What curriculums have worked for your child

I have posted a lot of stuff about reading over the last few years. Included are many suggestions for good reasonably-priced materials that will coordinate well with what you are already doing, those I have used for years plus suggestions from other people here that I respect. In order to avoid reposting it all the time, I offer the collected works/book in progress by email. Just ask me at [email protected]

Sounds like you have a very good plan in place. The ABC… darian will be compatible with LIPS (and will share a fair amount wiht victoria’s ideas, though it won’t be as rigorous. However, if Lips is happening, that will be rigorous and highly systematic.)
A caution about curricula and homeschool groups — the role of language in the curricula is almost always terribly underestimated. I did it too for the first few years of my career. “This can’t be too hard… he’s a smart kid.”
Except… if it’s reading, it often is.
A very popular (and otherwise very good) book about classical curriculum has me wanting to hurl it across the room every time I look at page 63, which reads “Reading is easy. Reading is easy. Reading is easy.” It spends at least a page reassuring you that all children — well, unless they really have some kind of [implied as highly unusual, debilitating] disorder — can learn to read easily if you just do it right. I”m sorry, for an awful lot of bright, cheerful, NORMAL children — reading is NOT easy. For those of us for whom language is natural and easy, it’s so easy to assume that our kids will just pick it up, and I feel sorry for the students I had to make that mistake on… welp, you only have one student, so don’t make that mistake, okay :-)

Math U SFee is especially good for bright, visual learners. Many students need more practice than it provides so you may want to supplement it.

But the bottom line is, you have a highly individual student, so generally good information won’t apply; you need to filter it through what is true for your son. The Lips folks may be a good resource for ideas on making modifications to other programs so they’ll work.

And just in case you’re wondering, the program you’re planning is a lot better than what most brick & mortar schools (though not all) would be able to put together.

Sue,

thanks for you reply. I went to a LIPS training and I’ve meant to email the trainer and speak to her about it.

My concern is will ABCD be the reading program and the LIPS the supplement or vice versa. I guess I’m just not too sure how to go about it. I need to go to the ABCD group and post there.

One minute I’m ready to get after it and the next I’m crying doubting I can do it and pray I don’t “ruin” my son, which I know is crazy. But I am his mom. But your website and the many lists I’m on have helped me tremendously.

I would be so nice to be able to sit in a room with parents with children with LD to actually talk and listen to each others experiences. These list are the best support and have been a lifeline for me.

Thanks again,
Diane

I think the Sound Reading computer CD would likely be helpful as a supplement. The child can use the program independently once he/she knows how it works. It requires mastery to move on, has neat little graphic rewards, is incremental, etc. I have seen it help some pretty severely LD children. Website is http://www.soundreading.com

I would also recommend the BRI/RALP “Little Readers”, which are very incremental and start at a K level. Some of us tutors have started incorporating them into our practice, especially for younger children. Website is http://www.usu.edu/teach/LittleBooks.htm

If you’re up to the one-on-one requirements, I would favor RightStart Math over MUS because of its games, personal interaction, daily lessons, and use of the abacus (which helps with visualization). MUS is good, but the videos make it less personal than RightStart, and the RightStart games are very attractive to children. Website for RightStart is http://www.alabacus.com

Take a look at Bartonreading.com . You will need to have done LIPS before starting the program and there is a test to see if you can start your child,and you will be able to tutor, it is scripted. It is a lot to remember but there is a video that goes over what you need to do. It goes up to 9th grade reading level. I am only on level 2 (goes over vowel,letter and a few diagraph sounds) with my child, but it definately is what my child needed. Take a look at the website and Des has some posts on it as she uses that program. It is helping with b-d confusion and my child is in 6th grade.She used to write the b in capital form and erase the top curve, so alot of her writing had capitals in it because of her technique. I wish I had found it earlier.

