Phonics Road- How many of you are using it and enjoying it?

[campmom]

And/or fill that it is working good? I've noticed that it seems that alot of people who were using it have quit. So I'm just wondering.

[rosesinsummer]

:bigear: I'd like to know this too. I have a 4 and 6 year old and I'm still trying to find a phonics/LA program to stick with for the long haul. I don't want to switch every year!

[momacacia]

We've used PR Level 1 (almost finished). My dd is 6.5. We did the "souns" program before we started a real phonics program, so it was easy to go into PR with the letters making sounds and not their names. She loves the songs for the rules.

 

I find we can do what we need to do in a fairly short amount of time during the day, although I know that increases as we go up levels. I love that it feeds into Latin and really feel that she will "own" the English language when she is finished. She enjoys knowing things like the origins of the "ch" (ch/k/sh) and having a /k/ "ch" sound in her name makes it a Greek word. ;)

 

I'll be interested to hear why others have left. ???

[HayleyKC]

We've gone through Year 1 and 2 with my dd. Starting Year 3 with her this fall and will be doing my first grade ds Year 1. We love it. I kind of wonder if people use it early on, then feel their kids have a great handle on things (just thinking of phonics/reading/handwriting) and then don't feel that they need it anymore. Although the way the program works, it's so complete that there is simply more then phonics so each year offers more depth and moves further into grammar and literature analysis. I wonder if maybe that's why ppl quit after a couple years. Not sure though. I also wonder if because the first 2 years are so teacher intensive, they get tired of that. However I've heard as you move forward it gets more independent which I am looking forward to with Year 3. I'm excited to go through the 4 years and move right into Latin Road. I have confidence my kiddos will not be lacking a thing with their LA. I personally am convinced it's the best method and that this is as fun as it's going to get. :-) I also love that I know they're covered with: reading, spelling, phonics, grammar, dictation, vocabulary, handwriting, literature and lit analysis and then smoothly glide into Latin.

 

That's where we're coming from! Hope it's helpful.

[MiztrezzLyn]

I use it and love it and swear by it. My son is young and a bit on the advanced side, but we're a couple weeks into PR2 (after having done all of PR1 last year).

 

Phonics Road is something I would not give up. It is expensive, and you have to watch the DVD's to learn how to teach it, I think its worth it though. The DVD's are one of the major reasons I wouldn't give it up. I enjoy watching the DVD's and they teach me to teach him.

 

Also, I'd like to add that it is something that just clicks marvelously with my son. He REALLY enjoys it, I saw real changes in his spelling after we started using it. I hear him repeating the rule tunes once in a while when he is writing something outside of our PR time.

 

I did not use it to teach him to read, as he was already reading quite well when we started. I don't think I will be using it to teach my youngest when it is her time to learn to read either. I just really like OPGTR too much. After she has gone through that is when I will start PR 1 with her.

 

I don't personally think it takes too long to watch the videos. In fact, I moved from watching them every Sunday to watching them every few weeks instead. I take notes when I watch them anyway so I've sort of built up my own Teacher's Guide to the program as we go along, so I have them ready for when my youngest starts. Although, I will probably STILL watch them when I teach her, just to refresh myself and I just don't mind watching them. They're not that long.

 

I plan to continue to use PR and then move into LR when the time comes.

[Hedgehogs4]

I am using year 1 with my DD6, but going slowly, as we are also still working on reading skills. She is a reader, though not completely fluent yet, so I have picked up OPGTR again (I needed her to forget that she hated it...).

 

She LOVES phonics road and it really seems to stick with her.

[myfatherslily]

We've completed level 1 and I thought it was great for us. Looking forward to starting level 2 next month. It's late and I'm about to go to bed, so that's all the review I can muster right now:)

[abrightmom]

We left and just recently returned to using Levels 1 and 2. At this point I am non committal beyond those two levels because I want to teach writing with a methodology I understand. I just do not understand the S&S for writing in PR and it frustrates me. We adore the spelling and I think the Little House lit. study looks like fun. :001_smile:

 

I *think* that the reasons for quitting are many and here are a few:

 

1. Burnout with DVDs (I really enjoy these.)

2. The all-in-one approach stops working because the child's skills are at different places in each subject.

3. A Mom wants to begin to custom fit curriculum to their student's emerging skills making the AIO approach too confining (this is my struggle).

