Do I NEED AAR 3 & 4?

[Raeof5]

Ok, my daughter is finishing level 2 but just for kicks I gave her the placement tests.  Well she aced the level 3 and 4 tests. I'm pretty shocked but maybe it's all the reading aka reading the subtitles when mommy is watching foreign movies and films that helped her so much.

So my question is, so I just continue with the program because it seems like it explains the whys to her which would help her if she came across other words she needed to figure out. Right? Then I was also considering just going through OPGTR with her just to make sure but it seems so watered down. Or am I over thinking reading? Will she learn all the rules too in AAS? We just started level 1 of that and I got The Phonics Game to hopefully reinforce some rules too. What about multisyllable words? I keep seeing people say AAR will take her through high school level reading while OPGTR stops around 4th. 

I don't want to spend the money if I don't have to because there's soooooo many other things in my RR cart right now. Lol! Help me please!

[Syllieann]

I would skip it if you're doing a phonics based spelling. 

[ElizabethB]

My free program goes to 12th grade level and teaches spelling rules!  You could finish up the rest of Webster's Speller and Word Mastery and be good, all 3 free to print, my program is not enough repetition for a beginner but will show you how to work with multi-syllable words and will be complete with Webster's Speller and Word Mastery.  You could actually use Webster's Speller for single syllable words, too, but I like the layout of Phonics Pathways or Word Mastery or OPG better than Webster for simple words.  Webster is awesome for 2+ syllable words, though! The complete Webster and Word Mastery are available to print from Don Potter.

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

 

Edited December 28, 2018 by ElizabethB

[Momto6inIN]

My DD was in a similar situation a few years ago. We went ahead and did the lessons in the teacher's manual but skipped the rest of the stuff - cards, activities, fluency sheets, etc. We did uae the readers for practice. We also used AAS which reinforced those lessons. Just buying the TM and the readers was cheaper than the whole thing.

[FireweedPrep]

I wouldn't.  We stopped at the end of AAR 2, at which point DD was reading at a solid fourth grade reading level with fantastic comprehension.  I had read that once they are reading fluently, start a phonic based spelling and it will set them up for success, and have them keep reading out loud to you.

[Raeof5]

16 minutes ago, FireweedPrep said:

I wouldn't.  We stopped at the end of AAR 2, at which point DD was reading at a solid fourth grade reading level with fantastic comprehension.  I had read that once they are reading fluently, start a phonic based spelling and it will set them up for success, and have them keep reading out loud to you.

How do I test their reading level?

[MerryAtHope]

On 12/27/2018 at 8:37 AM, Raeof5 said:

Ok, my daughter is finishing level 2 but just for kicks I gave her the placement tests.  Well she aced the level 3 and 4 tests.

 

Awesome! You would expect her to do well on the Level 3 placement test--that test shows she's ready for level 3 and has mastered the level 2 content. Since she also did well on the level 4 test though, you can check to see if she's beyond that level. Some of the harder words in level 4 are: acquaintance, aphid, beneficial, boutique, bronchial, campaign, chameleon, chauffeur, consignment, crochet, cuisine, cylinder, deficient, delectable, distraught, entree, epilogue, etiquette, facial, ferocious, glisten, gnashed, gourmet, graduation, guinea, Herculean, heroism, horticulture, hygiene, incompatible, isle, lariat, lasagna, limousine, magnificence, mayonnaise, malicious, meringue, mustache, neighborhood, nuisance, ocelot, onslaught, oregano, pendulum, perceptible, picturesque, plausible, premiere, prioritize, questionnaire, reassign, routine, sanitize, saute, situation, solstice, souvenir, specimen, spectacular, teleportation, temperament, tortilla, unveiled, vogue, warthog, zucchini.

If those are easy for her, she wouldn't need AAR 4. If they are hard for her, you could decide if you want to keep using AAR, or if you just want to have her keep reading to you. You could look through the online samples and scope and sequence links to see what all is covered--that might help you decide too. Since you plan to use All About Spelling, she'll cover all of the syllable rules, phonograms, and other concepts that apply to reading as well. Some kids naturally apply what they learn as they read more, while others need more direct instruction. HTH some!

[Raeof5]

4 hours ago, MerryAtHope said:

If those are easy for her, she wouldn't need AAR 4. If they are hard for her, you could decide if you want to keep using AAR, or if you just want to have her keep reading to you. You could look through the online samples and scope and sequence links to see what all is covered--that might help you decide too. Since you plan to use All About Spelling, she'll cover all of the syllable rules, phonograms, and other concepts that apply to reading as well. Some kids naturally apply what they learn as they read more, while others need more direct instruction. HTH some!

Thank you! Yes that helped a lot. Do you think I could get away with just the manual and readers like someone else suggested? My daughter isn't keen on the activities. 

[MerryAtHope]

On 12/31/2018 at 10:09 PM, Raeof5 said:

Thank you! Yes that helped a lot. Do you think I could get away with just the manual and readers like someone else suggested? My daughter isn't keen on the activities. 

You do miss a lot of the words that way because you don't have the fluency practice pages. I think it would be better to just skip any activities she doesn't want to do but still use the practice pages. The activities are optional, but a lot of the higher level and more challenging words are on the practice pages. HTH some!