OPGTR Questions

[mskelly]

If you have used OPGTR, how long did you use it?

 

Did you go until the end of the book or did you stop once dc could read simple books?

 

How old was dc when you started?

 

We aren't too far into it, but the thought of going all the way to the end of the book is overwhelming.

[MiztrezzLyn]

With my youngest son, we started about 4 and I think we finished when he was 5.5. I recently started again with my 3.5 year old. She's on lesson 65 atm. Neither of them I would say are really typical as far as age for starting the book, but you asked.

 

We do go all the way to the end, there are great lessons through out the book and I couldn't imagine dropping it just when they started to read simple books. It teaches reading up to a 4th grade reading level? I am not sure but it teaches multi-syllable words toward the end.

 

There *are* a lot of lessons but we just did 1 lesson per day approx and worked to the end. The lessons themselves don't usually take that long to get through.

 

There are a lot of people here who either themselves didn't like using OPGTR or their children didn't like it, so its really going to depend on you and your children and how you feel about the lessons.

 

I thought they were VERY MUCH worth it, but your mileage may vary.

[mskelly]

We are both liking it so far. I guess it boggles my mind when I look at the lessons at the end of the book and try to picture my little guy getting there in a year's time.

[KristenR]

I started my oldest on it when she was 4. She just finished it last month. You can read my blog post on it here. I am starting it a bit earlier with my middle daughter because she LOVES to do what her older sister does. So even though she already knows her letter sounds, we are doing those beginning lessons to get her used to the format.

[BoZeeCo's Mom]

We got midway, and then we quit to start WRTR. Only because my son was asking to learn the way WRTR teaches. He wanted the writing reinforcement. We both loved it until his needs changed :)

[Punchie]

I started it at lesson 27a yr ago w/DD when she was 4.75. It can be slow going since some of the sounds took her longer to understand than others. She has completed through lesson 112, but I have gone back to lesson 94 and am having her do them over again.

 

The plan is to go through it completely. She can read the BOB Books and Nora Gaydos readers. We actually stopped using them sev months ago since they were starting to get boring (very good to use when you're just beginning though!). Now she reads actual books - Dr. Seuss, Step Into Reading level 1, various easy science readers from Scholastic.

 

I want to make sure her foundation is rock solid. I like that OPTGR, ETC, and reading books all help reinforce each other. ETC is another series we'll complete. It's definitely complimentary to OPTGR.

[alisoncooks]

We started it last month (age 5.5) but stopped around Lesson 40.

 

My DD needed more review (and I needed some more hand-holding for that reviewing). So I just bought CLE's LTR. We'll work through that, then pick back up with OPGTR/ETC in about a year. I do plan to work through the whole book.

 

ETA: oh bah. I've already cancelled the CLE order and decided I needed to man up and give OPGTR a fighting chance....

Edited April 12, 2012 by alisoncooks

[chicagoshannon]

We have 8 lessons left! I can't wait to be done. We started last summer and skipped all of the letter sound sections.

[IsabelC]

If you have used OPGTR, how long did you use it?

Yes, I have used it with all my kids. We did not use the rhyme for the letter sounds, as I preferred to use Letterlanders, so we started after the section introducing all the letters (Lesson 27?)

 

Did you go until the end of the book or did you stop once dc could read simple books?

Yes, my eldest went right to the end, and so will the younger two. But we didn't do it solidly, as we use it in conjunction with a series of phonic readers, and add other stuff as the kids' skills develop.

 

How old was dc when you started?

All different ages, between 2 and 6 :lol:

 

I have a love hate relationship with OPGTR. I don't like scripted lessons, I have to adapt a lot to teach the kids Australian spelling and pronunciation, and most of the little stories are dire. Two of my kids detested it. (Oh and I curse the publisher daily for not putting it in a ring binding so it would jolly well sit flat!)

 

However, it is still the most systematic and logically set out course I have seen, with no expensive bells and whistles. It's as simple as working through it at whatever speed you want (my late starting reader did it at two lessons a day, while my early starter began by spreading each lesson over a couple of sessions), and your kid is guaranteed to be able to read by the end of it.

