OPGTR to What?

[MrsWeasley]

We are about 100 lessons into OPGTR, and both of us feel really frustrated. Though he doesn't intuit phonics rules well from reading, with a lot of review, he has a pretty good grasp on the phonics rules so far. He struggles a lot more with fluency. Almost all the early reader books at our library surpass his frustration level. Even most of the readers the librarians label as for beginning readers contain words that OPGTR doesn't introduce for another hundred lessons. He gets discouraged about his inability to read "real books." We supplement heavily with Progressive Phonics, which he likes (pictures!), but it moves too quickly for us to use alone. I would really like to find a way to make our reading lessons more fun OR find a reading program that will get him to a place where he could read early readers soon. He loves making art and music. He also is thriving with HWOT and RS Math, which are much more hands-on programs. OPGTR right now seems like a long, boring, fruitless chore. I use AAS for my older child's spelling, so I keep looking at AAR, but I would love any suggestions. Or give me a pep talk into stick with OPGTR!

[Pegs]

Have you tried BOB books? We use them along with OPG and love them.

 

And if you're looking for other early readers, the keyword you want is "decodable". By lesson 100 in OPG, there should be a fair bit that your DS can decode in little books. BOB books are my first recommendation to you. I'm sure others here will have more suggestions too. :)

[MrsWeasley]

He can read the first two sets of Bob books, but there's a huge jump in the difficulty from the second to the third book. The third book moves much more quickly and has many phonics patterns not covered in OPGTR for a long time. With a kid who needs explicit instruction and a lot of review, he's not ready for the rest of them yet. We've had better luck with Nora Gaydos' early reader series, as it moves much more leisurely, but I definitely struggle with finding decode-able books for him. Any recommendations?

[KT7673]

Not sure if this will help, but here is our experience.  I had the same problem with my first son and we supplemented with progressive phonics and Bob books also, but everyone was getting frustrated. I ended up doing a lot of eclectic stuff after that.  I found My Father's World's First grade curriculum on homeschool classifieds for an inexpensive price.  We used it only for the phonics and enjoyed it for how quickly it got him reading readers we could get at the library, but I felt like it was not as complete as OPTGR.  In the middle of the MFW curriculum I found out about AAR and definitely wanted to get that program, but realized I had already spent too much money on phonics to buy the entire program.  So, I bought the readers only.  The level one readers were great, but it took a while to get into level two readers because they introduce multi-syllable words earlier than any other program.  Eventually, after more fluency was mastered we did go back and finish OPTGR. 

[Sahamamama]

When my girls were that age, they practiced on BOB books, the All About Reading Readers (Run, Bug, Run!; The Runt Pig; Cobweb the Cat), Biscuit books (from the library), and little stories I typed up from a word list based on what they already knew. HTH.

 

http://alyssacapucilli.com/books-category/my-first-i-can-read-books/

[Sherry in OH]

Reading Pathways is great for improving fluency.  

 

Make your own books using words he can decode.  Since he likes drawing, have him draw the illustrations.

[desertflower]

I don't know where one is at 100 lessons, but have you tried I can Read Now!?   http://www.amazon.com/Read-Easy-Sight-Word-Reader/dp/147505632X 

 

It's like Reading Pathways except at a more leisure pace.  It's colorful and most of the pages contain one syllable words. 

 

 

[Ellie]

We are about 100 lessons into OPGTR, and both of us feel really frustrated. Though he doesn't intuit phonics rules well from reading, with a lot of review, he has a pretty good grasp on the phonics rules so far. He struggles a lot more with fluency. Almost all the early reader books at our library surpass his frustration level. Even most of the readers the librarians label as for beginning readers contain words that OPGTR doesn't introduce for another hundred lessons. He gets discouraged about his inability to read "real books." We supplement heavily with Progressive Phonics, which he likes (pictures!), but it moves too quickly for us to use alone. I would really like to find a way to make our reading lessons more fun OR find a reading program that will get him to a place where he could read early readers soon. He loves making art and music. He also is thriving with HWOT and RS Math, which are much more hands-on programs. OPGTR right now seems like a long, boring, fruitless chore. I use AAS for my older child's spelling, so I keep looking at AAR, but I would love any suggestions. Or give me a pep talk into stick with OPGTR!

