I need schedule suggestions for using AAS, WWE, FLL & OPGTR together

[jens2sons]

I just put my AAS kit together and we are ready to go!  Now what?!  Lol.  I have been using WWE1, FLL1, and OPGTR 5 days a week and it has been going smoothly.  Now that I am adding in AAS, how would you suggest I change my schedule?  Or should I just add it to our daily routine?  

[Kiara.I]

I haven't used OPGTR, so I'm not sure where the overlap would be there, but I just added AAS on top of FLL and WWE.  They're very different, AAS is phonemes, FLL is grammar (and some overlap with narration) and WWE is copywork and narration.

 

AAS at first is VERY easy, just some review of phoneme cards, mostly.

[CrystalM]

I'm no expert but shouldn't you wait to start spelling until after phonics instruction is completed? Possibly even waiting a short while after phonics to get reading more proficient? By short while I mean, say it takes all of Kindergarten to do phonics, if you take a summer break, take the summer to really get your child's reading confidence and prociency up over the summer, and then start spelling instruction at the start of 1st grade in the Fall. If that period of time seems too long, it could be shortened, or if the child is proficient sooner, then move into spelling. Idk. It just seems counter-intuitive to move on to spelling, when the child may not be done with phonics.

[jens2sons]

I'm no expert but shouldn't you wait to start spelling until after phonics instruction is completed? Possibly even waiting a short while after phonics to get reading more proficient? By short while I mean, say it takes all of Kindergarten to do phonics, if you take a summer break, take the summer to really get your child's reading confidence and prociency up over the summer, and then start spelling instruction at the start of 1st grade in the Fall. If that period of time seems too long, it could be shortened, or if the child is proficient sooner, then move into spelling. Idk. It just seems counter-intuitive to move on to spelling, when the child may not be done with phonics.

 

AAS helps with phonics even though it teaches spelling.  With OPGTR they can work together hand in hand.  It really seems like a neat program.  We are half way through OPGTR because we started with another program and switched over, going back to cover learning gaps.  That's what I love about OPGTR - it's a good program no matter what grade the child is in.  Ds7 is supposed to be at the 2nd grade level but has learning gaps because of bad and wrongly matched curriculum choices.  All of these programs WWE, FLL, OPGTR, AAR can be used at any grade level (although FLL seems a bit young for older elementary, it can still be used.  Just covered faster.)

[ByGrace3]

We do phonics 5 days a week (OPGTR-- we use AAR though), WWE 4 days a week (M-R), FLL (MWF), and AAS 4 days a week (M-R for 15-20 minutes)

[StartingOver]

The suggestion for starting spelling is half way through OPGTR, but I personally don't see any issue with starting AAS earlier as long as they are reading at least 3 letter words. I did with both kids, and it caused no issues. 

[Tawlas]

I didn't try and line them up. We use all four of these resources and one book may cover something ahead of another, but then the other will approach it from a slightly different angle and/or require slightly different output. I just do the next thing :)

[Classically Minded]

Here are some recommendations we followed on when to start what on the Peace Hill Press website:

 

My child is using The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. At what lesson number do I begin a spelling program, a penmanship program, and First Language Lessons Levels 1 and 2 (the grammar and writing program)?

Jessie advises teaching reading, writing, and spelling separately from one another, as they are three separate skills. You don’t want to slow a child’s reading progress just because her fine motor skills are not yet fully developed. And a child always does better spelling words he can easily read and recognize. Reading instruction can begin before spelling and penmanship. Most four- and five-year-olds can learn to read.

There is no set lesson in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading at which the child should begin her spelling and penmanship instruction. Generally, the child should be about half-way through the lessons (around Lesson 115). At that point the child can read words with the most common patterns for short-and long-vowel sounds. The words in her spelling and penmanship program will therefore be familiar to her.

You need to be more precise when deciding to start First Language Lessons, since the child is asked to do copywork exercises. The Ordinary Parent's Guide is structured so that the child applies most phonetic rules to single-syllable words (Lessons 1-177). Lesson 178 and following in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide are all multi-syllable words—these lessons reinforce the patterns taught earlier. A few new phonetic patterns are introduced in multi-syllable words, but those patterns are not as common as the patterns taught in earlier lessons. Once the child has completed Lesson 181 in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide, he knows how to read most phonetic patterns, how to sound out the parts of multi-syllable words, and he has been introduced to the schwa sound. He is fully capable of doing copywork.

First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind (Levels 1 and 2) is mostly oral work, although copywork exercises begin in Lesson 42 (and dictation exercises begin later). So by the time the child reaches Lesson 42 in FLL, he should be on or past Lesson 182 in OPG. If you are looking for a lesson by lesson comparison (and you do the same number of grammar and reading lessons per week), you can start FLL when the child in on Lesson 140 in OPG.

Following this suggestion assumes that the child has been practicing penmanship enough to copy names, words, and short sentences. If she can't do the copywork at the end of Lesson 42 (and subsequent lessons where she copies short words and sentences), delay beginning First Language Lessons until her penmanship skills prepare her for this.

 

 

[MerryAtHope]

I would just add AAS to your day and not try to line things up. My experience with lining up programs of various kinds over the years is that it's usually a lot of work for little benefit--just let things reinforce each other as they come up. AAS can be done in about 15-20 minutes per day--start with daily review, and then pick up in the book wherever you left off previously. Lessons might take several days to complete--that's okay. Just take it at her pace. If some steps go quickly, that's fine too. Have fun with it!

[go_go_gadget]

You certainly could start spelling now, but I'm not sure what the advantage would be. We used OPGTR and FLL1 (with copywork from phonics readers instead of what's in FLL) together, then after we finished those we started WWE, FLL2, and AAS. Since AAS starts back at the beginning with phonograms it served as a nice review of OPGTR, and I didn't see any point in trying to teach writing until reading was fluent. Trying to do them all at once sounds like spending all.day on language arts, but maybe that's just me. 

[OrganicMom]

I'm beginning to realizing, for us, that focusing on only 1-3 skills in the whole of school when they are young really narrows the focus, which then gets us through skills faster. for example, I've recently decided to do 4 short reading lessons per day with OPGTR. Acutally i said 3, he said 4.  So most of our school days with hims are quick reading lesson (i have four tabs for 4 different places in the book, that we hit for a few moments at each tab), and then he has a break while i work with his sister, then we grab two bob books, or Sonlight's I can read it books, or AAR reader, and he reads briefly... then a break or a math sheet, or part of a RS lesson, or a line of HWT, then it's back to a reading lesson or reader... with math or HWT thrown in if we have not gotten that yet.... and we do reading lessons 6-7 times a week... when it is broken up like that there is less transition from one LA program to the next, just always coming back to that MAIN skill we are working on, but yet it feels so short to him... even though he is basically doing reading lessons all day lol...but lots of play time, rest for eyes and freedom for the squirms. 

 

It feels more focused R ME this way, and he feels like he is REALLY accomplishing alot, b/c he sees how far we are going in the book, so this motivates him even more...but if I picked up the AAS, FLL, and WWE that i plan to do with him and have on our shelf, i feel that for him, and for me right now, we would not be accomplishing as much as we are... but this is just us. :)

[give_me_a_latte]

I alternate days. The further we go in the levels, the more copy work and dictation there is to do. My son really hates those, so I thought I'd have better luck splitting them up as best I can. I do AAS with our vocab program one day, and FLL with our Latin program the next. Then repeat. We do WWE for four days one week, then do another (easier) writing program the next week. And repeat.