Summer is here and the livin’ is easy. Or something like that.

And there’s a lot of truth to it. My husband and I were just talking last night about how one of our favorite things is going to concerts and movies (mostly with our kids!) in the summer because it feels so easy. Sitting in my lawn chair at an outdoor concert just listening to old 50’s and 60’s tunes (some of our favorite swing music!) just makes me feel relaxed. Like I don’t have anything to do, so just sit there. (I have a LOT of trouble sitting….unless I’m doing!)

But the reality is that fall comes after summer. And we can’t forget that all together.

One way we can be help fall be better is to put a little effort into our summer—not a lot—just a little….in the areas that we want to keep strong. (Check out last week’s newsletter for more summer tips!)

I recorded a FB Live this week in which I describe some very simple tasks that you can do to help your new reader continue to learn and grow this summer (or at the very least keep the skills he has!). You can watch the video below.

I made reference to several things in that video, so I am going to do a quick outline/list of the tips with links to the products that I recommend.

Oh, and let me know what you would like to learn more about—teaching a specific writing type, reading help, organization and productivity, cool East Coast swing moves…I can fix you up in future video! 🙂

Below are some affiliate links as I am an affiliate for Amazon.com.  By clicking on these links you are helping to support this blog.  Thank you!

1. Reading Baskets: The ORAL reading basket (for books that the student still needs cues and help with) and SILENT reading basket (books that he can read without any help….I moved them from ORAL to SILENT after we worked on them for a while.

• Bob Books
• Hear Me Read readers
• Sound It Out (Mowgli, Baloo, and Brother Wolf)
• Read a Chapter, Mowgli

2. Read Every Day: Have your student read once or twice a day to you from a reader that is phonetically controlled and/or vocabulary-controlled. Don’t trust the age or grade level written in the upper corner of department store books! (Get help from your librarian, if needed.)

Recommended Reading—to learn about readability levels, phonetically-controlled books, and vocabulary-controlled books.

3. Make a Reading Chart. Have summer charts that are simple to manage (i.e. a smile each day he reads aloud) with built in prizes that are easy to carry out.

Recommendations: Charts for older kids and younger kids for homeschooling and other tasks.

4. Use Audio Books or Book/Audio Sets to Build Listening Comprehension. Your child’s listening comprehension level actually tells you a lot about what level he could comprehend at if he knew how to word-call that level. (Remember, reading is word calling AND comprehending.) I always liked to expand my students’ listening comprehension levels, knowing that they had a huge impact on their comprehension later. Additionally, students will desire to learn to read better if they listen and/or follow along with books that they cannot read—the motivation will become stronger to learn to read (and this also helps develop a love for learning in children.) The picture book and audio sets from the library are great for this.

Recommendations; I can’t say enough about these amazing audio and book sets. One device plays all the books in the set. Easy to follow and learn to control themselves. Not a lot of other pieces, wands, devices, etc. Easy peasy. My students and grandson love these! (Plus, they are familiar movie and tv characters.) There are about a dozen sets floating around. I get mine from Sam’s and Costco at Christmastime, but here’s an Amazon link for one set…check them all out!

5. Do follow up activities that are related to the book he just read—confusing word games, word cards, etc. The beauty of using the words and text that he is currently working on reading is two fold: it is easy for the parent to make word cards or create a confusing word sheet or play with magnetic words AND the activities will contain the very words that he just got stuck on when you read. Quick, easy, pain-free. (You will see what I am referring to in the video embedded in this post.)

Recommendations:

• Dice for rolling to see which word he should read
• Magnetic words
• Magnetic letters for creating words
• Blank word cards to customize
• Dab a Dot Markers for Marking the Word You Read to Him

6. For readers who can write, consider adding in some fun writing this summer! Be sure it is DIRECTED (i.e. not a writing idea book) and fun! 🙂

Recommendations:

• Write On, Mowgli Level I
• Write On, Peter Pan, Level I
• Write On, Beauty and Beast, Level I

7. Go back to beginning sounds if your student still can’t say in a snap that p says puh, etc. If you are still working on beginning letter sounds (i.e. not reading yet), use something that teaches them painlessly AND has true, consistent (not blended) sounds.

Recommendations;

• ABC Word and Picture Cards
• Sound Song Packet
• Video of me explaining what to look for in beginning sound materials

8. Check out my other posts, videos, and audios to help you with reading this summer!

Recommendations:

• Reading Roundup Tips
• Podcast: Summer Reading Help for Young Students

What are you working on this summer? What is your favorite reader set? How can I help you with reading, writing, and grammar?

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One of the greatest homeschooling joys—and greatest challenges—during my thirty-two years of homeschooling has definitely been teaching my kids to read. My undergraduate degree is in elementary education, and my master’s work is in reading specialist. So, um, yeah, I should have been a specialist.

