What did you use to teach reading?

[SFM]

I am getting started teaching reading to my almost 5 year old (she is very eager and asks all the time about learning to read) she loves "doing school". However, I am nervous. We started homeschooling our son a year ago in 2nd grade and I have never had to teach someone to read. I don't feel like I want a lot of frills. I was thinking of going with something like Alpha Phonics and ETC with BOB books BUT I get the feeling that AAR looks really FUN. I think she would love it but it just seems like too much. I remember when I was taught to read (I was homeschooled for many years), it just didn't seem this complicated.

 

What did you use? What worked? When did you start? Help....this is one aspect of homeschooling that just freaks me out a bit. Oh, and I should also let you know that we tried 100 EZ lessons and she actually remembers a few of the first lessons from that like, "oh MOM!!! that's m (the sound) and that's s (the sound). :) Yay!

[Matryoshka]

I used Reading Reflex. Best homeschool investment I ever made ($16). Worked great for all 3 kids. All you need is the book and a white board, and there are pages to photocopy to cut out tiles, but that's a one-time thing. Completely phonetic, no sight words, but also no big list of rules or exceptions to memorize. Learn the sounds and correspondences, blend them.

 

I used Bob books and then other phonic readers from the library after that. I hear the Sam books are also very good, I'd never heard of them at the time. ABeCeDarian uses the same method (PhonoGraphix) but is workbook based.

[mom31257]

Dd learned with A Beka phonics and Bob books. Ds learned with A Beka and Horizons. I love how A Beka begins blending very early in learning the letter sounds and blends only the first two letters of a word before sounding out a whole word. I love this little book from A Beka. It has cute ladders for each consonant blended with the 5 short vowel sounds (in varying order), then it moves into CVC words and other sounds/blends. It would be a great add-in to any phonics program.

[Crimson Wife]

With my oldest, I literally had $0 in my budget for phonics, so I went to my local library and looked over the phonics books they had. I liked Romalda Spalding's Writing Road to Reading the best, so that's what I used plus BOB books and other phonetic readers. WRTR worked, but it wasn't the most user-friendly, however.

 

With my 2nd, I got a great deal on the complete K-2 Hooked on Phonics kit so I used that plus BOB books and early readers. After he finished HOP, he started AAS 1.

 

My 3rd child has autism so I may need to use a specialized program designed for kids with LD's like Lindamood-Bell LiPS followed by Wilson or Barton. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[mom31257]

A friend uses Funnix reading and loves it.

[lexi]

We are using All About Reading. I'm really happy with it! I blogged it here...........

[...................]

Ds -( Hooked on Phonics for intro) followed by Adventures in Phonics from CLP followed by Phonics Pathways

 

Dd- (Calvert K for Intro), Adventures in Phonics by CLP, Phonics Pathways for review

 

Adventures in Phonics with the TM, flashcards, and readers was the meat. It really took both of my children from being On The verge of reading to soaring. Pathway Readers then gave plenty of practice.

 

I also really loved both HOP and Calvert for early five year olds. Depending on your budget and desires they are both really fun colorful introductions to the world of reading. HOP can be found used very cheap and my son really loved it.

[BatmansWife]

Oh goodness, I've tried so many :lol: . I won't list them all.... :blushing: ...but, for my oldest it was 100 EZ Lessons and about half of Alphabet Island. I can't really say what worked for my son....he was my challenge and what lead to me trying numerous programs. By the time we stumbled through several programs and seemed to fail with most....he seemed to be reading ok (not great, but ok). For youngest I used McRuffy mostly. If I had to do it all over again (which sadly, I won't) I would use Reading Made Easy with the workbooks. Love it!

[my2boysteacher]

We are Beta testing The Logic of English Kindergarten level and LOVE it! I am amazed at what my 4 year old has learned in the last few months. It is very thorough, but quick and easy to implement. Definitely my favorite of all the beginning reading/phonics courses I have used. (SSRW, PP, RR, OPGTR)

[SFM]

I really like the look of LoE and plan to use it to remediate some of my son's spelling issues but it does seem quite advanced for a K'er. When will the BEta testing be over and if/when would it be available to purchase for K? Does anyone know?

 

 

We are Beta testing The Logic of English Kindergarten level and LOVE it! I am amazed at what my 4 year old has learned in the last few months. It is very thorough, but quick and easy to implement. Definitely my favorite of all the beginning reading/phonics courses I have used. (SSRW, PP, RR, OPGTR)

[MistyMountain]

With my oldest I started with funnix then my computer crashed and I did teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. She got stuck halfway through the book. I then tried a few other things but settled on reading bear. She is doing WRTR at school but they are not caught up to what she knows yet. If I could do it over again I would have used an Orton Gillington method from the start since reading was a lot of work for her.

