Tabrett Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Would it be good for an 8 yo second grader who is reading R&S 2 readers, but struggles with any kind of fluency? She has problems with remembering vowel combinations and noticing silent e's; especially when the silent e is inside a word (like sideways). She also confused words like 'the' and 'they' and 'when' and 'then'. The rules for soft 'c' and 'g' don't help at all. She has more little quirks, but those were an examples of her problems. We are using Apples & Pears for spelling and it is going really well, so I was wondering is there was the same 'magic' in Dancing Bears?:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynful Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I'm using it for my ds14. We are also using Barton. (Yes, probably overkill, but I'm trying everything at this point.) It's going really well and has helped him alot. One of the things it encourages you to use is an index card with a cut out so you go sound by sound the same as their flashcards. So, for example, car would be c ar and you show him only the c and then the ar and he blends it together. It really forces them to slow down and focus on the sounds, not rules. This alone has been a huge help. If I can answer any other questions, just let me know. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misty Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I'm using it with my 8yr old who is still struggling with reading fluency. She has reversal issues and is currently going through vision therapy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabrett Posted November 11, 2011 Author Share Posted November 11, 2011 I'm using it with my 8yr old who is still struggling with reading fluency. She has reversal issues and is currently going through vision therapy. Is it helping with fluency? My dd still as lots of reversals too. Mostly b and d. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzziesnowflake Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 We are using it but just starting out, we are using apples and pears too. I am also using All About Spelling level 4, again it's overkill but he's 13. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaughingCat Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 We're using it (8yo just finished VT) and it's helped her make major improvements with her guessing habit - about 1000x more than anything else I tried (although I think nonsense words with a similar reward/repeat type system might have worked too). She has had a LOT of fluency improvement but what that's directly attributable too - VT, Fast Track, or even fish oil :001_smile: - is hard to say. (I would say VT was the biggest contributor of course). It does remain the only reading system I've tried that doesn't cause stress between us - even on days she's not doing poorly. LL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 I used it with my then five year old when she was about that level ish. It was helpful, although I'm not sure it was the best thing for fluency for her. It was best at reviewing phonics concepts. For fluency, the best things we did were lots of reading of easy books and then Time4Learning's second grade reading. They do timed re-readings, and they were a lot more engaging than when I did the timed re-readings with her. I liked it, but I have to admit, the stories really got to me. I could only read so many stories about boys drinking beer and such, and I'm so far from a prude or anti-alcohol. They just began to really bother me, since it was so omnipresent and both really boring and bizarre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Fast Track has been excellent for my ds8. He has known his phonics since forever, but wasn't reading hardly at all. Fast Track really zones in on decoding and fluency, spiraling review of all previous material as you go. I've tried a lot of other things, and those other things were good for phonics/spelling, but it wasn't until we were well into Fast Track that he started picking up books and reading them with a minimal level of frustration. He is still struggling, but not with any of the patterns we've covered with Fast Track so far. There is no belaboring the rules for anything (c and g for ex), but there is tons of practice reading using those rules/patterns. My ds8 could tell you that the c says /k/ and g says /g/ but not before e, i, or y....but he couldn't read "cage." He could spell it. He couldn't read it until Fast Track made him decode that pattern over and over again, then spiraled it in with other words. It may not be for everyone, but it's especially good for kids who struggle with visual tracking and decoding. jmho. The stories are awful, but you can skip them...and there has been a sentence here and there that raised my eyebrows. There isn't another program like it though, and it does compliment Apples & Pears nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaughingCat Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 We also skip the stories - I do have DD read aloud something of her choice (she could read the stories but after the first few chooses against it). I wish I was replacing them with the later I See Sam readers (because they're decodable) but DD intensely dislikes those :sigh: So what I did is to search out some "not quite readers" - lots of pictures, relatively few words, short enough to finish in a reasonable time frame given our relatively short daily "read aloud" time but not eliciting the "that's too babyish" reaction. LL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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