bluemongoose Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 So I got my PR 1 in the mail yesterday:hurray: And I have already spent 4 hours looking it over!:lol: But now I have some Q's My DD is 5yo (just turned) she is reading at around a 4th-5th grade level based on the RL printed on the back of the books she is reading. She is writing a sentence or two with some difficulty. Letter reversals/capital letters at odd places/phonetical spelling. Normal stuff for her age, right?? She also writes many letters from the bottom up!:confused: We have already completed Sing, Spell, Read and Write K/1st which was pretty much phonics, but not as much phonics as PR. To fill time (due to money) we moved on to LLATL red (I already owned it) to finish out the school year. With this program, she is mainly practicing reading aloud and learning some grammar. She seems to enjoy the poems and is learning something, though not much. It is mostly too easy for her. I need whatever I choose to do to last me until March 2011. My plan was to finish out the school year with LLATL and then start PR this fall. Is this a bad idea? Also, I watched most of the 1st DVD for PR last night, I was hoping for something a little more clear about what to do if your child is already reading. Should I just do the lessons as scripted to make sure she has not missed something? Should I start in the middle somewhere? Should I do it half time (2 lessons a day or something like that) It seems kind of silly to say the "a" says 3 sounds to her when she already knows that, but maybe I am wrong here??? So please tell me how to go about this. I think I need a little hand holding!:001_smile: P.S. please excuse my grammar and spelling...I am a work in progress! ;) I am learning along with DD and I am hoping I learn a ton from PR as well. When I went to school we were not given spelling lessons at all, we learned whole language, and we were not taught grammar. It was deemed more important to get ideas down on paper than for them to be correct! We were graded solely on creativity.:001_huh: What little I know, I learned in college after being embarrassed on many occasions!:glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homeschooling6 Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 I don't have any experience with early readers, so I'm no help :blush:. I do know that PR Levels 2 and above have more writing and gets pretty meaty. That might be something to consider. I would do PR 1 at regular pace and work on her letter formation and original sentences. Take summers off :D with regards to formal spelling and phonics. She knows the three sounds of 'a' for reading that's fine but since you are using it more for spelling at this point (since she can read so well) it would help in that area. Okay, like I mentioned, I don't have any early readers but maybe this will get your wheels spinning ;) Seriously though, I don't see anything wrong with concentrating on other areas of school until she is a bit more mature for PR 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemongoose Posted March 23, 2010 Author Share Posted March 23, 2010 (edited) That does help some. I wasn't really thinking of skipping PR 1 as many of you posted in other threads that it was important to do all levels, not just jump in. I think it is important for me as well, since I would probably need to learn some of this from the beginning in order to teach it. I am not sure where all the "holes" in my education are yet, and I really don't want to recreate my issues in my DD! I guess I need to see PR more like what you are saying...it will sort of be her "spelling/writing" program right now, not so much reading..... Edited March 23, 2010 by bluemongoose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemongoose Posted March 23, 2010 Author Share Posted March 23, 2010 Tina??? Anybody else....maybe with early readers???? :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honey Bee Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 My son has "timed reading" on top of PR 1. Granted it is titles like Frog and Toad, Cat in the Hat, etc., and he does the readers, which started at week 15. Your daughter seems to have accomplished a lot for her age and is reading well. Phonics Road really focuses on spelling in the first year IMHO. Which is why we add WWE 1 and timed reading. So if I were you I would take her through the first 4 weeks at her pace and then take each week starting at week 5 as is. In other words go at the programs pace. As for reading, I wouldn't neglect that, but get her reading after her lesson for about 10-15 minutes (I use on-level literature, but next year will try to start using some history and science titles too.) That would put you needing PR 2 next year about this time. You could even what and start PR 2 in the fall of 2011. I'm just thinking out loud, hope that helps a little bit :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemongoose Posted March 24, 2010 Author Share Posted March 24, 2010 That helps a ton Melissa! Thanks! Can you explain what "timed reading" looks like. I am just making sure I understand what your definition of timed reading is. The way I remember timed reading was in PS having 15 min of SSR. Is that what you mean??? I had been planning to just keep plenty of books around for her to read whenever since she is so far ahead. Do you think I need to do something else specific for reading? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemongoose Posted March 24, 2010 Author Share Posted March 24, 2010 bump.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honey Bee Posted March 25, 2010 Share Posted March 25, 2010 That helps a ton Melissa! Thanks! Can you explain what "timed reading" looks like. I am just making sure I understand what your definition of timed reading is. The way I remember timed reading was in PS having 15 min of SSR. Is that what you mean??? I had been planning to just keep plenty of books around for her to read whenever since she is so far ahead. Do you think I need to do something else specific for reading? By timed reading, I mean just reading for a certain amount of time each day. PR has them reading about 4 lines (half of page) each day after wk 15, but my son really needed more, so we read about 18 minutes a day from our picture books. I'm just talking about keeping them reading daily (I guess I'm so happy he's reading, I'm scared he's going to lose it if he doesn't use it! :lol:) WTM talks about daily reading also. I have my son do it out loud, but soon he should be able to do it silently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemongoose Posted March 25, 2010 Author Share Posted March 25, 2010 Still hoping for Tina to weigh in!:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnandtinagilbert Posted March 25, 2010 Share Posted March 25, 2010 Sorry I'm late to respond :) I've had a wonderfully busy week...I got the coolest gift a home schooler could ask for....part of a retired schoolers library! Stacks of books I'll use for TOG and science. I feel like a spoiled child...God is so good to me! Anyways, today is my get back to the boards day...I may break out in hives without my proper teacher's lounge time. :001_wub: Okay, so I agree with the previous posts. No alarm here for you, Mama. How wonderful you don't have to stress about reading! Let her spend her time reading about history, science, and some great fiction like Little Bear, Frog and Toad, Billy Blanks, American Girls, anything your or her hearts desire. Set a timer for 15-20 minutes and let her read. Incorporate her reading to your other studies so you can save time overall in school. What a wonderful time for her to enjoy reading, learn from reading, and practice reading aloud to you for school, instead of you doing all the reading aloud. How exciting! I would go through PR1 as it will take care of all the little things you know she needs work on. She'll grow in handwriting, spelling, and she'll get the reinforcement she needs in phonics. Her ability to read actually will make using PR1 so easy and so effective. She'll get everything she needs for the rest of language arts and after a complete year of a gentle PR1, she'll be better prepared academically and mentally for the increase in PR2. One thing I love, love, love about PR is the phonics reinforcement b/c I made the mistake as an early educator that once they could read, phonics was no longer important....bad, bad, Tina. Poor, poor, dc. No fears! You are right on and your dd can spend the next school year learning to LOVE books.....I'm excited for both of you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluemongoose Posted March 25, 2010 Author Share Posted March 25, 2010 Ok...so it sounds like I got a little over concerned! Glad to know that I can just continue as is and move forward. Thanks for all your help and encouragement! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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