 

With my ds I used reading bear to teach him to blend. I am working through AAR with him now and I will see how it goes. He is picking up things faster it seems but it also seems like it is going to take a lot of practice and work for him and it isn't going to come naturally for him either.

 

I don't even know what I learned to read with in my day. I didn't learn until I was older and they taught it in school but once I did learn it wasn't a struggle at all. I went from nothing to reading really fast. It has been work for my kids so far. I hope AAR goes well for ds because it has been a struggle with dd. I know for some kids it isn't but some kids do need a lot of practice in multi sensory ways to learn. Neither of them were ready for BOB books right away because they needed to sound out every word and they needed a little more than stuff like 100 easy lessons or OPGTR. I wish it was easier and didn't take so much effort.

[ondreeuh]

I used Bob Books with my oldest, and used ETC/AAS with my middle, so I voted for ETC/Bob Books.

 

With my youngest, I am using Bob Books and IEW's Primary Arts of Language Reading (PAL-R). PAL does a good job of introducing phonograms and words that use them, but doesn't really extend those phonograms beyond a relatively small list of words that are reviewed to death. The focus is on memorizing frequently used words that are decodable, not on generalizing patterns to new words. We are now on lesson 60, and since all phonograms have been introduced we will now be applying them to increasingly difficult words. My son is reading quite well for his age after a relatively short time with the program (10 weeks - we frequently did more than 1 lesson a day), and can read the Dr. Seuss beginner books fluently, but we are doing valuable decoding practice with Bob Books (and will move on to the Victory Drill Book). I think PAL will work well for a kid who is ready to take off but I believe nearly all kids need more decoding practice than it offers.

 

I found a used Saxon Phonics K kit and we have almost finished all the words in the K program. I am impressed with it. I'd considered using it initially, but my son was already reading CVC words when I picked a program so I'm glad I went with PAL. I got a great deal on Saxon Phonics 2, so I plan to do that slowly when we're done with PAL just to make sure there aren't any gaps.

[my2boysteacher]

I really like the look of LoE and plan to use it to remediate some of my son's spelling issues but it does seem quite advanced for a K'er. When will the BEta testing be over and if/when would it be available to purchase for K? Does anyone know?

 

She opened up more spots fo Beta Testers.

http://www.logicofenglish.com/store/beta-testing

I can't remember when she plans to have something in print, you could e-mail her or check the message boards over there. :)

[boscopup]

I'm using Dancing Bears with my middle son, and it is working very well for him.

[SEGway]

I found Phonics Pathways at a garage sale for $1. I hadn't yet done any homework on the options available (oldest child wasn't there, yet), but it said phonics and it was a dollar, so I picked it up. After I found the hive, I compared lots of different things and decided I could maybe even use it. Oldest dd got about half-way through and then took off with real books for reading aloud and AAS for spelling so we didn't finish PP. Second dd is now in K, and I thought I would add in a bit of WRTR, but we fizzled on that for a while (my fault, not hers), and tried "Dewey" (the cartoon caterpillar in PP who spouts random pieces of folksy wisdom...kindof annoying to me, but the kids seem to like him). DD2 is now making progress again. I think I'll keep the WRTR as a reference, and probably incorporate parts of it when we start more spelling, but for now Phonics Pathways is one of the best dollar investments I've made in the last five years or so.

[Chelli]

I am beta testing LOE Foundations with my K'er and it is a great program! I wish I'd used it with my oldest.

[Shawna in North CA]

With my oldest two....nothing. I read to them a lot, and did a lot of alphabet books and games, and one day they just started reading.

 

With my youngest two, I am currently using Primary Arts of Language from Excellence in Writing. I LOVE it. Very well designed program.

[Momof2littles]

I'm currently using The Reading Lesson. Easy to use and I like it. Around lesson 14, I had her only read the stories in the book...no more reading words in isolation or the letters at the beginning of each chapter. I was losing my mind with the letters. Boooooring.

[Violet Crown]

The Rhyme and Read series

http://www.patandpals.com/store.asp

 

Lauri crepe rubber letter sets

http://www.amazon.com/Lauri-Toys-Alphabet-Avalanche-500-Letters/dp/B000F8R6JK

http://www.amazon.com/Lauri-Toys-Lace-Letters-lowercase/dp/B0007LQGTQ/ref=pd_bxgy_t_text_y

 

And lots of home-made phonics materials with index cards and a sharpie.

