A question for OPGTR users

[sarawatsonim]

Do you make your child read all of the sentences in each lesson? My dd5 is on lesson 83 in OPGTR. I pick a handful of the sentences from the lesson story and write it on the white board for her to read. I then will read the whole little story and then we will do review of words using magnetic letters. Am I doing her an injustice by not making her read the entire stories? She completely loses interest after the first few sentences, so to make her read them all would take forever. Is the way I do it just as beneficial for her?

[Satori]

I haven't. The sentences are boring, but I do have her read at least 1-2.

 

My DD5 is on around lesson 110, and I want each lesson to take about 20 minutes. For some reason, we're going through the lessons much faster now, and the sentences seem to be less, so now I am having her read more sentences. We have been doing 10 minutes of the current lesson, and 10 minutes review now.

[FairProspects]

I tend to think of reading as a "mastery" topic, so my suggestion would be to slow down. Even if you need to break the lessons into 2-3 days to get through all the material in each lesson, I still think that would be better than just doing some and pushing through the lessons. I would think the only rationale for skipping some content would be if the child gets the concept quickly and is bored by the review, not because the lessons are too long overall.

 

With reading, I think the point is to get lots and lots of practice to increase decoding skills and fluency. Personally, I love the 2 review, 1 new system Jessie has included and we really don't move on until ds can read all the new material in OPG as well as in outside readers/words. We may not move very far or fast in the book, but I know he gets it and can apply the concepts in multiple contexts. Shorter lessons but more repetition might work better for you. Just my 2 cents, so take it or leave it.

[Mom to 3 Island Boys]

I've completed it with 2 of my boys, and in both cases I did not have them read all of the sentences in every lesson ~ particularly in the earlier lessons. Sometimes the sheer magnitude of the sentences on the page would seem daunting and discourage them. We tried leaving some of a lesson for later, but I found that it seemed to work better if I read some of the sentences "with" them (depending on the length of the lesson/number of sentences/mood of the child/how much it seemed like they needed more sentences ~ I would slowly read the sentence to them, running my finger along under the words for them). Both of my boys seemed to be more motivated by the sense of accomplishment in finishing the lesson rather than leaving some for later. For more practice we would then read from other books. Both of my boys found the OPGTR sentences a little bit boring and I needed to “mix it up†to keep them enthusiastic about their reading. (But don’t get me wrong ~ I loved the progression of the lessons and recommend it to anyone teaching someone to read!)

 

It is always my policy that I am not a slave to my textbooks. I feel that part of the beauty of homeschooling is that you can tailor the lesson to the child. If they are getting the new lesson fine, then I don't want to stifle their enthusiasm by boring them with the large amount of redundancy that is inherent in many programs. If it seems they need more, we can do more of it or add more from elsewhere. Every child is different, and my child and I decide when we have “got itâ€, not author of some book. Do whatever works for you and your little one! :001_smile:

[Radish4ever]

This is such a refreshing post! My DD *loves* reading the books I have bought for her that are both below, at, and beyond her reading level (we got a ton of used Hooked on Phonics books among others) and will read that stuff for an hour or more........ but getting her to read everything in a lesson is like pulling teeth! We're around lesson 83 with her as well.... I think I'll take some of the advice in this thread!

[ElizabethB]

I actually prefer to skip sentences and stories and just work on phonics and spelling until they know enough to read any book. I do this with all my students--my remedial students and my own children and friends' K students who need a little extra help (they're not exactly in the remedial category yet, they're slightly in the remedial camp but mostly in the beginner camp.) It's worked for me and my students, I actually find it makes for faster progress overall.

Edited January 23, 2010 by ElizabethB

[arcara]

We do read them all, but not a one sitting. I have other readers that my son uses, so we may read a little from another, and then some from a OPG lesson. One lesson in there usually takes at least 2 days. I only make him read for 10, or maybe 15 minutes if he happens to be into it that day. And, I often go back and copy sentences from previous lessons for him to read on the dry-erase board (This is going SO much better than having him read from the book, BTW!). I don't like to move on until I feel that he's pretty comfortable with the new material.

[Alice]

At that point, I didn't. I often did the lesson and words one day and the sentences as a review the next day. I found my son did better if I wrote them on the white board also at that stage. Now that we're much farther along, he's find reading out of the book and typically we do read the whole story or sentences. One lesson though now takes only about 10 minutes.

[sarawatsonim]

Thanks for the responses! I nice to have the reassurance that I am not doing her an injustice. I'm going to go through and make a list of your ideas and try them throughout this week for a nice change.

[mama25angels]

I do, but my ds really needs it, I do plan to have him do it in two sessions now though.

[kmacnchs]

We do read them all, but not a one sitting. I have other readers that my son uses, so we may read a little from another, and then some from a OPG lesson. One lesson in there usually takes at least 2 days. I only make him read for 10, or maybe 15 minutes if he happens to be into it that day. And, I often go back and copy sentences from previous lessons for him to read on the dry-erase board (This is going SO much better than having him read from the book, BTW!). I don't like to move on until I feel that he's pretty comfortable with the new material.

 

:iagree::iagree:I pretty much did the EXACT same thing w/dd1

(ex. do 1/2 p. in OPG, read a Bob Book, be done until tomorrow)