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Abeka readers

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 9:43 pm
by Kitty-Cat
Does anyone know the difference between the Little Books and the Little owl books listed for Abeka 4 year old K and the readers given for 5 year old K?

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:35 am
by 4given
Do you already have the K4 readers and want to know how they are different from the K5? I have all of them right here so I wanted to make sure I understood the question before I get into description.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 4:48 pm
by Kitty-Cat
I don't have any of them. My daughter just turned 6 and is strugling to learn to blend even the smallest words. We had been trying word families such as 'at' cat, hat, mat etc. She doesn't get it. Then I read some kids do better learning the other way with ba, be, bi etc. I read that the Abeka K readers start out that way. When I went to my online LEM Catalouge (A suplier over here. I am from Australia) they also list the 4 year K readers 'Little books' and 'Little Owl books' so I wonderd if I should get all of them. The cataloge doesn't give much discription. I want something very simple so I thought of buying both. Or does it just get all repeated in the 5 K readers. There not marked on the books as being for 4 year olds are they? I don't want her to feel bad about not reading yet.

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:29 pm
by 4given
The Little Book series includes books 1-10. Each book focuses mainly on single letters and their sounds. A few 3-4 letter words are incorporated with short vowels only. At the end of some, there is a complete sentence using only sounds they should have learned thus far in the curriculum.

The Little Owl series (8 books), bypasses single letter sounds. It has 3-4 letter words and more sentences than the Little Book series. These include words with long-vowels.

The K5 readers are broken down into three categories...
1. I Learn to Read ex. Book A (first page) student practices the short vowel sounds, then consonant-vowel blends, then adding a final consonant to make a word.
2. I Do Read ex. Book 2 (first page)
"A Bus Ride"
The Bus will run.
Get on the bus, Jill.
Jill will ride the bus.
3. I Can Read Well ex. Book 1- sounding out 28 words (first page) followed by a short story on each page. At this point long vowels are present along with a hand full of sight words.

Personally, I would suggest looking into their Blend Ladders or making a set yourself. Especially if she has mastered the sounds of all her individual letters. I think it would be safe to bypass the K4's and practice those ladders. Once she masters the ladders you can add single consonants to make a complete word where possible. From my experience K5 overlaps the K4 curriculum in a big way.

I hope I didn't confuse you. Let me know if you have any further questions or need anything clarified from the above info.

Oh yeah! Each book has a small K4 or K5 written on the top left hand corner.

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:39 am
by Kitty-Cat
Thank you so much for that discription.

I had a look at those ladders on the Abeka site as well as the cards. Of course our suplier doesn't suply them :roll: But I have bought from America before now.

I take it your not overly impressed with these Abeka readers? I have been serching online and I find most of the samples I see either make me groan or cringe! I am thinking now I should just get the 'I Learn To Read books' and the Sonlight 'Fun Tales' readers. I was told they also follow the blend first method and don't have much print per page.

Are any of the other Abeka books on phonics worth getting?

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:47 am
by 4given
Actually, I like A Beka a lot. I used it for my 2 eldest sons. Imo, it gave them a great phonics foundation. ABeka is very careful that you are not going to come across a consonant blend, long vowel, or anything before you've actually learned it. I liked that. My oldest was reading at 4 yo and my second was reading 3-4 letter words at age 3. The reasons I stopped using A Beka were...it's too expensive, too much prep time, and too much work load for my boys. When I look back, I wish I would've known that some kids just aren't ready when others are. My oldest really wasn't ready and I thought he had to because the book said so. There were lots of tears in those days...from both of us. My second son just learned by being in the same room as his brother and I. My third son, who just turned 5 in Sept, has only sounded out one word...rat. I'm not sweating it. It will pan out. He has quite a vocabulary and has always loved being read to.

I wasn't clear in my earlier post. I'll blame it on the late hour. I was suggesting that you may just get the K5 readers along with the ladders. But I don't think either purchase is absolutely necessary. Have you tried starfall.com ?

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:40 am
by Theodore
I think you'll find a lot of people who like the curriculum, and a lot of people who don't. Depends on personal preference. In our recent Reader Awards ballot, A Beka got one of the highest numbers of votes (so it's widely used), but a moderate average rating.

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:13 pm
by Kitty-Cat
Yes she plays on starfall sometimes, but I can't say she loves it. When she does play there she would rather dress the snow man!

Does anywhere else stock those ladders do you know? If I am going to buy from America I like to get it all in one place due to the postage costs. I don't think rainbow resources is shipping to Australia dang it!

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:16 pm
by bubbaansissy
hey, we used (are still using w/ 1 month to go) abeka k4 this year. my son started when he was 4 1/2. he is now 5. the little owl books & little books were (in my opinion) no different than looking at a letter & reading the sounds & blends. the ladder charts were great, but i could have made all of them & books myself, if i had only known before i purchased the whole set. now that i know what to expect, i am planning to write our kindergarten curriculum myself. i don't know much about the abeka k5 curriculum though, except that there's alot of repeating going on.