Recommendations for after LOE Foundations C to build reading fluency

[Bookworm4]

My 1st grade DD will be finishing up LOE Foundations C around the end of this school year.  I'm trying to start looking and planning for what to do after Foundations C.  I am undecided if I should continue with Foundations D or move to something else to continue to build reading fluency once we are done.  AAR in the past brought frustrations and tears and I couldn't get my DD to enjoy the readers (and fluency sheets were overwhelming and took forever even when I cut them into strips).  We recently started adding Pathway Readers for reading practice and she loves those so far (we are on the first book).  I do have Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways, but confess I haven't looked at them in about a year.  I've looked into I See Sam Readers as well and have wondered if they would be a good fit to build fluency.  I focused so long at looking into phonics programs that I am now not sure where to start looking for building reading fluency since all phonograms will have been taught by the end of LOE Foundations C.  I have read and searched the board, but since Foundations D is still so new, I couldn't find much with recommendations after Foundations C or many opinions about Foundations D.  If this matters, I believe she is reading around a mid-first grade reading level.

[Coco_Clark]

Foundations D does work on fluency and comprehension quite a bit, so that is an option if you've been enjoying the Foundations series so far.  It starts introducing "real" books like Little Bear, Frog and Toad, Mo Williams, ect.  If that's about her reading level, and she hasn't been struggling over-much with C, I'd just continue with D.  

 

For full transparency, I didn't use D with my DS.  He did A-C and then went straight into Essentials.  I still go back and forth on that decision, honestly.  But I made that choice because he DIDN'T need any fluency help and we had pretty much transitioned into using LOE exclusively as a spelling program.  We do our grammar and copywork through ELTL.  

[Soror]

I'm doing Foundations D now with my dd who needed some more on fluency, if you've already used A-C and your child needs more work I would stick with LoE, don't over think it. I do have the I See Sam Readers (used them with ds) and some Opencourt Readers, we used just readers for awhile this fall as she wasn't ready to move onto LoE D yet, we've recently started LoE D back and she is now doing great with it. 

[73349]

We're finishing Foundations C in March, returning to Phonics Pathways for late March through August, and starting Essentials in September. We use the Pathway readers as well (currently in More Days Go By, and they're still interesting to him. I went ahead and bought them up through More New Friends.).

[Chelli]

You might look at having her read through the Emerging Reader set from Heart of Dakota. You don't need to use their program to see what books are in the ER set. The books easily help a child transition from easy readers like Amelia Bedelia to chapter books. 90% of the book titles are ones already on your shelf or easily found at a library. You can skip the Beginning Bible if you wish and jump in with the second book.

[Bookworm4]

Thank you for all the replies. I will consider Foundations D more and look at the samples again. I already own the books that are on the book list for Foundations D (minus their readers). I'm not too concerned about having a list of reading comprehension questions in a curriculum (which the sample I saw of D seemed to have a lot of them) as I know I can come up with those pretty easily. Making steady progress without frustrating her and causing tension between us to build her stamina and fluency may be worth purchasing Foundations D though. I'll look through the HOD emerging readers as well and maybe do those over the summer and see how it goes. Her spelling isn't great, but I'm actually thinking I may use the spelling rules we've learned in LOE Foundations for back ground knowledge and may order Apples and Pears to start next year for spelling. The little bit I've seen with Essentials makes me think she'd do better with that when she's older, if we transition to it at all. But then, I know a lot can change in 6-12 months.

[rachelpants]

I See Sam (all 8 sets) is amazing for fluency

[Bookworm4]

Thanks.  I was looking at I See Sam again and called them with a question.  They are going to be running a sale in a week or so.  I am considering adding those to our readers collection while they are on sale.  I've never seen them used (but I only started looking for them a month ago).

[Bookworm4]

Good point about Frog and Toad. I was shocked that she liked the pathway readers so much. I will have to check out more frog and toad and other readers from the HOD emerging readers list from the library and see how she responds. I think we've only ever read one frog and toad book.

[Bookworm4]

I am just coming back to add a comment as follow up in case someone else comes across this thread researching LOE Foundations.  I think soror was probably right in that I have been over thinking this too much.  Today, for the first time ever, after completing one of our activities in todays reading lesson, my daughter told me that reading was fun and she loved reading.  She never used "fun" or "love" in the past when describing reading (it was usually "borning" or "I can't do it" or some other comment with a bad attitude).  She told DH tonight that "reading is fantastic"!  I imagine we'll have some more bumps along the way, but developing a love for reading has been one of my goals and I suppose this was one of the encouragements I needed to keep going through Foundations D.  If she's enjoying the activities this much, I don't want to switch too soon to something else and put a damper on the joy of reading or learning to read.