Joyful Journeys Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 Hey all, first thread in this board. :seeya: Would you mind indulging me while I talk this out? We've been homeschooling since January with my now first grader. I've done some hopping around with reading programs with DD6. We spent about 6 months with AAR making little progress. We switched then to OG style approaches and she's doing much better. We're almost at the end of the first 200 spelling words in Reading Lessons through Literature 1 and I'm so anxious for her to fly through the Elson readers and finally feel confident about reading. She "hates" reading fyi. She's a math loving kid. We like RLTL alright I guess except it's not....fun? I get that not everything needs to be fun, but when she already doesn't want to do it, and acts like I'm killing her when I pull out the book :001_rolleyes: fun characters or something would certainly help. She'll be 7 in Oct, but is very much still into all things "Jr" and cutesy characters are right up her alley. RLTL just advises writing the phonograms 6-8 times after you've said it a few times. I've been making little sheets with the phonogram and a key word as I'm telling her which we add to her binder too (basically giant flashcards lol). I'm hearing about all sorts of games and things in LOE and it sounds like it would be a much more enjoyable experience for us both. Plus, I'd like a little more hand holding as a teacher. Teaching reading, is honestly stressing me out, try as I might to relax and wait for it to click. :001_unsure: From the site, it's recommended for her to start at level B, though since she's been exposed to many more phonograms, it could go quickly? In addition to this (and what really prompted me to look at LoE) my DD4 who just 4 months ago on her birthday, could hardly be understood half the time when speaking, has had a language explosion and is writing letters constantly. She was to start speech therapy this month, after lots of evaluations in the spring, and the teachers were confused as to why she was even there! She's improved so much, it is amazing. She's asking me how to spell things, and what things say everywhere we go. She can blend CVC words all of a sudden with no direction from me, and I'm very much wanting to capitalize on this! I think level A would be perfect for her. I'm actually hoping her enthusiasm will be catching, and big sister will be happy to sit through her lessons too. So my questions, how would I go about teaching levels A & B simultaneously? How long do the lessons take? I do have baby brother, the crazy toddler underfoot, but I can deal so long as it's under an hour and it's open and go. Since there's two of them, I imagine I should spring for 2 sets of game cards, phonogram cards and the like. This is quite pricey, but since 3 kids will use it, it doesn't hurt so badly. Thanks for listening to my rambling! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 I'm teaching both A and C. Honestly, I do it completely separately. Sometimes the games can be "together", they can each play hopscotch with their own phonogram set, for example. Or the one in C can be brought into an A game for review. But for the most part I work with kid A, then kid B. You will want two sets of game cards. One set of phonogram cards should be fine. I slip a page protector over the workbook pages, so I re-use from kid to kid. I think it takes us 20-30 minutes (each) but my kids have 0 Independance so I'm on their elbow for every workbook page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plateau Mama Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 Levels A & B are about 15-20 minutes each. Level C starts about 20 minutes and by the end was consistently 30 minutes. You only need one set of phonogram cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SewingMom2many Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 I have a 4 yo (almost 5) in level A and we are going very slowly. One lesson every 2 or 3 days and spend probably 15-25 minutes each day. It depends on how many games and extras we do. I have a 6 yo who just started level C and is also moving very slowly through the lessons. He flew through A and went pretty fast through B. He's doing one lesson every 3 or 4 days and we spend about 15 minutes unless there are games for the day, that makes it more like 30 minutes. Anyway, I do them separately for the most part but we do play games together when possible. I also have an 8 yo who is in Essentials and joins the games too. We have 3 sets of game cards which I like because I keep the ones they have learned and are working on separate from the ones we haven't gone over yet. This way each kid has his own and I don't have to go through them every day. There is a little juggling around when we play a game that needs 2 sets but it's not that big of a deal. We only have one set of phonogram cards but I rarely use those. I did at first but it's just easier to use the game cards as phonogram cards or to write things on our little whiteboards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyful Journeys Posted August 18, 2014 Author Share Posted August 18, 2014 Thanks ladies! Going to bite the bullet and order this week. I had assumed there would be lessons for both daily so that changes things quite a bit in my mind for the better. Genius idea with the page protecter! I didn't want to go all digital..just something about pen to paper that I prefer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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