LilacLily Posted February 16, 2021 Posted February 16, 2021 Hello, I’m new to the forum as a poster. I’ve been reading via google searches. I’m trying to decide which reading program to try. I have 2 of them. First Starting Reading by memoria press and OPGTR. Which one would you all recommend/have you liked? Quote
egao_gakari Posted February 16, 2021 Posted February 16, 2021 I don't have experience with either of them, but welcome!! You don't say how old your child is, but my impulse would be to just try one of them with your child, and if there are tears, try the other one after a week or so. Tears again? Put them away for a couple months and try again when your child is a bit older! I'm a big fan of Jessie Wise's approach, which we used in elementary for grammar (First Language Lessons) so I would reach for OPGTR first, but that's partly just me fangirling 😉 Our kids mostly learned to read in public school, before we brought them home. 1 Quote
LilacLily Posted February 16, 2021 Author Posted February 16, 2021 10 minutes ago, egao_gakari said: I don't have experience with either of them, but welcome!! You don't say how old your child is, but my impulse would be to just try one of them with your child, and if there are tears, try the other one after a week or so. Tears again? Put them away for a couple months and try again when your child is a bit older! I'm a big fan of Jessie Wise's approach, which we used in elementary for grammar (First Language Lessons) so I would reach for OPGTR first, but that's partly just me fangirling 😉 Our kids mostly learned to read in public school, before we brought them home. Thank you for this advice! He is 5. He turns 6 at the end of May. He has a speech delay. He has been in speech therapy since he turned 2. But the delay caused him to not be where the “average” 2,3,4 year olds are with pre reading skills. I am working thru the “all about reading” PRE reading book now. But the AAR 1 program seems to have so many moving parts that I’m not sure how feasible that would be so I don’t really want to buy that if I don’t have to. I also have a child who will be 4 in May and I have a 2 year old. So I need something simple because my daughters are very much “in the mix” during school time. 1 Quote
egao_gakari Posted February 16, 2021 Posted February 16, 2021 Do you have the Bob Books that he can try to sound out by himself once you've taught him the short vowel sounds? That way if it happens that you're busy and can't teach him that day, or if the lessons in the book need some reinforcement, you have a bit of supplementation. In my day job (teaching a foreign language) I teach a few kids with learning differences. Some of them really benefit from periodically switching curriculum. So if you get going on one text, and it seems to be going well for a while, but then it stops going well, consider switching to the other, starting from the beginning again, and going forward with that one until you get bogged down. Then switch back. 1 Quote
LilacLily Posted February 16, 2021 Author Posted February 16, 2021 9 minutes ago, egao_gakari said: Do you have the Bob Books that he can try to sound out by himself once you've taught him the short vowel sounds? That way if it happens that you're busy and can't teach him that day, or if the lessons in the book need some reinforcement, you have a bit of supplementation. In my day job (teaching a foreign language) I teach a few kids with learning differences. Some of them really benefit from periodically switching curriculum. So if you get going on one text, and it seems to be going well for a while, but then it stops going well, consider switching to the other, starting from the beginning again, and going forward with that one until you get bogged down. Then switch back. I do have some of the Bob books and a few the McGuffey readers. That’s a great idea to switch it up if needed. 1 Quote
maptime Posted February 16, 2021 Posted February 16, 2021 (edited) How does he do with the physical act of writing? I haven’t used OPGTR, but I have used FSR. It combines the teaching of letter sounds with learning letter formation, etc. It worked splendidly for my daughter who was ready (and eager) to start writing in workbooks, but it may not work as well for a writing-phobic kid, or one whose writing ability lags their reading readiness. If he’s ready for both, FSR might work to kill two birds with one stone. My daughter really enjoyed it, and I found it to be a pretty efficient use of time🙂 Edited February 16, 2021 by maptime Words 2 Quote
ChocolateCake Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 I think FSR moves slower but requires a lot of writing. I'm using it right now with my 6-year-old girl. I think the last book (Book D) moves faster so I may take longer on it and/or use other phonics materials for a while (probably Explode the Code). It's actually good that you have two different curriculums. If one doesn't work, you can always try the other. 1 Quote
