Homeschool World Forum

[kansasgirl]

My son will start half day kindergarten in the fall. I want to start teaching him how to read this summer. I am looking at using Alpha Phonics along with Bob Books or The Reading Lesson. Does anyone here have any experience with either of these programs?

Thanks!

[EllenP]

Hi -- I used "Alpha Phonics" with two of our children (the first one learned in school) and they are both excellent readers (now 18 and 14 yrs.). It was easy, once it was the right timing for the child -- in other words, when they were developmentally ready to learn phonics (4 yrs. for my daughter, about 7 yrs. for my son) it sailed along.

I don't remember if I used any/many of the Bob books, but I did use similar readers, Ladybird and Dr. Seuss, among others. I think Alpha Phonics is really one of the best deals out there because it's straightforward and delivers what it promises.

Once your child gets the basics down, it will be a matter of you choosing with which books you want for him to continue learning to read.

I'm not familiar with the other book you mentioned, but I can vouch for Alpha Phonics' quality!

EllenP

[Theodore]

We used Bob Books with my youngest siblings, which seemed to go pretty well. They enjoyed reading through each set. We also used some Dr. Seuss, but that's more for fun than actual learning, since the focus of Dr. Seuss is to give you a basic vocabulary of a few hundred "sight" words, not to teach you phonics.
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