After Phonics Pathways, OPGTR or Dancing Bears C?

[Nart]

My kindergarten son is about a month away from completing Phonics Pathways. We complete a page which takes about 5 minutes and read a book at his level for 10 to 15 minutes. He can read Mercy Watson, Ricky Ricotta, Billy and Blaze. His new favorites are the Ninjago readers. He read the first Magic Tree House book but I only had him read a chapter a day because his stamina isn't there. He also has completed 100 Easy Lessons, and half of Funnix 2. He has benefited from the continuing phonics review. He is a kid who never makes a jump in reading - it is more like a light dimmer getting slowly brighter over the almost two years of reading instruction. I think this is in part due to a speech delay caused by intermittent hearing loss due to fluid in his ears. So I want to continue doing a brief daily phonics review. So far I have thought of these options:

 

A) Complete the last 100 or so lessons in OPGTR (I already have this book)

B) Dancing Bears C (or should do I need to buy the Fast Track book too).

C) Just have him read books ( I tried this from April to August and he didn't seem to make much progress)

D) any other option you can recommend?

[boscopup]

Well, he's obviously reading well above a K level (probably 2nd or 3rd?), so I wouldn't be concerned. Maybe start a phonics based spelling program. AAS would be a good choice for that age, since it's fun and moves slowly, yet it covers all the phonics. My oldest taught himself to read, but we used AAS to reinforce the phonics that he may or may not have intuited. It bumped his reading level past the 4th grade multisyllable words.

 

I don't see his speech/hearing issues causing him any problems, as he's clearly ahead. Most kids start learning to read around age 5, not age 3. ;) My middle son had the same speech/hearing issues, and he's going through Dancing Bears, but he has not picked up reading quickly (he could blend at 4, but he can't remember the words after sounding them out just once or twice). Dancing Bears is great for my son, but I don't think your son would need it. Your son sounds like the typical advanced reader. It's ok to not have progress from April to August when you're multiple grade levels ahead of the game, ya know? Some of that might have just been developmental. For my oldest (who was reading about like your son at that age), the stamina for chapter books came gradually over the second half of his 1st grade year. By age 7, he was reading through SOTW on his own.

 

Give him a lot of books BELOW his current reading level. That will help build fluency. Boys often like non-fiction as well, so give him some science and history easy readers. The library has tons of them. Star Wars books also helped improve my son's stamina. :D

 

But overall, I wouldn't worry about pushing his reading level up higher. Just keep him reading and enjoying reading, and that's all you need. Talk about the phonics involved in a tricky word at times, to help review that. And again, use a spelling program that is phonics based, so it will reinforce his reading. That way, you aren't boring him with phonics for reading when he's already completed a gazillion phonics programs and can read. ;)

[Nart]

Thanks for the advice. He just turned six and I started teaching him how to read at 4 because he had so many red flags for having a learning disability. He really did need the intensive phonics instruction to read, there is no way he would have just picked it up. I am really pleased about his progress and how willing he has been to do reading everyday. We have done a 5 to 15 minute lesson almost every day for almost two years so at least 700 lessons. When I stopped doing a phonics review this summer and just had him read, he started guessing how to read words that he could sound out. He is used to it so I figure it would be easy to continue to do a five minute review a day at least until the end of kindergarten. I have so many math programs and was thinking about what to do next in reading. I have WWE but don't want to start it until first grade. He is doing AAS but I looked ahead and it won't be for some time that we finish it (3 years?).

[Clarkd]

Maybe Explode the Code?

[JudoMom]

C.

 

Or maybe Reading Pathways.

 

Some of my boys would try guessing. I simply stopped them and told them they were not allowed to guess.

[momto2Cs]

Reading Pathways is awesome, so I second the recommendation for that.

[SilverMoon]

That's when I put my children in a phonics based spelling course, such as Rod and Staff's Spelling by Sound and Structure. I also had them read aloud to me once a day so I could catch common mistakes. When/if they messed up I'd tell them the rule and say the word correctly, then have them move on.

[kitten18]

Reading Pathways