AnneGG Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 We tried both and didn’t like either. The way they teach phonics is fine and will get the job done. However, OPG is dry and not particularly exciting. Big, black and white pages filled with tiny words, most of which are for you, doesn’t exactly excite an emerging reader. Our library had OPG,100 EZ, the reading lesson, and phonics pathways so I tried them all. None fit. FSR is a lot of writing. We didn’t do a writing intense pre-k year and my son just didn’t have the stamina. I also wanted him to focus on quality letter formation vs quantity. I really liked FSR, but I was basically re writing all the lesson plans to modify it. We ended up switching to a hands on program. 1 Quote
ElizabethB Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 For someone with a speech issues, I like Word Mastery, it starts with easier things to blend. It is free to print or you can buy a cheap copy from Don Potter. http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/word_mastery_typed.pdf https://www.amazon.com/Word-Mastery-Course-Phonics-Grades/dp/1500378720 More Word Mastery resources from Don Potter http://35.168.237.198/education_pages/WordMastery.html I would also get this phonemic awareness book, meant for a whole class but you can modify, cheap compared to most phonemic awareness programs if you just need a bit of PA. https://www.amazon.com/Phonemic-Awareness-Playing-Strengthen-Beginning/dp/1574712314/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=phonemic+awareness&qid=1613539800&sr=8-1 I also like the app Sound of Speech from the university of Iowa to see how each sound is made. 1 Quote
gradchica Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 I only have experience with FSR and AAR. I used AAR with my first two and both AAR and FSR with my third (all boys, two advanced and third a bit delayed at the beginning of K and 1). My thoughts so far— FSR has a lot of writing—too much, I think. It was a struggle and did not prompt any enthusiasm or feeling of “wow, I’m reading, this is great!” from #3. Granted we were ahead in AAR, so this was mostly review/consolidation for a learner needing that extra review. I much preferred AAR—all 3 have worked to get to the stories, which come frequently and make them feel like they are truly making progress in reading real things they enjoy. The little “stories “ in FSR were not as enjoyable and felt like more worksheet and not a reward, if that makes any sense. We slogged through all of FSR and I thought there was a big jump from the last book into Storytime Treasures in both reading level and comprehension level (I think AAR 4 bridges that gap well). We did both Storytime Treasures books, just doing most of the workbook orally, but I don’t know if he would have been ready after just FSR. We’re halfway through AAR4 now in 1st, and I think by time time we’re done, he (like his brothers) will be ready to read most things a 2nd grader would need to read for content. This is my latest reader—the others were done w AAR by the end of PRE K or K, but it is age appropriate and not too young/old for my precocious 4yo and my current 7 yo. As for all of the parts for AAR...we didn’t use the letter tiles. I did for a few lessons for no1 and no2, but neither really seemed to get much out of them and were fine just using a white board for me to write words/change word parts for the teaching section. We didn’t use the flash cards much at all. Again, started and figured out we didn’t need them. No3 used them a bit in level1, but once things started to gel in late level 1/early 2, I dropped them. So the program is entirely useable without the tiles and cards, but they are great to have if you have a learner who will get something out of physically manipulating word parts (mine never really had much use for math manipulative a either, so maybe that’s why they didn’t go for the letter tiles). 1 Quote
wathe Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 I'm not familiar with FSR. I really liked OPGTR. Open and go, inexpensive, non-consumable, no moving parts, logical phonics-based progression, and comprehensive - it starts with letters and their sounds and finishes up at about 4th grade. It covers pretty much everything. The parent scripts provide complete guidance on how to teach each lesson, but one can easily skip the scripts if one doesn't need or like them. My youngest preferred Phonics Pathways (also inexpensive, non-consumable, no moving parts, logical phonics-based progression, and comprehensive). He liked the bigger font, and the dopey book-worm illustrations, and the recurring character of Gus the Pig. 1 Quote
