I've been reading the other ETC thread, which has been great! I'm going to start my 4 yo in the ABC series soon. I do have questions about for 'older students.' My DD is finishing up 1st grade and is reading, but not fluent yet. I'm thinking of having her go through ETC 2, just to reinforce the sounds and further phonics teaching. So, here is my laundry list of questions! 1. Does ETC teach the 'rules'? She knows a lot of sounds-we have a sound chart on the wall and I teach her as we are actually reading--but does it teach the 'why'...She will ask 'why is the oo in book different from oo in moon?' (Gosh...I hope those are two different sounds. Now I'm confusing myself! ). More recently, last night, was the 'ight' sound. I'm sure I could 'google' the reason, but hey, and book outlining it would be great. Would the teacher guide have this info, or does the student book contain it also. So, in other words, does it explain when a vowel/consonant is silent and when sounds mysteriously change? 2. It is my understanding that the 1/2 (half) level books are supplemental for reinforcement. So, should I order 2 or 2-1/2 since she knows the sounds for most part, but I want to give a good review of them? 3. We school 4 days a week. I see each lesson is 8pages long--would it be feasable to do 2 pages a day? I'm sure this is no problem, but if anyone happens to have the book in front of them? :lol: 4. Spelling--I'm thinking of ordering Spelling Workout, but I wonder if ETC would/could cover spelling to a certain degree? It's not a biggie either way--it just seems some phonics programs can become spelling programs. Kinda. Thanks for all help!!
We are finishing up book 2 1/2 right now, but I have already purchased book 3. Here is what I can tell by flipping through it 1)Book 3 does teach some rules (the 1st lesson teaches if a vowel is at the end of a little word, the vowel says its name and if a little word ends in y, it says "i", the 2nd lesson is silent e). Books 1 and 2 are really more "ruleless" words. 2)I would go ahead and get book 2 and see how she does. It will help get her used to the format of the ETC books. We are doing the 2 1/2 book because, although my DS did not seem to struggle with book 2, I also did not feel like he really "had it". I figure extra practice can not hurt! 3) Some of the lessons are 9 pages, but either way you would have no problem finishing a lesson in a week (when we were doing book 1, we would finish a lesson in book 1 and 1 1/2 in 6 or 7 school days) 4) The last page of every lesson is a picture of 7 words and space for the child to write the spelling of the word. I purchased a Spelling book for my son to use next year (he will be in 1st grade), but he is well past those words because he has been doing spelling each week with ETC. I am still on the fence about what we will do about Spelling. I may just use those 7 words as the Spelling words for each week. I hope that is some what helpful. This is my first year doing this, so I am certainly not a pro and I am learning as I go. Good Luck!!
Book 2 and 2 1/2 are both the same concepts, just different words to teach them. Either would be fine for reinforcement. Christy answered the rest of the questions well!
I would not bother with the half books unless you later feel you need them. I do recommend the teachers book. I learned alot from it and they way they set up the exercises etc.
My son is is book 2 now (we use it as a reinforcement of HOP level 2 so we're doing the lessons a bit out of order). So far, we haven't needed any of the 1/2 books. ETC does a great job of drilling it "home" on its own. I'm considering getting the higher books for my 2nd grader (who did not learn to read phonetically at her other school). I want to eyeball them first though. She just recently finished a Spectrum 3rd grade phonics workbook so I'm worried she's too advanced for ETC but since she doesn't seem to know the "rules" but can read well, all the workbooks help but don't seem to help her remember the "rules" so that when she gets to a work she has never seen, her first instinct isn't to sound it out....very frustrating...anyway, hoping to flip thru them at a local hs store soon.
Thank you Christy! That was very helpful! I think I'll order book 2 to get a good review and also book 3. I'm sure she knows most of the book 2 sounds, but I can always use it with my younger if it too easy. We can probably go through it pretty fast. I've been using Flashkids spelling this year, but I think it pretty easy so I want something a bit more challenging. I'll order the ETC and see about Spelling Workout. I really appreciate you answering all my questions! Thanks Sixcloar and Vantage: Since I have a younger coming up also, I think I will order the teacher's manuals. Normally, I try to stay away from the teacher's manuals on most stuff--I've found I don't use them. But it sounds like these can be helpful--and they are very inexpensive! Looks like I can skip the 1/2 books altogether (so far :; ). Rhonda: Thanks! My 1st graders-into-2nd grade does the same thing with reading also. She will guess--and her guesses are lousy! I do have her read to me almost every night so I'm hoping to catch and correct bad habits. She is not doing HOP anymore and I feel she has a good foundation of phonics, but she just needs answers--and I don't know the answers. So many times I've told her I don't know why a sound does this or that, but that's just the way it is! :;
