Pre to Early Phonics Road Question

[FromA2Z]

My ds is currently 3.5. My plans in regards to reading were to start AAR pre-1 with him in the fall at roughly 4.5 yo and then start Phonics Road w/ him the following fall when he is 5.5 Then I was going to proceed slowly with PR1 through K and 1st. I know that PR was designed w/ 1st graders in mind. However, he now can identify UC & LC letters and their initial sounds with ease. He also likes to tell me a word, have me give the individual sounds back to him while he gives me the correct letter to write down. He came up with this activity pretty much on his own. I can tell he is getting bored with just his letters and sounds. He also has gotten upset when a letter doesn't make the initial sound he knows. I.e. he wanted me to write Mommy and Daddy, when I wrote the "y" at the end, he wanted to correct me by saying the "Y says /y/". I told him that it doesn't in this case, after awhile he accepted it but I could tell he was not happy.

 

So, I was thinking about starting him on AAR Pre-1 in January to work on his rhyming, syllabication, writing/forming the letters (he traces pretty well right now), and the concept of formal lessons (we are VERY informal). But I'm pretty sure we will be done with it by fall or winter. Then what? I'm definitely sold on a WRTR approach, and like w/ PR that I will be taught too. I really have limited phonics knowledge (was a natural reader in the look-say era) so I can't tell him when he questions a certain sound WHY it makes that sound instead of another sound. This is what really limits me in keeping it pretty informal w/ him. I need the formal lessons!

 

So after all that, my questions/options are:

1. Should I just stay put where we are at and start AAR in Aug, stretch it out w/ some supplements until he's 5? then start PR1.

 

2. Start AAR now and start PR1 at about 4.5 yo? Has anyone else started PR this young? If so how did it go?

 

3. Do AAR pre-1 then use something else like OPGR, 100 EZ, AAR level 1)? before PR.

 

I'm VERY hesitant about starting anything really formal before 5ish , but I can tell he wants to be learning more. Another question: Do I need something like HWoT before/during PR to teach/practice letter formation or is that taught in PR as you learn the phonograms?

 

I'm also sweating the fact that I discovered my just turned 2 yo knows about 90% of his letters and sounds without really any direct teaching from me. Curse that Letter Factory DVD!:D Thankfully he's very content in playing at this level.

 

If you've read all that, Thanks! from this just starting out homeschool mom.

PS. I've known since before they were born that I wanted to homeschool but my plan was to send them to ps until 2nd or 3rd then hs. My thoughts: teaching calculus in high school - no sweat; teaching how to read - YIKES!

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

Here's what I do with my kids before starting a similar program (AAS for dd and I think I might use SWR with ds):

 

Sound Game: This is from a book called Montessori Read and Write. There are 5 or 6 levels, starting with orally figuring out the first sound in a word to being able to orally sound out any word.

 

Sandpaper letters/HWT: I use both sandpaper letters and HWT to teach letter recognition, letter sounds, and letter formation.

 

Movable alphabet: We have four of each letter of the alphabet. We decide on a word to spell, then use the skills we learned in the previous two games to orally sound out the word and pick the correct letters. We start very simply (like sat and jet), then move to more complex words as the child is interested. DS is currently picking whatever words he wants and I assist him as needed to build the words. When he comes to a sound that he doesn't know the phonogram for I tell him which letters to use and say these two (or more) letters make that sound. I also help when picking the correct letter/letters when more than one phonogram can make that sound or something else tricky comes up.

 

It might be a good idea for YOU to go through Phonics Road or something similar to learn the phonograms and rules so that you can teach your ds informally when they come up. Then you can continue with your plan of not doing anything more formal until he turns 5 but still go with his interests and teach him what he wants to know.

[BriannaG]

I agree with the pp with doing more informal things to work on various skills such as segmenting, blending, etc. Add in lots of reading too. And create some games for him with what you're working on. If you chose to start AAR1 now and he hits some trouble spots like not getting rhyming, you can slow down or stop and hold off.

 

Yes, I did/am using PR1 with a young, independent, motivated eager beaver, who often asks to do school when she's sick and on weekends! She started asking to learn to read and write at 3. I held her off to 4. And spent about 6 months figuring out what to do...she's my first and I was not taught phonics. I took her through part of Webster's Speller, which really helped with speech issues we were tackling. I can tell you even though she wanted to read, she wasn't able to blend words until she was 4.5 and she just didn't get rhyming until about 3 months before turning 5. She certainly loved to spell though and still knows all the Webster's Syllables.