4. Overkill on spelling/spelling "heavy"

5. Too much writing and/or review (this is another struggle for me)

6. Grass is greener syndrome :001_smile:

 

I think PR is a fine program and I am taking it one step at a time. I am only using portions of it and I'm doing so without guilt! My boys THRIVE with Mrs. Beers' approach to teaching spelling, their reading improves, and they understand how to apply the rules. The Rule Tunes are wonderful. I am tentatively excited about using the Little House study and learning more about her approach to grammar.

[Hedgehogs4]

I think PR is a fine program and I am taking it one step at a time.

 

I think one step at a time is important. I can see where the videos could cause me some burnout, but they are important. I have not done any PR with my son, but it is just this teacher-training aspect that I'm excited for. I am just starting the Bridge with him this year to get him ready for Latin, and at least at this point I plan to use the LR. I have not a clue how to begin with Latin, so I feel way less intimidated using LR.

 

With PR, I love, love the fact that my dd is going to have a strong phonics / spelling foundation. I fell short on this for my son, and now I have to make it up for him and we are doing AAS. I don't want to have to backtrack with her. When it comes to writing, however, I truly love SWB's system of WWE, so I will have to decide next year which direction to go with all the LA.

[mom&nana]

I love it. The reason I decided to quit was because I discovered it was the wrong program for my child. She is older and we were accelerating through it. She has refused to learn much from it because she has branded it as "babyish". It is below her and I should have known that. So we are moving on.

 

However, I am going to use it with my younger children. I will start level 1 with my 6 year old this fall.

It is a solid program.

[Missouri Okie]

I'm using it with my 6 yo. We are going slow to give his writing skills a chance to develop. It will take us close to 2 years to complete level 1. He is spelling well and seems to have good retention. I plan to stick with it as I'm excited that it eventually goes into Latin. My son is starting 1st this year, so I'm supplementing with WWE and FLL since level 1 is primarily spelling.

[Heidi]

Love it here! I bought it when my oldest was in K. Decided I didn't want the all in one, sold it and tried other things. Now I'm back to PR convinced that there isn't anything better.

[sbgrace]

I'm using PR1 and plan to continue. My boys don't grumble and in fact like it most of the time and they are learning. I'm going to trust the process will give us a solid foundation.

 

I'm trying to articulate my own edginess though it might not apply to anyone else. I think sometimes it's tempting to want to conform to standards or typical courses of study in various areas. I guess I find it reassuring at some level. PR, at least at the age and pace I'm using, has a different sequence and presentation. It's hard for me to wait and avoid adding something for example. This is why I say I'm trusting the process.

Edited July 19, 2011 by sbgrace

[melmichigan]

My DD11 is accelerating through PR3, we are just getting to the good part with the word study now, and are hoping to get through PR4 so she can begin LR1 by next fall. DD8's are going to begin PR2, I'm not sure about pacing yet, they accelerated through PR1. My DS6 will move to PR1 this year after he finishes most of IEW PAL Reading, they seem to compliment each other very well and he needs the extra worksheets and games at this stage.

[Veritaserum]

My oldest is in level 3 and I have no plans to quit. :)

[mothergooseof4]

I accelerated my almost 6th grader through levels 1 and 2 since October. This is after using other OG methods since 1st grade. I will admit that this kid is a visual learner and taught himself to sight read at 4ish. After all of these years of OG methods, he still spells/reads by sight. But, this is just him. However, when he has problems with a word he has the skills to sound it out for reading or spelling and can apply them if I make him. His spelling and reading have improved since starting PR. The area that I see HUGE improvement is grammar. It has finally began to stick. His writing skills also improved with PR2.

 

After finishing PR2, I will admit that I have considered moving him to other materials for next year instead of moving on to PR3. It is not because PR3 won't do the job and do it well. I would just really love for this kid to move to more independent materials for LA. Plus, I am concerned about his writing and would love to implement IEW with him. He has worked through unit 1 of it this summer and I like what I see. The problem with this is that I cannot find anything that I like as well for grammar or spelling/word study. I really like what I see in PR3 and I want to teach those two things this way. So, I asked ds his opinion and he was shocked that I would want to switch to workbooks. He nixed the idea real quick. So, we are moving on to PR3 in the fall.

