mommy5 Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 My son who is going into 2nd grade (we start in May) is struggling a little with phonics. It took him a really really long time to blend and even now struggles a bit. He is at around a 1st grade level with reading and doesn't enjoy it at all ... he just read through a book that is on a 1.5 grade level but it took him a while and wasn't easy, at all. I'm thinking of starting with something else in the next month or so ... either all about spelling or CLE - LTR. I'm not sure which one would be better for a 7 yr old who is struggling with it. We just started using Reading Eggs and I've noticed a little bit of improvement ... they have his reading age as 5.75. He is really good at listening to me read and comprehending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 The best of both worlds: Spalding. It teaches children to read by teaching them to spell, which means it will fill any gaps in reading knowledge/ability. And you'll get penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple composition, all in one fell swoop. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleBears Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 The best of both worlds: Spalding. It teaches children to read by teaching them to spell, which means it will fill any gaps in reading knowledge/ability. And you'll get penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple composition, all in one fell swoop. :) :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 The best of both worlds: Spalding. It teaches children to read by teaching them to spell, which means it will fill any gaps in reading knowledge/ability. And you'll get penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple composition, all in one fell swoop. :) :iagree:too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3peasinapod Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I noticed a large jump in DD's reading with All About Spelling. It could cover any gaps in reading and take care of spelling at the same time. Since it works on encoding (spelling) more than decoding (reading), it goes a bit slower, but maybe that would be good in this instance since he is struggling a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewel7123 Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 The best of both worlds: Spalding. It teaches children to read by teaching them to spell, which means it will fill any gaps in reading knowledge/ability. And you'll get penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple composition, all in one fell swoop. :) Yikes! The price seems pretty steep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I noticed a large jump in DD's reading with All About Spelling. It could cover any gaps in reading and take care of spelling at the same time. Since it works on encoding (spelling) more than decoding (reading), it goes a bit slower, but maybe that would be good in this instance since he is struggling a bit. We had the same experience--my kids' reading levels went up two full grade levels the first year we used AAS. Here's a review on my blog. Hope you find a program that will be a great fit for you and your son! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleBears Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 (edited) Yikes! The price seems pretty steep. You actually only need the book, The Writing Road to Reading and the phonogram cards if you don't want to make them yourself. This will take you through the program year after year which is actually quite cost efficient. Ellie can explain further but the different grade teacher's manuals are not necessary. Edited January 26, 2012 by MyLittleBears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in the UP of MI Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I use word building and AAS to teach my kids to read. The phonograms, rules, etc. are introduced much more slowly than with the Spalding method, but my dd still jumped into reading overnight at age 4.5yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I noticed a large jump in DD's reading with All About Spelling. It could cover any gaps in reading and take care of spelling at the same time. Since it works on encoding (spelling) more than decoding (reading), it goes a bit slower, but maybe that would be good in this instance since he is struggling a bit. :iagree:This is exactly what happened in our home with my dd6.5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy5 Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 We had the same experience--my kids' reading levels went up two full grade levels the first year we used AAS. Here's a review on my blog. Hope you find a program that will be a great fit for you and your son! Merry :-) I have a question about this program ... for those of you who used AAS with kids that already had some reading knowledge but were struggling ... do you start at level 1 and use it as a review or to "reteach" something that they might not understand? Can this be taught to more than 1 child at a time? I have my DD who is almost 5 to teach as well (she knows letters and the most letter sounds but doesn't blend yet). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay3fer Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 Wildcard suggestion: you don't have to choose spelling OR phonics. I've posted before here about how we're happily and successfully using the same simple, fun program (Explode the Code) for both. Here's a post explaining how our process works for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigger Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 Three words - All About Spelling - especially if your little guy is a tactile kid. Mine is and his reading improved significantly after we started AAS this year. What I've done to give him more for reading is pace quickly with AAS for reinforcing things to help with his reading - we're into AAS3 for reading reinforcement and AAS2 for spelling work. One reinforces the other constantly. I did get the readers that AAS has available for level 1 and 2 and they're great IMO! DS this year also is using Horizon's Phonics 2 (second grade) and the repetition here helps to reinforce and review what we're doing in AAS. What I've been doing with the workbook is going through and picking what we've done in AAS a week ago and having him do the worksheets as review. We also do a bunch of reading comprehension now - paragraphs and questions for him to answer that I create based on what we've been doing the last couple of weeks, integrating as much as I can into each paragraph I create. We do at least one paragraph per day with at least five questions to answer about what he just read. This too seems to be helping him focus not only on reading the words, but paying attention to what the words mean when he reads them. Lastly, we have a pretty extensive library here, and I went onto the Scholastic website and looked up each book's reading level, then sorted all the readers, early