Almost done with Alphaphonics--now what?

[Lady Q]

My five year old son is almost done with Alphaphonics (we're in the last few lessons, learning about -tion and -sure and suchlike). I had intended to start Spelling Workout A with him right after, but now I'm thinking that some phonics reinforcement might be good for him. Ideally I'd like a good phonics workbook that would move him pretty quickly from blends to diagraphs to prefixes and suffixes and multisyllabic words (like "nationality" or "physician"). I've looked at ETC, but I'm afraid it'll stretch out what I want to cover far beyond what I. needs.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks.

[Lady Q]

We started Alphaphonics in January of last year. I supplemented with BOB books and level 1 readers (a lot of them by Syd Hoff). By now, I. is comfortably reading Henry & Mudge, Mr. Putter & Tabby, Frog & Toad and others of that level.

 

~Rabia

[Another Lynn]

Great question! My dd (age 6) is currently in ETC book 2 and I have also been thinking recently that I'd like to find some phonics workbooks that expose or teach or practice phonograms more quickly. (I'm a prior SWR user, so I'm always kind of looking for SWR in a workbook, LOL).

 

I saved these: http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1265805965-154115&subject=5&category=840

in my wishlist. I'm not at all sure they're what I'm looking for, but since they seemed to cover most phonograms in 4 workbooks they seemed worth considering.

 

Please update if you find something you like!

[Lady Q]

I've been looking at this First Grade Phonics Skill Builders book. My husband picked up a Sylvan Center second grade phonics workbook from Borders, which starts out with blends and goes through diagraphs and prefixes and such, but I'm not wild about it. I think the way it's packaged would go right over my five-year-old's head. Maybe I should jump into Spelling Workout since he'll encounter all that stuff later on in the series anyway.

 

I don't know. I know this is such a minor minor issue, really, but I guess I always need something to get worked up about. :P

[Another Lynn]

Lady Q,

Thanks for the link to another suggestion. I also wondered about the Alphaphonics Level 2 workbooks - did you use the workbooks for Alphaphonics? (When I looked at Alphaphonics a couple years ago, I didn't remember it having workbooks).

[ElizabethB]

Webster's Speller from the whiteboard!

 

You may also like my syllable division exercises and rules at the end of my how to tutor page. The guide to blend phonics on my how to tutor page shows how to add syllables to Blend Phonics, that makes for an easy transition into the syllables of Webster's Speller if they are confusing, they do take a bit to figure out if you're used to traditional phonics.

[Lady Q]

Lady Q,

Thanks for the link to another suggestion. I also wondered about the Alphaphonics Level 2 workbooks - did you use the workbooks for Alphaphonics? (When I looked at Alphaphonics a couple years ago, I didn't remember it having workbooks).

 

 

Lynn,

 

I don't recall ever seeing workbooks to go along with Alphaphonics. Could you provide a link, please?

[Lady Q]

Webster's Speller from the whiteboard!

 

You may also like my syllable division exercises and rules at the end of my how to tutor page. The guide to blend phonics on my how to tutor page shows how to add syllables to Blend Phonics, that makes for an easy transition into the syllables of Webster's Speller if they are confusing, they do take a bit to figure out if you're used to traditional phonics.

 

Elizabeth,

 

Thanks for the link. I'm looking at your Blend Phonics guide right now. Are you suggesting that I pick it up at about U16, when they learn that words and syllables ending in vowels have the long sound? And start Webster's Speller from Table 4, where teaches words of two syllables (like baker)?

 

Thanks.

 

~Rabia

[Another Lynn]

Lynn,

 

I don't recall ever seeing workbooks to go along with Alphaphonics. Could you provide a link, please?

 

OOOPS! There's a reason you don't recall the workbooks.... I'm so sorry, I actually saw workbooks for Alphabet Island and confused it with Alphaphonics in my head. Here's a link to a sample page from the 2nd level of the Alphabet Island workbooks. http://www.rainbowresource.com/pictures/000528/i/2/1266001665-212841

 

Sorry to cause confusion!!!

[ElizabethB]

Elizabeth,

 

Thanks for the link. I'm looking at your Blend Phonics guide right now. Are you suggesting that I pick it up at about U16, when they learn that words and syllables ending in vowels have the long sound? And start Webster's Speller from Table 4, where teaches words of two syllables (like baker)?

