RLTL vs LOE (or AAR/AAS)

[Bookworm4]

Does anyone know how Reading Lessons Through Literature compares to Logic of English (Foundations or Essentials) or even AAR or AAS?  We're in level C of Foundations (and have used AAR and AAS in the past) and I had thought we'd most likely complete Foundations D next to continue to build reading fluency.  I came across RLTL a week ago and like the price better than the price of LOE.  DD7.5 doesn't enjoy the readers much that come with LOE Foundations and lately has started getting annoyed with some of the activities (like having to move the animals around in order of what was read to test reading comprehension), but usually enjoys the games.  She has good comprehension, but still needs a lot of practice reading and building fluency before she is ready for something like Frog and Toad for example.  I've been trying to search and reading reviews about RLTL, but haven't found very much as it seems to be fairly new.  I can't even tell from the sample I looked at which level I would put her in if we start RLTL after Foundations C.

[Slache]

I've researched that crap out of them, but we decided on SWR. RLTL is scripted and inexpensive. LOE has more games, but I believe less actual writing which was a turn off for me. Have you considered LOE Essentials? If you switch to RLTL and don't get an answer start a new thread titled "Which level of RLTL after LOE C?" You would be more likely to get the correct persons attention. You also could contact the author as I believe she used LOE and would know.

[Bookworm4]

I've researched that crap out of them, but we decided on SWR. RLTL is scripted and inexpensive. LOE has more games, but I believe less actual writing which was a turn off for me. Have you considered LOE Essentials? If you switch to RLTL and don't get an answer start a new thread titled "Which level of RLTL after LOE C?" You would be more likely to get the correct persons attention. You also could contact the author as I believe she used LOE and would know.

 

Thank you.  SWR is one that I haven't researched.  We switched to Foundations from AAR as Foundations was a better fit for my DD.  Writing was a struggle for a long while and only a week ago did she decide that she likes writing now.  It sounds like there is a lot more writing in Foundations D than what we've had so far, but I didn't notice much writing in RLTL outside of marking spelling words.  Thank you for the tip as well regarding the thread title and contacting the author as well.

 

[Slache]

If I'm correct (not always the case) you actually write the spelling words in ELTL/SWR/Spalding, but sometimes in LOE you circle the correct word which I don't like. That's the writing I was referring to.

[Joyful Journeys]

Start with level 1, so she can learn to mark the words and just go quickly. I wouldn't call RLTL scripted. Perhaps in the way one is to do dictation, but it's just sounding out words phonetically and you read the spelling rules that coincide with that word. It's quite gentle, natural, and has been amazing for us.

 

I purchased LOE last fall, thinking that RLTL wasn't "fun" enough. It's just spelling lists and readers and learning the phonograms. No frills, no color, and I thought perhaps my up and coming K kiddo wouldn't really respond to RLTL's style, so I figured I go ahead and switch both her and my first grader to LOE.

 

I was dead wrong. Dead. The pictures sheets and all that were just not necessary. 

 

RLTL is all we need in a cute 25 dollar package. The stories in the Elson readers are adorable. It got my then new 7 yr old who could only do CVC words to begin to read real stories in just a month, greatly improving her confidence. She learned phonograms that AAR wouldn't even have introduced until level 2 (yes we did AAR 1 for six sad months). 

 

It's a get-er-done program and is perfect for me right now with two toddlers underfoot. I can do dictations while taking a kid to the potty, loading dishes or what have you. We are in level 2 now, about halfway, and can get an RLTL lesson done in about 20 minutes. We do 2-3 spelling lists a week, and alternate reading a story. We review a phonogram a day. 

 

My next worry was whether this little book would be "enough" as a spelling program as now we're just really building fluency.  She recently made the leap to things like Frog and Toad.How could the same process that taught her to read, teach her to spell? Encoding and decoding are totally different skills. Well one day we're walking into a store and she and her sister were avoiding stepping on cracks. "Cracks," she says "C R A...CK?" That's right I replied, "Why did you use ck?" "Because crack is one syllable and the a is making it's second sound." 

 

I'd told her this rule once..a few days prior. I was floored. The day before, she'd done the same thing with the word "ever", saying that it must need to end in -er because "every syllable needs a vowel."

 

So, I'm convinced that no, I don't need to spend hundreds of dollars to teach reading to my kids. For K, my second is just going to use the RLTL workbook and we'll go through all the phonograms and slowly begin the spelling lists once she's got the first 26 down. She's so used to hearing her sisters lessons, she's already asking me to dictate things when she's playing.

 

We do have the LOE game cards, and I may get the game book for summer fun. But eh, I don't really need to do that.

 

ETA: I will say that a major caveat of the program is that its tied to writing. My girls love to write, so it's not an issue. If I had a new reader that wasn't ready to write 10 words on a given day, I may look for a different approach. 

[Guest]

I love me some LoE and teach both Foundations and Essentials, but I always recommend people try to cheapest program first if budget or time are issues. The nice thing about LoE is that it tends to work for even struggling kids, and if you don't like it the resale value is high. But it sounds like RLTL might be a better fit :)

[Bookworm4]

Thank you all for the ideas and suggestions. I did end up emailing the author of RLTL and she was helpful at how to determine which level to start with if I use her books. After reading here, looking again at the Foundations D samples (for probably the 20th time) and Foundations D review linked on the FB page, emailing with the author of RLTL, I decided to hold off making a decision and when we are closer to finishing Foundations C I will go through some of the stories and readers of both RLTL and Foundations D and decide based on DD's response to the stories in each. Reading lessons only started becoming fun for her when we switched to Foundations after AAR and I want to make sure I keep her interest and thinking that reading is fun instead of groaning each time I say it is time for reading.