Best phonics program for you

[momsuz123]

Just curious - want has been your favorite, hands down phonics program and why?

There is so much out there.

 

Thanks.

[Ellie]

Spalding, because it does everything in one fell swoop: teaches children to read by teaching them to spell; penmanship, capitalization and punctuation; simple writing. Uses real books instead of vocabulary-controlled basal readers. No twaddle. Infinitely flexible. And inexpensive.

[Jenn in CA]

TATRAS. Spalding-based, no-frills, get-er-done program that focuses on decoding, not spelling. I was able to use this with my children who were ready to read before they could write.

 

Spell to Write and Read for my two coming up who need the multi-sensory, writing-based approach.

[momtoamiracle]

I've only used one = K12, and it has worked well for us.

[akvtmama]

We are pretty basic. I used Phonics Pathways and LOVED it. Combined with whatever easy readers I can get my hands on, usually from the library, homeschool book sale, thrift store, online. My 7 year old reads at an 8th grade + reading level now and most often a chapter book a day.

[CatholicMom]

Explode the Code.

 

My kids start picking up phonics really well when they start ETC. It's usually the "first school work" my preschoolers get to do and they enjoy it. No matter what "other stuff" we use (right now we are also using CHC's Little Stories for Little Folks readers), ETC is the "given" that I use with every child (3 so far).

 

I like that it's very simple and can be quite independent because the exercises become familiar enough that the child knows what to do. At the same time, there is enough variety to keep it relatively interesting. By the time they are really starting to get burnt out on ETC we have been able to take a break (or quit ETC altogether) and focus more on reading fluency and they are fine. We usually get to book 4 and by that point they have made great progress in phonics and reading. I also like their preschool books A, B, and C (before Level 1). A very gentle approach and the kids love it. It really does prepare them for level 1 and it's so easy to get through. It's also nice that it touches on spelling a bit, that it provides some handwriting practice, and obviously that it provides phonics and reading practice. I like really straight-forward programs that don't require lots of bells, whistles, and figuring out to use.

[Spy Car]

We did "The Cartoon Road to Reading" (a non-registered trademark of Spy Car Enterprises).

 

It consisted of:

 

1) The Leapfrog Talking Letter Factory and Talking Works Factory I and II DVDs

2) Explode the Code (aka ETC) including the Primers.

3) Reading Bob Books and similar graded readers.

 

Is the most rigorous phonics approach? How do I know?

 

I do know my kid was reading very well prior to starting Kindergarten with no fuss and no bother. ETC was very adaptable to being done orally (which is how we did the Primers through ETC 3). ETC 4 and beyond we did "written." It was all fun and it worked great for us.

 

Bill

[Kathie in VA]

My main book has been AlphaPhonics. We just sit together on the couch, snuggle and read. "hey look at this, when you see this, say that... now let's practice"

It's very simple, no learning curve. We sometimes took it to the whiteboard for fun.

 

Sometimes I'd supplement for added practice or just for fun. Then I'd use ETC, Bob Books, or even the workbook that comes with AlphaPhonics (although I don't really care for this one).

[Arboreal TJ]

All About Reading took us from tears to cheers!

[craftyerin]

My twins are using a combo of Phonics Pathways, ETC, and Bob or I See Sam books. They read easily and add skills effortlessly. I'm pretty sure they would have learned to read with any program I picked up. My singleton is struggling. ETC is good for him. Otherwise? I'm not quite sure...

[PentecostalMom]

I wish I knew, lol. We tool my older two out of school in 1st and 2nd grade so they already knew how to read. With the youngers, I tried OPGTR and 7yo dd hated it so on the advice on a close friend I tried 100 Easy Lessons, she loved it and it worked well. I then jumped back into OPGTR but still am not feeling the love. I just checked out Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways from the library and plan to look them over this week.

[boscopup]

Phonics Pathways has been the best choice for us. The method helped my middle son get over the hump of sounding everything out. It's inexpensive, easy to get done, and can be done orally. My 3 year old even happily uses it.

[edeemarie]

Alpha-Phonics! So simple, yet so effective. I love that the kids are practicing reading sentences with only those words and sounds they have learned. It has worked well for 3 kids so far:)

 

[wonderfilled]

I just have to mention Beginning Steps to Reading by Eastern Mennonite Publications. It isn't on the internet, but you might be able to find some info via blogs. I have tried Alpha-phonics, Reading Made Easy, The Reading Lesson, and a little of Abeka with my 4 boys. I always come back to Beginning Steps to Reading. I love, love, love it.

[SkateLeft]

All four of my kids used K12 Phonics, and it worked brilliantly for us. My youngest is finishing up K12 Advanced Phonics this year. They're all literate now, including #4, so after 12 years of homeschooling, I'm nearly done wearing my reading teacher hat. :)

 

#3 struggled with spelling and needed a bit more rules-based instruction. He benefited from using Logic of English this year.

