Son reading at 4th grade level. Do I really need AAR?

[CJSquared]

Hi everyone! My husband and I are brand new to the homeschooling lifestyle and are trying to come up with a plan for our rising second grader. My son is currently in public school but isn't flourishing due to our school being a poor performer in the area. Plus, he is 2-3 grade levels ahead of the other children in his class so he gets bored and checks out of whatever the teacher is covering. The principal says, "We aren't equipped to handle his special needs" so we came to the decision that homeschooling would be better for him.

 

I discovered All About Spelling and felt that it would be a great match for our family and am planning on starting out in level 1 as suggested by the manufacturer. My question is regarding All about Reading. Since my child is reading and comprehending at about a 4th grade level would he even benefit from AAR? I understand that it would help my emerging readers who are yet to be in school but I was wondering if I could skip this program for the time being. We came to the decision to homeschool rather abruptly and haven't much money to be utilized on curriculum.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

[fourisenough]

I think AAR would be totally unnecessary for a child reading at a 4th grade level. AAS 1 will be a great way to fill any phonics "holes" while teaching spelling.

[kateingr]

I agree, AAR would be overkill. The one thing to watch out for is how well he's doing with decoding unfamiliar big words. A lot of kids hit a wall with multi-syllable words right around the 4th-grade level and still need some explicit phonics instruction to make sure they get past it. Explode the Code workbooks are a thorough, inexpensive phonics curriculum you could use to make sure your son masters these skills. (If you went with them, you'd probably want to start him in Book 5 for practice with syllabification rules.)

 

 

 

[CJSquared]

Thanks to the both of you for your help! Kate, I was actually looking at Explode the code and wasn't sure if I should start him around book 4 or 5 or skip straight to Beyond the Code. I will pick up book 5! They look like fun books!

 

I'm becoming less nervous about this whole transition to homeschool. Gathering curriculum is quite overwhelming but now that my plan is a little more stabilized I'm getting more and more excited! Thanks again!

[MerryAtHope]

I agree--especially if he's reading 2-3 grade levels ahead. It sounds like he's picking up reading on his own and doesn't need instruction. AAS is a complete phonics program, so if he has any gaps, that will eventually fill them in. 

[dragonflyer]

Welcome to homeschooling!  Stick around here and you will get really excited about all of the possibilities. 

I agree with everyone that he does not need reading instruction and AAS will fill in any phonics gaps nicely.  Do not skip any levels, you should be able to zip through the first 2-3 levels quickly, but don't miss any of the lessons.

My only advice is to have fun with your kiddo.  Second grade with a kid who is already reading is tons of fun.

[strawberryjam]

FYI Beyond the Code is actually meant to do alongside upper levels of Explode the Code. The name of the books is misleading. Beyond the Code is primarily reading comprehension while Explode the Code focuses on phonics. So you don't actually do Beyond the Code after Explode the Code. I wish I had known that before, cause we totally missed out on using them for that reason. By the time we got to them I realized my mistake and they were way too easy then.

[kateingr]

Thanks to the both of you for your help! Kate, I was actually looking at Explode the code and wasn't sure if I should start him around book 4 or 5 or skip straight to Beyond the Code. I will pick up book 5! They look like fun books!

 

I'm becoming less nervous about this whole transition to homeschool. Gathering curriculum is quite overwhelming but now that my plan is a little more stabilized I'm getting more and more excited! Thanks again!

 

Oops, I was just working with my daughter and realized that Book 4 is the one with the syllabification rules! Sorry for the mistake!

[tm919]

Hi everyone! My husband and I are brand new to the homeschooling lifestyle and are trying to come up with a plan for our rising second grader. My son is currently in public school but isn't flourishing due to our school being a poor performer in the area. Plus, he is 2-3 grade levels ahead of the other children in his class so he gets bored and checks out of whatever the teacher is covering. The principal says, "We aren't equipped to handle his special needs" so we came to the decision that homeschooling would be better for him.

 

I discovered All About Spelling and felt that it would be a great match for our family and am planning on starting out in level 1 as suggested by the manufacturer. My question is regarding All about Reading. Since my child is reading and comprehending at about a 4th grade level would he even benefit from AAR? I understand that it would help my emerging readers who are yet to be in school but I was wondering if I could skip this program for the time being. We came to the decision to homeschool rather abruptly and haven't much money to be utilized on curriculum.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

If money were totally not an object, I'd say AAR is easy to use and fun - and can be done very quickly to fill any gaps. But, truthfully, I'd skip it since you don't seem to need it for your son and AAS alone is likely to be a big expense. I spent over $200 on the first year of AAS when I started at level 1 with my daughter who already read well. By the time I was ordering level 4 it actually hurt, like, I couldn't believe I had spent that much on spelling in such a short time.

