Hi - I used to be a regular here until I graduated my two children. It's been years. Now I'm teaching kindergarten for a classical hybrid academy. We're using Veritas Press's Phonics Museum and for the life of me I cannot find directions for how to play "Percival's Pairs." If any of you smart, young moms are familiar with Phonics Museum, and can explain the game "Percival's Pairs" to this tired old homeschooler, please post. Thanks. I haven't figured out the signature/avatar thing (that's new to me) but back in the day on these forums, I was "DollyM" or maybe "DollyM in Md." Thanks again for any help.

First post here... My son has been reading since age 4 and really enjoys it. He is 7 now and spends a lot of time reading quietly to himself. However, I have started noticing a great reluctance to sound out words or names he is unfamiliar with. Do you have any suggestions on curricula that would follow naturally from the end point of Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading? We used the last third of the book last year (1st Grade) to get him more familiar with sounding out long, complicated words syllable by syllable. Any kind of workbook, curriculum, or other suggestion is greatly appreciated!

Hi there! There are already threads that list free curriculum, but they focus more on the older kids, so I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread with free curriculum for preschoolers and kindergartners. These are some of the resources I used as a teacher and now as a mom. Please add on and list any free curriculum or resources you are using or that you know of. I taught 4 year old Kindergarten before homeschooling, and I worked closely with the 5K teacher to mesh our programs. For my son, we just have fun doing phonics, handwriting together, math games, and take lots of field trips around your area! Also, read, read, read! At least 3 read alouds a day, more if you can. Kids at this age really need hands on play with materials like blocks, play dough, ect. to develop their cognitive and motor skills. We also do monthly themes based on the seasons, holidays, etc. I don’t use a boxed curriculum, just tons of good books and free printables and ideas from the internet. www.starfall.com Starfall is wonderful and free online, it has an ABC section for early phonics and reading going all the way up to 4th or 5th grade. They also sell a complete Kindergarten curriculum, but you can just use the ree activities and alphabet printables on the website for phonics and handwriting. Here is a program with lesson plans for presenting Nursery rhymes to work on phonics and literacy skills, it is called Rhyme a Week: http://www.teach.virginia.edu/go/wil...and_rhymes.htm Just to let you know, it is a program that was developed for Head Start. Some homeschool families might not approve of the source, but I used it in the Catholic school I worked in and I didn't find anything objectionable about it. The also have a program called "Book a Week" that has lesson plans for activities to go along with a children's book. It is also used to increase literacy and reading skills, and expose kids to picture books. http://www.teach.virginia.edu/go/wil...#A_Book_A_Week I don't use these faithfully, but if you wanted to it could constitute a complete language arts curriculum, I would just add in a bit more formal handwriting and/or phonics. Don Potter’s website has a phonics program called Blend Phonics that I think would work well at this age, as long as the child knows the alphabet. http://www.donpotter.net/Blend%20Phonics.htm www.littlegiraffes.com This is a website that was maintained by a Kindergarten teacher until she retired, it has great ideas for hands on activities and projects in language arts, math, science, reading, etc. The monthly themes section has great ideas units you could use as an integrated curriculum, also it has great ideas for hands on projects and centers that relate to science, social studies, as well as math and reading. Lots of fun crafts too! Again, you could use the themes to plan your activities for the whole year. www.jmeacham.com This is another public school teacher who still maintains her site. Although she teaches older kids now, she started out in Kindergarten. I really like her “roll a games” for math, which you can find here:http://www.jmeacham.com/roll.a.games.htm http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/abc_centers.html This website is from a former teacher who is now a homeschooling mom. She has tons of resources for preschool and Kindergarten. These are her ABC centers, which have some great games. She also has printable reading books that coordinate with great Children's lit: http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/printable_booklets.html This site also includes a link on the left for Christian resources and printables, and there are plenty of ideas for math games and language arts games if you follow the links. http://www.first-school.ws/ This is a preschool site with tons of free printables, but they are also great for the Kindergarten level. They have handwriting worksheets in either Zaner-Bloser or D'Nelian. They also have some great flashcards, coloring pages, and they have lesson plans for various children's books and themes. Their site can be a little hard to navigate, but their free printables really are great. Their alphabet handwriting sheets also include pages with Christian and biblical themes if you wanted to incorporate religion, though most of their resources are secular. Here is the link to their handwriting printable section: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/handwriting.htm This site has a handwriting worksheet generator you can use to print out your child’s name in dot letters for them to practice. You can use Zaner-Bloser or D’Nelian, or cursive. www.handwritingworksheets.com Here is a page with free learning activity sheets for math, writing, reading, etc. You need to register at www.learningpage.com, but it is free. They also have lesson plans and printables to go with themes units, such as ocean animals, that integrate all the different subjects around a science topic with resources for grades prek-4. Here is a lin k for the activity sheets they have by month in an archive: http://www.learningpage.com/member/p...thly-sets.html Here is a link for their themes units: http://www.learningpage.com/pages/me...ct_oceans.html And here are the basic sheets that have great math and letter practice: http://www.learningpage.com/pages/me..._dnealian.html Here is a site with fun ideas for theme units, they also have songs and fingerplays listed by theme that you can incorporate into whatever you are studying. This is the section with recipes for things like playdough, paint, etc. http://www.preschooleducation.com/recipe.shtml They also have great ideas for games and activities to go along with phonics and math. These are all hands on activities and games, not worksheets. If you wanted a more traditional math program, I know that MEP math has a kindergarten program. I haven't used it, but it is free online and a lot of families on this board really like it. It is a British site so the Kindergarten year is called "Reception." Here is a link: http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/proje...ry/default.htm If you are looking for a CM approach, Ambleside Online has free Kindergarten suggestions and reading lists as does Tanglewood Academy, and Mater Amabilis (Catholic CM approach). You could also look at the booklists on the Living Books curriculum website or Memoria press for more literature ideas, and then just use your library card to check out the books. I know there are a lot more out there, let's keep em coming!

