lovetobehome Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 Just curious what the hive thinks of PAL...I was planning to use AAR, but wondered about this. Any comments? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sew happily ever after Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 We love it! It is perfect for grade 1! We will continue to use it into grade 2 especially part 3 of the writing because my kids are all slow writers and I prefer to delay teaching writing except for copywork and dictation in grade 1. You will get more response if you joined the IEW yahoo group! The workload is just right for us and the games are super! A well written program! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy5 Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 I have a DD who is not quite 5 and a son who will be going into 2nd grade ... just started IEW PAL Reading/Writing ... we love it. We make it into a group activity each day - even though they are both at separate levels. It is a lot of work for me upfront but I made up the games for the first quarter and so they are all ready to go each day (not making them each day as we go)...the kids love it. I love how thorough it is and it seems fairly gentle and fun, too. This is the first time my 7 yr old has enjoyed anything "phonics" related!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgrubbs Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 I'm using it with my K'er who is 5. My other two attending public school for K and I was VERY worried about teaching my youngest to read, but it really has been so easy with this program. I will say that at this age we are not doing 1 lesson a day. There are multiple steps to the lessons and now we are slowing down to about 1-2 per week. We review words and practice reading each day. There is a reading portion and writing portion to the program. My son is not handling his pencil correctly and the writing is a stretch for him. We did most of our writing at the beginning of the year on a whiteboard, which he likes fines. He was already showing these problems last year so it is not related to PAL! I just wanted to point out that you don't have to do the writing and reading portions together, you can easily slow one down if needed. I love the games, the reading clipboard, etc. Also, Jill Pike, who is the author moderates the yahoo board and answers questions quickly. Additionally, I have called in with a question before and they were extremely helpful walking me through my options (related to other writing for the olders.) My son is definetly reading better now than either of my other 2 were when the finished kindergarten at public school! I'm thrilled. Here is a breakdown I typed up back last year some time in answer to a question someone posted on the hive: The Writing Part has 3 sections. I. Printing and Story Summaries: 31 lessons practicing learning to correctly write letters and numbers, lower and capital and learning how to summarize a story. II. Copy Work and Style with All About Spelling: 40 lessons; there is beginning grammar here like capitalization, end marks, etc. and you work through AAS Book 1 III. Composition with Style: 16 lessons here learning how to choose key words and retell a story...this is basically units 1-3 plus 7 of the IEW method of writing. The Reading Portion has 80 lessons and should be used concurrently with the Writing portion unless your child is too young to write or you could skip section I of writing or go through it really quickly if that portion is already understood. The 80 lessons are comprised of 4 stages. Stage 1: Foundations - this stage will last a few weeks as you learn phonograms, sight words and assemble the games (comes with the kit). At around lesson 19 you will move towards the next stage. Stage 2: Activity Time. 30 minutes of activity time for each day should be planned using games to reinforce what has already been learned and continue learning new phonograms, words, etc. Expect 2-4 months in this stage. Stage 3: Discovery. Once student has mastered phonetic rules by playing the games he can move to this stage. Instead of 30 minutes of games he works through Discovery words (cards provided) where student uses knowledge of phonics to decode the word on each card with no help. You can help him by reminding him of rules, finding the markers but shouldn't tell him the word. When he decodes them all correctly he will get a new stack. This stage will take 2-4 weeks. Stage 4: The Library. After Discovery cards are mastered student moves to the Library (set up by parent with real books -list provided for help in choosing) You start at easy books, students reads several times, etc. When 15 easy have been completed, move on to Medium, etc. The set comes with a DVD rom which has lots of worksheet printables and a game workbook to make all the games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjins Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Although I am not using this I have THREE different families I know using it. I LOVE THE PROGRAM, as do the families - even the children! I have yet to see anything I do not like about this program. I have posted this before, but it bears repeating. I honestly told my husband that we should have another child or two (we have ONLY two children now) so that they ALSO can use this program. He is positive that fantastic educational opportunities are NOT a good reason to have more children. I disagree, but that is not the point. This program is AMAZING, well thought out, put together, encouraging, interactive, independent work, and complete! In the off chance the program does not work for your family, check out IEW's return policy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 What font do they use for the writing and could you use your own font if you wanted to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanna1949 Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 What font do they use for the writing and could you use your own font if you wanted to? I'm not sure what the font is called. I think you can probably see a sample on the website. We are using D'Nealian, and I thought I could adapt it, but it turned out to be a hassle, so we haven't used the writing program very much. However...I really, really like the reading program! We, too, only cover a couple of lessons a week. DGD is 5, and it takes lots of review for her to "get" it. We've also been using ETC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjins Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) I am not sure what the font is, did not pay attention to that. However, my DD was already well into Phonics Road and DS was using Bridge to Latin Road. Both were taught to write what Mama wants, not what is there. The first year for DD I had to rewrite everything, but she had already had two styles of penmanship taught to her and was only 6. I was not about to show her a third, especially one I do not like! About 1/2 through this vid you can see all the letters as she talks about which letter to teach first and how to teach it. Looks like a version of stick and ball. Or better yet: http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/pal-wc look at the ebook student sample, page 15 has the WHOLE alphabet. It is not really stick and ball, more like a cross over. I think I like it. No crazy lower case k, but some good curves to help move into cursive. Edited February 15, 2012 by jjins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgrubbs Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I do love how the program teaches how to form each letter correctly and you practice each step. I don't think most public schools teach handwriting these days...they just look at the finished product not how the child is doing the writing. They has been a serious detriment to my older two who started in public school. I teach a kinder class at church and most of the kids write their letters strangely...either starting at the bottom and working up for every letter...I'm sure it's because no one taught them the correct way. As long as the b looks like a b noone cares! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I was just asking about the font because I want to teach Italics to my crew and not ball and stick. It looks like the font they use is ball and stick, so I'd have to rewrite everything! :glare: Next question, does the reading program teach all of the phonograms (like OPGTR) or would you have to follow it up with something to get the rest? Sorry for all of the questions, but I'm desperately trying to find something for my upcoming K'er that doesn't use special markings or colors to teach reading. I used a program like that with my oldest and she had the hardest time transitioning to regular books that don't have the special markings/colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKKJ04 Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 We are only a few lessons into PAL but I am really happy with it. I would encourage you to watch e webinar to get some of your answers, I think you could teach your own handwriting easily or skip the handwriting instruction but keep the story summary and other parts. For the reading you do teach phonograms and you underline helpers on the poem and a few other places but it has not caused my dd any problems when reading words any other places. I would recommend checking out the yahoo group, often the author of pal will respond to questions. Great return policy too :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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