I'm working with 4yo on The Reading Lesson and he's doing great so far. He's finished lesson 5 already. We're doing about 6pgs of TRL a day. Tomorrow, we'll begin doing 1 story from the Houghton Mifflin 1st grade Reading series I've done a "test run" with Hooked on Phonics and 4yo had no problem with it either. (The Yellow Level has only short vowel sounds). I'm wondering if I should cut back on 4yo's TRL to maybe 3 pages a day and let him also do HOP simulataneously? Did you do 2 Phonics programs at the same time when teaching a child to read? Which features did you use and which did you leave off? Why did you use two? How did it work out for your student? I'm leaning toward doing 1 after the other, but I wanted to run it by you gals' first, I like TRL because its short and quick and gets them off the ground reading. Hooked on Phonics because it is explicit, systematic and thorough. After HoP you can read pretty much anything written in the English langauge.
I can't say that I ever have used two different programs at the same time. One reason is I just don't have the time in a setting with other kids, to do more than one. Another reason is that I would be afraid I'd confuse the child with different approaches at the same time. I guess it would depend on how well I thought the two would be compatible, supplementing each other without competing with each other. Since I've never used either TRL or HOP, I wouldn't have a clue how well they might work together. Do let me know how it goes, though!
Gizzy - you have a point about HOP being so systematic. What I've done is used HOP as a main course, then supplemented (when working on the same sounds) with materials from other courses. I have not had my kids do two different courses completely at the same time. I think it could get confusing, but I can't say for certain. If the 4yo is really taking to HOP, are you willing to shift over completely? One thing I would not do (and this is just me), is do one complete phonics course, then do a different one, starting at the beginning. I think my boys would have balked at going back to being "introduced" to sounds they already know. Also, I think reverting on the level of stories/books wouldn't be forward motion, iykwim.
I have used two at the same time. I have the 100 EZ lessons and then my son/daughter did online games with phonics thru Time4Learning, Jumpstart CDs, and Starfall. The computer was their fun schooling.
I used Hooked on Phonics Deluxe (K-2nd 1998 ed) plus Explode the Code workbooks with my son. I used the ETC book lessons a bit out of order sometimes but generally they went well with the HOP. Once he finished HOP, we continued through the rest of the ETC books.
We, too, used HOP & ETC at the same time. I do see, as someone mentioned, that it *could* be confusing but we had no problem. Try it and see, you can always cut back or cut one off. Hope you find what works best for you guys =)
We use a real mix, 100ez lessons and hop for a few weeks(as dd1 finished the red hop book and all the 100 lessons), now we are using ETC a bit of phonics pathways and computer time. I personally like to combine, as someone once told me learning to read is like building a house, you need strong foundations
4yo is a fan of TRL, but he just goes along with HOP. 6yo is SUPOSED to be doing HOP right now but he's having an attitude about every little thing right now... I wish I would've started HOP at the same time as TRL, because now TRL is so far ahead of HOP, I think I will just let 4yo continue on with TRL alone and then have him do HOP. So many decisions, so little time...
