Phonics Pathways users...

[Jen+4dc]

What do you do when you finish? Dd6 just finished it. She had no problems along the way and can read level 3/4 books quite easily. We are going to take a couple more days to finish up Reading Pathways but after that I have no idea where to go with her. I don't feel like she's done with reading instruction, if you know what I mean. She could probably read an American Girl book, she reads snippets of her big brother's books (lexile levels between 500-700) for fun, and she really wants to read the Harry Potter books but just isn't ready for that yet.

 

Obviously, she will continue to read aloud to me (my 4th grader still does this!) to practice fluency. But, it all just came so much easier to her than it did to big bro. I mean, she's not even 1/2 way through 1st grade and we're done with phonics?:001_huh: That just feels so weird to me. Is it really this easy?? It sure wasn't with ds9.

 

Dd6 wanted to start spelling all last year but I told her she had to wait until she finished phonics. Part of that was because I was too busy to add it in schooling four. The other part is that big bro has really, really struggled with spelling (and I thought reading was bad!:tongue_smilie:) and I know she's going to fly along at a much faster pace than he is. He's done great since I got AAS and that's what she wants to use so I wanted to let him get a little further along in it. So, we'll start AAS when we finish Reading Pathways, but can that really be enough phonics instruction?

 

So, where do I go from here? Any suggestions? Thanks!!:D

[twoxcell]

Spelling and reading aloud daily. That is what I do anyways.;)

[AHASRADA]

I was going to suggest AAS as a follow-up, so you're on the right track. The same thing happened to me with ds way back when. I called up the creators of the phonics program I was using at the time, and they said, that's it, he's done.

 

I discovered later on that he could have used more in-depth phonics, the kind taught in AAS, as well as syllabication work, prefixes and suffixes.

 

She probably is "done" with basic phonics, but the next step would be to prepare her for sounding out multisyllable words she is not familiar with. Of course, you have plenty of time for that, so getting her going in AAS would be a good place to start.

[Chris in VA]

We never quite finished PP, because dd made such a leap in first grade reading, but we did go on to spelling. In second grade, we used Adventures in Phonics C to pick up some more phonics and strengthen syllabication/prefix/suffix and so on. The lines are quite small in the workbook, but that was ok for us.

 

As far as instruction, I just found that spelling and AiP covered all I needed. I let her read!

 

She really may be ready for HP--or you could try Little House books or a simple series like Betsy-Tacy or some Roald Dahl. I found the more my dd read, the more she could read.

[ElizabethB]

Webster's Speller and/or the syllable division rules and exercises linked at the bottom of my how to tutor page:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html

[NancyNellen]

I am currently on my 5th trip through PP. One of the reasons I love it so much is the thoroughness and completeness. It has plenty of work with prefixes, suffixes and reading multi-syllable words, in my opinion. We usually jump into ETC 4-6 for review and then call phonics done. Switch to spelling if you desire and have her real aloud. Fluency and speed will come.

[Jen+4dc]

Thanks everyone! Elizabeth, as always, thank you for such great free stuff!

 

We are already working on ETC (we did Get Ready, Get Set and Go for the Code, then books 1-3, skipped book 4 because it totally confused my ds when he was going through it) and we're now in book 5. I think I'll try Elizabeth's syllable division rules before we go back to book 4. We'll also start AAS and just keep reading.

 

Thanks! It's good to hear others had similar experiences with PP.:D