PeterPan Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 19 hours ago, LilacLily said: Thank you for this advice! He is 5. He turns 6 at the end of May. He has a speech delay. He has been in speech therapy since he turned 2. But the delay caused him to not be where the “average” 2,3,4 year olds are with pre reading skills. I am working thru the “all about reading” PRE reading book now. But the AAR 1 program seems to have so many moving parts that I’m not sure how feasible that would be so I don’t really want to buy that if I don’t have to. I also have a child who will be 4 in May and I have a 2 year old. So I need something simple because my daughters are very much “in the mix” during school time. Have you thought about coming over to the Learning Challenges board? If you had asked this over there, I would have told you about my ds 12 who started speech therapy at 2 for apraxia. He now has an autism diagnosis btw, but language issues take up the bulk of our day and thought process because EVERYTHING you're going to do with him involves language. Honestly, probably neither of those programs is what he needs. I'm just being straight. He sounds like someone who has significant language issues who is going to need specialized instruction. If you come over to LC, you can tell us about things that are hard, share data you have on him, and we can try to give you some tips. I can tell you what I did. AAR pre was a challenge for my ds, and he failed the Barton pretest (which I'll link) at the age of your ds. We did some LIPS, which got him processing enough that he could begin with Barton. We got him a full neuropsych eval at newly 6, which got us the SLD Reading diagnosis. I got him reading, but then he had comprehension issues. He was basically a hyperlexic dyslexic at that point because of the language disability. So by the end of 1st he was reading at a 5th/6th grade level but not comprehending. Hyperlexia. And spelling meant nothing to him. Then we got MORE language testing, tried MORE SLPs, and I finally gave up and started doing the expressive language work myself. Without language comprehension, where are you, kwim? At it's the never ending pit. We're still working on it, sigh. So first I would get updated language testing from your SLPs. Without data, you don't know where he's at. You want the SPELT, the Test of Narrative Language, a CTOPP (test of phonological processing). They can run a TAPS=test of auditory processing. Sometimes what happens with testing is they do a *screener* like the CELF and say see, he's fine, when the kid is not fine. There are some other tests that would do the things I listed above, but that gives you a sense of what you're looking for. I particularly like the SPELT because it has no models, no multiple choice. And you want the narrative language testing, because that's going to show up with his reading comprehension and writing. It's something you can intervene on easily. We finally went back and had a full auditory processing eval, so now we're doing materials for that. We had done the phonological processing work to get him *reading* but we hadn't done it purely auditorily. So spelling made zero sense to him and was just memorized, because he was processing in terms of whole words, whole language, paragraphs, memorized sentences, not the bits of words. So long story short? Don't bother with either of those. Update your testing, see what's going on, get intervention level materials that will meet his disability needs. You want to pay attention to COMPREHENSION and you want the reading to be connected to comprehension at all points. You want to do all the language work you can, and we can support you with that if you come over to LC. It's not worth the wasted time to use materials that aren't going to fit, and you can tell that with the testing and screening tools. How many hours a week of speech therapy is he getting? He has language goals or articulation or? My ds has an IEP through the ps and what I find is that they tend to throw language goals in as academic goals. So even if you're funding a LOT of speech therapy, there's probably still going to be a lot for you to do at home that involves language. It's why the more you can be in the loop on those materials the better. And you know maybe I'm misreading it, maybe your ds has had tons of intervention and is ready to go into any reading program. But if so, why the hesitation? Just pick one and do it. But since you're hesitating and saying there are issues, I'm saying these are the issues you watch out for. Narrative language, phonological processing, auditory processing of language, comprehension, etc. https://bartonreading.com/students/#ss Free screening tool to see if he has the basic skills to succeed at ANY OG (or phonics) based program. https://www.spelfabet.com.au/ An example of an inexpensive program that connects sound, reading, and meaning. Not saying it's what you should use, just more of an example. AAR is good btw and works for some kids with reading disabilities and challenges. What are you thinking is not going to work for him with it? I can guess, because it would have been a mess with my ds, lol. That's why I think you need fresh data from your SLPs and maybe a psych eval if you haven't had one yet. Your gut is registering things and you might not have the words for it yet. Come over to LC. We don't bite and it may save you some grief. 1 Quote
