So I was thinking about how in the world I could get my crazy, wild, wonderfully active little boy into learning his letters. He loves to play on the computer and board games. Do you all know if Hooked on Phonics works? Have any of you used it on your Pre-K children? Is there something better that you all would suggest if you think this doesn't work well? Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate the suggestions!!!!!
I have not used the program, though my MIL gave me hers that she used years ago with her last child. I did look over the program and I didn't feel it was right for us. My 5yo dd knows most of her letter sounds but not all of them and I am not pushing her about it because I know she will learn the sounds when she is ready. I like to read to my kids and teach them the letter sounds as we go about our daily life.
Marking to hear what others have to say cause it's probably what we will be using for phonics next year (1st grade) I think, from what I know about it, it will work well for my oldest. I plan on buying the preK-2nd grade set, as I have a 3 year old that will be starting "official" prek in 2011, I might as well go ahead and buy the whole thing so I can use it with both boys. If you child isn't much of a visual learner you can get a 2006 set http://www.hookedonphonics.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=215 (no DVDs, just CDs) K-2 for 50% off if you use the code SLICK50 (it worked a week ago anyway) (which makes it like $40)
We have it, use it and like it. I have a better recomendation for a kiddo who likes games though... www.mcruffy.com's s.e. edition phonics and reading. Also, my kids learned their letters and sounds from the leapfrog dvds.
We have it. My oldest son did really, really great with it. My middle son (now5) is not doing as great. He can read the lists of words...like a champ...but the "helper ladder words" (sight words) are a mystery, and of more concern to me, he is struggling with reading the books (which I didn't expect, since he can zip thru those lists). I have actually seen him put his hand over the pictures to cover them, like they're confusing him since they don't show verbatim what the words are. So even though he can read all the word lists in the Yellow (first book in the series, ours is marked kindergarten), we're going to just keep working on short vowel sounds using Starfall books and activities and BOB books. FWIW, the most helpful resource for me has been Teach Your Child to Read in Just Ten Minutes a Day. While I haven't followed that book to a tee, it really helped me understand what products like Hooked on Phonics and 100 Easy Lessons (which was a raging disaster in this house) are trying to do. Now that HOP isn't working as swimmingly as it did for the last child, I have (sort of) a theoretical idea of how we can go about addressing my son's needs, rather than fishing for a whole new curriculum. Just my two cents'.
I used it for my older two (now 8 and 11) and it worked really well. With my son, we skipped using the tape (can you tell it was awhile ago?? a TAPE??) and just did the letter sounds on our own, using the flash cards and book. With him, I also used the BOB books and I found that he learned a lot quicker with a combination of things, not just HOP. My son had trouble with a lot of the sight words as well and I made him index cards with the sight words on them and we would play memory with them and that REALLY helped him pick up the sight words quickly.
I know we could do more drill with the sight words (some of which, I admit, annoy me - I mean "and" is really very phonetic, so why should he have to learn initially it as a sight word), but I'm more concerned about him not being able to "translate" (probably not the word) all those words into meangingful (to him) sentences. We'll just practice.
My son is having "trouble" with sight words too. But he's in public school and they don't teach phonics to kindergartners other than each letter's sound and short vowel sounds, Like my son thinks "sh" says "ssss-ha" not "sh" So we've been working on phonics some, but I don't remember all the rules LOL The problems he has with sight words is he can't sound them out, he knows the ones he can sound out (like the above mentioned and, red, black, words that should NOT be taught as sight words) cause I taught him to sound them out at home, but they, why, where--he has trouble with these.
I haven't used the HOOKED ON PHONICS.. but I will tell you what really works from experience. It's a concept called Visual Phonics (See the Sound). Unfortunately I am unable to do links (yet).. I think, so you will have to do a search for it. I've implemented it into my classrooms for years and it's always been a concept that other teachers have taken from me to use in their own classrooms. It helps struggling students visualize the sound. I LOVE it -- and the kids love doing the hand gestures!
We are doing HOP. It is working for us. My son seems to really like it. I bought the Pre-k thru 2nd. With the pre-k we did it in a couple of weeks b/c he is 6 and had some of the concepts already. Then just went straight into K.
We used it with all three kids. It's a neat organized system. They love the chart to mark their success, and the dvd games they could play.
