Hi everyone! What are your favorite phonics programs and why? I usually use Hooked on Phonics (and love it), and was going to purchase the HOP Master Reader for my 3rd grader this year. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with Windows 7. I've read about Happy Phonics, Click N Kids online phonics, and several others. I'm stumped! A friend of mine recommended Rocket Phonics and it looks great, but I can't bring myself to pay $160.00 for it. lol Any suggestions on a reasonably priced program would be greatly appreciated. Btw, I will also be teaching my 5 year old this year. Thanks!
I used Headsprout with my middle child and then more recently with my youngest. I found that, although there were things I liked about it, it did not get them solid in phonics. This past year I used McRuffy Phonics with my 7 year old. I was happy with the program in general. I liked the format, the readers made sense, and the time it took daily did not overwhelm my child. On the other hand, my dd did not progress as expected, She kept confusing the CVC and CVVC (the two sounds vowels make). After the year, she still could not get past them consistantly without prompting. This summer I purchased Explode the Code online version from Homeschool Buyers Co-Op. She has been doing the lessons for about a month. 20 min a day, along with reading leveled readers with me. I must say that she is making amazing progress. I am very happy with ETC. The only complaint we have, though, is the Yes/No questions. Some sentences do not make sense or are open to interpretation. Example: Can a bat dig? We both thought no, but the answer was yes. Besides that, the lessons are logical, short and fun to do. Hope that helps!
My oldest learned to read by.... well reading. My 7yo got her start with Explode the Code along with the Sonlight readers for 1st grade readers (just the books, since the 1st grade ones are all secular). By the time she finished the I Can Read It books she was reading everything that seems to be included in HOP through 2nd grade. My 6yo is finally getting somewhere by using a combo of 2 different versions of HOP. We have the DVDs from the newer version and the older set that was the first set with CDs. I line up the video's lessons with the books from the older set (there are more books with the older set than the newer one... he gets more confidence from the more books). We also love LeapFrog DVDs, Ooka Island and Reading Eggs (I did buy Click N Read, but honestly we do not use it, we find it hard to understand what he is saying a lot of the time.) oh and StarFall.com
I don't mean to contradict. But we used Hooked on Phonics Master Reader last year and we have Windows 7 on our computer. It worked just fine. Did you try it already or were you just going by the info? We LOVE HOP by the way
I feel like I'm missing something elemental here but why does your 3rd grader need phonics? I'm being really genuine. For learning to read/phonics my oldest used starfall and the leap frog movies then moved onto practicing in beginner books. My current 5 yr old used leap frog movies, starfall, and we used the ordinary parents guide to teaching reading to a point. Now we're learning to read by practicing reading in actual beginner books (mostly BOB books). My going to be 2nd grader doesn't do phonics. We do grammar and spelling and he reads independently and we'll be doing read alouds but I genuinely don't understand phonics in the older grade. Is there something I'm missing/not understanding?
Samantha, the only thing I can think of is that some phonics programs might add another year of the more advanced phonics, where other programs seem to get it all done in K, 1, and 2. Or some kids just might need more reinforcement than others, for that extra year. Some folks get their phonics in a phonics program, while others tend to get theirs in a phonics-based spelling program instead. Just "different strokes", I suppose.
Www.starfall.com. All three of my children used this to learn to read. And they all read well above grade level now. It's free. There's also a companion workbook you can download for free. My younger two learned to read WITHOUT me!!! I was gearing up to start with them, but they were already reading!!!! I had tried several things with my oldest, nothing was helping it click. Found Starfall, and within two weeks she was reading! I agree, too, that reading TO them really helps!
My kids are K and 3rd (but 3rd grader is not "on grade level") Between the two of them we are using ClickNKids, Starfall, and McGuffey's Readers as well as these free video tutorials for the McGuffey's My 3rd grader really loves the McGuffey Readers and the video tutorials. (and you can download and print the McGuffey's readers for FREE too!) I find my 3rd grader does better when he does it on his own. He lacks fluency and that bothers him, so I go for programs he can do alone on the computer, then we review together, I read to them and he reads to his little brother. He does great with all those, but if you ask him to read to an adult...he's very aware of his lack of fluency and stumbles more. ETA: If you want to use McGuffey's here is a list of the grade level of each of the readers so you know which one to look at. Eclectic Primer: 1st grade 1st Eclectic Reader: 1st–2nd grades 2nd Eclectic Reader: 3rd–4th grades 3rd Eclectic Reader: 5th–6th grades 4th Eclectic Reader: 6th–8th grades 5th Eclectic Reader: 7th grade–college sophmore 6th Eclectic Reader: 9th grade–college senior 1st New Reader: 1st–2nd grades 2nd New Reader: 3rd–4th grades 3rd New Reader: 4th–5th grades 4th New Reader: 5th–6th grades 5th New Reader: 6th–12th grades 6th New Reader: 12th grade–college sophomore
I just found the most amazing phonics program for free. http://www.phonics4free.org/ Oh my goodness, I love it, BOTH my kids love it. This lovely little older lady with a British accent (Mona McNee) has video lessons, tips and games/worksheets. It's like your grandma teaching your kids to read! (or Mrs. Doubtfire LOL) She uses ball & stick font (which is fine for us, my oldest learned D'Nealian but he's good on handwriting now, my youngest however HATES D'Nealian and pitches a fit if you have him a D'Nealian worksheet! He's a ball and stick fellow! hahaha) She has these paper manipulatives she uses to teach letter formation that you can easily make at home (I'm going to make mine from cardstock and laminate them) So it's perfect for my boys as it's multi-sensory. I am in LOVE with her videos. Watching them with my boys took me back to my 1st grade classroom of the early 80's!
Another one who used explode the code and it worked. Simple and cheap. We also tried clicknkids but some parts of the lessons were WAY more difficult than other parts, so my boys got frustrated with it b/c they couldn't do it.
Starfall and www.progressivephonics.com are both free. I prefer ETC (workbooks, not online). Both of my kids taught themselves to read. The older taught himself with ETC, and the younger with Leapfrog & Starfall (although he's finishing up ETC this year to fill in the gaps).
