Get Ready, Get Set, Go For the Code - redundant or valuable?

[Mommy22alyns]

If you used these primers, how well did your kids know their letters & letter sounds before using them? At what age/grade level (loaded question, I know) did you use them? Did you go on to ETC 1 afterwards?

[Spy Car]

I used these with my son. He already knew his letters and their sounds (thanks Leap Frog Videos!) but the primers did help get him used to the "pictographs" he'd next encounter in ETC 1, and got him used to "workbooks".

 

He wasn't yet "writing", so we did the primers with him using his finger to trace and navigate mazes, etc.

 

We had fun with these. He'd just turned 4 (or late 3?).

 

Bill

[hsmom]

We are using these right now. My little one is not to big on writing yet so we skip it, except when he feels the need. We also have added the wall chart and the cards to it. He loves that part of it. We are learning our letters and sounds at this time, he does this with the ETC and the Leap frog dvd's.

[Aletheia Academy]

My ds and dd wnet through Get Ready, Get Set, and Go last year. They already knew their letters and sounds (hear, hear again for Leap Frog).

 

This year we have been working through Book 1. We're just about finished. Like a PP, we skip the writing exercises both to avoid tying the 2 skills together and because we are doing Italic handwriting and I don't want to mix the writing styles.

[rafiki]

.

[tullyfamily]

We just love the Explode the Code series! My littles start w/ books A-C ususally after they know their letter names & sounds but the books help them learn to listen for the sounds in words. They enjoy tracing in these books w/ a fat marker. (If the letter isn't already written, I'll write it w/ yellow marker for them to trace over.)

[Tonia]

I used these with my son. He already knew his letters and their sounds (thanks Leap Frog Videos!) but the primers did help get him used to the "pictographs" he'd next encounter in ETC 1, and got him used to "workbooks".

 

He wasn't yet "writing", so we did the primers with him using his finger to trace and navigate mazes, etc.

 

We had fun with these. He'd just turned 4 (or late 3?).

 

Bill

 

About the same story for us. My dd (late 3 at the time) already knew her letters and sounds but she wanted workbooks and these fit the bill. I didn't expect much actual work from these, I used them as an introduction to the rest of the ETC series.

[KristenS]

Both of mine have used them at 3.5 to 4.5. Well, my second is still in them. Both already knew their letters and sounds. It's a good review of that, though, and it's also a nice gentle handwriting practice.

 

It's quite a jump from the 3rd primer to ETC book 1, though ... they really have to be ready to sound out words for that one.

 

Anyway, it fills the little one's desire to do school like big brother. I wait on handwriting otherwise ... my oldest and I struggled and eventually quit handwriting in K, and he's doing much better now in first. Not sure whether I will just wait till 1st with my younger one, or what ... we have some time yet.

 

(We like a very plain handwriting font so it works well, no confusion. My older one is using A Reason for Handwriting this year.)

[mamaof2andtwins]

My three daughters used these books. One had previous letter exposure. The other two knew letter names but not sounds. I liked them.

 

Jennie

[Guest 4boys]

I like these books. My 4 year old (soon to be 5) just finished them. He knew the sounds and letters previously but he had fun doing them and learned how to actually write the letters. I will use them again for Ben.

[ladydusk]

My 4 yo knows all her letters/sounds but really loves doing ETC. We're in book B (almost done!!) and she's also using OPGTR doing CVC words fairly easily, but she still asks when she gets to do her ETC. My 3 yo is about ready to start "A" He knows most (confuses VWY) of his letters and sounds. My 3 year olds make an alphabet book of their own, so Nate'll start that soon. He's also using the beginning of OPG (which we didn't have until recently) and memorizing the short-vowel poem.

[Mandy in TN]

Bleh! What busy work and utter garbage! Ready, set, go for the code doesn't teach anything that you can't teach in a much more entertaining fashion through your own letter of the week play time.

 

I bought the first one. ick. Of course, later I bought ETC1 and 2. double ick.

 

I know others who swear by ETC. I have a close friend who swears that all three of her dc learned to read with ETC. However, they were a total flop here.

 

CLE Learning to Read (books 5-10) was much better! The pages in CLE are more visually attractive (crisper, nicer layout) and the workbooks have a coordinated Primer, so the child can use exactly what he has learned immediately.

