Phonics Program without lots of diacritical markings? AAR?

[mamaofgirls]

Does anyone have any suggestions for a phonics program that does not use lots of diacritical markings? I planed to use CLE but from the samples I just dont know if it will work (for me, I am not a great reader and phonics scares me to the point of shipping then off until the ps teaches them to read!). Does All About Reading use it? Or Christian Liberty Press... Any suggestions would be great :)

[Ellie]

Spalding and its spin-offs/look-alikes don't use diacritical markings.  Spalding, LOE, SWR, AAS, Phonics Road.

 

Also, I don't think Phonics Pathways or Alphaphonics does, and possibly not OPGTR.

[ExcitedMama]

I wanted nothing to do with those markings either! I don't find them intuitive at all. AAR uses them only very sparingly when talking about vowel sounds. Plus they have an app that will play the sounds so you really never have to use the markings and the student never sees them.

 

AAR could not be better. It lays out exactly what to do and how to teach it. I was scared of teaching reading too but AAR makes it super easy. I just open the book and it's already laid out for me. When DS started about a year ago he wasn't reading anything, not even cat, he just knew his letters and now he is reading everything in sight. He loves all the games and activities and is always asking to keep doing more lessons. AAR1 was tough for him for the first couple of weeks though since he didn't understand blending at all. If you have a child like that and you want a gentle introduction check out Memoria Press First Start Reading which is a great introduction to blending. They teach it with writing which worked well for my son with understanding beginning reading. They also have great comprehension exercises and it was another program that was a hit here.

Edited January 28, 2016 by ExcitedMama

[mamaofgirls]

I wanted nothing to do with those markings either! I don't find them intuitive at all. AAR uses them only very sparingly when talking about vowel sounds. Plus they have an app that will play the sounds so you really never have to use the markings and the student never sees them.

 

AAR could not be better. It lays out exactly what to do and how to teach it. I was scared of teaching reading too but AAR makes it super easy. I just open the book and it's already laid out for me. When DS started about a year ago he wasn't reading anything, not even cat, he just knew his letters and now he is reading everything in sight. He loves all the games and activities and is always asking to keep doing more lessons. AAR1 was tough for him for the first couple of weeks though since he didn't understand blending at all. If you have a child like that and you want a gentle introduction check out Memoria Press First Start Reading which is a great introduction to blending. They teach it with writing which worked well for my son with understanding beginning reading. They also have great comprehension exercises and it was another program that was a hit here.

 

Thank you so much for posting! I am definitely going with AAR now - I was worried about how it was laid out for the teacher (I have no teaching or phonics abilities of my own!). I dont want to fail! Just opening up the book sounds great for me and my dd will love the games/hands on activities. She knows her letter sounds and we have worked on some cvc words (like the -at word family this week - cat, mat, hat, sat...). But she does not turn 5 for a few more months; would AAR1 be too much? She can blend but does not always *get it* - sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't. I could just go really, really slow with lots of review (and not everyday). I hate to buy the prereading if we dont need it since they are all so expensive!

 

Thanks again for posting!!

[ReadingMama1214]

Thank you so much for posting! I am definitely going with AAR now - I was worried about how it was laid out for the teacher (I have no teaching or phonics abilities of my own!). I dont want to fail! Just opening up the book sounds great for me and my dd will love the games/hands on activities. She knows her letter sounds and we have worked on some cvc words (like the -at word family this week - cat, mat, hat, sat...). But she does not turn 5 for a few more months; would AAR1 be too much? She can blend but does not always *get it* - sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't. I could just go really, really slow with lots of review (and not everyday). I hate to buy the prereading if we dont need it since they are all so expensive!

 

Thanks again for posting!!

Do not buy the pre-reading. I did the pre-reading with my dd when she didn't have letter names and sounds down. It was great for learning letters, sounds,rhyming, phonemic awareness, how to break down syllables.

 

If your dd is struggling with some phonemic awareness, there are free things you can do for that. I think my dd would be bored with the pre-reading now that she can read some.