 

Also, as a weird benefit, I manged to get my son (the extremely reluctant reader) to direct all his loathing of reading towards this one book, and hence once he was finished with it he felt as though reading other things was quite a treat. He begged to be allowed to burn the book when he was done though :lol:

[MiztrezzLyn]

Oh the binding, yes, I had that book chopped and spiral bound at Staples right after I got it. It would drive me nuts to have to hold it open all the time.

 

One other thing, I *hate* the capital I that they use in that book. My 3.5 year old daughter would always say the "l" sound. We've been using the book long enough now that its just an annoyance because she ALWAYS stops and says "But that looks like an l, Mom". EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. lol

[TheCoffeeChick]

We started early and went very, very slowly through the book. Both dc started at about 4 years old. Ds finished just before the end of his first grade year at almost 7 years old and dd is just finishing up now. (she's officially kindergarten age because her birthday is late fall, but we do 1st grade work)

 

We normally do 2 or 3 lessons a week, some times only 1 or even none. We just go at the child's pace. Dd finished a bit quicker than ds because there were days that she'd want to do 2 or 3 lessons at a time because she was so eager to learn how to read. Ds on the other hand would sometimes only be able to get through 1/2 a lesson and be mentally done. My advice is to do the whole book, there is a lot of great lessons near the end, but do it at your child's pace.

 

Oh, and I cut the binding and put it in a 3 ring binder. And we never worked straight from the book, I always wrote everything on a wipe off board ... Colorful markers make everything way more fun! :)

[lea1]

I started it with my two sons when they were 5 and we just finished it (they are 6.5 now). They already knew their letter sounds when we started so we were able to skip those beginning lessons. And when they really started reading well, we doubled up on lessons for a while and did two a day. I liked it for teaching phonics but boy were we glad to be finished!:tongue_smilie:

 

I don't think it was meant to be finished in one year. I have heard that when they finish the book, they are reading at about a 4th grade level. My guys are reading aloud from a 5th grade reader and I'm pretty sure that one of them could easily read from a 6th grade reader.

 

It is one of those slow-and-steady-wins-the-race sort of books.

[Tanikit]

We started at cvc blends when my DD was 3.5 - she had known her letter sounds for a long time already so we skipped it. I also did not use it as scripted and used it for word lists with a rule more than anything. I also taught the double consonants very quickly since I do not believe in teaching these as sounds together since they are very easy to sound out (m-i-l-k rather than teaching that lk makes a sound) We made it to lesson 110 and by then she was reading almost anything and picking up the other phonics rules by herself. I have stopped for now though would like to cover the multi-syllable sections with her soon and possibly silent letters at some stage. I will probably skip the R-controlled vowels as she seems to know those already. I used the book for just less than a year with her I would guess.

[Mommie_Jen]

We are slowly working our way through it. DS1 turned 5 last month. We skipped all the beginning lessons that teach individual letter sounds. We manage about 2-3 lessons a week. (like I said, we are slow with it!) We also do the lessons either on the whiteboard or on the iPad. I've never taught reading before, so I'm following it pretty closely. We are in the mid 30's lessons. I've looked at the last lessons in the book, and I'm not sure how far we will go with it, I guess it depends on how DS progresses over the next year or so.

[nono]

We started at Lesson 27 in late kindergarden. In a few more weeks, my dd, ending second grade, will be done with the book. She has some decoding issues, so it has been slow going. However, she likes the book! There were times along the way where no progress was being made, so we'd stop for 2-3 weeks, and then proceed on. :) She's also finishing up Spelling Workout B, EtC book 5, and Reading Comprehension A. I estimate she's about 1/2 year to 1 year behind a typical second grader. It'll be interesting to see her CAT scores this year. Last year she was 1 yr. 3 months behind those finishing first grade for reading comprehension. I think she's made great strides this year, and perhaps may be closing the gap.