My 6 year old is half way through AAR Level 2 and it is EASY for him. He doesn't even blink at the practice pages and can read one in about 5 minutes. So when we finish level 2, what should I do next? Each level is pretty expensive so Level 3 feels like over kill to me but at the same time I want him to have a great phonics base to work from and I have 2 more kids coming up after him that can use it. TIA!

I have an 8yo daughter with Downs Syndrome who does not read yet. Most of what I have read, including information published by national organizations says to teach using sight words and pictures on flashcards. I have been trying to use a phonics approach, but things are going very slowly. She knows most of her letters and can copy the vowel sounds I make, but isn't very interested. She also shows little interest in drawing and writing. What she loves is listening to music, watching DVDs and reciting/singing the portions she has memorized. Anyway, my primary question is: Has anyone successfully used a phonics-based approach to teach a child with Downs Syndrome to read? If not, what would you recommend? Thanks so much! Julie Shields Douglasville, GA

Phonics Rule for Where, Were, Could (Logic of English or other O-G curriculum?) (And does anyone have the LOE book about decodable DOLCH words?) Thanks!!!! :)

I am not using Ordinary Parent's guide... In a program that I am using, consonant blends are introduced without specific rules. I see another program online which shows specific rules for consonant blends. Do you need to call out rules for consonant blends? I am referring to blends such as pl in plan, cl in clap

