Do you do a reading program?

[wehave8]

As in reading workbooks vs. just reading books.

Why or why not?

Do you in later years?

 

Pam

[Mona]

I used Critical Thinking Co's Reading Detective Beginner this year with my 4th & 5th grader. It's the first time I've used anything for reading and we are almost finished with it. I wanted my dc to sloooow down and give more attention to detail to what they were reading. Reading Detective forced them to go back and find evidence to why they gave their answers. Also, it was a quick and easy way to cover all the story elements and practice inference, making predictions, and so on. They took the CAT in early May and scored above average. I think it was worth it.

[nomadgirl]

I have used McRuffy for 2 years. Every lesson requires the child to read a chaper and answer questions. They were good stories and DS stayed interested and he "hates" reading. For the past few months, he has been reading books he chooses and is really getting in to it. For 5th grade I am starting my own Literature program. He will still get to read for fun each evening but, these are books that he will read during "school" and he can answer questions on or do reports on these.

[junepep]

I used OPGTR with both girls. For Kit I supplemented with reading eggs, and for Mim I supplement with Progressive Phonics because she enjoys co-reading.

 

Once Kit finished OPGTR we just started buying her chapter books at the book store in her lexile range and I ask her to read outloud to me every day for about 10 minutes to make sure that she's prounouncing things correctly and decoding unknown words well.

[CatholicMom]

Yep, we use Explode the Code. I think it gives good phonics practice with individual words and helps foster their 'sound it out' habits, etc.

 

We also read leveled Readers (starting with BOB books and moving to other phonics readers. Currently dd6 is reading CHC's Little Stories For Little Folks which are like BOB books in their layout, but are more difficult and interesting. After that, and maybe dispersed in between those stories, she will probably soon start reading books like Little Bear and Frog & Toad.)

[regentrude]

No. I see no benefit in a "reading program", and my kids hate busy work like reading comprehension questions and workbooks.

We read books and talk about it. I can see that they comprehend what they read, because they tell me about the books, and because their own creative writing is inspired by their reading.

In high school, they also write about the literature they read, and use TC lectures for additional background on hard to understand works.

 

I find that kids are quite capable of understanding books at their reading level and thinking about them, without scripted discussion questions.

(Very abstract works of world literature, like Dante, may need some additional explanations.)

[SilverMoon]

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Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon