Has anyone used McRuffy Phonics for Kindergarten?

[modest-mama]

My son blossoms with colorful worksheets and readers with glossy pictures and a few words on each page. He seems to do better when he has an item that he can complete, rather than an abstract idea of verbal phonics or narrations (which are not working at all). This program looks like it fits that criteria, but I am really not a workbook person and was wondering if anyone else had any experience with McRuffy for kindergarten.

 

He wants to do school, but doesn't seem to "get" things easily. I want to take advantage of his desire to learn right now, and I need an actual program to hold me accountable to teaching him. He has an older brother to hs and two younger siblings I must manage and most days we just don't get around to his lessons.

[Chels~]

We really liked McRuffy. Not a lot of worksheets, everything works together nicely. If they had older grades, I would still be using them.

[nukeswife]

I'm actually using it right now at an accelerated pace with my dd who is almost 8. She's a late bloomer with reading and has some speech issues as well. This is the one program that has worked for her. She LOVES It and asks to do it. Once we're done with a reader it goes in a basket in the living room and she re-reads them to her Dad or younger brother. The workbooks don't have a lot of work per page but just enough. I love the colorfulness of the program.

 

We're a little more than half way through the program and will continue with it through all the grades. I like that it's all of Language arts in one place, it's got spelling, simple grammar (like capital letters at beginning, punctuation at the end) as well as the phonics.

 

From what you describe of your son it sounds like it would be a good fit.

[JenAL]

I'm using McRuffy K with my first grade son now. He has struggled with reading & is doing much better with this. I will say that I find the K to be fairly advanced. I don't think my ds would have done as well with this last year (he wasn't ready).

 

Overall, I love it. The readers are great, too. I'm going to try to use it with dd next year for K. But like I said, it's fairly advanced.

[Samiam]

We are using McRuffy K Phonics for our first grader as well. I would agree that is a advanced program for K. There is very little introduction to the letters and sounds, just a brief mention and then right onto the blending with those letters/sounds. We spent our actual K year learning letter names and sounds, so this program works for us. But if the child didn't already know these things, I could see this program moving too fast.

 

I love this and I think DS loves it as well, at least he never complains and he is usually eager to participate.

 

It has the workbook, but it's only one page per day, and pretty quick work. But there is also the hands-on components, the flashcards etc. I think it changes up our day to day work, so it's not the same thing every day, but it definately has the review that my DS needs.

 

It takes us 10-20 minutes per day, which is perfect for my DS. We do not do the handwriting part, as we are using something else for that.

[melopher]

I am using McRuffy K Phonics with my 5 year old and we're loving it. I agree that it is best if the child already knows most letters and their sounds, since the program doesn't spend a lot of time with that. I like how it progresses, it feels logical and thorough without getting boring or taking forever. I think the guide is easy to follow, and like how they intersperse games and readers...the pace is great. I tried SL K LA (which was mostly letter sounds and got boring) and WP Pre-K LA (which did not feel like it had the logical progression and thoroughness or cohesiveness McRuffy has) and about half of SSRW Pre-K (which actually got boring believe it or not--probably because my dd wasn't interested in the singing) and McRuffy has been so much better. A Great fit for us--if they went past 3rd grade I'd probably be using it with my other dc.