books, etc. into levels - from 1.3 to 3.5 - and we're working out way up through each level with at least 30-minutes per day of read aloud to me time. Our daily reading aloud right now includes: 1 book level 1.5 (easy) 1 book level 2.0-2.5 (challenge) 1 book level 1.8 (reading level good) As he makes progress and the 1.8 becomes the easy level for him, we'll move up to 1.8, 2.5-2.7 and 2.0, if that makes sense? When I started to get concerned in August-September, DS was fluent with just CVC words and blends - he's doing much much better now and says it doesn't feel hard to read anymore......but it's still a slow, patient process. We did have his eyes checked and they're fine....no tracking issues per se, that need vision therapy - but he is left eye dominant as a right hand & leg dominant kid - that often does slow reading down. To accommodate the left eye dominance, we have started to keep his books toward his left....in the past, when we'd sit on the couch to read, he'd be on my left (I'm left eye dominant as a full ambidextrous person, but as my eye doctor noted, my right eye can and will dominate if needed because I am ambi - DS's won't, his left eye has to dominate for reading), which was comfortable for me, but that had his right eye in the position to dominate and he needs his left being in charge.....once we switched him to my right side, his reading improved a lot since it has his left eye tracking the words with his head turned slightly left, toward me holding the book. Once we figured that out - wow - huge difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I recommend All About Spelling too. Great program that helps with spelling and reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy5 Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 I think I'm convinced to do AAS ... should I start from level 1? I did some more work with him today with just a workbook (BrainQuest for 1st grade) and he did really well with that stuff ... it was spelling stuff like blending letter sounds at the beginning of words and word endings. He didn't have to worry about writing out the whole word but got 3/4 of the page right with doing blends "tr" or "pl", etc. Would Level 1 be a good fit for him? Also: I am going to have a newborn in the house soon and we have a toddler and an up and coming Kindergartener. I need something that is pretty easy to add to our routine ... not a lot of planning. It looks like this would work for this purpose, as well. I just wanted to double check with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in the UP of MI Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 I think I'm convinced to do AAS ... should I start from level 1? I did some more work with him today with just a workbook (BrainQuest for 1st grade) and he did really well with that stuff ... it was spelling stuff like blending letter sounds at the beginning of words and word endings. He didn't have to worry about writing out the whole word but got 3/4 of the page right with doing blends "tr" or "pl", etc. Would Level 1 be a good fit for him? Also: I am going to have a newborn in the house soon and we have a toddler and an up and coming Kindergartener. I need something that is pretty easy to add to our routine ... not a lot of planning. It looks like this would work for this purpose, as well. I just wanted to double check with that. Yes, start with level 1. And yes to easy/no planning. It's pretty open-and-go for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigger Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 I think I'm convinced to do AAS ... should I start from level 1? I did some more work with him today with just a workbook (BrainQuest for 1st grade) and he did really well with that stuff ... it was spelling stuff like blending letter sounds at the beginning of words and word endings. He didn't have to worry about writing out the whole word but got 3/4 of the page right with doing blends "tr" or "pl", etc. Would Level 1 be a good fit for him? Also: I am going to have a newborn in the house soon and we have a toddler and an up and coming Kindergartener. I need something that is pretty easy to add to our routine ... not a lot of planning. It looks like this would work for this purpose, as well. I just wanted to double check with that. Yup! Start with level 1 and pace through at his speed, he'll eventually need to slow down the pace and you'll be able to best identify and reinforce any gaps if you start with level 1! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 I have a question about this program ... for those of you who used AAS with kids that already had some reading knowledge but were struggling ... do you start at level 1 and use it as a review or to "reteach" something that they might not understand? Can this be taught to more than 1 child at a time? I have my DD who is almost 5 to teach as well (she knows letters and the most letter sounds but doesn't blend yet). Many older students who struggle do need to start with Level 1. I tried to start my kids at Level 2 (I couldn't stomach starting with a "1" LOL!) but I soon realized that they were missing a few key concepts that had been previously taught--so I backed up and purchased Level 1. It only took about 3 weeks to cover those concepts but it laid an important foundation for the rest of the levels and I'm glad I did it. Actually my dd needed ongoing review of the L1 concepts for quite awhile after that--I probably tried to teach some of it too quickly in her case, looking back. This article on whether to start with 1 or 2 can help you decide for sure though. If you have some students working at a similar level, you could combine them. I started out combining my kids, 2 years apart, but after about a month I separated them. I could see that the oldest was ready to progress at a faster rate. I probably wouldn't start your 5 yo just yet. Get some basic reading ability going first. The author of AAS also is writing an All About Reading program, and she recommends going through AAR 1 (or the equivalent) before starting AAS. HTH! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Also: I am going to have a newborn in the house soon and we have a toddler and an up and coming Kindergartener. I need something that is pretty easy to add to our routine ... not a lot of planning. It looks like this would work for this purpose, as well. I just wanted to double check with that. I posted a link above about how to decide where to start, but probably 1. You only need to spend about 20 minutes per day on spelling (I actually set a timer and just work until it goes off. The next day we pick up where we left off). Easy, open & go, no planning. When you first get it, you will want to read the front matter in the book (about 10 pages, but it's not all text, it includes some diagrams), and you'll need to separate the cards and tiles. Once you are organized though, you're good to go! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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