 

Mandy

[swellmomma]

I am using these books right now with my 5 yr old. He did not know his letters or sounds before the books at all, and has only just in the last 2 months actually started writing, so they have been slow going but for our needs worth it.

[YHZNS]

I guess it depends on how quickly your child learns the letter names and sounds. When my oldest was 3.5, I purchased A, B, and C but we didn't end up using them. I made little flashcards for each letter (lowercase and uppercase) and we played different games with them. (I would make a shop and she would have to find the letter to go with the sound I was making and put it in her basket. I would also play a Go Fish type game with her.) In just a few weeks she knew all the letter names and sounds. She did use the regular ETC books when she was 4 but she could take them or leave them. She really likes the Primary Phonics workbooks and storybooks now. I still have A, B, and C but I probably won't use them with my youngest unless she just wants to "work" at the table with her sister.

[chiguirre]

I used them in K for ds (5.5) and PK for dd (4.5). They only took 3 or 4 months to go through. I used them for handwriting practice as well as phonics reinforcement. Both kids really enjoyed them, but they're workbook fans in general. If you want to add in more activities, there's a teacher's guide available that looks really good.

[TheCoffeeChick]

These books are redundant, but it is just what my dc like.

 

My ds did them when he was a little over 4. He knew the names and sounds of the letters -- he had actually been able to read CVC words before starting them. He was dying to do real "homework", so I got these books because they were cheap and easy. They were great confidence builders and my ds could do them for however long he wanted, whenever he wanted. (After doing a few of the letters, he could do all the pages without my help.) Some days he would dig it out and do 20 pages, while others he might do 1/2 a page. It was no big deal, and it was easy to praise the work he did. It really made him confident in his abilities and when we started OPG after book C, he breezed through the beginner lessons very easily.

 

I did not plan on using them with dd (just turned 3) because they were easy enough of activities that I could print pages from the computer. With her being my second child, I am a little more confident in my abilities. :) But alas, she did NOT want computer printouts, she wanted workbooks like her brother. :) So I ordered them and we started them yesterday. She knows the letters of the alphabet, but cannot always identify them when she sees them. The only sounds she knows are B, M, O, and now F (first lesson in book A). I did not think she would be able to do much, but she has really caught on and now recognizes f, the sound of the letter, and can tell me whether a word starts with f or not. Not bad for two days work at 10 minutes a day!! :D

 

I guess my vote is that they are nice, cheap books if your dc insist on having a "workbook", but they are definitely very simple. It is possible to print out your own pages from the internet that would have the same results.

[iquilt]

My oldest was already past these books when we brought her home from Kind. DD5 has been using them as fun independent (almost) work after she does her reading lesson in OPG. If this helps she is just starting Book C and is on lesson 42 in OPG. My youngest is not writing well enough to want to use his get ready books yet but he will probably use them next year, too. My oldest started with book 1 and has always used them as independent work. I think they are great reinforcement and my kids think they are fun.

[momtolgd]

I started my dd in these when she was 4.5 because she wanted to do workbooks like her big brother. She already knew her letters and sounds and was writing some. She loved them. They prepared her for doing ETC 1, and made her feel like she was doing her own school work too.

 

They are a bit redundant, but that was part of the appeal for her. She went through them all in pretty quickly, and then we moved on to ETC 1. She is now 6 and about to finish ETC 2 and move onto ETC 3.

 

My ds is 8 and has books 7 and 8 left to do. We found out about ETC at an older age for him and they have been wonderful for him in his reading and his confidence.

 

Others may not like the workbook approach, but for us it has worked wonders. We love ETC here!

[KarenNC]

My daughter wanted to learn to read at 4 and we tried Phonics Pathways and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons----abject and total failures here. I picked up ETC 1 and tried the pretest that is in the front of the book. That lead to the discovery that she did not know her letters as well as I had thought, so I picked up the primers. She absolutely adored them and asked to do them, quite a change from crying and meltdowns at the sight of the other books.

 

We worked through them at a very variable pace. Some days it was only a page, one memorable afternoon it was almost the entirety of the second book, with "please can't we do just one more page"---all depending on how well she knew some of the sounds covered and what she felt like doing. Some of it was quite redundant for her, some was not, but it was an inexpensive and fun way for her to make sure all the holes were filled to start ETC 1.

 

We enjoyed the entire series, worked through all 8 of the regular books.