Edited May 9, 2016 by tm919

[ExcitedMama]

You could also have her take the AAR placement tests if you wanted to check for any trouble spots to work on.

[CJSquared]

Money is definitely an object, however, I am planning on homeschooling our two younger children in the coming years so anything I buy now will likely be used more than once. My rising kindergartner can read bob style books and my pre-K aged child knows a few sight words. Our 7 year old learned to read pretty much on his own. I did help him but, truthfully, he didn't need it. Unfortunately, my younger children aren't quite as eager to learn and get very frustrated when they don't make the leaps and bounds in progress that their older brother made. This is why I am interested in AAR. I don't know exactly how the system works but I have searched the reviews and most of the reviewers speak of how much their children enjoyed it. I want all of my children to have the love for reading that my husband and I have but I've discovering that my enthusiasm alone isn't enough to motivate our younger children. I probably will skip AAR this year but am thinking about starting it next fall when we start homeschooling our rising kindergartner. Thank you all for your help!

 

@Kate - I have been hoarding these items in my cart for a few days and was going to make a final decision tonight! I'll get book 4 instead. Perfect timing! Thanks! :)

 

@strawberryjam - When do you suggest beginning the beyond the code books? If I start with explode the code book 4 should I go ahead and do beyond the code in tandem or should I wait until he is further along?

 

[kristin0713]

We did Logic of Enlgish which is a "spell their way into reading" approach and never used a formal "reading" curriculum. I just had them practice reading out loud to me on their level until they could transition to reading beginning chapter books alone. (Actually I'm still having my 2nd grade DS read out loud to me.) Both of my kids did great with that approach and are wonderful spellers, I think because we emphasized spelling and writing instead of reading right from the beginning.

[mamamoose]

I don't think I would start a child who already reads well in AAR. AAS was created before AAR and its initial intention was to be used independently. There are different theories about reading and spelling, and one thing I love about OG is that it teaches decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) together. My kindergartner is already spelling phonetically really well after a year with Barton. We use AAR as a supplement, mostly for more practice. My only complaint is there is a lot of fluency practice (reading word lists and phrase lists) and not a lot of actual reading and both my dyslexic son and my youngest get overwhelmed by the lists. They both prefer stories in Barton over the endless lists of words in AAR. I ended up buying a set of "I Can Read" books which follow along fairly well and provide reading enjoyment.

[ElizabethB]

Here are some free upper level phonics resources, my well taught link

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

 

My concentration game, a fun free game for your younger children and good practice with nonsense words if there are any guessing problems with your oldest.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

 

 

Sight Words, why and how to teach them phonetically instead.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html

[tm919]

I don't think I would start a child who already reads well in AAR. AAS was created before AAR and its initial intention was to be used independently. There are different theories about reading and spelling, and one thing I love about OG is that it teaches decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) together. My kindergartner is already spelling phonetically really well after a year with Barton. We use AAR as a supplement, mostly for more practice. My only complaint is there is a lot of fluency practice (reading word lists and phrase lists) and not a lot of actual reading and both my dyslexic son and my youngest get overwhelmed by the lists. They both prefer stories in Barton over the endless lists of words in AAR. I ended up buying a set of "I Can Read" books which follow along fairly well and provide reading enjoyment.

Not disagreeing that the OP should skip AAR for this year due to cost, but just for a different perspective... my younger daughter read well but I still backtracked and did AAR anyway when I could swing the cost. I realized that she had intuited a lot of stuff, but didn't have all the  pieces and was hitting roadblocks. I would have assumed she was "all done" learning to read and it was just practice... but she truly didn't get things like some of the finer points of syllable division, and it was frustrating her to the point she didn't really want to read books at her level. I could have waited to get through that in AAS but it just goes so much slower that doing AAR was worth it to me.

[aprilleigh]

I'd pass on AAR at this point. When we made the switch from Spelling Workout to All About Spelling in first grade I asked them about AAR while I had them on the phone to order AAS. They told me that since my child was already well into The Ordinary Parent's Guide that AAR would be unnecessary but AAS would reinforce what he had learned there. That advice was spot on and DS10 reads at approximately an 8th-grade level now.

[kaxy]

Make sure he is still reading aloud to you to build fluency and those elocution skills. There's a placement test you can do to see if AAR4 would make sense, but it sounds like AAS will cover your bases. Welcome to homeschooling!