PeterPan Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 19 hours ago, LilacLily said: I also have a child who will be 4 in May and I have a 2 year old. So I need something simple because my daughters are very much “in the mix” during school time. Oh my, fun! I love those ages, but I can imagine it feels crazy! Have you seen the MFW preschool and toddler activity cards? They were great for my ds and they would give you some structure. How is your space set up to work? My ds at that age was a pistol, so we did a lot that was in motion. We had a single line swing, trampoline, etc. and he could work at the table then move, back and forth. I had this book of alphabet in motion, can't remember the title. It's great for those ages. What happens if you *read* to them? Reading aloud will be a TOP THING to be doing with your mix of kids. Picture books will support comprehension for your oldest and be very accessible to your youngers as well. You can keep using picture books for a LONG TIME. https://mindwingconcepts.com/pages/methodology https://mindwingconcepts.com/collections/early-childhood/products/braidy-the-storybraid-kit-free-braidy-icons I know it's expensive, but this is what you want. Is your SLP working on narrative language? It's something you can do using the picture books and have it work for ALL your kids. Here's a video explaining how it works. This is the preschool level remember. They have materials to go all the way up through high school, expanding it to expository writing, reading comprehension, academics, etc. This is major program SLPs are using. There are a couple others (Story Champs, etc.) but this is a great system to learn. And it's something you can start now with all your kids. 1 Quote
LilacLily Posted February 17, 2021 Author Posted February 17, 2021 18 hours ago, maptime said: How does he do with the physical act of writing? I haven’t used OPGTR, but I have used FSR. It combines the teaching of letter sounds with learning letter formation, etc. It worked splendidly for my daughter who was ready (and eager) to start writing in workbooks, but it may not work as well for a writing-phobic kid, or one whose writing ability lags their reading readiness. If he’s ready for both, FSR might work to kill two birds with one stone. My daughter really enjoyed it, and I found it to be a pretty efficient use of time🙂 He enjoys practicing/learning to print letters. Quote
LilacLily Posted February 17, 2021 Author Posted February 17, 2021 10 hours ago, ElizabethB said: For someone with a speech issues, I like Word Mastery, it starts with easier things to blend. It is free to print or you can buy a cheap copy from Don Potter. http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/word_mastery_typed.pdf https://www.amazon.com/Word-Mastery-Course-Phonics-Grades/dp/1500378720 More Word Mastery resources from Don Potter http://35.168.237.198/education_pages/WordMastery.html I would also get this phonemic awareness book, meant for a whole class but you can modify, cheap compared to most phonemic awareness programs if you just need a bit of PA. https://www.amazon.com/Phonemic-Awareness-Playing-Strengthen-Beginning/dp/1574712314/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=phonemic+awareness&qid=1613539800&sr=8-1 I also like the app Sound of Speech from the university of Iowa to see how each sound is made. Wow I’ve never heard of this program! Thank you for sharing all these links. I’m going to check them out. :) 1 Quote
LilacLily Posted February 17, 2021 Author Posted February 17, 2021 33 minutes ago, PeterPan said: Have you thought about coming over to the Learning Challenges board? If you had asked this over there, I would have told you about my ds 12 who started speech therapy at 2 for apraxia. He now has an autism diagnosis btw, but language issues take up the bulk of our day and thought process because EVERYTHING you're going to do with him involves language. Honestly, probably neither of those programs is what he needs. I'm just being straight. He sounds like someone who has significant language issues who is going to need specialized instruction. If you come over to LC, you can tell us about things that are hard, share data you have on him, and we can try to give you some tips. I can tell you what I did. AAR pre was a challenge for my ds, and he failed the Barton pretest (which I'll link) at the age of your ds. We did some LIPS, which got him processing enough that he could begin with Barton. We got him a full neuropsych eval at newly 6, which got us the SLD Reading diagnosis. I got him reading, but then he had comprehension issues. He was basically a hyperlexic dyslexic at that point because of