 

She has been slowly doing PR1 and enjoying it. She particularly likes marking up the words and the rule tunes. We're on hold right now and will pick it back up in a couple of months. I noticed that while she was handling all the different components she wasn't retaining some of the spelling words past about 2-3weeks. Plus, her reading took off before we got to the readers, and I wasn't comfortable with how many spelling words she wasn't retaining. So, I had a gap developing that I wanted to figure out how to handle. I had been following the directions with the program. If she'd been older it might not be an issue, I'm not sure if its an age or learning style of thing. I've figured out where to adapt the spelling review and to make a few other preference changes for her and am setting that up for her now.

 

I do plan on finishing PR1 and am curious to see if the changes will work for her as I really want to continue on with the other levels. So, it is a learning process for both of us. I had planned on a year break before we get to PR2 though because I want to allow her just to read and work on fluency so she'd be 6 turning 7 about the time we started. PR2 and PR3 definitely ramp up in workload...remember the numbers are not grade levels. I don't think I'd change using PR1 early like I have, she definitely figured out how to read from the program and her fluency is taking off now.

 

Oh, Tina of johnandtinagilbert is the queen of answering questions on PR. She is also using PR1 with a young K5 this year and did K4 with him using a letter of the week type of format. It's on her blog - http://lifeofthegilbertgang.blogspot.com/search/label/Letter%20of%20the%20Week

 

I believe there are at least two other moms who started PR1 slowly with younger kiddos...I think 5 is the common age, planning on 2 years to get through the program. Here's a link to one of the discussions about using PR1 with a young child http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=293640&highlight=phonics+road.

 

Oh, you might want to give ElizabethB's webpage www.thephonicspage.org and Don Potters website http://donpotter.net/ed.htm a look through. Blend Phonics and Webster's Speller could also be great to use with your little one in the future and they're free! Here's is a link explaining how ElizabethB used Webster's Speller to teach her young son to read http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208407&highlight=K+webster+speller+to+teach+reading

 

PR teaches printing in level 1. So, you can just focuse on gross motor skills, unless you want to use a different program such as HWOT to teach him to print. The choice is yours to make.

 

I'd save PR1 until he was 5 or real close to 6. If he is one of those kiddo's that start figuring out how to read before then or needs more go with it, Blend Phonics would be good and you can still do PR afterwards. Blend Phonics is available on Don Potters site.

 

Sorry this is so long and disjointed...multiple interruptions from kids.

Edited December 30, 2011 by BriannaG

[lexi]

I have an opinion :D but I'll have to chime in later today. The teething baby is calling! I'll check back...

[lexi]

Ok, I'm back :tongue_smilie:

 

I started PR with my oldest when she was 5 ish. It did not go well the first time. She wanted so badly to read and she could recognize all her letters. I was so ready to start it with her. We had to take a long break after several lessons. It was slow going and not fun.

 

During our break I worked with her on beginning readers and now she's reading. But the spelling.......it. was. not. happening. She did not get it.

 

Now, we are back to PR 1 and it is going great! She is getting spelling and understanding the rules. She is able to do simple dictation and go forward from there. But it would not have worked earlier.

 

My son is now in AAR Pre Level 1. We love it. It's just enough worksheet type stuff but he loves the puppet. The pre reading activities with rhyming, syllabication, blending....it's awesome! I would have used it with my oldest had it been available. I think it will help my son avoid the problems my daughter had (blending!! argh!) I plan to put him in AAR 1 next year and take it at his pace.

 

For our family-my kids want to READ! So, anything I can do to get them reading using a phonics-based approach is what we're going to do.

 

Other than that I love PR and plan to continue using it-just not as a reading program. I like it for everything else.

 

So, I will use AAR before PR and then transition into PR when my kiddos feel ready for handwriting and spelling. I will probably teach all the sounds of each phonogram right from the beginning of AAR though.

 

Your child might be ready for PR and do well with the spelling. But we were doing it at half-pace and we were still struggling. My daughter is probably still on the young side for PR but right now it's working. We might have to slow down once we hit PR 2. But I wish the AAR would come out more quickly because I want to use those as well!

 

Hope you find something that works for you! For me, it was trial and error but my daughter was not ready for PR. She would have done wonderfully with AAR I think though.

 

If you search PR on my Lextin blog it has some posts about what a day in PR looks like at our house. Maybe that will be helpful in deciding whether or not to begin it now.

[podoba01]

:lurk5:

 

I will be starting my daughter in Pre-K this fall, so I'm wondering if anyone else has some input. I want to use PR too, but that sounds like it won't work until 1st grade.