1st Grade Language Arts after 100 EZ Lessons?

[rochellek]

My daughter is in Kindergarten right now, and we are at lesson 51 of 100 Easy Lessons for Teaching Your Child to Read. She is getting a little bored of that format, so to add some variety we started doing Explode the Code Book 1. We also did the first half of HeadSprout online. She is still an emerging reader, but I can see that things are really starting to gel for her.

 

I am starting to look ahead to next year. I plan on continuing 100 EZ Lessons and Explode the Code through the summer (in a relaxed way). I'd love to hear what others have done post 100 EZ Lessons for first grade to make a well rounded Language Arts program. I plan on checking out Growing With Grammer, First Language Lessons, and Spelling Workout. I'm not sure where these programs are complimentary versus being redundant.

 

So... if you used 100 EZ Lessons -- what did you do next? Also, please note that we are secular homeschoolers.

 

Thanks!

[texasmama]

I used 100 EZ lessons this year with my 5 year old and started FLL1 at a very relaxed pace a few weeks ago at her request. (She has older brothers who are doing it and wanted to be like them.:D) My plan is to continue with FLL with her next year (her official K year) and start WWE1 during her first grade year...or perhaps sometime during her K year depending on her readiness.

[rochellek]

Thanks Texasmama!

 

Anyone else?

[boscopup]

You probably haven't gotten as many answers because you only asked people who used 100EZ... I think your question really applies to 1st grade in general, not just people who used 100EZ, as which phonics program was used isn't as important as "Did you use a phonics program", kwim? :)

 

My first grade LA lineup is:

 

Grammar: FLL

Writing: WWE

Spelling/Phonics: AAS (we didn't do a phonics program, so this doubles as one for us)

Reading: Just read good books at or just a teeny bit above his reading level - out loud and to himself

Free reading: Read good books that are below his reading level, so they're easy and fun.

 

I also do narrations in history and science each week. All narrations are oral.

 

All of those programs work really well together. FLL and WWE do both have copywork, and if it were the beginning of the first grade year, I would have probably cut out the FLL copywork, but now that we're nearing the end, I've gone ahead and done it, as my son is able to handle it. The more copywork done, the stronger his hand gets, and the more automatic writing becomes. ;) We skipped a lot of the copywork in FLL1 because the exact same copywork was in WWE, but in FLL2, they haven't overlapped (I have yet to see if WWE2 will overlap with it, and if it does, I can pick something else for those copywork days...we won't start WWE2 until fall).

 

I like FLL because it has not only grammar, but also poetry memorization, picture study, story narration... It's full of good stuff. FLL1 was a bit easy, and I think I will probably use it for K with the next child. FLL2 has been a big hit though. I don't always follow the script exactly. If my son doesn't need to repeat it 3 times, I won't make him do so. ;) It's easy enough to skim the lesson and teach from it without using the script if you need to. The lessons are short. What I like about the grammar is that he is internalizing what a noun is, what a verb is, etc. Since we're doing it orally, I can tell that he really knows his stuff. He's not just filling in blanks in a workbook without learning the material. Of course, this also means that you have to do the teaching and sit right there the whole time (the whole 5 minutes? :D).

 

I love WWE and SWB's whole philosophy on writing. I have boys. Boys tend to be a little slower in the fine motor skills department. I love that I can still work on "writing" without overdoing the physical act of writing and causing them pain. I recommend listening to SWB's lectures on teaching writing though, because otherwise WWE looks dry and boring and you sit there going "Why am I doing this?" I'm seeing exactly "why" I'm doing it, after just using it for 16 weeks so far. My son is coming up with better descriptions of things, without having to worry about "Can I write what I'm thinking about?" The copywork helps the handwriting and gets them good at putting words to paper, plus it shows them what proper sentences look like. We'll add in dictation next year in WWE2.

 

I love AAS for spelling because my son wanted to know "why" words were spelled like they are, and I couldn't answer him (beyond some very basics). This program holds my hand in teaching the rules and strategies of spelling. Not every child needs this program, and it is pricey, though I have 3 kids to use it with, so by time I'm done, I'll probably have spent as much as I would have if I'd used workbooks for all 3. SWO might be a good fit for your child. I tried a couple different programs before switching to AAS. You just have to figure out what works for your kid. If my son had had a good phonics background, he probably wouldn't have needed AAS as much (he taught himself to read, so skipped a lot of the phonics instruction, except what starfall.com teaches).

