suggestions for phonics readers?

Pathway Readers…First Steps (followed by Days Go By, etc, but they get increasingly challenging)

Christian Liberty Press kindergarten reader 4-book set, something like it Is Fun time Read, Pals and Pets, Time at Home, It is A Joy to Learn. There is a preschool set before set but I’m not sure what level those are at.

For phonics – the best ones I have by far:  American Language Series…available at Rainbow Resource…they are lovely, have full colour illustrations, great size for sitting on a couch and reading together, cute stories (and not too twaddly compared to the other nonsense that is often put out for this stage), each story seems always just the right length, and most important –  they are truly a graduated phonics set.  Short vowels first, then blends, then more complex phonograms, etc.   Book one is Fun in the Sun; Book two, Scamp and the Tramp; Book three, At the Farm.  It goes up to book six. Each reader around $10 or $12 and worth every penny, IMO.  There are workbooks for each reader, if that’s your thing.  (I’ve not used the WB’s but was tempted because I was so happy with the structure and pace of the series)  It has been a joy using this reader series as my kids are truly able to apply what they are learning in phonics within these readers.

Does this help?

http://www.theunlikelyhomeschool.com/2014/02/the-best-emergent-readers-for-phonics.html

http://www.theunlikelyhomeschool.com/2014/01/choosing-right-readers-for-your.html

My ds4 enjoys http://www.readingbear.org, and we pick up early readers from the library, not always phonetic, but he has picked up a lot just by being exposed to slightly more advanced words.

Step Into Reading level 1 is quite simple, but in the I Can Read series, you will probably need the My First I Can Read, as their level 1 is much more wordy.

My ds enjoys reading and can spend quite a bit of time reading on his own, but if there are too many words he’ll give up reading sooner, even if he can read it with minimal helps

vikingkirken, oh how I wished Dr. Seuss had worked for us.  My kids liked them well enough, but very quickly got bored.  (or just memorized the books).  Maybe it was just us, but at this age my kids needed to stay at the early reading level for quite some time.  We needed practice, practice, practice and we needed to NOT be faced with boredom.  In short Dr. Seuss wasn’t enough by itself.  We also found that DS didn’t follow a careful sequence of building in phonics difficulty.  Yes, it is simple early phonics, but it doesn’t respond (IMO) to that stage where a child is beyond short, single syllable vowels and needs to take careful steps into blending and complex phonograms before they can read a “real” book without total frustration.  What I really like about the American Language series (others mentioned above are great as well) but ALS truly gives a LOT of practice for each phonics “skill” level in a way that somehow kept us totally clear of boredom.  First book is ONLY short vowels; yet it packs in 100 pages and 20 or so chapters (so much variety!).  We spent over a month on that one book and yet we truly felt like it was something new every day.  For us, that month to practice short vowels was very much needed.  You can imagine how relieved I was that no one got bored or felt “stuck”.  I think they didn’t feel this way becuase it was ONE book we were advancing through.  (look Mama, we’re halfway through now!).  Book 2 and forward are all 175+ pages.  Book two was a true focus on ONLY blending (with short vowels), and yet again, the variety was terrific and we were able to advance at just the right pace within this one reader.  Book 3 concentrates ONLY on long vowels.  Book 4, 5, 6 the more complicated phonograms.  And yet none of these books felt lilke “boring school” books (for us).

HTH someone!   Angie

Hi AFthful, thinking I probably should have mentioned these readers in the last post I wrote to you – sorry!  As for age, of course it depends on the child.  I’d say, generally speaking it’s for ages 6-8.  For some kids this will be age 5-7 and for others this will be age 7-8.5.  Any way you slice it, the books are terrific reading practice, not boring, and get the job done of reinforcing phonics.  My DS (will be 7 in May) is on book 2, Scamp and Tramp, and has almost completed it; he is probably more at the book 3 level, but we’ve been really taking our time.  My DD (almost 5) is by her own will working through book 1 (I’m not one to push early reading, she just took the book on her own and started reading, very unusual in my family… 🙂  but that book is a decent fit for her…

We have a lot of Sonlight phonics resources:

-their Fun Tales box set of phonics readers

-Go A to Z! 

-Alphabet Bingo

-Go Blend

-Letter and Word Bingo

Definitely all sequential in their phonics approach.  My kids have all loved the card games!

My youngest, ds 6, is still unsure of even all his letters, never mind their sounds.  I’m so glad he’s my youngest, not my oldest, as I’m sure I would probably be a little nervous!  But they’re all so different…my oldest hardly had any phonics and learned to read at 4 just sitting next to me as I read to her.  Then all the others have fallen somewhere inbetween.  One of our daughters is adopted from China (she was almost 5 years old) and she caught on very quickly.  Much less difficulty than my son!  

Just thanking the Lord for all the amazing differences He has blessed our children with!