the language disability. So by the end of 1st he was reading at a 5th/6th grade level but not comprehending. Hyperlexia. And spelling meant nothing to him. Then we got MORE language testing, tried MORE SLPs, and I finally gave up and started doing the expressive language work myself. Without language comprehension, where are you, kwim? At it's the never ending pit. We're still working on it, sigh. So first I would get updated language testing from your SLPs. Without data, you don't know where he's at. You want the SPELT, the Test of Narrative Language, a CTOPP (test of phonological processing). They can run a TAPS=test of auditory processing. Sometimes what happens with testing is they do a *screener* like the CELF and say see, he's fine, when the kid is not fine. There are some other tests that would do the things I listed above, but that gives you a sense of what you're looking for. I particularly like the SPELT because it has no models, no multiple choice. And you want the narrative language testing, because that's going to show up with his reading comprehension and writing. It's something you can intervene on easily. We finally went back and had a full auditory processing eval, so now we're doing materials for that. We had done the phonological processing work to get him *reading* but we hadn't done it purely auditorily. So spelling made zero sense to him and was just memorized, because he was processing in terms of whole words, whole language, paragraphs, memorized sentences, not the bits of words. So long story short? Don't bother with either of those. Update your testing, see what's going on, get intervention level materials that will meet his disability needs. You want to pay attention to COMPREHENSION and you want the reading to be connected to comprehension at all points. You want to do all the language work you can, and we can support you with that if you come over to LC. It's not worth the wasted time to use materials that aren't going to fit, and you can tell that with the testing and screening tools. How many hours a week of speech therapy is he getting? He has language goals or articulation or? My ds has an IEP through the ps and what I find is that they tend to throw language goals in as academic goals. So even if you're funding a LOT of speech therapy, there's probably still going to be a lot for you to do at home that involves language. It's why the more you can be in the loop on those materials the better. And you know maybe I'm misreading it, maybe your ds has had tons of intervention and is ready to go into any reading program. But if so, why the hesitation? Just pick one and do it. But since you're hesitating and saying there are issues, I'm saying these are the issues you watch out for. Narrative language, phonological processing, auditory processing of language, comprehension, etc. https://bartonreading.com/students/#ss Free screening tool to see if he has the basic skills to succeed at ANY OG (or phonics) based program. https://www.spelfabet.com.au/ An example of an inexpensive program that connects sound, reading, and meaning. Not saying it's what you should use, just more of an example. AAR is good btw and works for some kids with reading disabilities and challenges. What are you thinking is not going to work for him with it? I can guess, because it would have been a mess with my ds, lol. That's why I think you need fresh data from your SLPs and maybe a psych eval if you haven't had one yet. Your gut is registering things and you might not have the words for it yet. Come over to LC. We don't bite and it may save you some grief. I didn’t even know there was a learning challenges board. I will come over and check it out! 🙂 I will ask his therapist about those tests. At this point he’s speaking where strangers/non family members can understand 100% what he says. His SLP is currently working on “cleaning up” some of his blends. She thinks he might be dismissed at the end of April. I’m not sure if this is indicative of future comprehension skills once he’s the one reading, but if you read him a picture book, he asks questions about why so and so did this or that, he can predict what is going to happen next if I ask him, if I ask him what a story was about, he’s fairly good and giving an accurate summary. But again, I am not sure if comprehension when hearing a sorry will translate to comprehension when he is the one reading? 1 Quote