[Kathleen in LV]

I've been very pleased with OPGTR. We started with the cvc words when my son was about 4.75. We are now at lesson 160. Most days we do one new lesson and review a few sentences from earlier lessons that might have been challenging, but I don't usually review the two previous lessons in their entirety.

 

Also, we skip all the other suggested activities - we just do the reading. But we supplement with other books at his reading level - we started with Bob Books & now pick up whatever strikes us. OPGTR takes us about 10-15 minutes each day.

 

My one criticism of OPGTR is that it begins each sentence on a new line. I had to put a lot of work into teaching that you pause when you hit a period, not the end of a line, when reading a "normal" book.

[TXMary2]

We started it in first grade right before ds turned 7. He is now 8 and at the end of 2nd grade. He reads the leveled readers quite well and with very little help. However, we are still doing the OPGTR lessons and have every intention of finishing. If we did it every day, we would be done, but so many days he just reads books so I let the lesson go by the wayside. I want to finish so he at least gets all the rules in front of him once, and he gets to practice.

[Prairie]

We started when my son was starting 'k' work. We are still doing it through 1 as well. We didn't skip anything. I really think this is a good program. I used the WTM LA program with my daughter as well when she was little.

[rosesinsummer]

I have a 1st grader who is half way through the book. We plan to get to the end at her own pace. I'm guess we will be done sometime in the middle of 2nd grade, and she will be at a 4th grade reading level. We started reading later than most on this board as I really like to allow a slower start to reading as it goes more quickly and is less frustrating (better attention span, etc). For example, she reads higher than the lesson we are working on intuitively because she is more mature and we really worked on those cvc skills for a loooonng time. Also, I think it's important to drill those phonograms to help with spelling, one of her weaker areas. For those reasons, we will do all the lessons thoroughly. Love OPGTR!

[firstbreath]

My son has a November birthday and we started OPGTR the September before his 5th birthday. We ended up shelving it by that Christmas because he was completely resisting the lessons and I was worried I was going to make him hate reading. Fast forward to the next August and we picked up the book again. This time things went much better. We worked on it all through K, a few times a week over the summer, and finished up last October, just before his 7th birthday.

 

I would recommend sticking it out and finishing the book. Reading is still not my son's favorite thing and something I have to require from him, but he does it very well. The first "real" book he read after finishing OPGTR was Trumpet of the Swan, and he's currently reading Treasure Island.

 

I apologize in advance for any typos as I'm sending this from my phone.

[ALB]

With my dd, we started the book with lesson 27 when she was 4.5 and finished the whole thing in one year. She was SUPER motivated to read, and seemed to know the material before we even covered it.

 

With my ds, we started with lesson 1 at 4. It has taken us about 5 months to get to lesson 39 :tongue_smilie:. We do it every day, but only for about 10 minutes. I'm going very slowly and reviewing a TON. I anticipate picking up some speed once he's finally fluent with cvc words, but he's just a different kid than his sister. I expect we'll finish the book sometime during his first grade year.

[mskelly]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm glad that it isn't meant to be finished in a year! I do like the book. DS loves that the lessons are short and sweet. I really want to go slow with him and make sure he has a solid foundation.

 

I really like the idea of using the ipad! Do you just type out all of the lessons on there?

[StartingOver]

I started my son when he was a newly 4 year old, he already knew his letters and their sounds from Leap Frog Letter Factory. We did every lesson, with lots of back up with McGuffey, Bob Books, Sonlight Readers. He will be 6 the end of June and is reading Sonlight's 4-5th grade level books. He can read almost anything, fluently and with emotion. I love it. I am starting a little younger with my daughter, and she is reading CCVC, or CVCC very well already, we will continue. With my son, he wouldn't read out of the book. We used a white board, chalk board, blocks, letter magnets, you name it..... anything we could find. My daughter will read straight out of the book making it so much easier on me. It isn't fun, but it gets the job done. I have bought copies for all the grandbabies, I love OPGTR that much.