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Does anyone know if these are meant to be read aloud by the child or silently... or does it matter? I was having my son read them aloud but then realized maybe that is why it was taking us so long to get through a reading lesson. So then I started having him read them silently and he started having a hard time answering the question or even telling me what the chapter was about. Do I have him placed wrong maybe? He is in 3rd grade and 8yrs old and is reading the Grade 2 advanced reader schedule. I was told that was the same as the grade 3 regular ones.

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The girls read them to themselves.

Is it normal for them to have a hard time with some of the words? I noticed while reading out loud he would pronounce some of the words wrong. Maybe I should take him down a level. He complains and says the chapters are too long. It takes us about 45min to read a chapter. If he reads it silently he goes faster... but then the comprehension isn't there. He isn't lying about reading it either. I can tell.

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We are using the same readers with our 8yo son. I find that some of the books are easier than others. For the harder one, what I did was have him read 4 pages to me aloud, then I finished the chapter to him aloud. Then, when we got half way thorough the book, when the characters & plot of the book was firmly established, I had him read the rest of the assignments silently to himself in his room. I've decided to just take it book by book and do what seems do-able for each one. I love Sonlight readers though. They are the best readers I have found yet.

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We are using the same readers with our 8yo son. I find that some of the books are easier than others. For the harder one, what I did was have him read 4 pages to me aloud, then I finished the chapter to him aloud. Then, when we got half way thorough the book, when the characters & plot of the book was firmly established, I had him read the rest of the assignments silently to himself in his room. I've decided to just take it book by book and do what seems do-able for each one. I love Sonlight readers though. They are the best readers I have found yet.

I like this idea! Book by book! Have you gotten to The Whipping Boy yet? That one was even hard for me to read :D

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I believe that the 2 Advanced package is now listed as Gr3-5 package. It's not easy. It is likely at a comparable level as Gr 3 Regular or maybe even Gr 3 Advanced.

 

I think it's fine to do them as the child reading aloud, or as the child reading to self. If they are taking too long, then it's either too hard or too many books.

 

Since those readers don't correlate with a particular history thing, I'd simply slow them down, and get as far as you get. I'd set a timer. Have your child read to you a bit each day, and read silently each day. If he can't answer questions when he reads silently, then do it all as him reading aloud, but simply do it for 20-30 min a day, and then be done with it.

 

There is no reason you need to finish the entire package in a year, and you can also skip books that are less interesting to you.

 

Alternatively, get the 2 Regular package. It is a lot easier.

 

(We've used all of the above packages, FWIW.)

 

ETA: FWIW, I checked SL, and found that what used to be the 2-Adv package is now called Gr 4-5 http://www.sonlight.com/readers-4-5.html

Edited by StephanieZ
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I believe that the 2 Advanced package is now listed as Gr3-5 package. It's not easy. It is likely at a comparable level as Gr 3 Regular or maybe even Gr 3 Advanced.

 

I think it's fine to do them as the child reading aloud, or as the child reading to self. If they are taking too long, then it's either too hard or too many books.

 

Since those readers don't correlate with a particular history thing, I'd simply slow them down, and get as far as you get. I'd set a timer. Have your child read to you a bit each day, and read silently each day. If he can't answer questions when he reads silently, then do it all as him reading aloud, but simply do it for 20-30 min a day, and then be done with it.

 

There is no reason you need to finish the entire package in a year, and you can also skip books that are less interesting to you.

 

Alternatively, get the 2 Regular package. It is a lot easier.

 

(We've used all of the above packages, FWIW.)

 

ETA: FWIW, I checked SL, and found that what used to be the 2-Adv package is now called Gr 4-5 http://www.sonlight.com/readers-4-5.html

 

Wow! This was very helpful thanks! I think we are going to either go back to the grade 2 intermediate readers or just take it slower with the ones we are doing now. So, 20-30min of reading time is a good amount for this grade? I like the idea of setting a timer because he does like the books it just takes forever to finish a chapter. I had no idea that these were grade3-5 books. So glad I posted, I was beginning to think he was way behind with reading.

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We did this with Pony Express. I'm not sure what grade that is categorized with now-a-dayz, but that's the one that seemed a bit more difficult for him to just "go off and read."

 

 

Regarding this and that the 3rd grade advanced are grade 3 regular readers, they aren't.

 

We are reading grade 3 readers now (used to be called 2 intermediate). DD is reading The Pony Express right now, and will read The Secret Valley next. Which books are you reading? Just trying to clarify. :001_smile:

 

The set that includes Emily's Runaway Imagination, House on Rocky Ridge, etc. are grade 4 to 5 readers. Now is everything as clear as mud?

Edited by 3peasinapod
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Regarding this and that the 3rd grade advanced are grade 3 regular readers, they aren't.