LilacLily Posted February 17, 2021 Author Posted February 17, 2021 21 minutes ago, PeterPan said: Oh my, fun! I love those ages, but I can imagine it feels crazy! Have you seen the MFW preschool and toddler activity cards? They were great for my ds and they would give you some structure. How is your space set up to work? My ds at that age was a pistol, so we did a lot that was in motion. We had a single line swing, trampoline, etc. and he could work at the table then move, back and forth. I had this book of alphabet in motion, can't remember the title. It's great for those ages. What happens if you *read* to them? Reading aloud will be a TOP THING to be doing with your mix of kids. Picture books will support comprehension for your oldest and be very accessible to your youngers as well. You can keep using picture books for a LONG TIME. https://mindwingconcepts.com/pages/methodology https://mindwingconcepts.com/collections/early-childhood/products/braidy-the-storybraid-kit-free-braidy-icons I know it's expensive, but this is what you want. Is your SLP working on narrative language? It's something you can do using the picture books and have it work for ALL your kids. Here's a video explaining how it works. This is the preschool level remember. They have materials to go all the way up through high school, expanding it to expository writing, reading comprehension, academics, etc. This is major program SLPs are using. There are a couple others (Story Champs, etc.) but this is a great system to learn. And it's something you can start now with all your kids. Thank you! I will check this out as well. All 3 of them love when I read picture books. My 5 year old and 3 year old both ask questions and/or make observations while I read. The 3 year old mainly makes observations about the illustrations whereas my 5 year old asks questions about why so and so did this or that. I also have the five in a row curriculum and they seem to really enjoy that. 1 Quote
PeterPan Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 12 minutes ago, LilacLily said: if you read him a picture book, he asks questions about why so and so did this or that, he can predict what is going to happen next if I ask him, if I ask him what a story was about, he’s fairly good and giving an accurate summary. Ooo, that's really good!!! 12 minutes ago, LilacLily said: She thinks he might be dismissed at the end of April. So like you say, these are things to talk with her about. Our SLP was all articulation, motor planning of speech, and we needed other people for expressive language. It sounds like yours has been working on all the aspects of language, which is really really good! And you just talk with her and say hey where is he at for expressive language, narrative language, etc. If he's in range for his age, that's really good! So then I go back to my question, what is your gut seeing about those programs that is making AAR (which is a fine program) not be a good choice? The logistics point doesn't make sense to me, because Marie Rippel has the most ORGANIZED materials I've ever seen, lol. Me, I'm like dump it in a tub, and she's got all her boxes and dividers and on and on. You want to be looking for *multi sensory* and a strong *sound written connection*. You want to know that his discrimination is in tact. You can ask the SLP if she has been working on it, because she may have been! They'll use a program like LIPS to make sure that he is connecting the production of the sound with the orthography. Sometimes kids with speech problems not only have trouble getting the sounds out but discriminating them. https://ganderpublishing.com/pages/lips-overview If you want to give that Barton screening tool, it only takes 10-15 minutes to administer. It's looking at a really basic level of phonological processing, working memory, etc. which would tell you good to go with the program of your choice or needs some of those precursor steps. Well good, I'm excited for you that he has narrative language skills! That's a BIG DEAL, yes! It tells you a lot of things are likely to go well. I still, just me personally, would be looking for a program that is multi sensory that emphasizes the sound-written connection. But you know, try things, go with your gut, see what happens. Someone gave that advice earlier in the thread and I think it's really spot on. Print a sample of something, try it for a week or two, see how it goes. If it's really a mistake, back up a bit. To me the challenge with homeschool materials was realizing who they were written for and where my dc fits in that. You're not asking about good vs. bad, kwim? Everything you're looking at is probably GOOD and has worked well for someone! So you'll learn your dc and start to figure out what he needs. My ds thrives on things my dd hated and vice versa. Cathy Duffy calls our curriculum mistakes payments in the college of home ed, hahaha. I read that years ago and loved it. You'll make some payments, but you'll figure it out. 1 Quote
AnneGG Posted February 17, 2021 Posted February 17, 2021 Coming back to add that we use Pinwheels from Rooted in Language. It was developed by an SLP. She really wants you to move at the child’s pace and it’s designed really well for that. We absolutely love the program. My son is reading, spelling, writing and enjoying it. Although I highly recommend it, I didn’t mention it earlier because it does have a lot of moving parts. Once you (as the teacher) figure out how it works it’s easy, but initially it is a lot. There is quite a bit prep work, including how to videos. It’s also a digital curriculum only, and there is a lot to print. https://www.rootedinlanguage.com/instructional-materials/pinwheels 2 Quote
