phonics recommendations for a second year of phonics?

My 6 YO will be in “1st grade” next year and needs another year of phonics instruction. We used 100 EZ Lessons last year and it was hard work getting him through it. He’s very spacey, particularly when he’s not super interested in what he’s doing. (This is not necessarily a “school” issue as he loves math and had no trouble whatsoever focusing on it, and focused ok on copywork too though it was difficult for him at first.) Getting through a lesson required a great many reminders to focus, look at whatever word I was pointing to, etc, and generally stretched my patience a great deal. I also had to split lessons in two, cut out the second reading of the story which they recommend, and even read parts of the story to him to keep the lessons to a reasonable length. He did enjoy the stories, and he wanted to learn to read, but it was definitely a lot of work on both our parts and I was quite burned out by the end of the year. He reads ok but is not very confident and definitely not fluent. I think he would benefit from another year of phonics instruction, but I’m not sure what to use. I got Phonics Pathways from our library, and I like the rules in there, but the book itself seems kind of boring, and I really don’t want to have another year of phonics instruction like last year. I think understanding the rules of why a certain sound/spelling is pronounced a certain way would be beneficial to him–he’s figured out and expressed some frustration about “g” and “c” having two different sounds, though he’s only been taught one sound for each letter. He’s a perfectionist… I think he would enjoy something hands on, but I don’t want to spend a lot, and I don’t want a program that requires three or four years of teaching phonics like All About Reading. I am not a hands-on person, so I don’t want something that has so many parts that I’ll cringe every time I pull it out (which is what I do every time I look into All About Reading).

Would Delightful Reading still be beneficial to him at this stage? I know it doesn’t teach the rules of phonics. Or can someone suggest a program that might work well for us?