 

I can't speak to level 1. We switched to Ordinary Parents Gude (no diacritical markings) after AAR pre reading since I didn't want to invest in AAR. OPG works great for us.

[ExcitedMama]

If she's started blending AAR1 should be a great fit. My DS started it around 5 and if we hadn't moved around that time he would have started it earlier and would have been ready for it. It goes very slowly and systematically in the beginning. It has cute little games to reinforce the concepts. I think she's way ahead of where DS started since he couldn't blend so we had a rocky and frustrated couple of weeks before he got it.

 

It's easy to speed up or slow down as needed. At the beginning of AAR1 it could take days to complete a lesson as we had to go slow and DS had to learn concepts. Then when it clicked we started doing one or more a day. Once you get started you'll see at what speed to go. Check out the samples on their website, there are a lot of pages available, and you'll get an idea of how open and go it really is.

 

The only catch I think with AAR1 is the fluency sheets which are basically a lot of words to read. DS would freak out at the sheer number in the beginning. They are at the end of the lesson to help improve fluency in reading speed and eventually move onto phrases and sentences. There are fun tricks you can find for them like having them highlight or feed them to a monster but I'm more of a get it done type do I just folded it half so it wasn't so overwhelming. I had him start with half a page and then gradually do more at one sitting based on what he could handle. Then we would do more the next time. Until it was finished we wouldn't go onto the next lesson and he wouldn't get his sticker for finishing which helped motivate him to ge through it. AAR3 is so much better since it's mostly sentences and he can zoom through it but in AAR1 the crowded words on the page were often met with a freak out.

 

I know how stressful it is when you've never done it before. That's exactly how I felt too but it it really is easy with AAR. I can't remember learning to read and I completely forget things like all the vowel sounds but AAR tells you exactly what to say. DS knows I don't remember all the vowel sounds and thinks it funny. Today he was learning the sounds of OO and honestly I only hear it as one sound even though it apparently has 3 sounds but it doesn't matter that I don't get that because I can just teach him the steps. Now we mostly go quickly and skim over the instructions but there is a script you can read so you really do just open it up and go.

 

I know how hard that was to believe when I got started but it really does break everything up into baby steps for you. I am debating now when to start back through it with DD. Plus the customer support is great. They immediately answer questions on their forum and sent me replacement tiles when I lost them. If you decide to order from their website you can request box art in the comment section of the order too. The kids love that part and we have a cut out of the last one hanging up because it was such a hit. I think it's a fun way to get them excited about it.

Edited January 28, 2016 by ExcitedMama

[MerryAtHope]

Thank you so much for posting! I am definitely going with AAR now - I was worried about how it was laid out for the teacher (I have no teaching or phonics abilities of my own!). I dont want to fail! Just opening up the book sounds great for me and my dd will love the games/hands on activities. She knows her letter sounds and we have worked on some cvc words (like the -at word family this week - cat, mat, hat, sat...). But she does not turn 5 for a few more months; would AAR1 be too much? She can blend but does not always *get it* - sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't. I could just go really, really slow with lots of review (and not everyday). I hate to buy the prereading if we dont need it since they are all so expensive!

 

Thanks again for posting!!

 

Check the level 1 placement test--then you'll know if she's ready to start with AAR 1 or if she needs work at the Pre-reading level first. Some kids don't need pre-reading, but many really benefit from it if they are missing phonological awareness skills etc... I think you'll find the teacher's manuals pretty easy to use. You can see inside those and the readers and activity books on the samples page. HTH some!

[Cara4497]

Check the level 1 placement test--then you'll know if she's ready to start with AAR 1 or if she needs work at the Pre-reading level first. Some kids don't need pre-reading, but many really benefit from it if they are missing phonological awareness skills etc... I think you'll find the teacher's manuals pretty easy to use. You can see inside those and the readers and activity books on the samples page. HTH some!

 

Agreed. I'm doing the pre reading with my son who is 4.5. I started to skip it since he already knows his letters. But I'm glad I didn't. He is picking up on things I didn't realize he didn't know. For example, I hadn't been using the ABC poster where they are supposed to point to each letter as they sing the song. One day I did and he scanned the page for each letter not understanding that they were in order left to right.  

