Alpha-Phonics vs. The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading?

[Parkway Academy]

I own both of these phonics guides, but cannot make a final decision as to which I will begin the year with my five year old stepson. Being a former public school teacher, I like the straight-forward, no nonsense approach of Alpha-Phonics, but I am such a devotee of The Well Trained Mind that the draw of Jessie Wise's book is strong.

 

Has anyone tried both? Any opinions?

[ChristineMM]

Sometimes the only way to see what works is to jump in and do it and see how it goes.

 

I also learned over the yeas what I liked best as a parent-teacher is not what worked for my kids.

 

I have never seen Ordinary... and can't comment.

 

I used AP with both of my kids and it worked.

 

One of them really liked the low visual clutter of AP, this also proved true later on for math, I found out he learns best with black ink on white paper and no cartoons or nonsense fluff decorations on the page. This may seem weird to some people but there was a measurable differnece for my son's ability to learn and concentrate based on various phonics and math book-learning graphic layout styles.

 

It was a growing point for me to put aside my own opinions and beliefs for what was best for home education or curriculum choices and to pick the best things for each unique child to make the learning happen and to have it be a less stressful and more joyful learning process.

 

Good luck.

[ladydusk]

I tried AlphaPhonics with my daughter and she cried at the sight of the book. The long pages of words were daunting to her. Admittedly, I write/type out the lessons in OPG, but it has been much more successful for my family ... my son is successfully using it now, too.