Language Arts Help

[lexi]

I need to get my thoughts straight for this year....

Right now I am using Phonics Road Level 1 with my oldest. I like it. I like the way it teaches phonograms, rules, building codes, etc. I feel like it's simple and effective and I've learned a ton through using it. I had planned to move right into Level 2 when we were ready. My daughter is almost 7 and has been slowly working through Level 1 for more than a year. We will probably be finished with Level 1 by Christmas.

 

My problem is that I don't know if she'll be ready for the amount of work in Level 2. It seems to have more components and much more writing. I don't want to rush her or make her frustrated. I was thinking it might be best to start with it next fall instead and give her a little more time. I also feel she needs more practice applying the rules before we keep going. We were doing so well and right now she's frustrated with spelling and stalling out.

 

So.....here are my options:

 

A) Move into Level 2 and continue to take it slow. I worry that she's just not ready.

 

B) After finishing Level 1 do some review. I just don't know how I could make it interesting or creative and I'm worried she's going to be sick of the same old thing. We're also having a baby so I'm worried that I won't pull something together.

 

C) Put her in All About Reading Level 2 and let her practice reading and blending and keep reviewing the phonograms that it teaches (doesn't it use the same method?). Her brother and sister are in other levels of AAR and they love it and I think she wants to do it too.

 

D) Get her some levels of All About Spelling to practice with in the spring. We've been using the letter tiles with PR and she loves it. I think she would enjoy the hands on approach but would it be in conflict with PR? And what level should I start with? Level 2?

 

E) Get both AAR and AAS and work through them together this spring. Is this overkill?

 

I'm leaning toward one of the last options but I want to make sure I'm not going to confuse her. I don't think we're ready for all the grammar and additional rules of PR so I wanted to take our time. She sits in our our AAR lessons and seems upset that she can't participate. She's also specifically asked to do something different for spelling. I thought that by giving her a break this spring we could see what happened and then I could decide for next year.

 

Someone chime in and give me some pros and cons please!!! Do something? Do nothing? Try something new? :confused:

[Ellie]

Stick with Phonics Road and follow it as closely as possible. Slow down if necessary. Quit worrying so much. :grouphug:

[lexi]

I think I just feel bad because she is complaining constantly about doing any spelling. We've tried taking breaks or doing things differently or trying to mix it up. She is just not liking it right now and it's not sticking. So, I was doubting myself about still moving forward. I wondered if a new approach for a little bit would help both of us. It doesn't help me that she's asking for All About Reading. She feels left out. But then I wonder if Level 2 would be challenging and a good fit for her. Or maybe it's just her age and the fact that she complains about everything. :glare: I think I'm just questioning myself this year. The pregnancy is wearing me out and her complaining is wearing me down. The scripted-ness of AAS and AAR was sounding kinda wonderful. :tongue_smilie:

[melmichigan]

AAS 1-3 are covered in PR1. AAS/AAR and PR phonograms are a little different so it's probably best to pick one set to teach all your kids, many people adjust the PR phonograms to match AAS or vice versa. Would she enjoy doing the Little House literature study? I have heard of many people who do the literature study seperate from the rest of the program for that level. Otherwise I would just slow down as needed. I look at PR as a level program so I would be fine to hang out when needed. Would she enjoy something like the games on spellingcity.com to review? We do this at times and any spelling words that the kids miss they have write out and mark.

Edited September 7, 2012 by melmichigan

[RootAnn]

We were doing so well and right now she's frustrated with spelling and stalling out.

 

 

Stick with Phonics Road and follow it as closely as possible. Slow down if necessary. Quit worrying so much. :grouphug:

 

:grouphug: :iagree:

 

Maybe you are taking the "spelling" part of PR1 too seriously? I've read on previous threads that the "spelling" in PR1 doesn't have to be perfect.

 

Keep pressing on. Don't sell her short by thinking she won't be ready. Just slow down when you get to PR2 if you have to.

 

Feel free to continue to integrate the tiles into PR work if she likes that. It won't hurt her to have some manipulatives. Do you let her work on the readers from AAR? Perhaps if you let her read some from them (if you have them) after a successful PR lesson, that would help. :-)

[lexi]

AAS 1-3 are covered in PR1. AAS/AAR and PR phonograms are a little different so it's probably best to pick one set to teach all your kids, many people adjust the PR phonograms to match AAS or vice versa. Would she enjoy doing the Little House literature study? I have heard of many people who do the literature study seperate from the rest of the program for that level. Otherwise I would just slow down as needed. I look at PR as a level program so I would be fine to hang out when needed. Would she enjoy something like the games on spellingcity.com to review? We do this at times and any spelling words that the kids miss they have write out and mark.

