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Learning to read: what curriculum???
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I´m starting homeschooling and have never seen any life homeschooling method, like a learning to read programm. So I don´t know anything about them and don´t know about differences. Since I don´t know other homeschoolers I can´t have a look at their materials etc.
I had a very good and close look at the Delightful Reading course, but now my only homeschooling friend (with a lot of children and experience adviced me another course, since she says it´s simpler to use with many little children. This is her method:
http://www.clp.org/store/by_course/172
I´ve looked and looked at the CM curriculum and the one of my friend and I don´t know by any means how to decide! I´ve got no clue about these things! Can you please help me to make the decision?Thanks again!
YvettePS: a workbook example
I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons successfully with both of my children. After that, we built reading confidence with Dick & Jane books, Frog and Toad, and Little Bear. Then they moved into Pathway readers, reading out loud and narrating. Now, at 9 and 10, both are excellent readers and read well above grade level.
When we started I had to make all of my purchases using online samples and the occassional book from the library. It’s tough! For me, I knew I wanted phonics, so I started there. I didn’t like funny symbols or hard to teach, so that knocked several out of the running. I wanted something scripted and open and go. We ended up using Sing, Spell, Read & Write for my oldest and then All About Reading for my middle kiddo. My youngest is starting AAR now too. We really like it and I know it covers all my bases and then some. And it’s fun. 🙂
Go with your gut. There are a million and one great reading programs out there that can get a child reading. Pick one that appeals to you as a teacher and to your child as a student and as hard as it is, try not to second guess. Every family that has a reader will have a program that worked for them. You don’t need the program that taught your neighbours kids to read – you need the one that is going to work for your family. 🙂
We use Delightful Reading and love it so much. I also read Uncovering the Logic of English for my own sake. It has helped me instruct her more easily only when she has a question about “how to say a word” and “why”. That book helps eliminate the misconception that the English language is full of exceptions. I highly reccomend it. You will be a better speller, if nothing else, after reading it. It teaches us spelling rules that we were not taught in school as children. Between the two resources, we are well on our way to learning to read.
Don’t make a hasty decision. Pray over it. Remember that the most costly reading program is not necessarily the best and neither are free curriculums. Don’t drive yourself crazy researching it, either. If you are wanting something that is in line with CM philosophies, then try Delightful Reading. You can always sell it after you have given it a fair chance and decided it was not for you.
We love DR because the children make the connection in THEIR mind. It’s not a list of phonics rules to memorize.
We also love Delightful Reading. My son has truly found it delightful! The sample above certainly doesn’t look like it follows the CM philosophy, but obvoiusly it can work. Like others said, it needs to fit you.
I also used Teach Your Child…that Lindsey mentioned with my first two children. My only homeschool advisor (my sis-in-law) used it after several recommended to her. It certainly worked fine, and is absolutely scripted. But I like the DR better, and I find it to be pretty open and go once you cut apart the word and letter cards. My kids enjoyed helping with that and learned some finger dexterity and the importance of “perfect execution” in the process!
I am using SCM’s Delightful Reading with my son right now along with the Grade 1 Pathway Readers (there are three). DR is a wonderful combinatin of teaching reading through phonics and sight words. In my opinion it really is a delightful way to teach reading as well as laying a foundation for your child to see things “in thier mind’s eye”. This in turn, lays the groundwork for being an excellent speller. My ds enjoys this program so much better than the one we were using last year.
We bought magnet squares from Amazon called Flexible Magnet Squares by Small Parts (and just cut them into fourths) to stick on the back of the letter/word tiles. They make teaching DR really easy!
Last of all, you can find the video here on SCM’s site of Sonya giving a demo of DR.
Anyway, I hope that is helpful for you! Praying for you in.
We are using SCM’s Delightful Reading. We were using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and both my girls were not getting it. They really struggled. Once we switched to DR the both took off with reading.
I agree that you do need to pray over it. I can’t tell you how many mistakes I have made in our home education, because I didn’t stop and pray about it. Trust the Lord to lead you.
~April
Thank all of you! I guess my heart is tending to choose the CM method; even loving to get everything from one direction and fitting into the rest of the used materials. But your advices to pray about it is perfect :). So I´ll give it more time and pray over it!!!
Not to confuse you more, but I have another opinion. I have never been a big fan of phonics. I don’t think it is that effective,and I think it confuses children due to the many exceptions to the rules.
I like Reading Reflex, which uses Phono-Graphics(sound pictures, etc.) ReadAmerica.net has support materials to go with it, like card games, etc. I got Reading Reflex on Amazon for $4. I use All About Spelling’s letter tiles with magnets instead of the paper letters in the back of the book, cuz the paper ones blow around too much. If you go this route, feel free to PM me for details.
I used Delightful Reading, but my dd was stuck, so I switched to Reading Reflex.
Before that we used CL Learn to Read, but I tired of the classroom teachers manual approach and it wasn’t working well for my dd. She is a tough case though.
My oldest used 100 lessons…but I didn’t like the story content.
As you can see, I have been around a while and used a lot of curriculum. I hope this helps, and best wishes with whatever you choose:)
Hello I’m new here and to SCM. Trying to learn about it more. Where can I find the video of Sonja showing a sample of DR? would like to compare it to reading reflex. RR sounds like it might have the Diane Craft approoach!? I will have to look into this further. Thank you
momschooler, here’s a link to the video where Sonya explains and demonstrates the Delightful Reading kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kviQfVuaklc
We used Reading Reflex successfully with our middle child…that program just made sense to me, so that made it easier to teach. Tried 100 Lessons and that wasn’t a good fit. With my last child, I wanted more of a CM approach, so we used DR, and my son loved it. I did use many RR ideas because they make sense to me and are permanently stuck in my head, but we used DR for our materials. Now we’re on to Pathway Readers, Frog and Toad, familiar picture books, etc.
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