A Beka phonics or SSRW for reading in kindergarten??

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

My oldest learned in private school with SSRW, so we used SSRW with my next son.  He has done well with it.  However, my biggest disappointment with SSRW is that they don't teach long vowels until halfway through first grade, and the second half of first grade is fairly fast paced.  This has caused my first grader's progress to be slowed in choosing books to read.  Now that we have FINALLY gotten to long vowels, his confidence and progress is accelerating, but he was pretty discouraged at the first half of the year to be "behind" and not be reading more regular books.  I am certain my oldest's private school must have supplemented.

 

My next son will be four next year.  He is very interested in doing school and reading and writing letters.  I am considering using SSRW Train level (kindergarten level) with him in K4 and then doing Raceway (first grade) in kindergarten.  He has already been doing the Jolly Trolley worksheets.  My concern though is that Raceway may have too much writing for a kindergartener.

 

HOWEVER, someone gave us all of the A Beka phonics flashcards, readers and curriculum last year that I just used as fun supplements on occasion.  All I would need is to add the workbook (and purchase first grade).  I am debating switching to A Beka phonics for my next son.  I may not start the kindergarten until actual kindergarten in this case and do some letter of the week stuff for K4 next year.  Maybe even use the first SSRW train K book before we start A Beka.  I use A Beka math, so I am familiar with the curriculum.  I also did some A Beka phonics as a child, and I am familiar with the program.  My son loves to do school worksheets and actually gets upset if his older brothers are doing school and he isn't.  I have bought lots of inexpensive preschool books this year, so the repetitive nature and busywork is also not an issue with us.  However, I would just do the phonics, not spelling and all the other components.  

 

It would be about the same cost either way because I just need the workbooks.  I do believe A Beka phonics is very strong, but we have liked SSRW for the most part too.  My biggest complaint is SSRW's pacing, and the pacing in A Beka seems more to our liking.  

 

Would we need to do A Beka phonics through second grade for the full effect?  We are likely going to do Explode the Code for my son in second grade next year because I feel he will need more reinforcement.  My oldest did not need anything after Raceway (first grade.)  

 

If you are familiar with either of these programs, I'd appreciate your thoughts. I am not interested in completely switching programs outside of these two.  I like these two, just need to narrow it down.  Thanks for your input!

 

 

[purpleowl]

I use A Beka's K4, K5, and 1st grade phonics/language/reading materials. Partway through the 1st grade material, each of my girls took off with reading, and I stopped doing phonics instruction after that and switched to FLL for language and mom-selected books instead of leveled readers.

 

I have no experience with SSRW, so I can't really draw a comparison. I can tell you that A Beka introduces long vowel sounds near the end of K4 and again near the start (I think!) of K5. K5 includes...I'm working on memory here, but I think it's three of the eight "special sounds" charts, and then in 1st grade those three charts are done again and the other five are added.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

I have been thinking about this a lot this weekend. I think I am going to do the first All Aboard letter introductions in K4 along with some blend worksheets I have from A Beka K4 and then switch to do A Beka k5 in kindergarten. That way, I don't have to worry about him doing work he may not be ready for in SSRW Raceway (1st) in kindergarten. I can always supplement with the fun songs and games from SSRW.

 

Special sounds are not even introduced in SSRW until partly through first grade. I think SSRW is solid material and fun, but the pacing in kindergarten is off. I think it's because it was initially created as a one year program and then the first fifteen steps were broken off for kindergarten use. But then in first grade, you repeat the first fifteen steps again before you get to new material.

 

This might have been good overall for this son who may have needed more of a gentle progression, but I think it hurt his confidence some because he would say he couldn't read because he didn't know long vowels or special sounds. Way too long on Cvc words with a lot of ramping up now feeling we are "behind." He is finally getting confidence to pick up a book off the shelf and read it.