But learning to read is hard work. And teaching a child to read is hard work. And well, it is really just hard sometimes. (Those amazing four year olds who just start reading road signs along the road, notwithstanding!)

(If your reader is struggling, you might want to watch my video on Solving Reading Difficulties)

I was blessed with a program that taught me more about phonetic instruction than six years of college did! And my kids were blessed to be taught using what was touted as “the Cadillac of reading programs—Play ‘n Talk. It helped my dyslexics become truly accomplished readers (even my three super late readers), and I am forever grateful for the visionary and genius lady who invented this program.

But today programs are a dime a dozen. Seriously, they are everywhere. So how can you know what to turn to in teaching your child to read?

I have some personal benchmarks that I talk about in this video:

1) It must be phonetic-based (not sight word based)

2) It must be word-family based (at family; ad family; ag family ) vs ladder letter based (ba, be, bi, bo)

3) It must have a lot of real reading built into it (preferably a reader with each sound that is introduced)

4) It must be incremental—one skill upon another

5) It must have the option of going slowly (with extra practice as needed) whenever necessary

So here are some thoughts about four programs that I recommend (or those whom I trust recommend):

Phonics Tutor

a. Two options:

(1) Phonics Tutor; good for all ages; lots of practice.

(2) Frequent Words Program by Phonics Tutor; especially good remediation for older students since it moves quickly.

b. No-nonsense program that works with all learning styles; has auditory, kinesthetic (students types in letters on the keyboard), and visual exercises

c. Is a cd-rom for the computer; appeals to struggling children because it isn’t “another phonics book”

d. No bells or whistles—as Timberdoodle says, “no dancing bears”—but a solid program with sequential learning, based on true phonetic components

e. May move at own pace or follow easy to understand lessons

f. Can literally load it on the computer and begin—the least teacher preparation I have ever seen in any curriculum

g. Multiple students may use it at the same time (i.e. multiple log ins allowed)

h. Non-consumable, so may be resold

i. Excellent spelling foundation; may also be used for spelling after reading instruction is completed

j. Does have child “spell” words he is learning, but only once words are mastered at the reading level

k. Timberdoodle describes this program: “With no dancing bears or racing bunnies, PhonicsTutor seems uniquely designed to meet the needs of the reluctant or non-reading older child. PhonicsTutor is a step-by-step computerized teaching tool with 128 lessons and seven activities within each lesson to instruct and reinforce the main topic. All 3,500 words are presented orally along with associated spelling rules. Phonetic analysis, reading, word spelling and diction activities make PhonicsTutor appealing to all learning modalities. No other program we examined has matched PhonicsTutor for thoroughness and ease of use. It is a perfect format for the older non-reader or special need child.”

l. Concerning Frequent Words (listed above with link), Timberdoodle says: “A young child who is already reading but needs additional phonics work may find Frequent Words, (see software), more appropriate.”

m. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY! Timberdoodle (at the link above) has “try before you buy” portions of this program available at their site; you can try it out with your child to see if it is what you are looking for

n. When Ray and I dream of how we want our ministry to grow and reach people, we have a crazy, unrealistic dream of being able to give this program to families with dyslexic students to give them the gift of reading—that’s how much I love this program.

o. Downfalls:

(1) Will want to purchase readers to practice sounds; however, this phonics program has more “built in” reading of words and sentences within it than most programs I have seen

(2) Students must type all of the letters/families in the blanks. Some might see this as a downfall; I think it is a blessing as many children who struggle with writing also struggle with the “penning” process of writing

(3) Must have computer to use it; there is a workbook available, but I didn’t find it that helpful compared to the cd’s, which are loaded with exercises.

Saxon Publishers

Saxon has three options to teach phonics to young children and struggling/older students. I will detail the three separately since they are uniquely designed for different purposes.

1. Saxon Phonics and Spelling

a. Complete phonics program graded for each grade kindergarten through third grade

b. Concepts are introduced incrementally

c. Easy to use lesson scripts

d. Has remediation strategies and activities emphasized throughout

e. Contains little readers that go with each lesson (no need to purchase separate readers); this would also save you from trying to figure out which reader out of your collection is appropriate for your child following each lesson

f. Includes a good blend of high frequency words and phonemic awareness

g. Good for spelling instruction too; strong foundation for spelling later too

h. Daily practice and review

i. Downfalls:

(1) Pricey for remediation—might be more “stuff” than a summer remediation really needs

(2) Contains handwriting practice within it, which many might consider a benefit, but my struggling readers were not ready to do a lot of writing too, so I would consider that a downside or just omit that portion

(3) Created for the classroom (like Saxon Math); thus, it has “more” than a tutor might need; contains some busy work because of this

(4) Looks overwhelming when you open the package AND you have to assemble all of those great little readers I just described above!

