More on Phonics Road

[Tsutsie]

Just to make sure...

 

I don't have to add ANYTHING for a child in Grade 1 and 2?

 

Not even some sort of writing program like WWE?

And after that?

 

Can it really be as good as it seems? I'm hesitant to order it - it just seems to good to be true!!

 

What's the programs flaws?

 

THank you again.

[mothergooseof4]

You will not NEED to add anything for all four levels. You will of course have them do more history/science/pleasure reading as their skills increase.

 

As for flaws: many people do not like having to watch the dvds. I was one of them. I was a former SWR user and saw PR at a convention and ordered it. When it arrived about 4 years ago, I watched the first video and decided that I already knew how to dictate words and didn't have the time to watch all of these dvds. I went with AAS. I still love AAS and still look at it longingly TBH. But, AAS seemed to take too long to do three different levels with three different kids. For some reason those levels took us forever. And, I still had to add in other LA. In the fall, I went looking for a new LA for all of the kids....including my 5th grader that still guesses at long words despite years of O-G phonics/spelling. I switched them all to PR and am very happy. Now, I do not mind watching the dvds and find that I can forward through a lot....you will be able to as well once you become familiar with the program. I just sit down on a Sunday afternoon here and there and watch several weeks at once. I take notes and will not need to watch again for the next dc.

 

The only other flaw that I can think of is that my oldest seems to need more work in the way of syllable division rules in order to sound out those longer words. PR does not have a lot of this. I incorporate the rules I learned in AAS, but (if you need them) there are rules listed on ElizabethB's website.

 

Other than that, I can't think of any flaws.

[NCJessieRN]

:lurk5:

[Tsutsie]

Could you please tell me how teacher intensive Phonics Road is?

[mothergooseof4]

Could you please tell me how teacher intensive Phonics Road is?

 

 

PR is teacher driven. You will need to watch the dvds.....all of them at first. Once you have the program down, you will be able to forward through much of it. I can spend an hour or two on Sunday afternoon watching dvds and not need to do that again for a couple of months. Plus, I take great notes, so with the next dc, it will be open and go...no need to rewatch the dvds unless I need clarification on something.

 

You will need to teach PR. It is not something you hand your child. But, I am finding that I spend less time teaching PR than I spent guiding my ds through other things that were supposed to be more independent. For example:

 

I switched to CLE LA in 4th grade (had been using SWR then AAS and Growing with Grammar, no writing at that time). With CLE, my ds would read the lesson and do the workbook pages. It took him about 45 minutes. Then, I usually graded it and we worked through things he had missed. I often had to reteach the lesson...he just didn't get it through reading it to himself. He is an auditory learner and just needs me to actually teach it. We had the same experience with CLE math....great program, but ds needs more....I switched him to TT and all is good. Back to LA. I was spending at least 30 minutes per day grading and working back through CLE with ds, mainly because it was just not sticking for him. I decided it was time for a change.

 

I was using HOD and just decided to go with LA as scheduled in his level. They used Rod & Staff English (took 15 minutes or so to do together each day), Write With the Best (varied in time length from 10-20 minutes), and Drawn Into the Heart of Reading (15-20 minutes per day). We didn't care for most of these programs, plus I was still adding in AAS because ds still needed a formal spelling program...so add in another 20 minutes.

 

We needed another change and I researched a lot. I got PR 1 in October and accelerated ds through it in two months. We never spent near as long as we did with LA before. He is now accelerating PR 2. We do two PR weeks of the spelling, grammar, and Lit. study per calendar week. I still don't spend as much time with him as I was for any of our other LA combos. At the most, we spend 30 minutes per day and that is accelerating spelling, grammar, and lit.

 

As for my youngers, I am combining them in PR1. My 2nd grader used CLE Learning to Read and LA 100 last year. I complete a week of the PR 1 schedule with them in four calendar days per week. I am done in less time that it took to do JUST LA 100 with one dc last year.

 

So, for three kids in two levels, I average an hour of my time per day. On a really heavy day, maybe up to an hour and a half.....but rarely has that happened.