makagrin Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 Have any of you successfully used Phonics Museum? I'd love to know what you did, skipped, and if any of you used supplemental readers. I'm trying to make it work... Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaissance Mom Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 Every child has been a bit different, but we basically did both years as written except for the spelling in 1st grade (we skipped that and did something else). Since the readers with Phonics Museum are pretty long, I broke them up into shorter sessions until each child was clearly sailing along. I made sure they had access to easier, shorter material just for fun (Bob Books, Pathway readers, etc.) but I didn't require more reading. It has been amazing how everything just sort of comes together about mid-1st grade and then they just fly. Not every program is for everyone, but this one has served us quite well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFwife Claire Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 Every child has been a bit different, but we basically did both years as written except for the spelling in 1st grade (we skipped that and did something else). Since the readers with Phonics Museum are pretty long, I broke them up into shorter sessions until each child was clearly sailing along. I made sure they had access to easier, shorter material just for fun (Bob Books, Pathway readers, etc.) but I didn't require more reading. It has been amazing how everything just sort of comes together about mid-1st grade and then they just fly. Not every program is for everyone, but this one has served us quite well. This is similar to us, esp. the part about how mid-1st grade, it all just comes together! It has been a success for us in that I have successfully used it to teach 4 boys to read. I am, however, switching to Phonics Pathways for the girls though--I am so tired of reading those same primers! :tongue_smilie: For my first 2, I did it exactly as written. With these last 2 boys, I have pretty much just given them the worksheeets, explained what they were supposed to do, and let them do it. None of the games and extra stuff they talk about in the teacher guide. And both ways have produced competant readers, LOL. We also do not do the spelling part of the program. For the early readers, I will read one page (or maybe a few pages), and then the child will read one page. It makes it go a little faster. I also wouldn't rely only on those readers for practice! Other books scattered around are also very helpful to keep interest. It's a good, thorough program, but I have definitely found you can cut out a lot of extra stuff and still yield fine readers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly in the Country Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 I'm currently on my third run through with VP Phonics Museum. With my firstborn I followed the TM script pretty closely. I skipped all the games and I took turns reading with her for the Readers since they were meant to be read round robin style in a classroom. It took her a little while to get used to the writing portions of PM since I began when she was 4 and she had a little trouble holding a pencil. She caught on eventually. With my second born I pretty much skipped the script and stuck to just the worksheets, readers and free-play with the letter puzzle pieces. I am starting slow with my dd4 now. I'm once again sticking to the worksheets and readers for now. For her I have pulled out the old museum set-up with the hanging artwork. She likes that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 Well, when it first came out I was thrilled! I probably sold more copies with my enthusiasm alone! Alas, with age comes practical wisdom...as I look back (I think I used it the first year it came out so you can tell how long I've homeschooled!) I think the program was more exciting for me to have a 'quality' program I could expose my kids to...I still have the art cards and my kids genuinely enjoyed the museum stuff....they loved 'holding' all those books...but did it 'teach' my children phonics? No. They lost interest in it, I lost interest, I reached a point where I asked "why am I doing this again?" What DID work for me? Teach your child to read in 100 EZ lessons, went word for word by it, stuck to the 100 lessons, waited until my children were BEGGING to read (usually about 6.5 years for my three) and implemented it...I still used the art pictures to teach them about famous artists...it was fun for them to be able to recognize a Degas :) But with 100 EZ they were reading on a 2nd-3rd grade level within 3 months..so all those 'baby' books in Phonics Museum that were awkwardly phrased were useless....we jumped right past 1st readers and into chapter books in no time.... My experience only...hth! Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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