After 15 years of homeschooling six kids, my youngest two may go to private school next year. Help me get my youngest ready please

[amyinva]

If your child was reading frog and toad books comfortably, and you had two months to get him to the point of reading the boxcar children comfortably, what progression of books would you use to have him do this by just reading together each day and not specifically doing more phonics.? We have done a lot of phonics, & I really think it's a matter of practice now. In other words I'm looking for: have him read Little Bear, then Henry and Mudge, then mr. Putter and Tabby, etc, until I get to Boxcar Children...

 

Thank you!

[MommyLiberty5013]

Do you happen to be in the RVA area? There's a great classical private school there. It's religious though. Just thought of that. Might be an easy transition if the religious part isn't a concern. It's called Veritas.

[amyinva]

Also, just to clarify why after six kids I am asking this question, most of my others went from Reading little bear and frog and toad to things just clicking. Once it clicked, it clicked, and they were Off to the races. This guy seems to need a bit more of a gradual progression. Thank you!

[Lecka]

I think be patient and they will understand at the private school. I don't think you can rush kids through or that every single kid reads on a schedule.

[JudoMom]

Look at the Sonlight grade 1 or grade 2 readers schedule. Maybe that'll help?

[amyinva]

I appreciate the supportive comments, but what they will do is put him in the prior grade. That's fine, but he would like to be with his age group if possible. So we're giving it a try this summer. I'm just trying to figure out a good slow progression of books for us to read together this summer, starting with frog and toad, and ending somewhere around the boxcar children reading level.

[Jean in Newcastle]

DK has graded readers available at a lot of libraries. 

 

The suggestion to look at the books chosen by Sonlight is a good one too. 

[Lecka]

Well, I would try repeated reading (like for fluency) and try out Boxcar Children and see if it is at all realistic, and then work backwards from there.

 

Pick a passage (half a page) from Boxcar Children and read it 3 times, read it first together, maybe twice together, then have him do it himself.

 

Then maybe drop down to Mr Putter and Tabby, or Henry and Mudge if you need to.

 

You have done phonics -- so do some recommended fluency practices, which repeated reading (starting with reading together) is a choice.

 

Edit: google something like "one minute reader," it uses "modeling by a fluent reader" plus "repeated reading." I think try to add those elements and maybe not just read through things on his own or read one thing and go onto the next thing. I think you would see pretty quickly if it was helpful or seemed to be a waste of time.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Lecka

[Cinder]

My dd read a lot of Magic Tree House in the transition.

[heartlikealion]

I appreciate the supportive comments, but what they will do is put him in the prior grade. That's fine, but he would like to be with his age group if possible. So we're giving it a try this summer. I'm just trying to figure out a good slow progression of books for us to read together this summer, starting with frog and toad, and ending somewhere around the boxcar children reading level.

 

What grade is he entering where they said they want him reading Boxcar Children?

 

Ds was in third at a private school last year. I looked at their summer reading requirements to see what range of books they were expected to be able to read. Among the list was the I Survived series, Boxcar Children, Magic Tree House, Judy Moody, Horrible Harry and Emma Dilemma. I might have my child try Magic Tree House before Boxcar Children. They seem to be smaller and maybe a bit easier? Another series he read sometimes from the school library was Bad Kitty. I think they might have been shorter than Boxcar.

 

I am not really familiar with the ones you mentioned. My son never read those.

 

[musicianmom]

*

Edited May 21, 2022 by musicianmom

[sassenach]

I am not sure you can *make* a kid jump that many reading levels. 

 

That said, what worked with my kids was using Sonlight's readers to progressively move into more advanced books. (worked over the course of a school year)

 

https://www.sonlight.com/homeschool/subjects/readers/readers-2/

https://www.sonlight.com/homeschool/subjects/readers/readers-3/

 

The Clyde Robert Bulla books were especially great for my son.

 

And keep reading aloud!

 

 

[unsinkable]

I would go to the library and get the "I Can Read" books, levels 3 and 4. There are lots of them to choose from.

 

Another thing that could help is cartoon books like Peanuts. My beginning readers loved those. Most of the panels are simple words and they'd ask me the difficult ones.

 

They also looked at a lot of the DK-type books...the ones with more pictures than text. Many people don't like them bc they are visually busy but I know the contextually clues helped them. The reading level listed was way higher than what they could read, but somehow with the pictures and with me helping, they enjoyed reading them and I think it boosted their abilities.

 

Another thought: kids' magazines like Highlights and Ranger Rick.

 

HTH

[Bocky]

Around the time she was reading Frog and Toad All Year, my daughter read Dr Seuss titles like The Cat in the Hat, and the early Henry and Mudge books. From there she moved into the first four books of the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osbourne and the A to Z mysteries by Ron Roy, and then to the Boxcar Children. 

[zoobie]

That's 5 levels in 2 months. Does the child have to be reading fluently aloud at that level or reading silently? That's a tough call--how to encourage without making the child freak out and clamp down. Lots of reading aloud. Take turns with sentences. Good luck!

[sassenach]

Is this your 5 year old? For entry into what grade? 1st? 

 

I'm wary of a school that places kids solely on reading level, especially when they are that young.

[heartlikealion]

Is this your 5 year old? For entry into what grade? 1st? 

 

I'm wary of a school that places kids solely on reading level, especially when they are that young.

 

Yeah, I can't imagine that someone entering first would need to read on Boxcar children level. I don't know if her sig is up-to-date. I clicked around some summer reading lists on the school site where ds went and for rising first graders they had stuff like Dr Seuss.

 

[amyinva]

Haha my 5yo just turned 8. Maybe time to update the sig?

 

I won't push hard, if he's not ready by Aug it's fine. But worth a try bc he wants to. They aren't placing by reading level, but the curriculum has a lot of reading at the grade level he wants to be in, less so in the grade prior. We'll see how it goes.

[vonfirmath]

Around the time she was reading Frog and Toad All Year, my daughter read Dr Seuss titles like The Cat in the Hat, and the early Henry and Mudge books. From there she moved into the first four books of the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osbourne and the A to Z mysteries by Ron Roy, and then to the Boxcar Children. 

 

This is the level my 5 year old going into 1st grade is -- Frog and Toad, Henry and Mudge, cat in the Hat. 

[heartlikealion]

Haha my 5yo just turned 8. Maybe time to update the sig?

 

I won't push hard, if he's not ready by Aug it's fine. But worth a try bc he wants to. They aren't placing by reading level, but the curriculum has a lot of reading at the grade level he wants to be in, less so in the grade prior. We'll see how it goes.

 

There's definitely a range for kids in his grade. Like I said the summer reading list I shared for entering third graders had an assortment of series, which I think were not all the same reading level. I wouldn't worry too much. Do you know the curriculum? My son's school used Abeka.

[Ali in OR]

The big transition series in our house was Nate the Great. It's a step up from Henry and Mudge, Little Bear, etc. (all of which I think of as the same level at this point in my life--pretty far removed from reading them). From there they stepped into regular books.

 

For my youngest, she literally went from Nate the Great to Rick Riordan's Sea of Monsters! We listened to The Lightning Thief on a car trip and she really wanted to know what happened next, so she slowly worked her way through Sea of Monsters when we got home. She was my more reluctant reader, so finding a motivating story was key. Rick Riordan or Harry Potter can work well for motivating stories.