mommytime Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 Hi! I've been searching for quite awhile to find out info about the phonics in MFW, and I can't seem to find what I'm looking for. Could someone who has used the program tell me about MFW's phonics vs. the phonics in PR or SWR? I'm wondering if MFW teaches all the sounds for the phonograms and how they go about doing it. I'm ready to start on the long vowels and vowel teams and more advanced phonics with my son, and I'm torn about which direction to go. I've heard that MFW goes rather quickly, so I'd like to hear more about the pacing and thoroughness of their program versus phonics road. I'd appreciate any help or links! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amazzie Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 MFW's blue phonics workbook has the bulk of the phonics teaching. It mostly has pages with a few review words plus one or two new phonograms and words to read containing the new phonograms plus some review words. It goes really fast and there is no way to keep going with a phonogram if your child doesn't get it. I ended up selling my MFW 1st because my son could do each day's lesson just fine but he didn't retain the phonograms with such a short time of concentrated practice. Also, when I spoke with MFW they told me that they mean for the phonics to be a quick intro which will be solidified as the kids practice reading. They have a phonics chart the kids are supposed to refer to as they work on decoding whatever book they are reading. My son felt really stupid and didn't really get the whole chart thing. It was not a good match for us! But I could see it working well with certain kids who find reading easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommytime Posted July 2, 2011 Author Share Posted July 2, 2011 Thank you amazzie for your input! That was very helpful. Does anyone else have any experiences they could share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 I have remediated several students from MFW. I was quite surprised at first looking at the program, the actual phonics seemed very strong. However, it is tied to the MFW schedule and also, there is supposedly (one of the moms whose daughter I worked with relayed to me) a series of discussion questions and talk before reading the stories that leads the student to guess many of the words from the stories. I like the higher levels of MFW and like the actual phonics I saw--if you really want to do MFW, I would just do the phonics at your own pace and don't talk about the stories until after reading them. My son moves through phonics about 10X slower than my daughter did, but he moves through math 10X quicker! With foundational subjects such as math and phonics, it is key to move at pace that you need to and make sure that the information is truly learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnandtinagilbert Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 MFW's blue phonics workbook has the bulk of the phonics teaching. It mostly has pages with a few review words plus one or two new phonograms and words to read containing the new phonograms plus some review words. It goes really fast and there is no way to keep going with a phonogram if your child doesn't get it. I ended up selling my MFW 1st because my son could do each day's lesson just fine but he didn't retain the phonograms with such a short time of concentrated practice. Also, when I spoke with MFW they told me that they mean for the phonics to be a quick intro which will be solidified as the kids practice reading. They have a phonics chart the kids are supposed to refer to as they work on decoding whatever book they are reading. My son felt really stupid and didn't really get the whole chart thing. It was not a good match for us! But I could see it working well with certain kids who find reading easy. If the bolded is true, then the entire approach is quite different. In PR, your child will not read anything until after they have learned the phonograms. After learning the phonograms, they learn to spell words. After the spelling, they'll start to read the words. It's truly a spell to READ and write philosophy. It's great stuff! It's highly effective and allows you to easily move at your own pace w/o relying on readers do the work or (worse) relying on guessing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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