Phonics & Spelling Curriculum Reviews

Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

I have taught two kids how to read using this simple one-and-done guide. It really helped me to understand how words are formed and gave me the confidence to be able to present the material easily without having any background with teaching phonics. It is truly open-and-go. 

Pros:

• No teacher preparation required! Sit on the couch with your kid, open the book and read what it says. 
• Nothing else to buy-- just one (inexpensive) teacher's manual that you can use again and again.
• Assumes the child doesn't know anything at all about reading, so it starts from the very beginning and builds slowly with plenty of review.

Cons:

• Sometimes I felt like it was not enough. It may not work for kids that need a multi-sensory learning experience. There was nothing hands-on, no worksheets to "reinforce" what we had learned. Occasionally I would type one of the short "stories" out and add a few clip-art pictures and make it into a Power Point presentation to read on the tablet, just to change things up. I also found myself going online a lot and printing out games or other activities that go with it. This isn't really necessary, and I'm seeing that even more as I am working with a third child on phonics, but sometimes you might want something to mix things up a bit.

Logic of English Foundations 

So even though I did love The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, I didn't feel like it would work for my third born. She is not a natural reader and struggles blending letters together to make words. OPGTR assumes that once the child knows the sound of each letter, it is simple just for them to put them together to make words. I also felt she needed something a little more interactive and hands-on. So I thought I would try out Logic of English, through the recommendation of several other homeschool moms. 

Looking back on our experience with it, I really did enjoy the curriculum. I thought it was thorough, fun, and fairly easy to use. However, I don't know that it's all necessary. I think the beauty of OPGTR is that it's simple, as teaching phonics should be. There was so many different bells and whistles with LOE that it was almost too much. It took us a whole year to get through Level A (I think they recommend two levels per year) and my 3rd born is still not reading where a kindergartner should read. I don't blame this completely on the curriculum. I think we have some other issues to work through. I'm just still not sure that spending all that money on games and flashcards and all that comes with the program is actually a necessity.

Pros:

• Very hands-on, plenty of worksheets, easy readers & games to re-inforce what you've learned. It's colorful and fun and the worksheets are not overwhelming.
• Thorough: includes spelling, handwriting, and reading instruction (the upper levels also include grammar, although we only used Level A)
• Starts at the very beginning, teaching the child to "feel" how the letters sound in their throat and understanding how to blend them together to make new sounds & words.

Cons:

• Quite expensive, especially if you get all the "extras", the flashcards and the Game Cards, etc.
• I felt like it moved a little fast in some areas. They were learning to write each letter as they learned it's sound. I think those are two completely separate skills and not everyone can read at the same pace they write. There was a spelling list of 5 words in every lesson. I also feel that spelling is a separate skill than reading and we really didn't use the lists to actually learn how to spell-- it would have been too much. 
• They encourage only teaching the letter sounds, not the actual name of the letter-- at the end of kindergarten I realized my daughter didn't even know the names of any of the letters, because we had worked on the sounds so much! 

All About Spelling

All About Spelling is one curriculum we have stuck with through every level and I really love it. We have honestly never really used it to its fullest but I still see results, and it has taught ME the "why" behind many English spelling rules. 

Pros:

• It's easy to follow, not a lot of preparation required on the teacher's part
• It clearly explains the rules behind why things are spelled certain ways and reviews these rules throughout 
• It is hands-on-- if your child hates writing, you can just use the magnetic phonogram tiles to spell the words
• You can complete a lesson in 15 minutes or less. (We don't even do a lesson every day, although I think they do recommend that.)

Cons:

• The magnetic phonogram tiles, while they can be a good thing, can also get tedious, and they are a lot to keep up with, especially if you have toddlers in the house. My kids used them through maybe the first level or two and then they just use dry erase markers or paper to write out words. They do have an app with the phonogram tiles, now, too, I think! There are also a lot of cards to keep up with, which could be difficult with multiple student (but we honestly don't use those either!). 
• There are not a lot of independent worksheets or review activities. The teacher really has to be there through the whole lesson.