What to start DS5 on for reading/Phonics?

[threelilbirds]

Hi there, I am really struggling with teaching my DS to read. We belong to a charter, and homeschool, and at the beginning of the year, our ES gave us Sing Spell Read and Write. It was such a struggle to get DS to do the work, at first he loved it, but very quickly, he started to get upset every time I brought the box out..

He does know his letters and letter sounds, and is starting to get the hang of sounding out short words..thats how far we have gotten. I thought about getting Ordinary Parents Guide, or Hooked on Phonics..but would like to hear suggestions. He is a very reluctant learner. I am always met with moans and groans with school, lol. :glare:

[Mabeline]

My reluctant reader has really started to love Phonics Pathways. It is easy to do and we can do as much or as little as he wants to on each day. He is really starting to improve and he actually likes to learn how to read now. We had been using a different program and he hated it.

[OregonNative]

I am using OPG with my 1st grader and he loves the poems learned for consonants and vowels. I have heard great things about PP as well. I would say for a 5 yo, introduce it, but if it's a struggle-skip it! Kids learn when they are ready and the average age for boys to click with reading is 7.

[Aludlam]

He might not be ready yet. There, now that I've gotten that said. I think the best "thing" to use, is a system/curriculum that you are comfortable with. You need to not only enjoy the teaching, but you need to feel confident with it. Believe I know, it took me forever to "figure out" how to teach reading (to a little that was clearly not ready, but I didn't know it at the time :glare:).

 

Ok, that all said. We have used, with success, HOP. It's not for everyone. This is my second time around with it. The thing that I like best are the clean, uncrowded pages. This is the reason I didn't go with OPG or 100 lessons. I did not enjoy the way the pages looked, so I knew I would never enjoy using them. That said, there are lots of people on here that really, really like them. Also, this time, I'm not using the CD at all with HOP.

 

I am a HUGE fan of ETC. ETC is fabulous! An invaluable tool at our house.

 

We also use Starfall.com and a set of readers from them, Bob books (were on sale this week on Amaon), and Nora Gaydos readers. I try to line them up to go along with HOP and ETC.

 

My kids are starting to run crazy, so I've got to run. Teaching my child to read was one of the hardest things I've ever done. There were lots of tears. But, we made it --- she can read!! If you need support (:grouphug:) you can look my way.

[SkateLeft]

Many years ago, I bought SSRW on the advice of a dear friend who LOVED it, and had tremendous success with it. Unfortunately, my kids hated it. They needed something without all the bells and whistles, which they found overwhelming and visually distracting.

 

I love, love, love McRuffy Phonics. So simple to use, and the lessons are short. It reminds me of how my mom taught me to read. My older ds used McRuffy 2 and is midway through 3. (Prior to that, he used Hooked on Phonics, which was great but didn't give him enough phonics background for spelling.) I have McRuffy K for my little guy, and will probably start in January, after he turns 5.

 

Phonics Pathways might work well, since your ds already knows his letters and sounds. Also, McRuffy publishes a $20 book called "Dynamic Phonics" which includes 98 lessons and is an abbreviated version of the entire K-2 phonics curriculum.