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Hi everyone,
I have two almost 5 year old boys and I'd like to try officially to teach them how to read.

I have already done a kind of sight word learning on and off the past 6 months-1 year or so. We have a stack of words on pieces of paper and we play with them. The kids put the people or animals or things onto a cardboard train with wagons we build for that purpose and drive them to some place in the house where they set up a beach or something and everything has written words on them. For example, one of the boys once had a paper with his name on it and he held the word "kite" onto his name pretending to be flying the kite. He keeps playing like that, and we have words like "sword" and "bow" and "arrow", guess how much fun he's been having!

My other boy is less make believe, so that doesn't work too much for him. On the other hand, I'm sure that if I sit down with him 15 minutes every day, he'll pick up reading quite fast.

I live overseas and would really prefer not to go through the hassle of buying something online (that I'm not even sure will work for us).
I've been looking for a free phonics program that I could download. If you know of any, I'd appreciate you sharing.

I've found one free resource, it's a book called Word Mastery by Florence Akin (1913!), that you can see here : http://www.donpotter.net/PDF/Word%20Mastery%20-%20Typed.pdf
(found it through this site: http://thethinkingmother.blogspot.com/2008/01/free-phonics-curriculum-online.html )
Does anyone have an opinion on that book? It seems kind of unlively...
I could always adapt it. And I guess that most of the fun is provided by the teacher and the learning process itself (not the book).

I might try Samuel Blumenfeld's Alpha-Phonics. I've read here on the forum someone recommending it and it looks good. But I'll have to order it and have it sent over... Would it be worth it?

Also, do you know where I can find online "first-reading" materials

Thank you for any help.

[hscoach]

Here are two free phonics sites that might be helpful:

http://funfonix.com/

http://www.starfall.com/
_________________
Laura L. Barth
http://www.freehomeschooladvice.com

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