[Simar]

I used Hooked on Phonics for my then 4y8m daughter, now she's 5y4m. It got her to read quickly. We did K to 1 maybe started on 2 within 4 months), then she got realy bored from the program. Today I found she appears to be able to read very well, but I found she can't read 3 and 3+ syllable words. Then I came to this forum to read people's posts, especially ElizabethB's.

 

This is what I found:

 

1. There are many programs in the market, but there are only a limited number of approaches. Somewhere I read "choose the approach first, then choose the program".

 

This page explains the approaches: http://www.verticalphonics.com/ click on the left, 5 "vertical and horizontal", and 6 "More methods".

 

2. Personally I feel that vertical approach is the best approach. I'm thinking of purchasing TATRAS.

 

3. One could use Webster's Speller together with a phonics program. Webster's "studying syllables" method seem to be the cure for my daughter's can't-read-multi-syllable-words issue. I started Webster's Syllabary two days ago with big hope this will turn my daughter into a truely good reader and a good speller.

 

My 2c from teaching phonics only less than a year.

[Five More Minutes]

We used Jolly Phonics here -- it was fun and effective with young ones who demanded that I teach them to read.

[nomadgirl]

Hooked on Phonics worked great. It was the only one we used or needed.

[SilverMoon]

Phonics Pathways has been the best choice for us. The method helped my middle son get over the hump of sounding everything out. It's inexpensive, easy to get done, and can be done orally. My 3 year old even happily uses it.

 

 

This is what I used for four kids straight. Easy peasy. No fluff, straight phonics, simple to use, very effective, and no planning required. Love it. For extras we had the Leapfrog videos, game time on www.starfall.com, and the first readers for all of them were BOB Books, followed by the Now I'm Reading! series by Nora Gaydos. They're all strong readers.

 

One particular DC had a hard time breaking into PP. She was my late bloomer, and auditory learning was/is not her forte. The Plaid Phonics workbooks were what launched her into success. After she was about halfway into level A Phonics Pathways made sense to her and she started soaring. She did all of level A and B in the Plaid Phonics series before we dropped it in favor of Phonics Pathways, and later on a phonics based spelling book.

 

 

My fifth DC would have continued Phonics Pathways if I'd kept at it. She wanted a more mature looking course than reading the big PP book with mom; none of her older siblings do that. One day she and I played around with putting very simple words on paper as I helped her sound them out. She adored it. I ordered Writing Road to Reading. Now she writes out her sounds on a piece of paper. She feels bigger and the method clicks with her better. It's carrying over to her reading time. Win-win.

[Mandy in TN]

I like CLE Learning to Read and would definitely use it again. I like the explicit instruction. I like that it included components for handwriting and beginning reading. My son and I both loved all the flashcards that were big enough for a wiggly boy to read while he jumped on the trampoline or ran around the room. Later moving into reading and LA 1, I really appreciated the phrase flashcards. Doodle learned to read fluidly without halting over every word.

 

We did use the Leap Frog DVD. Boy, that would definitely be on my purchase list and I see several of us who used various programs used the Leap Frog DVD. We also had Lauri Toys foam letters and the Leap Frog magnetic letter that sing the letter song and sound from the DVD when pushed into the little device. (the one I had stuck to the frig, but I think the one now is hand held.) In the pre-reading stage we also enjoyed Handwriting without Tears preK workbook. When we used the preK workbook it had the pattern for MatMan in the back. We made him out of foam sheets and traced Doodles little hands to use for MatMan. I still have the little hands. :)

 

We tried ETC and just couldn't get into it. It is sloppy looking and we didn't like the drawings. We moved on to MCP phonics and were much happier. I mean they are both phonics workbooks, but MCP is clearer and has a more attractive layout.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[Hunter]

When I'm teaching cursive-first I like Alpha-Phonics

Don Potter's free Alpha-Phonics lesson plans phonograms, flashcards and new cursive program

I like Spalding's Writing Road to Reading 4th edition if I'm teaching manuscript-first. The 4th edition is out of print, but widely available and still cheap. The flash cards are included in this edition, and it's the last edition written by the author.

[mandymom]

Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading. It is a phenomenal, thorough, all-in-one language arts program. It has been fabulous for my youngest and he is excelling by leaps and bounds with it. It has been incredibly easy for me to implement as well.

[Walking-Iris]

I can't say I have a favorite really. I tried 100EZ Lessons and AlphaPhonics with my oldest, but I hated the scripted approach. For him I just used this text and some ETC. He also worked through the lessons in the back of the Why Johnny Can't Read book. That worked really well. Now I'm using OPGTR (still scripted but not as overwhelming as the others) and ETC as well as any and all hands on DIY phonics games I can find. It's working but I'm still not sure any of it is my favorite.

