reading curriculum help

yaelinIN

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 10:32 pm

You can try the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. It is highly scripted (tells you what to say when) but honestly, your child (unless s/he picks it up VERY quickly) will need those BOB books or something like it (Rime to Read) -- a book that has only the short vowel words and a few sight words, so s/he can practice reading. I use the OPGTR and Explode the Code to further practice phonics, but my DD reads Bob books/Rime to Read to me every day. She is reading 3-6 short vowel words very nicely now...

granolamom

Wed, Jun 06 2012, 12:10 pm

yaelinIN wrote:

your child doesnt mind reading the BOB books? they're not very entertaining or interesting.
maybe I'm just projecting...

any reason you're using both OPGTR and ETC? could I get by with just one? if so, which would you recommend?

yaelinIN

Wed, Jun 06 2012, 12:37 pm

granolamom wrote:

The girl in question (in my picture) loves to be able to read a whole book on her own. I love that she can read a whole book on her own. After a LOT of work with her with flashcards, she can work out almost any word with a short vowel in a book for little children, read some street signs and stuff like that. She is my slowest reader, but that's OK.

I use OPGTR and ETC to reinforce each other. OPGTR is for the parent (I let her read the vignettes/words/sentences in the sections for her) to teach children the sounds of single letters, blended consonants, diagraphs, etc. ETC is a fun workbook she uses to practice reading and phonics. There is a writing component in the series, but I don't make my little ones do that (this child likes to and so I write in the answers and she copies over them). If they don't want to write I have them do the exercises orally. Another reason I like the series is that it is pretty much hands off whereas OPGTR is heavily parent-directed.

You can usually find both used at
the Well Trained Mind Used Sale Forum. Neither are horribly expensive new either.

HTH

granolamom

Wed, Jun 06 2012, 4:14 pm

I really dont want any writing because he's got a hard time with that. very immature grasp, low tone, weak trunk, etc. I dont want to give him a bad taste of reading because its linked to writing, kwim?
not sure I've got energy for heavily parent-directed curriculum.I'll have a look at it..
thanks : )

alpidarkomama

Thu, Jun 07 2012, 1:14 am

My oldest DD did Ordinary Parents' Guide only, and the next two have done both that and Explode the Code. ETC was too writing-intensive for oldest DD when she was in K, but the others have loved it. If you really just want to focus on reading, all you need is OPGTR. With oldest DD I just did a lesson a day from that (10 minutes or so), and had lots of other easy readers around the house to pick up whenever she felt like it. We also talked a lot about sounds of words, read signs and cereal boxes, etc., etc. It's worked great for us!

RachelEve14

Thu, Jun 07 2012, 9:48 am

granolamom wrote:

yaelinIN wrote:

My kids actually love the bob books. We also use ETC.

seeker

Thu, Jun 07 2012, 11:28 am

It's been a while since I checked it out, but IIRC what I liked about Explode the Code was that it worked well with the Orton-Gillingham approach and I liked the activities, I don't remember specifically what it was but just that all the OTHER workbooks I'd seen I DIDN'T like for some reason or another.

About the BOB books, there are some other phonetically controlled books out there if you really hate BOB. But most of them are not particularly entertaining. They're not designed to be great literature; the appeal is that the children can read it themselves using only the phonetic elements that they've learned. For literary enrichment you'd use other books; especially at that age when kids can understand a LOT more than they can read, you'll be reading aloud a lot. Or you can use a "whole language" type approach in which you don't give the child phonetically controlled books at all, though if you really want to just make sure they learn how to read accurately on the first try, phonics is the surest way to go.