LilacLily Posted February 17, 2021 Author Posted February 17, 2021 5 hours ago, PeterPan said: Ooo, that's really good!!! So like you say, these are things to talk with her about. Our SLP was all articulation, motor planning of speech, and we needed other people for expressive language. It sounds like yours has been working on all the aspects of language, which is really really good! And you just talk with her and say hey where is he at for expressive language, narrative language, etc. If he's in range for his age, that's really good! So then I go back to my question, what is your gut seeing about those programs that is making AAR (which is a fine program) not be a good choice? The logistics point doesn't make sense to me, because Marie Rippel has the most ORGANIZED materials I've ever seen, lol. Me, I'm like dump it in a tub, and she's got all her boxes and dividers and on and on. You want to be looking for *multi sensory* and a strong *sound written connection*. You want to know that his discrimination is in tact. You can ask the SLP if she has been working on it, because she may have been! They'll use a program like LIPS to make sure that he is connecting the production of the sound with the orthography. Sometimes kids with speech problems not only have trouble getting the sounds out but discriminating them. https://ganderpublishing.com/pages/lips-overview If you want to give that Barton screening tool, it only takes 10-15 minutes to administer. It's looking at a really basic level of phonological processing, working memory, etc. which would tell you good to go with the program of your choice or needs some of those precursor steps. Well good, I'm excited for you that he has narrative language skills! That's a BIG DEAL, yes! It tells you a lot of things are likely to go well. I still, just me personally, would be looking for a program that is multi sensory that emphasizes the sound-written connection. But you know, try things, go with your gut, see what happens. Someone gave that advice earlier in the thread and I think it's really spot on. Print a sample of something, try it for a week or two, see how it goes. If it's really a mistake, back up a bit. To me the challenge with homeschool materials was realizing who they were written for and where my dc fits in that. You're not asking about good vs. bad, kwim? Everything you're looking at is probably GOOD and has worked well for someone! So you'll learn your dc and start to figure out what he needs. My ds thrives on things my dd hated and vice versa. Cathy Duffy calls our curriculum mistakes payments in the college of home ed, hahaha. I read that years ago and loved it. You'll make some payments, but you'll figure it out. I asked her and she said at this point he only has articulation errors. But when he first started out, he had final constant deletion and she also has previously worked on his receptive language. 1 Quote
PeterPan Posted February 18, 2021 Posted February 18, 2021 5 hours ago, AnneGG said: Coming back to add that we use Pinwheels from Rooted in Language. It was developed by an SLP. She really wants you to move at the child’s pace and it’s designed really well for that. We absolutely love the program. My son is reading, spelling, writing and enjoying it. Although I highly recommend it, I didn’t mention it earlier because it does have a lot of moving parts. Once you (as the teacher) figure out how it works it’s easy, but initially it is a lot. There is quite a bit prep work, including how to videos. It’s also a digital curriculum only, and there is a lot to print. https://www.rootedinlanguage.com/instructional-materials/pinwheels That's interesting, because others have said here their SLP was using her grammar bugs materials. Quote
Classically Minded Posted February 23, 2021 Posted February 23, 2021 We really love OPGTR and I used it with both of my kids with great success. I added in the recommended index card games that are throughout the book and I also had them do readers based on where we were in the OPGTR. I have a list of when to read what readers based on what lesson you are in in the OPGTR that helped a lot. Quote
TK5004 Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 We started with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and from there jumped to lesson 60ish of OPGTR. I really liked both programs. As others have stated, OPGTR is dry and not very exciting, though there are some games included at the end of several lessons. My impression is that OPGTR would work best for kids who don’t struggle with learning to read, and for parents looking for a scripted open and go program. Quote
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