[HecticMama]

I started with the very first explode the code book. It has the letters that they learn to write. I had them say the letter sound as they wrote. Went to Bob books after that, and then to SWB's book to learn all the rest. Both my girls were excellent readers by age 6.

[nukeswife]

My oldest learned enough in PS to take off when I brought him home. My dd was my guinea pig and oh how I wish AAR had been around then. The poor girl has struggled so much with reading due to vision issues, but no program really seemed to be "The one" for her.

 

My youngest is using AAR and we LOVE It. It's very easy to use and he's just blazing along.

[ByGrace3]

I voted other. I used ABeka phonics with dd, but knew I couldn't use it again for my own sanity. I tried several other things with ds before I broke down and ordered AAR. My only regret is that I didn't buy it sooner. After using it, I can't imagine teaching reading using another program. I love the way it teaches. It is a little pricy and requires a little cutting on my part...but that's it. It is very easy to use.

[Dory]

I used Saxon Phonics with all three of mine. My mom used it and also used Sing, Spell, Read and Write. It's worked well for a couple generations now.

[Amira]

We're another group who loves Reading Reflex. I'm starting it now with my youngest after using it years ago to teach my current middle schoolers. It's logical and straightforward and I've been completely satisfied with it.

[IceFairy]

DS did great getting started with www.Starfall.com and BOB Books. We have switched over to Adventures in Phonics from Christian Liberty Press and he is soaring.

[ChicoryChick]

I used HOP for my oldest and she was reading within a couple of months. Tried it with my 2nd and it was a bust. She finally started reading when I used an old primer with sight words. Tried HOP with my son (although had lost some of the tapes by then), took him longer but he was eventually reading. Turns out my oldest is an audio learner (which was why HOP was perfect). Dd2 is a Visual Spatial learner which was why she needed sight words.. dS3 is also audio. Just saying if one doesn't work it could be because of the type of learner they are.

[mommy5]

With one of my kids I attempted 100Ez Lessons, ETC, and Phonics Pathways ... we ended up getting IEW's PAL-Reading & PAL-Writing and that has been wonderful. I've used it with my 7 yr old and my 5 yr old (started it at 4.5) and both kids are reading very well with this program (a good mixture of sight words and phonics as well and stories and poetry). We went from tears everyday (with ETC and 100EZ) to loving reading and writing.

[reign]

We have used 100ezl first and followed up with OPGTR. This worked well with both older girls. 100ezl got them reading easy books quickly and then OPGTR filled in the phonics. My youngest just started 100ezl it is just so gentle. We used leapfrog videos to teach letter sounds. Fun and fast.

[KrissiK]

I used A Beka phonics to teach 3 kids to read so far. I love the program. I have a lot of the bells and whistles (there are bells and whistles, for sure) but I got them free from a Christian school that closed down and gave away its curriculum. Anyhow, I love A Beka's reading program.

[Mandy in TN]

We used CLE's Learning to Read. If I had another little one I would definitely use it again!

Mandy

[Violet Crown]

Holy Cow - somehow I forgot our primary and fantastically successful tool for teaching reading: Reader Rabbit!

 

Learn to Read with Phonics

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/reader-rabbits-reading-1/screenshots

 

Reading Journey

http://archive.org/details/012178

[Aurelia]

We used a combination of Jolly Phonics, Dancing Bears and WRTR. When she was little, she used Reading Eggs, which was more for fun than actual instruction.

[Farrar]

I threw everything at the wall until it stuck. Including...

 

BOB books

ETC

Blend Phonics

Progressive Phonics

I See Sam books

Starfall

 

And a bunch of other stuff...

[eloquacious]

I threw everything at the wall until it stuck. Including...

 

BOB books

ETC

Blend Phonics

Progressive Phonics

I See Sam books

Starfall

 

And a bunch of other stuff...

 

This. I also loved Montessori-style spelling and reading apps by Preschool University.

 

Add PP, OPGTR, and such to that list. Oh, and Funnix, though we just mined that for the "storytime" bits. The one thing that we followed all the way through (still are working through the last two sets) are the I See Sam books. The only stumbling block now is that the upper sets are designed to appeal to the interests of older students. If we were still reading about Sam et al, he'd have finished the series by now. That being said, my younger son is now starting the Sam books, so we'll be going through them again soon enough.

 

[ElizabethB]

Webster's Speller! Teaches phonics and spelling to a 12th grade level.

