OPGTR supplies question

[dsmama]

Besides index cards and a pen, are there any other essential items to use while teaching OPTGR?

 

I just bought the book and haven't had a chance to get the magnetic letters & board yet. Is it worth buying them? Do I need to wait for them, or can one teach the first few lessons with letter on index cards (or maybe I can find the leapfrog letters somewhere!).

 

This would be for a bright four-year-old who knows her letters but not the sounds. We've been doing The Reading Lesson on CD, but I want something more scripted for those days when she asks for "school time" like her big sister.

 

Sorry if this has been answered before -- I tried searching but a ton of unrelated posts appeared.

[amyco]

It's kind of fun, but I didn't think the magnetic board was worth the money. We did use it for a few lessons, but I think they could have been done with letters on cut-up index cards on the table. I thought the Bob books were a much better investment in the long run. :)

[boscopup]

I'm not sure at what point you need the magnetic tiles, but I'm guessing that they're not absolutely required. I'm doing the lessons with my just-turned-4 year old right now. We did "qu" today, so still working our way through the alphabet lessons at the beginning. We have only needed the index cards and a pen so far. I also did 10 lessons in the consonant blend section with my older DS (very quickly, as he can already read all those words, but it was good to hit on the blends individually since he hadn't officially learned all of them for spelling and such yet), and we were able to do all of those orally with no other supplies, not even index cards/pen.

 

I don't have any letter tiles, but I plan to get AAS for DS1 before next summer. At that point I can use them for OPG also. Until then, we'll just wing it. :) I did buy a 2'x3' magnetic white board from Sam's ($16) so we could use that for some of our lessons. Lessons on a white board are always more fun than sitting at a table with a book. ;) We've used our Leapfrog fridge magnets to play some letter games on the white board (like "vowel hockey" - my kids are hockey nuts... I just made up a game).

 

Btw, I am loving OPG! :D This child had a speech delay, and he was not picking up on his letters/sounds at all. We started OPG about a month ago, doing about 3 lessons per week. He enjoys it (as long as I do the review as a game AFTER the new lesson - I don't do it as written as that's too boring for a 3-4 year old). Today, while going through the consonant rhyme as review at the end, DS was able to name several of the letters and their sounds, including ones we'd barely touched on last week! He really is picking it up! He knows his short vowel sounds really well (which is amazing because at first, he wasn't even hearing the difference between 'e' and 'i', etc.). And one of the best things for us... We worked hard one day on 'M' and 'N' because that is a big issue with his speech - he tends to use 'n' for a lot of 'm' words, but it's certain words that he just learned incorrectly (due to not hearing them properly when he learned them), not an inability to make the sound. So he often says "nouse" for "mouse", "nolk" for "milk" (or if I'm working on it, he'll say "mmmmm-nolk!" :lol:, though today he was trying to self-correct it and I was thrilled and doing a happy dance!). Anyway, we spent probably 15-20 minutes talking about the difference between 'M' and 'N', and giving examples of words that start with each letter. Today, he knew which one was which! And I think it will really help him figure out how to properly say those words, since he'll be able to see which one starts with which letter, plus now he has seen that they are separate letters. I think he had a hard time grasping that concept before, and now it's more clear.

 

So anyway, I'm very happy with OPG so far. I don't necessarily do it exactly per the script. I watch my child and do what he needs. If repeating it 3 times isn't going to fly, I don't bother. I make up my own games to practice, but also use her games. I just make it work for us, and so far, it is! I feel very confident that we'll be starting to read in a few weeks when we get to that lesson! I can tell he's ready... as soon as he finishes learning his letter sounds!

[dsmama]

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I agree that the fun factor is big, and so I do want to get the magnet letters eventually, but I didn't want to wait to start the book if I could survive without them.

 

Boscopup -- great news about your son! That is so encouraging to me. My DD4 had some hearing and speech issues, too, and so I am hoping that the rhymes and things in OPGTR will help. Then, when my youngest, who has Down syndrome, starts to read, I am hoping that we can again use OPGTR with him as well. Best of luck to you!

[Hedgehogs4]

i own the magnetic tiles and i could have saved my money.

[Milknhoney]

I went through the whole book last year and I never bought the board. Occasionally we did stuff on a whiteboard but most of the time we just skipped those activities. He is reading GREAT now, so I guess he didn't miss out on anything.

[Guest]

I would buy a small white board and Leap Frog's Letter Factory DVD. Even my 2yr old is now singing "Every letter makes a sound.." song. My 6yr old son likes to write the practice words and sentences to read one at a time on the white board. He also likes to have me call the words out sound by sound for him to spell on the board as well.

[alpidarkomama]

We bought the magnetic letters and board and never used them. Just pens and index cards! :)

[kesmom]

We don't use anything extra.

[OregonNative]

We use index cards and pens. We LOVE OPGTR! I don't think you need any extras at all.

[SewLittleTime]

I don't think you need the magnetic board and letter tiles. We use index cards occassionally with OPGtR. Mostly, I just use the book.

[StartingOver]

We jsut have the book and use a white board. My son doesn't respond to flash cards. He is reading well, working on fluency now. I too adore OPGTR.

[Superfly]

I bought the tiles and my kids thought they were cool....for about 2 secs! Since the first couple lessons with my 6yr old(we started at the blends), we haven't used them at all. Totally not a must, but if your kid is the sit still and play nice type, then it would be a great extra.