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Logic of English vs. Phonics Road for beginner reader


arendadee
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Hello, hello! My first post here. :) 

 

Alright, so my son is four years old and is interested in learning to read. Yippee! He's very bright (knew the sounds of letters when he was 2 years old) but pretty impatient. I'm looking for a phonics-based reading program for him that:

 

A) Explains the various phonograms and spelling rules in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. My son is very detail-oriented and loves clearly laid out rules.

B) Also explains things thoroughly for me as his teacher. I tried Alpha-Phonics and found the teacher explanations inadequate (the first few pages have words making short and long A sounds without explaining why it makes the short A sound one time and the long A sound the next. Way too frustrating!).  

C) Has a clearly laid out curriculum I can follow. As much as I've heard good things about The Writing Road to Reading and Spell to Write and Read, I've read from many people that it took a lot of effort to put together a curriculum. I'm not interested in all that work if I can find one already prepared. :) 

 

Okay, so, based on those three things, I've narrowed it down to Logic of English and Phonics Road to Reading.

 

Phonics Road: 

PROS: methodical, thorough and heavy on explanations. Also includes the reason why words are spelled the way they are (Latin roots, etc.) Love that!

CONS: connects reading with writing. Not sure my son is ready to write all the letters so it seems like this approach might really slow him down? Also, it seems like the videos tell you what to teach but are not explicit in laying out how exactly to teach?

 

Logic of English: 

PROS: also methodical and thorough. 

CONS: maybe a little too much fun and games? I'm not really into frills when it comes to teaching reading. And Foundations A and B don't seem to cover that much material for the price. Plus . . . there are doodles of friendly dragons. Honestly, that really turns me off seeing as we're big on St. George and the Dragon here! :) 

 

QUESTION: Anyways, could you please chime in here with recommendations for or advice against either of these two programs. Have you used Phonics Road or Logic of English to teach a beginner reader? What was your experience? Would you recommend either program?

 

Thank you! :)

 

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I've worked through LoE Foundations A-C and we've just started D with my daughter. Started her when she was 5 and could have used the program earlier if I'd found it. A was super easy for her and we often did two lessons a day. Toward the end of C, we'd sometimes break up lessons across two days. Which was my plan for D but I've found she seems to prefer working through the whole lesson even wen it takes us 45 minutes.

 

You can skip the games and activities if you want. The frills were a bit much for me sometimes. We didn't do the games as often as they said but it was helpful especially early. I got the Ipad app and that's been great, really helps her practice the phonograms.

 

For a while I wasn't sure how well it was working. Oh, she got through the lessons but she wasn't really eager to try reading other things. Well in the last month, she's started reading along in the hymnal in church. She'll pick up books and magazines and read to me from them, slowly but thoroughly. And last night we watched something subtitled, pausing for her to read them, and she had a great time. 

 

She's a very rules focused kid. Being able to say "C softens to S because of the E" and the other rules we've learned is very helpful for us both.

 

One note about LoE is that until you get near the end of C, most "easy readers" on library shelves are going to be frustrating because they rely on sight words that LoE doesn't teach. But then when you get there - wham, you can read anything. Like I said, hymnal at church, foreign television, whatever.

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I was planning on using Phonics Road with my DS until there was an offer to Beta test LOE at the time. I haven't looked back yet.

 

The ONE thing that held me back from Phonics Road at the time is that it is written for FIRST grade and was told that it would be too much for a 4 y.o.) Yes, you can modify for handwriting, etc. At the time, I was advised to just " play around" with letters/ words, etc.). But my son was raring to go. LOE foundations came out and A fit us perfectly.

 

A does provide a lot of fun and games, you can skip some or all (it's very flexible). What I like about it is that I don't have to search out ideas to supplement. They are already there if I want them. She also includes ideas for "writing" with non-writers. So writing is not a problem, but your child learns the motions of writing.

 

The other thing I liked about A is that it gives tips and exercises for visual learners or learners that have trouble forming/hearing certain sounds. You don't have to do these if your child does not need them but it is nice to have them.

 

My DS went through all 4 levels and like a pp said he can read anything. But they will not be able to read early readers in the beginning b/c of the use of sight words. Though I believe now they list in B and C some readers that correlate with certain lessons. In addition each level comes with 8 "readers". D has readers and books.

 

My DS is now in 2nd grade, we use RLTL 3 for our spelling and to continue on his oral reading skills, (enunciation, punctuation, etc)

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I am a longtime Phonics Road fan.  I've used it with three children so far.   My youngest child is my earliest to show interest in reading.  I do not begin until my children actually seem not only interested but capable of mastery.  There is no use if it will only lead to frustration.  