 

Before that I used PP as my main program, but I own 20+ and have tried them all with various remedial students.

 

Both PP and OPG teach to a 4th grade level. Most programs just teach to a 1st or 2nd grade level, but many children need more explicit instruction. Reading is a foundational skill that is worth teaching well.

[Freckles]

I taught first grade using Abeka. I love it for its phonics program. I have also seen Sing Spell Read and Write used at a different Christian school with excellent results. My younger dd learned to read and spell with Abeka. Good luck in your search for the best fit.

[Amy Jo]

DS8 -- Blend Phonics mostly, some spelling, Treadwell & other readers -- I woke up one day and he was reading. :hurray:

DS6 -- Planning to use McGuffey & (probably) Blend Phonics; will do a lot of spelling (magnet letters)

 

DS10 -- Mostly SWR I think (they deserve credit), but we've used Blend Phonics, Websters, Elizabeth's Online Phonics Videos, a few I See Sam, Visualizing and Verbalizing (yes it was needed for him to read), word visualization (Seeing Starts, Charlotte Mason). I've just received my Dancing Bears set and am so excited that we will get over our last hump - fluency.

 

I highly recommend Ruth Beechick's K-3 book for you - it's very inexpensive and tells you how to get started.

 

Anyway, if he doesn't learn instantly, don't blame yourself! I did, and thankfully my 8yo had no issues reading, which helped me know I wasn't a horrid teacher, just that we hadn't found all the keys my eldest son needed.

[BugsMama]

We were using LOE Foundations Beta Program (I think it's still available for 50 on the website) and its WONDERFUL. Love how it took my 4.5 year old from not even knowing letter sounds, to Learnong to blend, to reading CVC words (and some CCVC!) in 26 lessons. The program is built to be fun, wiout thrills, and teaches handwriting in a way I understand at the same time (both manuscript and cursive). My favorite part is that she includes active ways to learn, so my wiggle bug is having fun and we are working WITH his energy level, so there is no fight.

 

She has a very active Facebook community for the beta testers to, so you get one on one support with Denise Eide (the author) to teach your child to read.... How cool is that.

[horsellian]

Explaining my 'other' vote:

 

I started my little one out on a (6 week) free trial of Reading Eggs, but once I realised she could blend well, we've been using Letters & Sounds, plus the Sound Phonics workbooks from Schofield and Sims. I've also been pleasantly surprised how many phonics readers I've managed to get at our local library, and we are using the I See Sam and Progressive Phonics readers too.

[raceNzanesmom]

We started with OPG and BOB books, then added some Reading Reflex and ABeCeDarin stategies. We're now using AAR. I like them all for various reason. If I was buying for a new reader I'd go with AAR. My ds is dyslexic, so AAR has been a great fit for him.

[MinivanMom]

I used Reading Reflex. Best homeschool investment I ever made ($16). Worked great for all 3 kids. All you need is the book and a white board, and there are pages to photocopy to cut out tiles, but that's a one-time thing. Completely phonetic, no sight words, but also no big list of rules or exceptions to memorize. Learn the sounds and correspondences, blend them.

 

I used Bob books and then other phonic readers from the library after that. I hear the Sam books are also very good, I'd never heard of them at the time. ABeCeDarian uses the same method (PhonoGraphix) but is workbook based.

 

 

This. Reading Reflex is the easiest, most straightforward method out there.

[Alice]

We use OPGTR. I think it’s dry but it gets the job done. For my first I wrote the words and sentences on a white board which was more visually appealing to him for about the first half of the book. Then it clicked for him and we would read straight from the book. For my second I quickly type the lesson on the computer if I have time. He likes me to make it different colors and to have the words bigger.

 

I like that it’s very straightforward and that it’s very very inexpensive. I don’t use the scripted part. I just use is as a guide of what to teach next.

 

Depending on the needs of the child I add in other things to re-enforce concepts or make it a little more fun. We use Bob books and Nora Gaydos Readers. Once we get about halfway through we start reading a chapter book together alternating pages (now we are using Magic Treehouse). Early on I usually make a couple of posters with sight words or words to practice. With my oldest I did some flashcard reading games for fluency, Games for Reading is a good resource. All of that is extra though and I like OPGTR because the main curriculum is basic and easy.

[historically accurate]

Oldest -- she was just reading one day. She was really young, so teaching her to read wasn't on my radar yet. I used the book Teach Your Child to Read with Children's Books for readers for her.

 

Middle -- She had Reading Eggs and Starfall to play around with and lots of phonics practice through speech therapy. I didn't use a full curriculum on her as I was still researching what to use and she took off.

