Jun. 12, 2007 - When Do You End Phonics Instruction?

Here's an email I sent out to our local homeschool group:

We have a 7 year old who will begin 2nd grade work this fall. He'll be done with The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading this summer, which we've been quite happy with. My question is, what do you do after that?

He's always been a slow reader, but has gotten much quicker since last fall. He does very well during the OPG lessons, catching the phonics rule in the reading during that lesson, and in the following few lessons when it's reviewed. Once we see those words in a regular book, he may or may not catch it. Has anyone dealt with this? Is this a "just needs more practice" kind of problem, or could it be that he needs another phonics program to see the lessons in a different way?

When you're done with your structured phonics program, how do you know when your child is ready to go without anymore phonics lessons? I've seen a few glowing references for the Scaredy Cat Reading Program. Has anyone used this? How is it different from other programs? I gave him a placement test for it purely out of curiosity, and he didn't do as well as I thought he would. He only got about half way thru the test for Level 3, meaning that he would need to do Level 3 and Level 4 of that program before he would be done with phonics instruction.

So, are there any of you out in Blog-land who have dealt with this?  I'm looking for any and all advice, direction, etc.  We're kind of in limbo at the moment, wondering what the smart move is.  We decided the smart move is to seek advice    I'd love to know what opinion everyone has . . . and I know fellow bloggers have lots of opinions.  Also, if anyone happens to have some kind of crystal ball to gaze into my little guys head, that would be great!

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Jun. 12, 2007 - How about...

Posted by momofsix

How about Latin and Greek derivatives. There is a link from my blog for Eugene's book, a Harvard retired professor has compiled at least five hundred of them. Understanding the derivatives will make decoding words easier, as your child advances to higher reading. I can't remember the link, but its on my blog if you'd like. Otherwise, there are some other great book out there with derivatives.

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Jun. 12, 2007 - Phonics

Posted by Anonymous

I know what you mean, and even asked a similar question on my own blog quite a while ago. My ds just turned 6 and he's finished The Ordinary Parent's Guide... He had trouble with the last few pages, but I really thought they were pretty difficult words. They aren't really part of his vocabulary. I had previosly gotten the first level of Alpha Omega's Horizons Phonics and Reading. But so much of the time, it seems like completing workbooks just for the sake of workbooks, rather than any real learning. I've become a bit more judicios in the exercises, not requiring everyone. But I really haven't figured out what we are going to do, either. Not sure if we'll continue the workbooks or what. I've kind of thought about doing a more hands-on approach, such as having him make a phonics notebook. Each page would have a rule or concept. He would write the rule and find pictures or words to go along with it. Simply reading the rules and doing the workbook pages doesn't really seem to make the concept stick for him. But again, he reads really well, so I'm really just leaning toward lots and lots of reading, pointing out concepts as we come to them. As we encountered these concepts, he could then do a notebook page on it.

All this to say, I don't know what we're doing either! Part of the problem is I feel like I need a list where I can check off, "Yep. Completed phonics because we completed ________ (fill in whatever definition.)"

Good luck. I've considered Scaredy Cat phonics too, but I think I'll just continue with Ordinary Parents for DD (4) unless and until I see that it doesn't work for her.

Robin

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Jun. 13, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Michelle32

I'm not sure what you used for Phonics, but we basically are done when we finish our Abeka Handbook for Reading. It is so comprehensive, that's all we've needed for our kids to read well.
I would say if there's any phonograms that your child doesn't know, take some time to teach those and complete the phonics instruction. :)
Michelle

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