After looking at bunch of options a few years ago when I wanted to begin teaching Ladybug how to read, I found this book. We have used it now for almost three years. I have been very pleased and the results we have gotten have been very good for us. Now that I have a son who is definitely a different kind of learner than my daughter, I am finding that I still love the book.
Why I love it.
* You can start before they know all of their letters by name.
* It teaches them the phonics sounds for each letter as you go
* It teaches your child rhyming
* It begins with lessons on how to blend letters together by doing it slow and then fast so that they can understand how to hear all of the sounds in a word.
* It teaches the difference between the long and short vowels.
* It slowing works you in to reading stories.
* It breaks each story down by line so that you not only can read the words but you understand the story (reading comprehension)
* It uses a picture for each story, so that you can look at the picture and guess what is going to happen and then read the story and then it has questions about the picture and what happened. (picture comprehension)
*It introduces titles (what it is) and punctuation. (period, quotation marks, and question marks.)
* It also has a daily section of writing where it picks just two letters that you practice. (I didn't use this a much with Ladybug because I found that the writing develops as you get a little older, but am using it with Batman along with playdoh, to make the letters.
* You don't have to have flash cards, game boards, or cds to play along with it.
* I use the book and a small chalkboard.
* You only do it for 10-20 minutes a day. It is not overwhelming. Over the last few years we would do 10-20- lessons and then take a break for a while but we always kept coming back to it. Ladybug is now on lesson 71 and Batman is on lesson 7. At the end of 100 lessons, it says you are pretty much reading on a second grade level.
Now I also teach sight words and we play flash card games because I think being able to recognize those high frequency words (even though you can sound them out) gives them a lot more confidence in reading as they progress.
Now I am so proud of Ladybug. After talking with her teacher, last week, we decided to test her on the AR reading test. Traditionally kindergartners do not do this but there is one other little boy in her class that does. The reasons why the little ones typically do not test in is:
1. It is timed.
2. You are not allowed any help at all, you have to read the story and be able to read the questions and answer them in the allotted time.
3. It can be tricky for example the capital I may look like an l. So it is not cut and dry.
Well last Friday, she got to leave class (I think this is pretty cool for her) and her and her friend got to go to the library and she took the test to see if she could pass to begin taking the tests. They do them on the computer (which I think is cool also for her.)
Well she passed. I don't completely understand all the numbers but she tested in a .9-1.9 range. The 1.9 range I guess is what she should be reading at the end of first grade. The books are color coordinated and she can not only choose the first level of AR books which is pink but the second level which is red as well. But we will stick with pink for awhile to get used to it.
And Batman is amazing me. We just started with him and he is picking it up faster than Ladybug did when she was three. I know the program works, so I am keeping him doing the lessons like they are arranged but he keeps wanting to move ahead. After a few days, he is now sounding out the three letter words (that go along with the letters the book has taught so far, like at, me, met, mat and sat.)
I know that there has been debate over the years about the best way to teach reading to children and I think incorporating phonics, decoding, sight words etc all together, gives them the best advantage. Of course I read to the kids just about everyday and they get pretty upset if we are late getting to bed and don't have time for books. But we read for at least a half hour each night and longer when we have time.
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