 

Youngest -- moving slowly through McRuffy K. She loves it, and I like the fact there is little planning required. It does have a lot of bells & whistles though. Since this is the only kid I get to teach to read, I wanted the bells & whistles.

[mumto2]

With Dd I used Pathway readers-- the Amish ones. We had a great time with the workbooks. We still crack up when we see any kind of carriage. She needed to be able to identify the diffent types for the phonics lessons. It was a good thing I had invested in the teacher's guide! She became fluent with BOB books.

 

Ds finely learned with BOB books. We refined with Ordinary Parents Guide.....which I loved. I truely thought it was the best combination out there. It was first published at that time.

 

We tried Phonics Pathways which they both hated, too plain. 100 EZ they both rebelled on the exact same lesson (#10 I think). We also had the MCP phonics books and abeka materials. They were used but BOB books seemed to really cement things.

[alisoncooks]

I voted other.

 

I threw everything at the wall until it stuck.

 

LOL, I guess we're currently using this approach.

 

We've tried: OPGTR, ETC, R&S Phonics 1, HOP Learn to Read K-2

We returned without trying (for various reasons): Alpha-Phonics, Adventures in Phonics, CLE LTR, OPGTR & ETC (the 2nd time I purchased them, LOL)

 

Right now we're waiting on Primary Phonics to arrive in the mail...

We also use Reading Eggs, which DD loves (but I don't know how much this helps).

DD6 made the most progress with R&S Phonics 1, unit 1 (which got her over the blending hump) and we may go back to it -- I don't know. But we needed some more CVC practice in actual books, and Primary Phonics offers that for where we are right now...

[kristi26]

I am getting started teaching reading to my almost 5 year old (she is very eager and asks all the time about learning to read) she loves "doing school". However, I am nervous. We started homeschooling our son a year ago in 2nd grade and I have never had to teach someone to read. I don't feel like I want a lot of frills. I was thinking of going with something like Alpha Phonics and ETC with BOB books BUT I get the feeling that AAR looks really FUN. I think she would love it but it just seems like too much. I remember when I was taught to read (I was homeschooled for many years), it just didn't seem this complicated.

 

What did you use? What worked? When did you start? Help....this is one aspect of homeschooling that just freaks me out a bit. Oh, and I should also let you know that we tried 100 EZ lessons and she actually remembers a few of the first lessons from that like, "oh MOM!!! that's m (the sound) and that's s (the sound). :) Yay!

 

I chose "other" because, like you, this was the first kid I actually had to teach to read myself as the older boys weren't brought home from PS until after they'd already learned. I was super nervous about it too. And DD is a very slow processor...and so it took her awhile to get it.

 

We tried lots of things:

 

1. Phonics Pathways with LOTS of reading games and BOB books for most of kindergarten

2. 100 EZ lessons for about 10 lessons (but she got very bored and hated it)

3. Teach a child to read with children's books (found it as an ebook for free here: http://www.eric.ed.g...&accno=ED437625 )

4. Finally, we've ended and continued with Explode the Code, which she loves, and just reading books at her level for practice. It seems to be working well.

 

ETA: Oh yeah! Computer games we used: www.starfall.com and www.pbskids.org (Word Wall games)

[coffeegal]

I start all of my children with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We usually on reach lesson 50 or so before I move the children over to Phonics Pathways. We take 2 years to slowly work through PP. :001_smile:

[kwg]

We were using LOE Foundations Beta Program (I think it's still available for 50 on the website) and its WONDERFUL. Love how it took my 4.5 year old from not even knowing letter sounds, to Learnong to blend, to reading CVC words (and some CCVC!) in 26 lessons. The program is built to be fun, wiout thrills, and teaches handwriting in a way I understand at the same time (both manuscript and cursive). My favorite part is that she includes active ways to learn, so my wiggle bug is having fun and we are working WITH his energy level, so there is no fight.

 

She has a very active Facebook community for the beta testers to, so you get one on one support with Denise Eide (the author) to teach your child to read.... How cool is that.

 

 

I can't find any examples of this. DO you know where I could?

 

I am using Teach Your Child in 100 lessons and we are half way through. It is becoming very much like trudging through mud.

[HelenNotOfTroy]

To be honest, we used Leapfrog videos, Starfall.com, ReadingEggs.com, ProgressivePhonics.com and OPGTTR. DS's reading ability is higher than the lesson we are using in OPGTTR, I just want to make sure we haven't missed something.

[Soror]

dp