Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: readers, reading skills

This topic has 9 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 11 months ago by Sonya Shafer.

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

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May 5, 2008 at 4:18 am
AgainstTheGrain
Member
I have a ds who just turned 9 and am looking for readers to help him continue to practice his reading skills over the summer and next school year. He reads at about a 2nd grade level. He has many allergies accompanied by asthma and sometimes the meds he’s on just makes his brain freeze up when it comes to reading (he’s an absolute whiz at math!). He’s making progress, although at a snails pace, at least it’s forward 🙂
Currently I’m using “Meeting New Friends” from Christian Liberty Press (which I just realized is their 1st grade reader 🙁 ). Should I continue with them or is there something else I could use to help him be a fluent reader?
May 6, 2008 at 3:14 am
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
We really like the Pathway Readers. Most of the stories follow the same characters, so the child forms a “friendship” with their family. The stories are set in a rural environment and are very wholesome and moral. I believe these readers are used in some Amish schools. Here’s the list of titles in suggested order and grade reading level:
- First Steps (preprimer, grade 1)
- Days Go By (grade 1)
- More Days Go By (grade 1)
- Busy Times (grade 2)
- More Busy Times (grade 2)
- New Friends (grade 3)
- More New Friends (grade 3)
They have others for the next grades and following, but these are the ones that we used for reading practice.
May 7, 2008 at 9:31 am
CindyS
Participant
Just for some variety, Apologetics Press has some readers that I was planning on purchasing for my soon-to-be 9yo. He reads at about the same level as your son. One is the Early Reader set and the others is Learn to read. Here is the website:
http://www.apologeticspress.org/catalog/index.php/cPath/2_5/sort/3a/page/1
I also found, at our library a set of books called Extreme Readers and another titled We Both Read. There are both silly stories in this last (which we skipped) and nature stories (which we liked).
Also the Nature Readers from Christian Liberty are good, and their Robinson Crusoe Reader (I think they publish this one) has been a big hit with all my children at this level. One last is The Life of Washington. This is a great encouragement because it is written in one-syllable words yet has a very grown up ‘feel’ to it.
Blessings,
Cindy
May 8, 2008 at 12:27 am
Rachel White
Participant
We use The Elson Readers (Lost Classics and Amazon), the Reading-Literature readers (Amazon and Yesterday’s Classics), and the Pathways that Sonya mentioned. We also enjoy the Liberty Nature Readers. For independent readers, my dd enjoys the other readers from Rod & Staff-the G-d is Good series and the Say-it-Again series. I am also going to get her some more Little Jewel books. From the same company are 2 books that break up syllables. One is “Locust Story” and “Caterpillar Green”. Arnold Lobel has been a hit in our house in the past. Remember to use your library as a source of living books for that age group. Great lit. are your “readers” once reading has been established. Books w/beautiful artwork, worthy to be on your wall, not cartoon characters. Your son will get used to reading books with poor presentation and usually those are massively twaddle! If you need good CM lists of twaddle-free books, buy/check out the book lists books and take down notes of all the books you want him to read. Oh yes, Aesop’s for children by Milo Winters (it’s in the bookfinder) is a big hit, too.
Rachel
May 8, 2008 at 1:28 am
Kara
Member
Thank you everyone for these great suggestions. I have added many of them to my Amazon Wish List so that relatives can buy them for the girls as gifts. I ordered the Pathway Readers. I’m really excited about these!
Warm wishes,
Kara
May 16, 2008 at 12:05 am
Kara
Member
My 3rd grade daughter is loving the Pathways readers. She has even read the beginner readers because she loves the stories so much. I love them too. They are so real, and I love the moral lessons. So refreshing!
My question is, can you guide me in what to get after More New Friends. I had a look around the website, but couldn’t figure out what to get next.
Thanks so much for help.
Warm wishes,
Kara
May 16, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
They have books for 4-7 grade, but the stories don’t follow the same family all throughout like the books for the younger grades do. They are still good stories, but the books are more of collections of stories and poems and such. Here are the titles:
- Building Our Lives, grade 4
- Living Together, grade 5
- Step By Step, grade 6
- Seeking True Values, grade 7
May 17, 2008 at 6:08 am
AgainstTheGrain
Member
This is probably a silly question – but just to be clear – would there be any reason to get the workbooks or the workbook teacher editions of the Pathway Readers?
May 17, 2008 at 6:10 am
AgainstTheGrain
Member
This is probably a silly question – but just to be clear – would there be any reason to get the workbooks or the workbook teacher editions of the Pathway Readers?
May 17, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
I didn’t get them because I thought they were unnecessary just for reading practice and I couldn’t figure out how they would fit in with CM methods for that age children.