Ok, the last of our books arrived today and I'm happy with all my choices except "Explode the Code". I don't know why, but it's just not appealing to me. I know it gets great reviews from a lot of people but I'm just not into it....any replacement suggestions? He's 5. TIA
We started ds with the primers for Explode the Code. I think they were called Get Ready.., Get Set.., Go for the Code. I liked them because at the time he was having issues with holding pencils, crayons, etc. So we could ease him into writing. When we got to the regular Explode the Code books they went way to fast for ds to grasp or understand. He started balking and getting very frustrated because the series was pushing reading and he was not at all ready. We stopped it immediately. If ds wasn't autistic I would say it might have been ok. But it moved too fast for him and started causing him to hate school. By the way, I'm glad to see you decided to stick around!!!! Marty
Can't say enough about www.starfall.com - My two oldest learned to read with starfall and are avid readers well above grade level. I credit Starfall with that start. One of my favorite features is that it is FREE. You can download and print the materials and not have to buy anything. And if you do decide to buy it - even the FULL set with extras is NOT expensive at all. Hope you find something that you're happy with. edited to add...starting starfall with my youngest this year!
So many love Explode the Code. I felt like you. Abeka is great for the little ones and starfall.com is excellent also. What about Bob Books? My dd has those and she like them.
I agree... starfall is great! We have Bob Books, but my son didn't like them. Kinda like ETC, I suppose... some like them, some don't. Are you looking for letters/sounds, or beginning reading? Here's a great letter-of-the-week site if that's what you want... (I don't know if I can post links, so if you don't see this, google "Brightly Beaming") http://www.letteroftheweek.com/
We tried it. Trevor liked it at first then it started going to fast for him and there was a lot of writing and lack of color. So this year we are trying something else. We also tried Hooked on Phonics last year and that really did not work great either.
Progressive Phonics is excellent and it's free. Just register and you have access to printable books (which are a hoot!) and worksheets. I've been through quite a few phonics programs with my son but this is the one that's clicked. I'd also second Starfall and in fact find the Starfall and PP make a great combination!
We use a combination of Explode the Code and lots of phonics readers. For the younger ones I really like the Nora Gaydos book sets. They have lots of repeat words and they are cute! One thing I found with Explode the Code is we go rather slowly. We do about 2 pages a day. I also cut out a lot of the writing. We do Handwriting Without Tears anyway, so it was silly to add all the extra writing in ETC. We are currently doing book 4 with my son who just started 2nd grade. I have him do about half the writing in ETC. My 4 yr old just started book 1 because she is putting together words now and knows all her consonants and short vowel sounds. The preETC books were too boring. She does NONE of the ETC writing yet, but she still gets the phonics instruction. Writing will come in it's own time. So this doesn't answer your question at all, but I just wanted to point out that you can tweak ETC to fit your needs if you want. You don't have to do it "by the book" so to speak. Edie
We used some of the ETC A,B, C books last year. This year for Kindergarten, we started out with HOP. He seemed to be doing okay, but he can't stand the lady on the tape. So, I changed to Saxon. My daughter did great with Saxon Phonics and is a strong reader. It's starting a little too slow for him, so I decided to do 2 lessons a day for a little while and see. We even picked HOP back up today for a mini-lesson. I figured we'll keep doing it on the side once a week or so. I've heard good things about Abeka, too. Saxon started with the letter "L" so I pulled the ETC C book out and we did some of the "L" pages, just for reinforcement. I think Saxon is great all by itself, but since we have some of this other stuff, I figured we'd use it. By the way, we use the handwriting pages from Starfall and some homemade ones using the Startwrite software. HTH, Patty
My son LOVES Explode the Code...he did the Primers, and books 1-6 so far....well, actually he'll finish book 6 this week. He also used and finished Hooked on Phonics K-2 by last December. I know that it wouldn't have been a great fit for my oldest child but it's wonderful for my son. We use it to hone his skills not to teach him though...that maybe why it works for us. Hope all the suggestions by folks help you find a better fit. We've all been there with things that were great for others and not for our family (our first was Considering God's Creation...lol)
The girls liked the beginning explode the code. Get Set....Get Ready.... and Go For the code. We also used Christian liberty Press phonics, and I had one that absolutely loved Dick and Jane. We do a lot of mixing and matching at our house.
My son would cry when I would bring the ETC books out. He hated them. He also hated teach your child to read in 100 ez lessons. We have found that starfall, the leap frog dvds, jumpstart disks, and well us just working on them on our own has done wonders. Now out of all of the ones I have listed, he learned the most from watching the leap frog dvds. He will ask to watch them over and over again.
I must agree with the leap frog DVD's! My 4 year old learned all her letter sounds from watching those videos. Edie
I found better success with interactive type things like Leap Frog, the movies and the games, Starfall, various computer games, other games you make up for begining sounds, ending sounds, etc. Not only were the workbooks boring, but the pictures were often hard to figure out what they were supposed to be.
We used ETC for our oldest and they helped him immensely. I think my youngest would look at me and say "No way!" I couldn't wrap my brain around Starfall. My oldest hated it and the youngest loves it when he gets to do the online thing. I hope that helps! oh...I almost forgot! I totally second (or third?) the Leapfrog DVDs. Those things are amazing! We were given them for the oldest and he watched them but the youngest watched them *before* I started with OPGTR and he was a little bored with the book because he picked up soooooo much from the DVDs
I used Phonics Pathways for my oldest all the way through and am a third of the way through for my second child. It works well but sometimes the kids just need a break from it. After a break we review a little and they are right back into it. I don't usually start them reading from the book rather I use it as a list and write things on a whiteboard. Usually after they are about halfway through the book they need a break and then we go back and add spelling the words out in a notebook. I tried Explode the Code and the phonics game and something else I can't remember but always go back to Phonics Pathways.