 

I'll likely try something else with my dd. I've been looking at WRTR and The Wand from Bravewriter. I just honestly haven't found "the thing" to use for reading. They all seem to work pretty well whatever I try.

[Clear Creek]

I am using Rod & Staff Phonics for the third time. I love how easy it is to use, and it is so incremental that the child is reading, and reading well, before they know it. I like it because it incorporates a variety of activities (hands-on, writing, and drawing) at the beginning of the year, and incorporates dictation towards the end of the year. I have tried a variety of programs and always come back to R&S - it is what works.

[MinivanMom]

We use Reading Reflex.

 

There are many good programs out there. Some are more scripted than others, some have more bells & whistles, and some simply cost more $$$. My advise is always to choose something that:

1. Teaches the sounds of the individual phonemes (vs teaching word families or sight words)

2. Teaches phonemic awareness (manipulating phonemes within words: breaking the sounds apart, putting the sounds back together, moving sounds around within a word)

 

Some kids learn to read with no instruction, but most kids need someone to break the code for them by teaching phonic sounds. Many kids learn to read with just phonics instruction, but a portion need direct instruction in phonemic awareness. I've always considered it good policy to start with a program that teaches everything my child might need to learn, rather than betting they'll figure it out on their own.

[allisondacia]

AAR!

[Mom2OandE]

Well I have. Dyslexic child and we've tried a few but recently we tried Phonics Pathways and I'm in love. It's so user friendly!

 

The free Progressive Phonics isn't bad. I love that's can load the books on the iPad and read them from there.

[Wabi Sabi]

We did "The Cartoon Road to Reading" (a non-registered trademark of Spy Car Enterprises).

 

It consisted of:

 

1) The Leapfrog Talking Letter Factory and Talking Works Factory I and II DVDs

2) Explode the Code (aka ETC) including the Primers.

3) Reading Bob Books and similar graded readers.

 

Is the most rigorous phonics approach? How do I know?

 

I do know my kid was reading very well prior to starting Kindergarten with no fuss and no bother. ETC was very adaptable to being done orally (which is how we did the Primers through ETC 3. ETC 4 and beyond we did "written." It was all fun and it worked great for us.

 

Bill

 

 

Yep. Pretty much the exact same thing we've been doing. My five year old (would start kindergarten in the fall if we were going the traditional school route) is doing very well with this approach. We'll keep it up through the summer, and at this rate I imagine that by fall she should be reading quite well.

 

We also have OPGTR, but haven't used it much yet at all. That said, I did buy one other product that Peace Hill Press includes in it's phonics package that I've found useful in addition to the three things that Bill listed above. It's a magnetic board with magnetic letters. Dd uses it to spell out simple words based on the phonics that she's learning:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Magnet-Literacy-Wonderboard-Fun-With-Letters-DO-733003/dp/B000VDNZNK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368556483&sr=8-2&keywords=magnetic+letter+board

[Farrar]

My favorite program was whichever one we happened to be using when the child suddenly hit whatever developmental thing needed to happen for them to start reading.

 

If a child needed really direct support, then I'd go with any of the OG based programs - AAR, LOE, Spalding, whatever...

[NancyNellen]

Phonics Pathways.

 

Thorough, simple, straightforward, cheap.

 

Used the same copy to teach all five of mine. Never had to try anything else.

[alisoncooks]

We've used a bunch of programs. Some I liked for a while.... until I didn't. :p

We're currently using & enjoying AAR. But I've used it before and didn't love it then (we're at a different place now and -- for now -- it's working for my DD who has reading struggles).

 

I'm becoming a firm believer in having several programs on-hand.....

[Tracy]

Spell to Write and Read. Because my dd8 learned to read at 3yo by memorizing words, and she was really good at it. It wasn't until she was 5yo that I realized she could not sound out words. Spell to Write and Read didn't just teacher her how to do it, but trained her to do it by habit.

[SorrelZG]

Early on I had read Why Johnny Can't Read and used the phonics primer in the back. It was an old used copy and eventually fell apart. After moving on to try out a range of other phonics products I ended up returning to WJCR because of all the words for practicing each new sound or set of sounds. It made it easier for me to individualize lessons. It was also cheap and available for Kindle (a huge plus for me in light of our circumstances at the time).

 

Having a set of early readers (I had the books out of my HOP K box but I imagine Bob books are similar) has been handy - I just have them available for my learners to pull down and try as they please.

[ocelotmom]

Hooked on Phonics has worked well for us. Not something I would ever have really thought of using, but we got K-2 on sale for $35 when DS was 3. We switch it up with other things (Progressive Phonics, Reading Eggs, Starfall), but HOP seems to be what we always come back to.