Homeschool World Forum

[gardening momma]

I have the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" as well as the primers for the Explode the Code series. We haven't gotten beyond lesson one in the "100 easy lessons" book, and that's mostly because of her age/immaturity (ie. not sitting still, following directions, etc..). We haven't done much in the Explode the Code primers yet, because I just got the teacher's book, which I decided I needed after only buying the student workbooks initially.

The homeschool co-op we'll be joining in the fall is offering a Sing, Spell, Read and Write class for 4/K age. My daughter will be 4 at the end of October.

Do you think it'll be ok to "combine" all these different phonics programs? I think she'd like Sing, Spell, Read and Write, but I'm not sure if I should throw so much at her. On the other hand, maybe the different approaches would be good?

[Ramona]

IMHO, a little of each would be great, but all of all 3 would be too much. If it were me, I would not do any reading at home the day(s) she goes to the co-op class. Then I might do part of one of the "100 easy lessons" one day--however much she remained interested in and as soon as she gets fidgety, just quit for the day--and have her read part of an Explode the Code story another day.

I don't usually do formal reading lessons when my kids are so young.

My 4 1/2-y-o is learning to read a lot of environmental print right now on her own and that's fine--that's all she needs at this age. Her next older sister started formal phonics-based reading lessons 3 days/week when she turned 5. This one won't start until she's been 5 for a few months. They're just different personalities!

Ramona
HS'ing 6 for about 13 years, #7 coming in November