All of the programs that have been suggested are good, reputable programs. When you really start to look into it seriously, you find there is a wealth of material out there.
The problem is really one of choice — how much personal effort you want to put in, how much scripting you and your child can put up with, what your personal style is, exactly what level you need to start, and so on. I personally recommend materials that are comparatively inexpensive and lend themselves to flexible programming, but that is my style and the people I work with; doesn’t mean the others are wrong.
Two extremes to avoid in this process of choosing curriculum are to try to buy and do everything, and to get so overwhelmed by the choices that you do nothing. You don’t need everything — all good programs share a lot in common, and one or maybe two at a time is usually enough. And don’t let the competing sales talk fool you, nobody has THE one and only answer, and all the good programs do share a lot in common, So pick one or two that suit you, use them and once mastered, look for the next step.

As far as your present plans, as I understand it, LiPs is pre-reading skills — very important pre-reading skills — and ABCDarian is a reading program. So the idea would be to start with LiPs and get a good foundation in place. But avoid the pitfall of trying to get everything absolutely perfect and spending too many years on just preparation — as soon as the child can get simple vowel and consonant sounds 80% to 90% correct, you can definitely teach basic reading and continue to work on sounds through the reading. At that point you would parallel the two programs, doing thirty minutes to an hour of each daily.

Hi,

I’m new to the group. I am teaching my 8 year old how to read (I started officially homeschooling him in Gr.1, although I was teaching him when he was 5, he is now in Gr.2). Last September I attended Orton-Gillingham training. This helped with the structure I had put together for my son. I will cut and paste what we do from another board that I participate in.

I have training in Orton-Gillingham. It was excellent. My training was through the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education and I highly recommend it. I recommend to everyone to purchase the book ‘Recipe for Reading’. It is inexpensive and gives the complete Orton-Gilllingham scope with some teaching assistance.

I also have a Montessori background (I have an assistant teacher certification for ages 3-6, so that really helps when thinking of the environment and the idea of utilizing manipulatives, for various reasons).

My current program is based on Orton-Gillingham but I also believe that the learning environment is important (I have quite a few manipulatives for reading/writing). I use a modified ‘Early Steps’ framework (which is similar to four blocks, you can do a search for both). The Early Steps lesson has the following steps:

1. Reading Student re-reads a familiar book (8 min.) for fluency.
2. Word Study Phonemic awareness, phonological and metalinguistic skills are taught as strategies to help decode unfamiliar words.
3. Writing Students write their own sentences to practice phonemic and metacognitive awareness skills.
4. New Reading Introduction of a new book, with text slightly more difficult than the book in part 1.

Currently I am using the following lesson framework.

1. Working with Words (manipulatives)
-Practice letters/sounds (reading and writing)

2. Write a Sentence
- Writing practice (encoding)

3. Orton-Gillingham Review
- Use OG paper for progress

4. Word Wall
- Word families/chunks
- High Frequency Words

5. New Concept Introduction
- OG sequence concept

6. Explode the Code
- Reading and Writing practice

7. Reading
- One new page a day + previously read pages
- At the end read the whole book through once

I know that others use complete programs (like SPIRE). Scripted programs have a lot of research backing their efficacy. I happen to be someone who needs to understand the problem and work to remediate it. So for me ongoing informal assessment, study, research and preparation of the environment, built upon a strong sequential phonics base, is how I approach my teaching. Understanding helps me to individualize my program. Scripts don’t do that for me.

Melissa

Dee,

If you are still around, I strongly encourage you to use ABeCeDarian and only use LiPS if your child can’t do ABCD. ABeCeDarian is about 1000 times easier to use and it is systematic, explcit, multi-sensory, etc. I am trained in both and definitely use ABCD as my primary decoding program. After completing Level A, I then use the RALP decodable books that Nancy mentioned to read sets 1-3. Then do ABCD Level B. After a few lessons in B, you can resume the RALP set 4 books.

The LiPS training is a wonderful background to have, but I’ll be honest and tell you, I’ve had some kids with severe reading disorders and have not needed the LiPS because the ABCD has enough of the basic LiPS principles within it that it generally works alone.

Janis