First Start Reading

Moving right along, from college prep reading (Excellence in Literature) for D-man, to actually just learning to read (S-girl)......we got a chance to give First Start Reading, published by Memoria Press, a try. 



S-girl has been wanting to "do school" like all the big kids for a while now. 

In her mind, she has graduated from sitting with us doing coloring pages and wants "real" school too.

The problem has been that she isn't quite ready for the Kindergarten curriculum that we have used with all the kids.  So, what to do, when the desire to learn is there, but what you have already got isn't working?

Well, it turns out you try a combination of things....one of which, was First Start Reading and Classical Phonics. 


This curriculum is put together by Cheryl Lowe, but some of the phonics stuff is based on the teaching and style of Florence Akin who was around in the early 1900's.

This curriculum comes with First Start Reading, Phonics, Reading and Printing Books A, B, and C, a Teacher's Guide as well as Classical Phonics (A Child's Guide to Word Mastery). 

I started by reading the Teacher Suggestions in the Classical Phonics book.  According to Ms. Akin, the 4 elements of teaching phonics include:  Ear Training; Tongue Training; Eye Training; and Word Building.  

In this segment of the book, she gives detailed explanations and ideas on how to incorporate these elements into your teaching style.  I think the first 3 elements are pretty self explanatory.....training the ear to hear the different sounds; training your tongue to pronounce the sounds correctly; and training your eyes to associate the sound you hear with the symbol (letter) that you see. 

In word training, Ms. Akin says to encourage the students to whisper the sounds to themselves when they are studying a phonic or a reading lesson. 

Does that bring Brick Heck to mind for anybody else?  I love The Middle!

Anyway, back to the review:  I like the phonics approach to teaching reading, so I was pretty comfortable with all the recommendations and techniques they suggest.  They start in Book A with the letters M and A, then work into sentences that use the words "I am", before moving onto letters S and N and so on and so on...... 

I suppose some people may think of this style as old fashioned.  The pages are not fancy.  There are no cartoons and characters doing funny things.  Just letters, words, and simple drawings. 



And places to practice your writing skills.  Personally, I like this style.  The kids can color the drawings in themselves anyway!

The Teacher's Guide has an Appendix section that has, what I will call, "posters" for you to put up in your classroom (which, in our case, is our dining room).  The posters show things like reminder pictures for the short vowel sounds, i.e., igloo for i, octopus for o, etc.  It also has the picture of sign language b and d made into a bed to help kids remember which letter is which.  I have always used this visual reminder to teach the kids about b and d....but I haven't had a poster to help them remember.

One thing that is stressed in this book that I haven't found in other phonics type curriculum is the importance of a correct pencil grip.    As it says in the book, "proper pencil grip is one of the most overlooked and undervalued skills in handwriting."  The Teacher's Guide goes through a 5 step process on how to train the students on the correct way to hold a pencil so they don't have a death grip on the pencil.  I have started using this with A-man as he is a death grip kind of guy....actually, I think Rainman could use a lesson or two on this too.

The Appendix even has a picture showing the correct grip for both a right hander AND a left hander.  I have never seen this detail included in any of my other phonics courses.  So far, L-girl is my only leftie (although Rainman is too).....that little drawing would have come in handy when she was just learning to write, because I could never quite show her the exact way she should be holding her pencil.  It always felt like I was trying to hold chopsticks or something when I was doing stuff with my left hand! 

This curriculum has been a nice thing to have to encourage S-girl in her desire to learn.  And, has even taught me a few new ways to teach the same old information.....if you know what I mean.  If there is anything I have learned in teaching my kids, it is that the kids don't always learn the same way as their older brother or sister did.  So, having this different approach to teaching phonics, reading and printing is already proving to be helpful.

Go check out the other things available through Memoria Press.  They offer a lot of classical education products, things like Latin, Greek, and literature. 

The First Start Reading program, (ages K-2)which includes the Teachers Guide, and Books, A, B and C, is available for $29.95.

Classical Phonics, A Child's Guide to Word Mastery (K-2), is available for $14.95.

S-girl and I are still working in Book A (which has a total of 25 lessons), but Book B has another 26 lessons and Book C has 33 more lessons.....so we will be busy for a while.  She will be so happy!

Check out what the other crew members had to say about First Start Reading here. 



We received copies of First Start Reading and Classical Phonics for free, in exhange for a honest review of the program.

Halloween

We had a beautiful night for Trick Or Treating in Georgia, this year.  Here are a few pictures from our night.  We went with some good friends we met when we first moved here....the husband was our mortgage banker....so, if you need a good one in the Atlanta area....let me know.  He is awesome!

S-girl was Snow White for our church party....but, she was a cowgirl for Halloween.

A-man was a racecar driver.  Quick can anyone tell me what "kind" of word racecar is???

L-girl was going to be Jasmine but she got her hair cut and then we were going to try to darken her skin color....but it wasn't a good look for her....so she went as I Dream of Jeannie, instead.

