Barton only suggests not reading outside books until the child finished Level 4. The other recommendation is not to expect the child to do textbook reading on their own until completion of level 6. This is recommended to help break the guessing habit. After completion of Level 4, the expectation is that the child will be doing eye-reading outside of the Barton lessons.
My kids prefer Kindle’s Immersion reading, which they both did use while working through Barton level 4. Learning Ally has some of their books as VoiceText which is similar.
Even though the kids did not do outside reading other than the Barton books through level 4, both of them still was being exposed to great literature through the use of the Kindle’s Immersion reading and Learning Ally. Audiobooks would also serve this purpose.
My 11 yo completed 5 levels of Barton. He did complain through level 4 which is difficult since it covers a lot of material in depth. However, his spelling and reading has vastly improved and he is able to complete a lot of reading assignments independently with fluency. Independence and fluency did not happen with other programs.
My 8yo is halfway through level 4 and in the past year has progressed from non-reader to reading multisyllable words with ease. This is amazing progress.
I keep the rule sheets of each level readily available for them as they work through reading and writing. I don’t expect them to memorize each rule as they learn each rule. I have found that having the rules readily available that they gradually memorize them. However, using a rule such as “Picnic Chicken Basket” has been far more useful and easier to memorize than anything else that we tried to use previously.
Both of my kids have been formally identified as moderate dyslexic.
HTH