You all are the greatest and since I am tired of debating I came to the hive to get your advice. :-) My youngest learned to read very early and has been reading for a couple of years now without any instruction from me. (Granted he has played on starfall and readingeggs through out the years. He loves to read but not a huge fan of "doing school". He is reading books that are considered (2nd grade level). We just started about two months ago using OPGTR we started from the beginning and we are now on lesson 80, he is doing okay with it we do a few lessons a week but he does not like the book. When I get it out he complains (we really only do it for about 5 minutes or so.) I think if I just used it as a guide and did it more with games or other manipulatives he wouldn't mind it. I am debating as to what to use for him next year he will be about 5 1/2 when we start in the fall. I want him to have a good solid phonics foundation and want him to know all of the phonograms well to help with spelling down the road. I am looking for something open and go and not too teacher intensive. I am debating between using OPGTR (continuing on where we are) and maybe reinforce the phonograms with the game book of LOE or using RLTL started from the beginning I guess but I wonder how far I would go or should do within a year? Any other thoughts or recommendations? Thanks everyone!

My oldest has learned to read! Yay!!!!! We are nearing the end of OPGTR and I'm wondering what we should do next. Is it enough to practice fluency by just READING real books after we finish working through that book? Is there higher level phonics instruction? I see multiple levels of programs like AAR and stuff and just wonder what is being learned for so many years. My son is working through easy chapter books and is so interested he's just teaching himself faster than anything I'm giving him. What have other people done after finishing the OPGTR? I'm not trying to complicate things, basically just wondering if I'm doing him a disservice if I don't pick up another phonics program? I am planning to start FLL and am looking at writing options, just asking specifically about phonics. Thanks!

Hi, My son is 5 years old and we recently started going through The Ordinary Parents Guide To Teaching Reading. We're on lesson 40 and he seems to be enjoying it so far. He is my eldest son and I've never taught reading before so I wanted to check that his progress for where he is in the book is okay, and that we don't need to pause for review. Basically, when he reads he will pronounce each individual letter and then say the word correctly in full, i.e. 'h' 'o' 't' = 'hot'. Theres no slow blending just the whole word, I think this is good but should he still be saying each letter individually? Everything is at his pace obviously but I'm just wondering if he's still pronouncing each letter first, do I need to pause for review?? I kind of think he's doing really great but when I watch videos of children they are slowly blending the letters into the actual whole word rather than pronouncing each letter and then saying the whole word. Thanks in advance. xxx

We are 7 weeks into Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading level 2. My 7 year old son knows all of the "teams" and has a good grasp of the rules so far. He is very good at spelling words that can be sounded out and use the most common sound. However, he definitely is not remembering the words that use less common sounds or are sight words (true sight words, such as "eye"). He needs LOTS of repetition to memorize anything and even then, he usually forgets if he doesn't continue to use it a lot. Should I add more "study time" to memorize the words? I don't want to use any form of whole word but I'm afraid he can't spell common words such as there, were, was, etc... Also, he HATES reading but is slowly becoming less resistant to it as long as it is easy. Dr. Seuss books are the only ones he doesn't completely fight me about. He wants to be able to read well but he doesn't feel like he's good at it so he'd rather just hate it.

After much consideration and research, we had settled on TATRAS for our phonics program. We were very pleased to find something that seemed very sound, solid, and straightforward, simple to use and without any bells or whistles. However, I haven't been able to find a source for this program! It seems to be out of print and I haven't been able to contact the author/publisher, or even to find a used copy anywhere. SO, my question for anyone familiar with this is: Which phonics program is most similar to TATRAS? I have been looking at Spell to Write and Read, and All About Reading, but I have no personal experience with either one. Or maybe there is another program out there that is more similar to TATRAS? The qualities of TATRAS that I am seeking to find in another program are: vertical phonics approach, simplicity of use and layout, historically proven methods, and no extra "bells and whistles". Any help you can give me would be most appreciated!!

I’m curious. I am wondering why people don’t use an on-line spelling program or app? I’ve seen a lot of posts on physical spelling curricula but not on on-line programs. If you don’t use one, what did you not like about it and what was missing or what did you want it to do? Or if you do use one, which one and why?

My son is in the final Primary Phonics workbook. What should we move in to next? I was thinking Spectrum Word Study and Phonics. If anyone has use Primary Phonics, what did you do next?