Has anyone combined Abeka Phonics and HOP?

[keithfamily5]

I have been told about this and I'm curious how you combine the two. Has anyone here done this before or know where I can look for help?

 

Thanks,

Patty

 

:bigear:

[ElizabethB]

I've combined A Beka Phonics with several other phonics programs!

 

They all work together fine, the key thing is to make sure your child is sounding out the words from L to R and that you're not teaching too many sight words.

 

I like A Beka phonics overall, but they have a few too many sight words. (I especially like how they review the phonics in upper grades and work on multi-syllable words.)

 

I haven't seen HOP since it has been rewritten, the old version had a lot of sight words and did not teach all the phonics you needed to know to be able to read any word. From what I can see online, the new version is at least a little bit better.

 

Here's how to teach any sight words taught in either program phonetically and why it's important:

 

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

 

There are several ways I combine different phonics programs:

 

1. Use one primary, and just use the 2nd (and 3rd and 4th...) to review sounds/concepts that need more work.

 

2. Work through 1 program completely and then use the 2nd, but only do few words for each sound. For sounds that they are having trouble with, do the full lesson.

 

3. For students needing a lot of repetition, I will completely work through several programs, not skipping anything.

 

But, any way you combine them will be fine and not confusing as long as you don't throw sight words into the mix. I've mixed marked curriculum like A Beka and a specially marked font kind of along the lines of 100 EZ lessons with non marked print with no problems.

Edited April 1, 2009 by ElizabethB

[LisaKinVA]

They use two totally different phonics instruction methods. Abeka does the ba-be-bi-bo-bu, and HOP does the more popular, but opposite, changing the first consonant in CVC words (b-at, c-at, h-at, m-at, r-at, etc.).

 

I'm not sure how you could really combine the two as a child is learning phonics (now, my oldest went through Abeka and then we did HOP Advanced Reader after the 2nd grade readers... to work on breaking longer words down into syllables, but I didn't combine the learning to read methods).

 

The only thing I could really see is doing one informally (almost as a supplement), but sticking with one as the main program. In my case, my younger two children knew all of their letters and basic sounds well before we started working on phonics in a formal method. They learned via Leap Frog (which is the same method as HOP). So, we've always used a more informal approach to Abeka - learning the new sounds and utilizing the readers -- but we've never really done the ladder chants (ba-be-bi-bo-bu, etc.)

 

However, I could really see some children being really confused by trying to mix the two methods.

[Tree House Academy]

It sounds a bit like overkill to me. Abeka has a strong phonics program all by itself, but there is a LOT of it, from what I can tell. The phonics ties into the spelling, the reading, even the handwriting with Abeka. I have not used HOP, but I just think marrying the two is not necessary and would be a bit confusing, not to mention, major overkill.

[ElizabethB]

I've gone between programs that do ma-t vs. m-at with no problems for the student. It is confusing for me, however, to teach ma- as short since with my remedial students I teach this as long and immediately incorporate syllables. I've never had a beginning student who has had problems with that, interestingly. I would have thought that a few of them would be confused, but they aren't.

 

I have had beginning students who have had problems guessing from using word families (occasionally, they are fine for most students) and from sight words (often, they are a poor choice for many students.)

 

I like Webster's Speller because its 2 letter blends lead directly into more complex multi-syllable words.

[homeschooltoone]

It sounds a bit like overkill to me. Abeka has a strong phonics program all by itself, but there is a LOT of it, from what I can tell. The phonics ties into the spelling, the reading, even the handwriting with Abeka. I have not used HOP, but I just think marrying the two is not necessary and would be a bit confusing, not to mention, major overkill.

:iagree:

 

I've used abeka phonics with my son and it was plenty.

[keithfamily5]

Someone gave me the new HOP and told me that at her son's school they used both Abeka and HOP. She said he did great, but I do have 2 other kids and there never seems to be enough time. (plus, I don't want to frustrate him) He's doing great at picking up his sounds. We've been doing the ABC lapbook from Homeschoolshare.com and using the ETC A book. We should be well into B by now, but life gets in the way. He's definitely ready to learn. He's spelling out words for us to tell him what they are so he can read what his sister's are reading. So, I'd better take the time to start working with him now, since he's interested.

 

Thanks again for all the advice!

 

Patty