 

Hope that helps! You can also do google searches to compare programs. For example, if you want to compare FLL with GWG, just type into google "FLL vs GWG site:welltrainedmind.com" and you'll get tons of threads comparing the two. That's how I narrowed down my choices when I was researching.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I used 100 EZ and am now going through ETC with my son- he loves ETC, and it covers the holes in 100EZ.

 

We are also doing the Webster's Speller now- you can find more about it on Elizabeth's phonics page- www.thephonicspage.org.

 

We also read from the I Can Read readers, level 2. They are advanced enough that he cannot read them fluently, and so there's lots of places to stop and talk about rules we haven't covered yet in ETC.

[charlestonmom03]

I have used 100EZ Lessons with my oldest two, and with both they went on to do a few of the Explode the Code books. However, they finished 100EZ sometime early on in K, so we were doing ETC in K and I thought it was age-appropriate and fun, but not entirely necessary. It was just that I didn't feel their fine motor skills were ready for much of the first grade work and ETC sort of helped us to fill a void while working on those skills. In first grade we do FLL and WWE 1 and I LOVE both! In addition we use All About Spelling and I think it builds perfectly onto the reading skills they have learned in 100EZ. I tried Spelling Workout with my oldest and we both felt it was busy work - both boys now ask me if we can do spelling next! I use it to bribe them to do the rest of their work with a good attitude.;)

[jlcejb6]

I used 100 EZ and am now going through ETC with my son- he loves ETC, and it covers the holes in 100EZ.

 

 

This is what we did too. My ds was 6 when we finished EZ lessons and I asked this same question last fall. :) We haven't done all the ETC books, just the ones that I knew he was having trouble with. EZ lessons got him reading but there were things it did not cover and he was struggling. We started with Pathway readers and some easy readers from the library. We also used WWE and FLL, and that was it. It was more than enough for us.

[johnandtinagilbert]

We .went into the Phonics Road after 100EZL and it has been wonderful. THere is alot about PR in my blog. PR will continue with a more thorough phonics instruction, help you teach the rules (much like ETC methods), and head you straight into spelling and sentence writing. It will touch on grammar near the end of level 1, then you will really take off into the whole of language arts in level 2. You won't need any other language arts materials, as PR is all-in-one for all areas of language arts.

[Mrs Twain]

I did 100 EZ Lessons with all three of my kids. They are all fantastic readers, so I can attest to the fact that it really works! I completed the entire book with all three kids. At the end of the book are instructions on what to do next, including a book list and which new words to teach for them.

 

In my experience with 100 EZ Lessons, it is important to continue to use the same strategies of helping the children to sound out words. I think 100 EZ's method of blending the sounds together for sounding out is far better and more effective than other programs which tell the student to sound out each sound individually. Just remember that when you are reading books with your children, to have them sound out the words they don't know in the same way that they learned in 100 EZ so they won't forget that skill, and explain new sounds as you encounter them to help them continue to learn more phonics. Doing a phonics program to review can also be helpful to see what they know and don't know after completing 100 EZ.

 

Also, don't forget to keep asking your children comprehension questions as you have them read aloud to you. I made the mistake with my first child of neglecting to do this, and then I realized that his reading comprehension was weak. We have since been working on comprehension skills with great improvement. It is good keep working on comprehension when they read to you and when you read aloud to them.

 

As for a specific list of reading books I used after 100 EZ, this is the order of what I did with great success:

All of the Dr. Seuss books I could find(Red Fish Blue Fish, Go Dog Go, Green Eggs and Ham, etc. etc. etc.)

Frog and Toad books

Mr. Putter books

Little Bear books

Henry and Mudge books

Nate the Great books

 

After Nate the Great, the student is somewhere in the second grade reading level. My kids really took off with the Magic Treehouse series and the Boxcar Children series.

 

Also, continue to read aloud to your children above their reading level to help improve vocabulary and listening comprehension. Our favorite book list so far for titles we read to our kids is Honey For a Child's Heart.

 

That is what we do for reading. Regarding other subjects of language arts for 1st grade:

Spelling: Spelling Power (adjusted method for young students)

Writing: WWE1 plus other exercises from "Any Child Can Write," "How to Write a Story" and "How to Report on Books" from Evan-Moor

Grammar: CLE (which is new for us) before we do R&S in second grade

Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting (will also be new for us)