 

We just started using spelling city and she likes it ok.

I think she would really enjoy the Little House study so I guess I could start there. I've been using AAR with my youngers and teaching the phonograms the way PR does and it hasn't been a problem. So, I feel ok changing those out a little bit.

I think I might spend some time looking over the Little House study and see if that would work.

[lexi]

:grouphug: :iagree:

 

Maybe you are taking the "spelling" part of PR1 too seriously? I've read on previous threads that the "spelling" in PR1 doesn't have to be perfect.

 

Keep pressing on. Don't sell her short by thinking she won't be ready. Just slow down when you get to PR2 if you have to.

 

Feel free to continue to integrate the tiles into PR work if she likes that. It won't hurt her to have some manipulatives. Do you let her work on the readers from AAR? Perhaps if you let her read some from them (if you have them) after a successful PR lesson, that would help. :-)

 

The spelling doesn't have to be perfect and we're taking her time but she is bombing the review words. "ANY" was "ANW" and then it was "AINEY"

 

She continually forgets to put an "e" on the end to let the vowel say it's long sound. "Pine" was "Pin" and she just does not seem to get it.

 

I feel like she's just picking a letter and sticking it in the word. I have her sound out what she spells and she realizes that it's not right but she doesn't see it as she's writing it.

 

So, I'm not looking for perfection but I was looking for a few rules to be applied. As it stands she is constantly forgetting rules and making up crazy, crazy spellings that aren't even phonetically close. And this is a kid that can decode well and reads like crazy.

 

I just was hoping that there was something I could do to make it less of a struggle. She's frustrated and I've been singing the rule tunes and reminding of phonograms and spellings until I'm blue in the face. I guess I just feel discouraged that her spelling is so far off base.

 

We're going to keep using the tiles and she enjoys writing on a white board so we try to mix things up a little bit. I just want this to be a little easier on both of us and maybe even more enjoyable. She has total fits when it's time to do spelling. And we keep it short and simple but yet she still melts down. I don't know if I should take a break from it completely as she's already not retaining and I didn't know if she would just forget more.

 

I have thought about the readers and might order those.

[melmichigan]

Does she have any handwriting problems? I have one perfectionist who focuses so much on making it pretty that it really makes her spelling a mess sometimes (like now that everything is in cursive in level 3), and one with dysgraphia, where she focuses so much on the writing that it blocks her thought. Both have struggled more with spelling than any of the rest. Just remember Level 3 will review all the spelling words in Levels 1 and 2 in the first seventeen weeks.

[lexi]

She can be a perfectionist but I find her handwriting rather sloppy. She can draw and color well but her handwriting can be very messy.

 

So, I guess I don't know. What specifically should I be looking for? :confused:

 

I don't plan to quit PR I just didn't know if we should take a break, supplement, or keep reviewing. I hate that she's disliking it so much right now.

[MerryAtHope]

A lot of kids learn reading much faster than they learn spelling, so I might be tempted to focus on just reading for awhile. I haven't used PR, can you do that and pick up with spelling later? (I remember that it's all integrated, but I don't know if it's possible to separate things out.) Would she enjoy it more if she didn't have to worry about spelling right now, or do you think she would still want to try out AAR? That might help you decide. Does she correctly read words like "pine" consistently? If not, expecting her to spell them might just be too much (and might be too much even if she does). When she looks at "pin" can she see that it isn't pronounced "pine," or does she still say pine? You can try saying, "We pronounce this word pin. Do you know what letter to add to make it say pine?" Conversations like that helped my kids start to remember missing letters (and also helped them start to find them on their own, and to read exactly what they wrote--not what they think they wrote).

 

If you do decide you want to look at AAS, this article about whether to start in 1 or 2 can help you decide where to start. You want her to be solid on the multiple sounds for the first 32 phonograms, and the rules about when C is soft, when to use k vs ck at the end of a word, when to double F, L, and S at the end of a word, etc... (the concepts behind the sample spelling words, in other words). HTH some! Merry :-)