 

I do feel that at his age, the writing needs to be beefed up since we will being doing PR3 at normal pace. You can do this by writing across the curriculum, but I am not so great at getting that done. So, I will probably try to work in some IEW on days when PR3 is light on writing.

 

My younger two started PR1 in October after working through all or part of CLE LTR....slightly adapted by me by teaching OG phonograms upfront. PR is great for them and we work at only a slightly accelerated pace. I am combining them for ease and streamlining. Although they each could benefit from moving through the program individually, I also feel there are benefits of doing it together. I will happily continue with PR all the way through level 4 with them and plan to finish at the end of dd's 5th/ds's 6th grade year. So, we are not stressing that we will probably not start level 2 until late fall.

 

These two did not self teach any phonics/reading and are learning wonderfully this way. Dd could probably have learned to read with just PR by starting in K with the phonograms and an extremely slow pace. Younger ds needs a little more and has benefited from OPGTR and will now be working through Reading Pathways. He knows the rules and phonograms and can read, he just needs more work to get there and get fluent. So, some kids will probably do great with just PR to teach reading and others may need a little more.

 

I expect grammar to go well when we start level 2. I also feel the writing will be perfect for these two since they are more on the skill level for which these programs were written. I do not plan to add any writing for them other than narrations for history and science.

 

Overall, I love PR. I don't mind the dvds and watch many weeks in one sitting. I do forward through a lot of the spelling lists though. And, when I get to where I want to move my oldest over to more independent programs, I remember that they were not always so independent for him. He doesn't pick up skills very well by reading it himself. He needs it to see it and hear it in order to learn LA and math. So, I was either explaining lessons over and over or making corrections to independent work and we spent way more time in the long run. PR streamlined things for us.

[melmichigan]

So, I will probably try to work in some IEW on days when PR3 is light on writing.

 

 

 

I do this with my DD11, who is just beginning the second half of PR3 at an accelerated pace. She finished up IEW SWI-B and will do some of the IEW US History Based Writing Lessons this fall. It has worked very well to date.

[gardenmom5]

I have it in hand, and have been able to go over the materials. I think it is fabulous. My oldest is also a classics major, so very strong feelings about classics. We haven't started yet, but I'm every excited about it.

 

My only concern - and I'd run into this whatever program I used - is my son may have auditory processing disorder making it harder to distinguish sounds. he's also on a waitlist for testing.

[BriannaG]

I've just started using PR1 with my dd who is in K. She's on the young side but seems to fall on the advanced eager beaver side. I did use Webster's with her this past year and she's reading words. I've just started getting regular with having her practice in Reading Pathways as she is now handling blending better. She loves it and the rules tunes are a hit!

 

We school year around so I'll have a chance to supplement with other materials if I wish in the future. But, I do plan to use all four levels of Phonics Road at this time. I've got two behind her that I plan to go through the program as well.

 

I think it is easier for at least my dd because she is starting in K and not having to backtrack as compared to an older student so that contributes to some people leaving PR. Plus, her skills are all fairly even so I don't have to adjust the program for that issue.

 

So far, watching the dvds has not been a problem for me. I appreciate all the teacher training help in this area. I was taught with whole language stuff with out a lick of phonics - well they tried to get me to do it in 4th grade but I was already reading my mom's college literature books, so telling me that phonics would me be become a better reader didn't work with me. I've been learning and figuring out phonics as I teach her.

[HayleyKC]

I would just really love for this kid to move to more independent materials for LA.

 

 

We did year 1 and 2 this year as well because we started my dd on this as a 3rd grader. I am encouraged that I've heard Year 3 becomes much more independent. Good things come to those who wait! :-) So it will be worth it that you stuck with it and are continuing past year 2. We will be moving through it at normal pace as well which I'm sure will also give us a little break.

 

Best of luck! :-)

[campmom]

Thanks everyone !

Anymore Phonics Road users out there?