Explode The Code question

[Slipper]

I've heard it stressed that just because a child is a good reader doesn't mean that one should skip phonics instruction. With that in mind (and a sale), I bought all ten books of ETC.

 

My daughter does one lesson a day (all 8 or so pages). She's midway through the second book (some days, we skip a lesson). She asked today if she could skip ahead to the harder stuff. I asked what she would like to do, and she wanted to jump ahead to the 4th book.

 

Is there any harm in letting her do that? She's an excellent reader and she skims through ETC lessons without any problems. Book 4 looks harder and she seems excited about doing it. I plan to adjust thing to move to book 4 tomorrow unless someone has a reason why I shouldn't?

[Bloggermom]

 

Explode the Code 4 is a pretty big jump in difficulty from Explode the Code 3. You can skip the ETC 3 book if that is too easy for her, but don't skip ahead within the ETC 4 book.

[jplain]

Sure, go ahead and move her to Book 4. :)

[Kathryn]

I'd let her try it, BUT if she has trouble don't push it. We did them in order, but when I go through them with DS2 I plan on putting book 4 after book 8. Everything else we've done and will do in ETC is review for DS. The only reason we do it is because he likes it. But book 4 was HARD!

[nikicole]

I agree with the others that book 4 is definitely harder than the first three. However, my ds7 is not an advanced reader and he is doing fine with it right now. We're about halfway through, but it's the only book of the series he's really ever needed my help with.

[CarrieF]

My 2nd grade son is NOT a strong reader and has worked his way up to book 4 and it IS harder. Having said that, if your daughter is excited about it and can handle it, I say go for it! Maybe just give her the caveat that she can always slow down or even go back to book 3 for "review" if she feels stressed in book 4. Any time a kiddo is excited about something to do with learning, I say capitalize! ;)

[mombygrace]

I'll say move her up if she wants. You have the other books and can pull them out if needed. My DS6 worked through all the books and had no trouble with 4, but he was reading pretty well already. Your DD may enjoy ETC4 and still do a few pages of the earlier books too. ETC4 is some what different from the earlier ones.

[Slipper]

Just to update, she absolutely loved doing book 4 today. :) She informed me that while she was already familiar with compound words, the work was more suitable than what we had been doing. ;)

 

Interestingly, she finished it a lot faster than the previous books. I haven't looked to see if it's fewer pages, or just more interesting. But, I'm glad we moved her on up. She's definitely happier and made no errors.

[mlktwins]

Last year, my K'ers flew through 1-3. They slowed down a lot on 4, but we muddled through. This year for 1st, I started with the 4 1/2 book to make sure they got it.