Which level of Saxon phonics?

[ondreeuh]

My youngest is 4, and won't be five until December. He is learning to read pretty well - he can read CVC words, words ending in double consonants, and is learning /sh/, /th/, /ch/, and -ck. It seems to come pretty easily to him - we have just played with letter tiles and he reads the level 1 Bob Books. He can write most of his upper-case letters, and spells out cvc words easily.

 

I am looking at Saxon Phonics for him, because I want something through and complete. I get an allotment in the summer which I can use to purchase materials for him, so I'd like to wait until then. I'm wondering if Saxon Phonics would be a good choice. There's a very good chance he will have mastered the material in the K level by the summer, but he is a wiggly boy with a short attention span and immature fine-motor skills. Saxon 1 looks like it might be too much/too abstract with the coding and such.

 

Would you do Saxon K and just use it to reinforce skills and buy time? Would you buy Saxon 1 and go slowly/do work orally? Or would you just do something else? I'm looking at PAL too.

[didadeewiththree]

I would get Saxon K, considering his age more so than his reading level. If he were 5 almost 6, I would tell you to get 1st grade but it seems like it would be too much. Saxon is a great thourough program that successfully taught my daughter how and oldest son to read in public school. Ive actually considered switching from what we are doing now to Saxon phonics. I love how its similar to the Spalding method, based on the Orton-Gillingham methods, teaching more phonics and rules than most programs. Its lovely that its teacher scripted and easy to use too. I have the 2nd gr book and have started using here lately instead of using our Phonics Road. I wish I could use this on my 6 yr old Kindy, but its just too advanced for him. I dont know that I can slow it down that much for him.

[ondreeuh]

I looked through the school's copy of Saxon K, and it isn't until the very end that there is any "new" material. By fall, it won't be new to him. No reason to spend $85 on stuff he already knows. He has great phonemic awareness and that seems to be the emphasis of that level.

 

Has anyone used Saxon 1 for a child younger than first grade?

[stm4him]

My third child is in the same boat as OP but his fine motor skills are great (finally, an easy one!). I'm hoping to use 1 with him b/c I think most of K would be a review. But I'd like to use K with my 4 year old and am hoping that will be ok for her as well. Any thoughts?

 

I was just going to do LOE cards with her and teacher her how to write a-z in WRTR manuscript and for him I was going to use the Phonics Museum K workbook and the LOE cards but I think I want something more thorough for both (and closer to O-G than Phonics Museum).

 

Thanks!

[Aoife]

I would start with 1 honestly for a child that can read CVC and some digraphs. There is review in the beginning of level one and you can always slow it down if needed by breaking up lessons and doing the backs of the worksheets instead of just the fronts. K starts at the very basics and might be way to boring to a kid who is already far past that.

[Dory]

I would get k. You could probably fly through it fairly quickly for the first half though. For my youngest, I didn't do the full lesson for every lesson. I would let him just do the worksheet on his wiggly days (usually every other lesson). It would take him a few minutes was all and then he would be off and running again. It was easy in many regards for him as he was already reading simple words and many of the digraphs, but the review of the rules was good for him.

[ALB]

I just got K for my 4.5 ds after much inner turmoil :001_smile:. He already reads any short vowel words, including most digraphs. But, I'm figuring that starting easy will hopefully set him up for success and greater confidence, and give us a very thorough foundation. We'll probably go through K fairly quickly and then move on to 1. I really hesitated because it meant an extra purchase than if I had just started him on 1, but I do think it will be good for him.

[duckens]

My youngest is 4, and won't be five until December. He is learning to read pretty well - he can read CVC words, words ending in double consonants, and is learning /sh/, /th/, /ch/, and -ck. It seems to come pretty easily to him - we have just played with letter tiles and he reads the level 1 Bob Books.

We started Saxon Phonics 1 a few days ago. It sounds like your little boy could sit right next to dd5 for Phonics this year!

 

BUT......

 

Writing is an issue.

 

He can write most of his upper-case letters, and spells out cvc words easily.

 

I would plan for Phonics 1, but before we got there, I would do ETC until he can write his lowercase letters without stress.

 

Consider teaching some "coding" for how to mark words for pronunciation. Saxon K uses:

--a breve for short vowels

--a macron for long vowels

--second consonant at the end of a word is slashed out with a diagonal line (in words like wall or hiss).

--s that sounds like z has a horizontal line through it (in words like rose and has).

--vowels not followed by a consonant are marked with a macron (in words like no, so, hi, and we).

--I can't remember if the curriculum covered "silent e."

 

You could also do Saxon K, but do several lessons a day. That WILL give him the lowercase practice.

[Tanikit]

How has your child learnt what he knows already - what system/programme did you use? What is it that you want your child to get from the curriculum you want to buy?

 

I used OPGTTR with my DD for reading and adapted it excessively (basically I wrote out the word lists and taught the concept to her before reading the word lists only a few words every day) because it meant I could go as fast as she wanted to and she could read what she wanted to.It also saved a lot of money.

However since then I have had to start teaching spelling and she was not ready for the writing while doing the reading which is also why I used it - I do not like writing holding my child back from a skill she can easily do orally/visually. She is still young and very wiggly yet reads at a high level - she just tends to jump around between each sentence that she reads before coming back to the book.

 

I think you should choose the level of Saxon though based on how you think your child will do - does he want to read better or does he want to do easy school more. Is the writing going to make it more frustrating for him or will he enjoy the challenge? Or if its just reading you want you could carry on how you have been going and just educate yourself on how to teach things and do it your way since it seems to have been working.

[stm4him]

My four year old I have not worked formally on anything with so far but will start her this year with Saxon K I think. My older one is 5 1/2 and he is the one already reading some and can write all his letters. He does not have fine motor issues so we will do Saxon 1. If for some reason I think something I'm doing with my 4 year old is something he missed and should benefit from then I can always call him over to do that with us too. And if for some reason he is too bogged down in 1 I can order the workbooks for K and jump to where we left off before starting Saxon. Thanks for your help, everyone!

[Alison in KY]

I'd use grade 1, but I'd feel free to adapt it to his skills if necessary. We did most of phonics orally, or I would have them do some of the writing and I'd do the rest.

[ondreeuh]

This thread is a few months old ... I was able to look through both K and 1, and decided K would have been a waste of time but 1 was a little too formal for what I wanted to do. I ended up choosing IEW's PAL reading and writing. We just started it and I think the letter stories and games will work well for him. He is still young and wants to play, not work.

 

I am using Saxon Phonics Intervention for my 5th grader, and I can keep it to use later to run through phonics the Saxon way.