-l-p and blend, but we never moved on to multiple syllable words. I am confused and I do not want to mess him up. It is likely DS will soon find Dick and Jane boring too, but for now he does like them and the pictures. Opinions and suggestions would be appreciated. I do not post often because my kids are little and I am very new. However, I've read several threads before posting this. I will therefore add this note which I think is unrelated, but perhaps will prevent replies such as "just read to your kids and don't worry about it" ?: We do lots of reading using books the kids pick out from the library and if it's nice we will go to playgrounds several times a week. DS is a mini paleontologist (joking, he just loves dinosaurs) and recently we've moved on to obsess about planets. And yes, both DS and DD (3) play with Lego, blocks, boxes, dolls (action figures), cars and such. Plus we do lots of science (planting, weed pulling, looking at stars, talking about germs) and experiments. DS is not yet writing. I offer crayons, colored pencils and paints and he does a little "abstract" art which is fine. As of age 4, he cannot write his name and I'm ok with it for now because he can spell it lol. He does color in the calendar square for Saxon math. I am bilingual, so occasionally we do Spanish time. And all the other normal things ...

I had this information hanging around so I thought I'd put it on my blog for those who are interested. It's a chart (or color coded list) saying what Hooked on Phonics or Bob books go with what Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading lesson. Just the kindergarten level (OPGTR up to lesson 40/Section 3.) I'm putting it on here so it's searchable for people looking for similar information. Here's the blog link. Here's the Pin. The chart is a jpg that you are free to copy, print, and share.

Hello! This is one of my first posts on these boards. I've been lurking around for a while - thanks to everyone who has shared such great info! I've been learning a lot. I have a question about the phonics readers, specifically the books like the Bob books, or the I Can Read phonics sets like with Biscuit the puppy or Batman. Are these books really a good way to teach phonics? My son is 4.5, so yes, I know he's young - but he's also pushing to read. He sits and "reads" to toys or to family and is picking up on some words. We read a LOT - he is on the autistic spectrum, and both my husband (who is also on the spectrum, Aspergers) and I as well as his doctors think it is and will help with his communication. He does have a speech delay - about a year behind there, but making him slow down to hear the sounds has really helped in getting him caught up. Yet he understands just fine - it's just getting the words out. I've looked at Alpha-phonics, Blended phonics, AAR (not in the budget!), Bob books and so on. The I Can Read series caught my eye because it's animals - mittens, Biscuit, and so on. That he'd pay attention to without a problem. I want him to know phonics and while he is young, he's pushing and trying to read himself which I think is leading to bad habits. Like two words that look similar he thinks are the same word and he's just memorizing words instead of understanding. I've even looked at CLE's learning to read program but I think that's a bit advanced yet! He needs something that will keep reviewing and gently build on what he knows (lots of practice). Will these books work together like the reviews on Amazon have said and can they really teach phonics lessons? Would he need anything other than these little books? I just don't want him learning bad habits and making up sounds, which I've caught him doing, because of then having to unlearn those habits but I'm not sure how to go about teaching properly either.

I started OPG when my dd was 2. One year later, we are on lesson 113 but she still isn't reading fluently. She can zoom through the first set of Bob books but I was thinking that her reading would need to go along with what she is learning (long vowels). The Bob books with long vowels are too long and take us about 2-3 days to get through (she reads to me 30 min/day) because she still sounds out most words. He gets the phonics completely, but the fluency has not come yet. I hear it just takes time and practice but my question is...should I drop her down to "her level" reading? I know you will say "yes" but then I am afraid she will forget what she just learned...suggestions? I've never taught anyone to read before so I don't really know what to expect.

Since I saw the thread on it being too christian, I wanted to find out what families are doing to make sure it's biblical enough? I'll be starting it in June with my 1st grade son. Thanks