I love to read and always have. He doesn't take after me...lol His dad reads for fun when he has time too. He just stresses with reading. Fluency is just not where I'd like to see it. He has to read short stories aloud and then we read a chapter book together daily. He likes the Goosebump books, (personally not a big fan myself). We also started the Haunted Library series which is a cute series.
Sounds like the stories on Starfall. He loves the starfall. The beginner stories on there he can blow right through. Put a book in front of him and he tenses right up. Now, when he answers reading comp questions, he usually gets them, but I don't know how because his reading is so choppy.They're tiny 4x6 pamphlet style books.They look really insignificant & have simple sentences like, " Mat sat by a cat with a hat." They looked so ridiculous I almost didn't try them, but people swore They worked. They tell you at the beginning what long/short sounds you'll be using & give you examples of those words, so kids get familiar with the long/short concept. They got us to the point where we could FINALLY start reading the Level 1 "I Can Read" books.
Yes, we just got an Ipad this summer and we've done a few stories through the trials on the apps and a couple of online sites, but I haven't really researched much for ebooks , thanks for the recommendation.
We used the Brain Quiz workbooks as a supplement for the last two years. I didn't purchase it this year because so much of it ends up getting not used because I make so many worksheets and use so many different on line sites for worksheets. I do my own curriculum as well. I actually enjoy figuring out what we are going to study and what we are going to use to do so. My son loves starfall. I have always wanted to learn sign language myself. I started a free on line program when my son was little and was doing well, but life got so hectic, that it fell to the side. I looked at Easy Peasy too, but it just didn't fit us.Glad to have found this thread. Trying to look back through all the old posts
We homeschool both of our kids & our style is eclectic, leaning towards unschooling. Our son (5th grade) started on ABCya & is now doing Khan Academy, the BrainQuest grade 5 workbook, & a math practice book we found here (k-5 are available for free, might be helpful to someone else): http://catalog.mathlearningcenter.org/taxonomy/term/167
We're following the same basic path with our daughter (1st grade).
They're both mostly self-taught, & we've been reading to them since they were old enough to hold their heads up, which I think helped them with reading & language arts when they got older. They read, journal, & keep reading logs mostly on their own, & we do a combination of worksheets & study guides, & have used Starfall. We also study/practice sign language several times a week & Spanish once a week, & we've been doing the Six Flags reading program every year for the past couple of years.
As far as a secular curriculum, we haven't found one that quite fits & doesn't cost a lot. We tried Lesson Pathways a while back, but I don't think it's been updated in a few years. Last year, I used Ambleside & tried to customize it as best as I could. I liked that everything was all laid out. Also looked at Easy Peasy. We gave up on it & now basically make up our own curriculum.
Our library is our best friend...lol. Because I do create our curriculum we depend HEAVILY on the library. HIs problem is with fluency. His phonics are good, he actually had his phonics learned at 3 years, but when he's reading he's having to stop and sound so much that his reading is very choppy. He gets frustrated which just makes it harder on himself.
I have never used it but Hooked on Phonics has expanded beyond just pronunciation and 'phonics' their Master Reader system sounds like it's geared towards the exact issue you are facing... Again I have never used it so I have no idea of how good it works and would never recommend buying it without some hands on personal experience, but if your library has it, it's free to try
https://www.hookedonphonics.com/Product/master-reader-1/
We created our own last year and it worked out well, but in consumed A LOT of time, this year we decided to give an already build curriculum a chance and see what happens...
This year we are trying out 'Moving Beyond the Page' as a primary curriculum and using 'K5 Learning' for reading and math, and we will supplement with our own stuff as well... I picked up a near complete Macmillan seasonal activity pack collection at Goodwill for $10 several years ago knowing we would be home schooling and find it quite useful in providing a broad spectrum of activities and stories revolving around different worldwide religions, holidays and traditions, many of the activities are geared towards a multi-student classroom but there is still plenty of activities that they can do alone... Don't know if I would pay a premium for the collection but if you can find it cheap or free from the library it's something to look into...
Thanks guys, I'll have to look into those.