A-girl went as a pirate....Yikes.....when did she get so old and grown up looking?

D-man was Harry Potter....

And Rainman was....

Isn't he a cutie?  I didn't even make him dress up this year!!!!

I was a flower....but didn't get a good picture of me.  Here we are right before heading out.

Trick or Treating here in Georgia is like walking through a Southern Living Magazine or Family Fun. 

Everything is beautiful and well manicured....there are fires....

Beautiful porches....with well manicured shrubs.....

Beautiful flowering bushes....on October 31st.....

And this.....

Sigh.....it is so pretty and quiet....

I love this place.

The kids headed inside for the inevitable candy exchange....then home to bed.

It was a very good day!  Thanks again Smith family!

Excellence in Literature

D-man got a chance to try a literature program from Everyday Education, called....



We specifically used the Introduction to Literature course, written by Janice Campbell. 



In this course, he will work through different writing styles and books. 

We have only worked on Unit One so far, which is Short Stories.

Unit Two: Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne

Unit Three: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,  by Mark Twain.

For a complete list of what is covered in this Introduction to Literature Course, click here. 

By the end of the course, students will:

• Understand the process of writing, including the use of tools such as a writer’s handbook, dictionary, and thesaurus.
• Have specific understanding of selected representative texts by major authors of the periods studied.
• Have a general understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of the works.
• Be able to analyze literary texts and present thoughtfully developed ideas in writing.
• Demonstrate competence in essay organization, style, and mechanics.

We didn't delve into this course the way I had envisioned....partly due to D-man's reluctance to write.  He is overcoming this reluctance, with my loving, patient guidance (um....well, okay.....not so much....more like a little bit of Grandma Marlene wisdom: "You have to do a lot of things in life that you don't want to do." And my words of wisdom, "Quit whining and just get it over with!")   and partly due to the fact that we went up to Minnesota to see my family and took a break from school.

This course is designed to be student led, as the goal of any high school type curriculum should be, to prepare them for life when everything isn't being "spoon fed" to them.  I love this idea!  Ms. Campbell really stresses, in this book, that it is the student's responsibility to read through the book and complete the assignments, not the parents to get in there and tell them what needs to be done and how to do it.  This approach ties in with the personal responsibility angle we try to use with our kids.

Ms. Campbell does make suggestions for how to organize their materials and time, so they aren't just thrown into the deep end, but, it is up to them to read it and follow her suggestions.  She also clarifies that, by this point in their schooling (8th to 12th grade), they should have some basic grammar, spelling and language mechanics down pat, so it is expected that they will proof read, correct and edit their papers themselves, before handing it in! 

It really is preparing them for college life when their professors are not going to be their mothers and fathers! 

Ms. Campbell, even has a segment called How To Read A Book. 

I know. 

Sounds funny.  But, I got so many good ideas that I loved from this section of the book (which is before the "real" book even starts) that there too many to list....but, I will give you a few:

- Listen to a bit of music that the author may have listened to (like from the same time period), which can help you gain an understanding into the artistic influences the author may have had;

- Read the book at a comfortable pace, fast enough to sustain interest, but slow enough to understand what is happening (sometimes my kids have a tendency to just whip through the book and not take the time to make sure they know what is happening....or know what the words mean that they are reading); which leads us to the next point.....

- As you read, keep an index card or piece of paper tucked into the back of the book. Write down any words you encounter that you don’t know, and look them up and write down the definition. If you understand the basic meaning from the context and you don’t want to interrupt the flow of the story, you may look up the word later.

Another idea, which I found strangely freeing - was that for more challenging books (her examples were:  Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Dantes Inferno), it is okay to read a children's version or even a Cliff's Notes version first.  Yes, first....not instead.  She explained that these types of books just help you understand the book better....just like a parent would do when first teaching something to their child.

From Ms. Campbell's introduction:

Reading without understanding is like walking onto a softball field and batting the ball, without any knowledge of what to do next. You may hit the ball out of the park, but if you don’t run the bases and complete the play, you’ve missed the whole point of the activity.

That baseball analogy itself won over D-man and Rainman at our house.

We are working through this course more slowly than intended, it is the first college prep course we have started at our house.....so the learning curve is a bit steep right now for us.   There are examples of formats and models to be used for each type of paper written (approach, essay, summary) as well as a rubric for parents/teachers to use when evaluating how well your student has done.

I feel good about this course, partly because of the selections I have seen and partly because Ms. Campbell "successfully" homeschooled her four boys through high school and onto college. 

I am confident that we will continue using this program and probably expand into the others offered by Everyday Education, like World Literature, British Literature and American Literature courses.

You can get a free sample unit by clicking here (then click on the Free Sample Link), but you can also purchase  Introduction to Literature through Everyday Education for $29 for a book, but, if you are interested in the instant reward of an E-book, it is just $27.



Go take a look at what other members of the TOS crew thought of this product too. 

We received a free downloaded copy of the E-book Introduction to Literature in exchange for an honest review of the product.