 

We are reading grade 3 readers now (used to be called 2 intermediate). DD is reading The Pony Express right now, and will read The Secret Valley next. Which books are you reading? Just trying to clarify. :001_smile:

 

The set that includes Emily's Runaway Imagination, House on Rocky Ridge, etc. are grade 4 to 5 readers. Now is everything as clear as mud?

The ones we have been using are the old Grade 3 advanced readers. Emily's Runaway Imagination, and House on Rocky Ridge are in there. We haven't hit those yet... we just finished The Whipping Boy, The Children of Noisy Village, and are reading Ralph S. Mouse right now. I think we will finish this TOGETHER :) and then go back to the grade 2 intermediate since we already own those too.

So are they really the grade 4-5 readers? I need to get a new catalog and take a look I suppose. I hate how they keep changing things around lol I can't keep track of what is what grade.

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The old SL2 Advanced Readers are harder than the SL Core 3 Advanced Readers. My DD who was reading the 2 Advanced is Reading the Core 3 Advanced to go with history right now and they are definately easier, more along the lines of the SL2 Intermediate Readers overall although a few are longer.

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The ones we have been using are the old Grade 3 advanced readers. Emily's Runaway Imagination, and House on Rocky Ridge are in there. We haven't hit those yet... we just finished The Whipping Boy, The Children of Noisy Village, and are reading Ralph S. Mouse right now. I think we will finish this TOGETHER :) and then go back to the grade 2 intermediate since we already own those too.

So are they really the grade 4-5 readers? I need to get a new catalog and take a look I suppose. I hate how they keep changing things around lol I can't keep track of what is what grade.

 

Yes they are listed as grade 4-5 I looked earlier because I was curious.

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There are 3 levels of readers for grade 2. Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4-5 (longer chapter books, and the ones it sounds like you have). They all though are considered part of something that can be done in grade 2 or grade 3. The LA for each is also considered something that might be done with a grade 2 or grade 3 student. At least that is my understanding!

 

In public schools a 2nd or 3rd grader might read at a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th/5th grade level. I think these readers are falling along those lines of thinking.

 

My oldest, age 8/2nd grade, is doing the grade 4-5 and LA 4-5. He does read them silently and is able to answer the questions. He did the grade 2 readers though in 1st grade and the grade 3 readers at the end of 1st grade. So he has worked up to this reading level through SL books. I think if he couldn't answer the questions and hadn't done grade 3 readers I would have him do the grade 3 readers & see if he could answer those questions. I have understood that at this level they should still be reading aloud some, and I do have him do some but not with his SL readers; I see them as being for silent reading and developing silent reading comprehension.

 

I didn't read all of your answers! I hope this was helpful.

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This. And I found it to be very spot on. :D

Well, it did say he was reading on level G and apparently those are the books we have been reading... I still think he will benefit from going back though. Not because of the difficulty of the words but because of the length of the chapters. He just doesn't have that stamina built up yet.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

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Is it normal for them to have a hard time with some of the words? I noticed while reading out loud he would pronounce some of the words wrong. Maybe I should take him down a level. He complains and says the chapters are too long. It takes us about 45min to read a chapter. If he reads it silently he goes faster... but then the comprehension isn't there. He isn't lying about reading it either. I can tell.

 

 

I would go back to the old 2 Int. - are they Grade 3 now? This level is the old 2 Adv. and current 4-5. Or, as others said, you can go more slowly through the books. Then you could have him practice reading aloud to you. Sylvia is a super-fast silent reader, and sometimes we have to slow her down by having her read out loud.

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My oldest read all of the Sonlight lower level readers. Up through level 2, he read them out loud. For level 2int (now 3) we alternated reading pages out loud. For level 2adv (now 4-5), he read them silently.

 

I do have to say that the 2adv readers seemed particularly "girly." He wasn't really interested in a couple of the books and wasn't really paying attention. I decided we'd just skip the ones he really didn't like. And we read The Whipping Boy out loud together, and it was really difficult to read. I don't think my other children will read that one. We ended up switching over to the literature lists from Veritas Press.

 

Good luck!

 

Julie

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My oldest read all of the Sonlight lower level readers. Up through level 2, he read them out loud. For level 2int (now 3) we alternated reading pages out loud. For level 2adv (now 4-5), he read them silently.

 

I do have to say that the 2adv readers seemed particularly "girly." He wasn't really interested in a couple of the books and wasn't really paying attention. I decided we'd just skip the ones he really didn't like. And we read The Whipping Boy out loud together, and it was really difficult to read. I don't think my other children will read that one. We ended up switching over to the literature lists from Veritas Press.

 

Good luck!

 

Julie

Good to know someone else had a hard time with this one too. I was even struggling at some points in the book.

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