 

Thanks.

 

~Rabia

 

I would start at the beginning, but just do a word or two from each lesson at the earlier lessons, that will get you used to syllables with short vowels. You could spell a word or two and read a word or two and do some syllables with each unit.

[AngelBee]

:lurk5: Working on phonics right now...

[Lady Q]

Sorry to cause confusion!!!

 

No worries. :)

[Lady Q]

I would start at the beginning, but just do a word or two from each lesson at the earlier lessons, that will get you used to syllables with short vowels. You could spell a word or two and read a word or two and do some syllables with each unit.

 

K, I get it, I think. :)

[bethben]

I've finished Alphaphonics with #2 now. I just go straight to Dr.Suess early readers. They are made for sight-read learners not phonics, but I find them useful for all those sighte words they should know (what, was, am, there, ect). I waited on spelling until ds was reading comortably. I may have to amend that since ds#2 is trying to write letters and notes to various people and he's really trying to spell a lot of stuff - I don't want him to memorize the wrong spelling.

Beth

[Lady Q]

Since I know y'all have been waiting with bated breath, here's what I've decided for now*:

 

After Alphaphonics, we'll continue with readers from the library and McGuffey's (sp?) Third Eclectic Reader. I'll use Elizabeth's helpful pdf guide and Webster's speller to work on polysyllabic words with Sir I, possibly supplementing with ETC 4. We'll move on to Spelling Workout A after that (or possibly even sooner) since I. is keen on it. I'm trying to keep my costs low and work with what I have or can get for free.

 

Thanks for your thoughts, everybody!

 

~Rabia

 

* Plan subject to change based on, but not limited to, the phases of the moon, the migratory patterns of Canadian geese, the weather on Tuesdays and Thursdays, solar flares, underwater volcanic eruptions, and hormonal changes.

[Kareni]

* Plan subject to change based on, but not limited to, the phases of the moon, the migratory patterns of Canadian geese, the weather on Tuesdays and Thursdays, solar flares, underwater volcanic eruptions, and hormonal changes.

 

... and the quantity of chocolate in the house!

 

Glad to see you've made a plan (even if it is subject to change).

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Lady Q]

... and the quantity of chocolate in the house!

 

 

Of course! How could I forget that??

 

;)

 

~Rabia

[ChristineMM]

Hello, I also used Alpha Phonics. (First child finished age 6, second child teaching self to read and asked to be taught more so used it and finished at age 4).

 

As you are doing now, I also toyed with using a workbook based curriculum to reinforce phonics. However a HS mom friend said, "Is your goal to get them reading real books or to do worksheets?" So that sealed the deal.

 

When we finished AP we moved on to more real books, the easy readers. They had already read some which I interspersed between AP lessons to give a break from daily AP lessons. So after that I had my kids read daily aloud to me. The 4 year old I didn't want to push hard so aimed at 10-15 minutes of reading aloud to me. The 6 year old I had reading 15-20 minutes. We did this Monday-Friday.

 

Both of them needed minimal correction in their reading which showed me they did learn through the AP lessons, how to sound out the words and they were also taught to read with proper inflection, pause at the comma, react to other punctuation.

 

We just moved up as they got faster at reading and could handle more difficult text. After the easy readers they both went on to Magic Tree House, one loved Secrets of Droon, both loved The Boxcar Children. I also looked for nonfiction books for younger readers, many of these are from the 50s-70s when they seemed to publish more history and science books for younger kids with real content in normal text. Today's books seem more snippety and alongside photos or illustrations.

 

Good luck weighing the options!

 

(My kids are now aged 12 and 9. When my then-10 year old was given a test by a school teacher for decoding phonics he tested out at decoding at 8th grade level. So that proved to me AP and our method worked.)

[Lady Q]

Thanks for being the voice of reason, Christine. You're right. After having done most of Alphaphonics (we're on the next-to-last page right now, hooray!), Sir I. is reading pretty well. We tag-teamed reading a Curious George and hour ago and I was impressed with his fluency. I just want to work with him on polysyllabic words a bit more to give him some decoding strategies.

 

I am not as stressed about this as I was last week (and weekend). Now I'm calm and confident--until the next time I have to make a curriculum decision!