(5) Since it is a “graded” program, you will likely not get what you need in a remediation situation; you will either get all of the first grade skills (if you purchase grade one) or all of the second grade skills (if you purchase grade two), etc.

2. Phonics Intervention

a. Created specifically for remediation, targeting fourth grade and up, though a second or third grader would also benefit from it

b. Clear, well-paced lessons at more of a tutorial speed than a regular classroom speed

c. No training needed; just open and begin

d. Skills are introduced and repeated as needed

e. Comes with colorful, controlled-vocabulary reading material, so you do not need to purchase readers

f. Not too childish for older students

g. Downfalls: I’ve never used or seen this program first hand, but I have heard a lot of good about it. The downside I would think could be that it is not a Christian publisher, so the readers will likely be secular. However, I think the benefits (tutoring approach, easy to use, reading material provided, intensive phonics, etc.) would outweigh that for a short tutoring situation

3. Bold Intervention

a. Saxon says this program is THE program to put your older struggling students on the path to progress

b. Systematic, explicit phonics programs—a real plus for an older child’s remediation program as many times older children’s (and adults’) programs have a tendency to forget the phonics in favor of memorization techniques)

c. Definitely made for older kids—magazine style books, older topics in the reading materials, not childish looking, etc.

d. Claims to get results in just one semester—so seems very tutor-friendly, not focusing on superfluous skills but just getting down to the bare bones of making a reader our of a non reader

e. Easy to teach

f. “Readers” are magazine style with full color graphics and a variety of types of materials—if you have an older child who need phonics remediation, this would be a real plus because it would not have the student reading “Mat sat” at age eleven or twelve, which can be demoralizing

g. Downsides: Again, I have not seen this program, but it is rare to find a strong phonetically based program for older students—with high interest/low readability materials such as those contained within this. Again, the content is secular, and I imagine that all of the reading material would not be up to my liking, but the topics (extreme sports, wild animals, legends, etc.) are extremely interesting to older kids

In A Nutshell….

In a nutshell, I wouldn’t hesitate to use one of the last two programs listed here for remediation (or the Saxon Phonics and Spelling for my first or second grader as a homeschooler). I would probably go with the Intervention for struggling second through fourth graders and Bold Intervention for fifth graders and up who are still word calling at a primary level.

This Reading Mama—video here

This inexpensive phonics program is better than any of the expensive ones I’ve seen through the years (except Play ‘n Talk, which isn’t available any more AND is not as great on practice pages and activities as this one is). Seriously, don’t let the ten bucks make you think it’s not great…because it is! 🙂 She has word family books for all five vowels (for short vowels) for beginning readers…plus tons of other great products.

All About Reading

I have to stick this program in here even though I have never personally used it. It gets rave reviews and seems to meet my qualifications (plus is consistent with methodology for dyslexic user). Here’s a review I found for this program.

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There are hard ways to learn things. And there are easy ways to learn things. Teaching is in my blood. Love for students runs deep within me.

Those two things combined make me want to ALWAYS teach students the easy way to learn things.

Life is hard already. Let’s make grammar as easy as we possibly can. And for sure, let’s teach things that students actually need and use in real writing.

Short commercial message…..

That is why I drive my family (and anybody near by!) crazy with my jingles, rhymes, mnemonics, songs, tricks, and more for teaching!

Check out my lesson about creating compound sentences below….and you’ll see what I mean!

Oh….if you are rusty on your compound sentences, check out this Comma Clue #1 post. Then be brave and take a Compound Sentence Quiz! 🙂

The post Compound Sentences with FANBOYS—Middle School Lesson Video appeared first on Character Ink.

Click to watch!

I have loved teaching reading again! And I have loved creating products to use for letter recognition and sounds/letter recognition. It is so fun to work with younger children again…and makes me anxious to teach my grandkids to read (or help teach them!).

(Click to preview the curriculum below 🙂 )

I have also loved finding a new resource for teaching reading—This Reading Mama. This inexpensive phonics program is better than any of the expensive ones I’ve seen through the years (except Play ‘n Talk, which isn’t available any more AND is not as great on practice pages and activities as this one is).  Seriously, don’t let the ten bucks make you think it’s not great…because it is! 🙂 She has word family books for all five vowels (for short vowels) for beginning readers…plus tons of other great products.

Click here or on the picture below to get it!

I recommend you subscribe to her blog to get updates of all of her products and her freebies too!

For more reading help, check out this podcast, and  a video I recently made!

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The post This Reading Mama Phonics Program & More appeared first on Character Ink.