 

Spalding.  :D

[Rasa]

OPGTR worked great for my chess player, but not for my violinist.  We switched to Explode the Code and started making steady progress right away. I wish I could tell you that my daughter loved ETC from the beginning (she did not), but we stuck with it long term, two pages a day, and it got easier and easier as the lessons got harder and harder (sort of like Suzuki violin study, isn't it?)

[ExcitedMama]

I'm not sure of the order that OPGTR teaches but the AAR readers are great. MP First Start Reading recommends separate phonics readers you could look at.

 

Soft and White is 2nd in the series

http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/042648

 

I See Sam Books are free. Hooked on Phonics app is often free and has a lot of levels with different books for each level.

[Tawlas]

For my less intuitive readers, I also found that OPGTR was not a great fit, especially for my son. He needed more practice. AAR fit the bill wonderfully for him (he's now on level 3) but I want to submit another vote for just the level 1 readers if that's all you can afford. Ds didn't do level 1, just the readers and then we moved on to AAR 2. The readers are wonderful, my son really enjoyed them as well!

 

I feel like OPGTR is better for a more natural reader. My younger ds is flying through it (but then again, he would have flown through anything, I bet). My oldest didn't start homeschooling until half way through grade 2. While she's a struggling reader, I used OPGTR with her with a TON of review. Everything else I had just seemed too babyish, maybe. Basically going through sections over and over again with hardly any new material for days at a time. She's almost to grade level on her phonics knowledge, her fluency is still so low it affects her comprehension in a big way. We're a quarter of the way through REWARDS intermediate and I can already see improvement. Something to keep in mind if fluency is still an issue once your son is around a grade 3 reading level.

[SeaConquest]

We used the combo of Progressive Phonics, all the books from Innovative Kids (there are a lot besides just Nora Gaydos' books... see http://www.innovativekids.com/shop/245/learn-to-read),and the AAR Readers (excellent!). We crashed and burned on OPGTR, but the combo of the above took my son up 4-5 reading levels in his K year. Highly recommend that combo!  

[pehp]

I stuck with OPGTR (never teaching it as scripted, but rather just using the words/concepts as a springboard for my own teaching) and the lightbulb went off when my son turned 7.  Glorious.  

 

When he was struggling with even 'easy' readers, I wrote my own.  They were very basic. I knew which words he could read, and used those....and sometimes I drew pics, sometimes he did.  It was fun. He also liked Bob books, which I didn't like, but they were very basic and thus very helpful!

 

(Oh! we also used ETC until about midway through second grade. At that point he was so fluent that they were redundant, but I think they may have helped.)

[Rachel]

The phonics readers from Usborne may work for your son too. My daughter can read most of Big Pig on a Dig and we aren't thorough the first 100 lessons in OPGTR yet.

[MerryAtHope]

It's a frustrating (sometimes exhausting!) stage when they need more practice and you have trouble finding things that work. I borrowed from friends when I could! The Sonlight K readers (Fun Tales) and the CLP K readers (It's Fun to Read, Pals and Pets--there are two more that are harder) are some that I filled in with here. The aspects you mentioned--explicit instruction, fluency practice, decodable readers, and lots of review are things that make AAR seem like it would be a good fit for your son (it wasn't out when my kids were learning). If you want a closer look inside the readers for each level, you might like to check out this article on decodable readers. I also like this one on the difference between AAR and AAS--it walks through how a concept is taught in each program. Maybe that will give you a feel for whether switching would be helpful.

 

Hang in there!

[LMCme]

My son loves the Progressive Phonics readers, too.  Not sure if it will work for your child, but if he likes that format (you read some things, I read some things) these Usborne Very First Readers are nice http://www.usborne.com/veryfirstreading/books/books.aspx.  Similar in approach to PP, but with that very high quality Usborne look and feel.  Which, yes, costs a pretty penny but perhaps you could get the local library to buy a set?  Or try to find it used.  Another thing that I've been doing with DS is reading regular books but having him read parts of each page while I read other parts (either words he can't read yet, or when he just gets tired I read more).  In a couple of cases I photocopied them and used a red marker to do "his" words so it looked more like Progressive Phonics.

[dovrar]

I don't know how well it is aligned with OPGTR, but All About Learning Press has a set of readers that are phonics based. Oops, didn't notice that this had been mentioned.