 

I use the first 5 weeks of PR1 in either K or first grade, gentle repetition for an entire school year.  I've found most first graders are not ready to write the amount that PR1 requires.  Reading, handwriting, grammar, creative writing and spelling are all very different brain tasks for young learners.  There are benefits to combining them all BUT with very young children I think it is wise to focus on just reading acquisition at first.  

 

The underlying foundation of Phonics Road and the DVDs to teach a parent *how* to teach reading and spelling so a firm foundation is in place is invaluable.  But looking at Level 1 as "I must complete Week 1 in 5-7 days" is faulty.  You can use the program and tweak the time table depending on the student's age and ability.  I think PR1 in second grade is the sweet spot after being drilled in the phonograms and Rule Tunes for a year or two.  I supplement with Explode the Code and Memoria Press copywork books for my K/1 kids until they are ready for more.  

 

 

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I love love, big heart love LOE. I've used it with

success with two kids (so far) to read and write and that was after several other failed curricula (phonics road, 100 easy lessons, WRTR, ect and so on).

 

That being said, if you aren't interested in the "frills", the games, the cartoons, the fun activities, then it's not worth the price. It wouldnt be worth it free. That's the POINT of Foundations- to be fun. If my kids would have sat nicely and worked on a simpler, get-er-done program, I would have done that. :). But they wouldn't. That's when you use LOE.

 

PS, you looked at Reading Lessons Through Literature? That's a very clear, affordable, rule oriented program in the kind of the others you mentioned. It wasn't out yet when I taught my oldest to read, but if I didn't already own all the LOE stuff I would have tried it with my second.

 

PPS, get yourself a moveable alphabet set (Montessori sites make nice wood ones). Then you can spell and such without writing :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for your responses! 

 

VorLady and FromA2Z - Thank you! Your responses were very helpful; it's good to know that other readers might not work till everything coalesces. :)  I got the Phonogram app, too, it's been wonderful for phonics practice! 

 

Coco_Clark - it's very interesting to me to hear from someone who's tried PR and preferred LoE! We ended up buying LoE and so far it's been pretty good. My son isn't ready yet for all the writing, but we're plowing ahead with the reading and it's going well. And I've given some of the games a try and I'm surprised how much he loves them! (I think sometimes I forget that he's still just four years old.)  And no, I hadn't heard of Reading Lessons Through Literature. Thanks for mentioning it; it looks wonderful! 

 

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I basically echo everythign everyone else said.  I have no experience with Phonics Road but am using LOE (currently in C) and LOVE it!!  I'm actually planning on dumping 100 EZ Lessons with my middle, as I really want him to know ALL the phonograms and why they are used.  LOE does an incredible job at teaching this.  The price tag is high.  I'll give you that.  We often modified or skipped the games to something that was more manageable - but I have to say, doing the games really helped my active 6 yr old get through the phonogram sounds in a fun, engaging way.

 

I've read a LOT about RLTL and am secretly in love with it as well but feel like I'm already married to LOE. :)  It does tie reading and writing together though, and you may not want that.  It also doesn't specifically script each lesson, so if you're wanting/needing a little more direction, I would lean toward recommending LOE over RLTL.

 

One more thing to add -  If you like LOE but aren't interested in the fun & games, why not just do Essentials?  My understanding is that it covers most of the same material and you could perhaps slow down the pace a bit for a new reader and just do it at your own pace.  Just something to consider if you're really turned off by the games & dragons. ;)

 

LOE's online help in their forum is incredible.  So perhaps they could shed some light on how to go about implementing Essentials with your child or Foundations A.  

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Thanks for your responses!

 

VorLady and FromA2Z - Thank you! Your responses were very helpful; it's good to know that other readers might not work till everything coalesces. :) I got the Phonogram app, too, it's been wonderful for phonics practice!

 

Coco_Clark - it's very interesting to me to hear from someone who's tried PR and preferred LoE! We ended up buying LoE and so far it's been pretty good. My son isn't ready yet for all the writing, but we're plowing ahead with the reading and it's going well. And I've given some of the games a try and I'm surprised how much he loves them! (I think sometimes I forget that he's still just four years old.) And no, I hadn't heard of Reading Lessons Through Literature. Thanks for mentioning it; it looks wonderful!

I just wanted to add that I did a modified writing with my boys. In A we did writing via gross motor movements, salt tray, paint bags and tiles. In B we used large letters on a white board. We started using the worksheets provided for spelling in C. (I skipped the sentence copywork in C also - my eldest was still in K then). It has worked out beautifully for my eldest, who now easily does multi-sentence copy work in ELTL 2.

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