Which reading program?

[CrunchyMand]

I want to do phonics with my son who will be 6 in September. We live in the UK so it needs to be one we can get over here.

 

WIth my dd now 10 who is an avid advanced reader we used Reading Reflex to great success, I found the later stages tedious and we never completed the book. The book states how it is incorrect to teach children rules like 'this is the long sound of 'a'' that by being introduced to the sounds the children naturally pick up the rules.

 

Anyway, I am thinking of doing Reading Reflex or OPGTR, or 100 EZ lessons but I found all the symbols in it confusing when reading.

 

My son knows his letter sounds and names and can encode and decode verbally, I want something that is fun and not tedious. Any ideas?:bigear:

[Guest momk2000]

I used Christian Liberty Press Phonics with my oldest for K-2nd, now just starting CLP with my 5 yr old dd. It is very solid and reasonably priced.

[nansk]

There are lots of free options available on donpotter.net. My favourites are Word Mastery and Blend Phonics. Both of these are designed to help the child naturally pick up the rules.

 

My dd's school uses Jolly Phonics, which comes from the UK. That is also good but expensive compared to printing out the above PDFs.

[Shay]

I think you have so many great choices for solid synthetic phonics programs in the UK. Jolly Phonics is the one that comes to mind first. Also, I am a big fan of Piperbook's sets of decodable readers. They are known here in the states as "I See Sam" readers. Additionally, Phonics International offers free use of their first unit (online) I believe.

 

Here's a link to the Reading Reform Foundation (UK) and their "super links." Many commercially available products are described.

 

http://rrf.org.uk/messageforum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3745&sid=cc1cb65dfde96c10fda70df07e22b18e

 

HTH

[mhg]

I was thinking about Phonics Museum from Veritas Press (see review on cathyduffyreviews.com as your son would think it was fun). Since you're from UK (I'm assuming you're British and speak with an English accent), I'd think you'd need a program where UK dialect is presented and thus I'd choose either do something that I taught/sounded it out (OPG) or buy a UK based program (especially if I choose something with an audio supports) as the differences might be confusing to a child. Even though I love the Queen's English that you speak, I wouldn't buy a phonics program that explicitly taught UK sounding as there are subtle differences. For example, when our books gave a sound and then list examples, Brits pronounce that sound differently and the word given might be a poor example of the sound. (I hope this is making sense). Maybe an unfounded concern...but just thought I'd put it out there. I'm using OPG and really like it. I don't find it tedious as the lessons are short and the use of the magnetic board and letters is amusing to my son.

Edited August 10, 2010 by mhg

[Guest]

http://www.prometheantrust.org/

 

This is the one I am using with my 6 and 5 year old. It is from the UK, as well. Mine LOVE it! I did not 'get' the spelling portion, though.

[ElizabethB]

There are lots of free options available on donpotter.net. My favourites are Word Mastery and Blend Phonics. Both of these are designed to help the child naturally pick up the rules.

 

My dd's school uses Jolly Phonics, which comes from the UK. That is also good but expensive compared to printing out the above PDFs.

:iagree:

 

I think you have so many great choices for solid synthetic phonics programs in the UK. Jolly Phonics is the one that comes to mind first. Also, I am a big fan of Piperbook's sets of decodable readers. They are known here in the states as "I See Sam" readers. Additionally, Phonics International offers free use of their first unit (online) I believe.

 

Here's a link to the Reading Reform Foundation (UK) and their "super links." Many commercially available products are described.

 

http://rrf.org.uk/messageforum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3745&sid=cc1cb65dfde96c10fda70df07e22b18e

 

HTH

 

:iagree:

 

All good choices!

 

If you are looking for a fun, free program, Pollard's series is great.

 

You can also make a boring but good program fun by doing in on a white board and adding in games.

 

My free game is one idea:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

 

Also, Mona McNee's program has some free games online. Her program is also available very cheaply in the U.K. The games are linked near the end of this page:

 

http://www.catphonics.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/contents.htm'>http://www.catphonics.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/contents.htm'>http://www.catphonics.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/contents.htm'>http://www.catphonics.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/contents.htm

 

And here, 5 pounds for her book, which includes all the games:

 

http://www.catphonics.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

 

My favorite free program is Webster's Speller! It's not that fun, but it's very complete (phonics up to the 12th grade level) and I make in more fun by doing it on the white board and adding in games.

Edited August 10, 2010 by ElizabethB
added link to pollard books

[EmmaNZ]

We started to hs last November and have been using OPGTR with ds5. He has learnt fast and we are almost finished.

 

I have been very happy with it. I wouldn't call it 'tedious', but it is certainly no frills - no pictures/colour etc. It does get the job done efficiently though. There has been one lesson in which the sounds taught do not match how I pronounce it (we're English, if you didn't guess from my spelling!) - but that wasn't a massive issue for me.

 

I would definitely recommend this program, and plan on using it with dd4, but bear in mind I have no experience of anything else to compare it to.

[Mommee & Baba]

I think you got alot of great suggestions!!

 

We personally LOVE hooked on phonics! My dd's went from "I don't know how to read"....to "I don't want to read"...followed by LOTS of tears...to now being confident in their reading skills to try & read ANYTHING!! TEAR-FREE!