[ReadingMama1214]

Agreed. I'm doing the pre reading with my son who is 4.5. I started to skip it since he already knows his letters. But I'm glad I didn't. He is picking up on things I didn't realize he didn't know. For example, I hadn't been using the ABC poster where they are supposed to point to each letter as they sing the song. One day I did and he scanned the page for each letter not understanding that they were in order left to right.

I agree that strong pre reading skills are essential. Print awareness, phonemic awareness, rhyming, oral blending, letter recognition, etc. But I don't think you'd need to spend the money on AAR pre reading to do these things. Pinterest is amazing and there are lots of free/cheap activities you can do for these. I'd buy level 1 and work on skills needed to read and then start it. I agree, check the placement test out on the learning press website.

[Cara4497]

I agree that strong pre reading skills are essential. Print awareness, phonemic awareness, rhyming, oral blending, letter recognition, etc. But I don't think you'd need to spend the money on AAR pre reading to do these things. Pinterest is amazing and there are lots of free/cheap activities you can do for these. I'd buy level 1 and work on skills needed to read and then start it. I agree, check the placement test out on the learning press website.

 

That's good to know. Thanks.

 

I'm a total newbie. I had never even heard the phrase phonemic awareness before AAR and am still not 100% sure what it means. So for me, a planned out program made sense. I can see how Pinterest would be helpful for a lot of people though. I guess my point was that you don't know what you don't know and there is more to the program than just learning that B says buh.

[ReadingMama1214]

That's good to know. Thanks.

 

I'm a total newbie. I had never even heard the phrase phonemic awareness before AAR and am still not 100% sure what it means. So for me, a planned out program made sense. I can see how Pinterest would be helpful for a lot of people though. I guess my point was that you don't know what you don't know and there is more to the program than just learning that B says buh.

There is. It addresses segmenting and counting syllables, oral blending (so you say caaaaat and the child says cat), and rhyming and a few other skills.

 

But, I personally wouldn't spend $100+ on a program for those skills. I think that if your daughter knows the letters and sounds, she might be bored with the pre reading level. I think you'd be able to get suggestions on the forum for what skills you should address prior to starting AAR1

[908874]

The only catch I think with AAR1 is the fluency sheets which are basically a lot of words to read. DS would freak out at the sheer number in the beginning. They are at the end of the lesson to help improve fluency in reading speed and eventually move onto phrases and sentences. There are fun tricks you can find for them like having them highlight or feed them to a monster but I'm more of a get it done type do I just folded it half so it wasn't so overwhelming. I had him start with half a page and then gradually do more at one sitting based on what he could handle. Then we would do more the next time. Until it was finished we wouldn't go onto the next lesson and he wouldn't get his sticker for finishing which helped motivate him to ge through it. AAR3 is so much better since it's mostly sentences and he can zoom through it but in AAR1 the crowded words on the page were often met with a freak out.

 

 

We switched to AAR1 at the start of this year - I've only been using it 4 weeks. We started sort of in the middle of AAR1. The fluency pages are met with annoyance by my son. Freak outs too - depending on his mood. But the first week we only did one lesson. I do exactly what ExcitedMama says here - I am the get it done type too :)  The irritation over doing fluency pages is less as he "gets" it. As we continue with the program the progress I have seen is amazing. I am planning to start preAAR with DD soon.

 

I checked and fluency pages start in lesson 3. Its only one page (later on it is several) and I imagine you can break that up into small chunks over several days. If you child is ready to blend this program should work well.

 

PS

I don't know if this is helpful at all. But when I was switching programs I thought AAR2 would be a better fit for my son. He could do most of the placement test for AAR2. I had the luxury to get this free from our homeschool charter so I could test it out. The dreaded fluency pages told me that my son was a sight reader who could sound things out but he didn't feel like it. The fluency pages force him to read phonetically. In my opinion this is what he needs. And thus, AAR1 was a better fit. It offers a lot of practice and I am pleased with the results so far.

Edited January 29, 2016 by 908874

[mom2bee]

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