Do you like/dislike Sing, Spell, Read, Write?

[Alicia64]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm curious if you like this curriculum or not. A friend just recommended. I have two five year olds.

 

Alicia

[ELaurie]

and I decided not to use it :tongue_smilie:

 

With both ds 9 and ds 6 I have found that JW's "wise" ;) advice in TWTM held true - they were ready to learn to read before they were ready to learn to write, and ready to write before they were ready to learn to spell.

 

She recommends teaching these skills sequentially rather than using an integrated approach, and I have come to agree with her.

 

YMMV, of course - it's quite an attractive program, but it wasn't the right fit for us :001_smile:

[jg_puppy]

I bought this for my son because he loves music. We did fine with the first book for k. He really liked it. You don't use that much music for that one. He really doesn't like the other songs. I am not sure why, but he just doesn't. So the main reason why I went with this program doesn't even interest him. It is just sitting on a shelf. I do think it is a good program. I just don't find that it is a good fit for my son.

 

Jan

[ElizabethB]

It is a good program, but a bit expensive.

 

You can do the same kind of songs and fun program on your own by following Pollard's Manual and Pollard's Readers and Spellers for much cheaper (but a little more work), they're free online, scroll down to about halfway down the page:

 

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

 

I also have some suggestions for other free and cheap methods there.

 

With two, whatever method you use, you might consider working from a whiteboard instead of a book. Blend Phonics (linked above, free from http://www.donpotter.net) explains how to teach from a board and how to teach L to R blending in a clear, concise manner. I also have a bit of instruction on how to use a whiteboard in my Webster link below. (I really like Webster's Speller, it's a great method!)

Edited February 13, 2009 by ElizabethB

[King Alfred Academy]

I like it but it isn't working for my Ker. Too much "bling". He was "reading " the pictures instead of the words. I switched him to OPGTR and it is working out great! He is so excited to actually be reading the words! There are no pics in the book. I am also supplementing with Happy Phonics and he really likes that.

[LauraJ]

I have taught two children with SSRW and absolutely love it!!! I have many friends that use it as well and the results are amazing. My 8 year old whizzed through it and is reading on an 8th grade level and now my 5 year old is just completing it with no problems. We love the songs that go with it and it helps the kids remember the phonics rules and it is easy to teach. It is worth the money IMO. I will continue to use this with my other children. I think it depends on the personality of your child.

[MamaT]

I used it for my last four children. Some liked it and some didn't, but they all learned to read.

[ElizabethB]

Here's a fun free phonics game to play whatever method you choose, it's for 2 to four players:

 

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

[HappyCrazyMama]

I am using it with modification for Miriam and I really like it. She was to young for all the writing and I skipped the writing/spelling components, which are half the program. lol She was able to pick up the letter sounds and read the readers quite easy. I think we will easily be done by spring. It was great for me because I must not have been taught phonics, I discovered I was botching letter sounds and blends big time, so I found the teachers instruction invaluable.(mostly wanting to default to the long vowel and not pronouncing some of the consonants properly) I think we would have been in big trouble without the teachers instruction. I also have better pronunciation now and helps with my spelling too!

 

All that said it was an older version given to me and I wouldn't buy it.:tongue_smilie: Having since read TWTM I purchased Phonics Pathways for Elizabeth and I am in complete agreement with not mixing the writing/spelling with phonics/reading, just because I think they can learn to read sooner than they can write.(which is how I ended up using SSWR anyhow) Also agreeing with the fact that you don't really need to do all those games and sing, song stuff to teach reading, especially in a one on one situation that we are blessed with in homeschooling. That said I will likely still use some of the SSWR songs to help teach the blends, they do love them and they are effective. They used to ask to watch the phonics movie everyday. :)

 

My advice would be if you end up getting a program with no audio be sure you are correct in your letter sounds and blends. I never would have guessed I was saying them wrong.:confused: I had to re-teach some sounds and say mommy was wrong.:001_huh:

[Kathy in NC]

I knew she was an auditory learner, so I figured this would be a good fit for her. Also, I was aware that she pretty much remembered anything she heard in "song". To this day, she'll occasionally sing one of the songs!

 

Like some of the others, I didn't do all the writing/spelling. She wasn't developmentally ready for all the writing, and spelling just came easy for her. I guess all this is to say, if your little ones are very auditory, it is a great program! Hope this helps, Kathy

[Ida]

My 7 year old is on step 34 out of 36. When my oldest, now 12, was learning to read, I really resisted buying SSRW. From the descriptions I read, it sounded like it had way too many unnecessary bells and whistles. I got Phonics Pathways instead, and my son HATED it. Tears every time it came off the shelf. He was 5 at the time and had known all of his letter sounds since he was 2, but blending was a huge hump for him. We had friends raving about SSRW, so I decided to at least take a closer look at it. Once I had the opportunity to look at the program and how it was structured, I decided to give it a try. It was much more visually appealling than Phonics Pathways, and I also realized fairly quickly that it is very easy to adapt to individual needs. You really don't have to do it all. My son was pencil phobic, so we didn't do all the writing and once we were past cvc words, I backed off on the spelling too. My goal was to get him reading, which he did pretty quickly after using the SSRW Ferris wheel to get over that blending hump. Writing ended up being a long time coming for him and he is still an awful speller though, so I have made sure to have my younger two do more with those aspects of SSRW as their turns came.

 

Later in my quest to find something to help with first ds's spelling issues I went through an SWR phase and learned a lot about spelling rules which caused me to adapt the way I used SSRW with my others. For example SSRW has a long vowel song that goes "Two vowels get together and they play a game; the first vowel speaks; it says the letter name." Other programs have the rhyme "Two vowels go a walking, the first vowel does the talking." Of course OG methods of spelling point out all the inaccuracies of this. Since I was learning all the sounds of the different vowel combinations, I skipped that song in SSRW and used the SWR rules to teach those pages. So for the page with a list of "ea" words, I told the kids that "ea" has three sounds (long e, short e, and long a) and in this list all the ea's make their first sound. I didn't know all this with my oldest and taught SSRW as written to him. He has always tested off the charts for reading, so I don't think learning this the "wrong" way ruined him or anything.

 

All said and done, I've really enjoyed SSRW and found it easy to implement and adapt. I've tried a lot of phonics programs (Phonics Museum, Phonics Pathways, and others I've forgotten the names of) but SSRW is what I ended up sticking with through 3 children with some adaptations but no regrets. That said, after working with the program repeatedly over the course of approximately 7 years (while my oldest flew through the program, it took close to two years for both of my other two to get through it) I'm pretty sure I'll be ready to retire it and put the SSRW phase of my life behind me next month!

[langfam]

I used it with 3 dc and think it's a good program. When I was teaching it to my then 5yr old, my 3 year old was always sitting right by us. It never occurred to me that he was learning right along with his older brother. He started reading right around age 4 and by kindergarten had finished the program himself. I think it was all the songs that attracted the little ones. The stories are silly and somewhat stilted bit it did teach them to read and spell.

[Evergreen State Sue]

I used this when my kids 4 and 5.5 years old. My oldest turned out to have dyslexia. When I took him to a tutor specializing in dyslexia, she was very impressed with the books. She ended up buying them from me when we were through using them. So the younger child did super, loved the music and took off with reading. She loves reading now 8 years later. The older one, even with a disability, did great.

 

My only complaint was the writing space was too small for my kids at that age.