[tempus vernum]

Knitlove, you have been a constant encouragement to me as I Homeschool my ds

---------- Post added at 12:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 AM ----------

I always love these discussions. Even at 17yo, ds has some deficits and I appreciate the reviews and the thoughts here. I am going to re-read to evaluate where ds is. I've recently started having him do some multi syllable word reading with me because I notice when he reads aloud he just randomly guesses long words because he doesn't want to pause (I believe because that would show he cannot read smoothly )


I went onto All About Learning's website and looked at a sample of AAR. Is he able to read all of that to you aloud or in his head? 4 pages in 20 minutes isn't horrible actually. I have come to grips with the fact that my ds will not be a speed reader by the time he graduates high school

A few suggestions for fluency specifically.
IN addition to the time you spend with him.
1. work up to 30 min of independent reading and then have him spend about 5 minutes telling you what happened in the story. I started really really slowly and kept it casual "what happened today during your independent reading?" Basically you are doing a quick comprehension check and helping him build up the muscle of reading.
2. have him still listen to audio books and follow along in a regular book as knitlove said. We did this a lot and I realized recently we stopped so I am trying to fit this back in organically without too much fuss from my ds. I'm thinking of buying the audio version of MOH since he's using it for ancient history right now. He's been reading it alone so I am not sure if that's a good idea or a bad idea.
3. have him sit and do audio books with siblings.
4. AAS. We did AAS with ds and it's actually really really helped keep the multi syllable chunking that he learned in the rewards program fresh.

Here is how we did it - first three steps
1 Lindamoodbell - alone
2 SSRW (this is most remedial and how he HAD to learn the sounds/letters) - alone
3 Picture me reading - alone

Once he was really really solid on above, we did all these at the same time (well, we kept adding things when he couldn't just do one or two things

step 4
PHONICS INSTRUCTION - 60 MIN
1. Recipe for reading
2. recipe for reading readers
3. word lists (I had 3 or 4 books of lists for him to just work on sounding things out - I did use the word lists from AAR AND DIANE CRAFT in here)
4. AAR readers

step 5
FLUENCY/multisyllable words/typing AFTER PHONICS INSTRUCTION
Rewards multisyllable/fluency
Reading assistant (online)
TTRS (touch type read and spell - also online)

In the midst of all of that we tried AAS a few times but I ended up waiting until we were done with rewards to actually get deep and heavy into AAS.

So, for curriculum, here are some of the things I liked the most. You didn't say where he is but I saw on AAR the approximate - if he needs any phonics remediation or sight words the first two curriculum would help.

Recipe for Reading (this may be too remedial for him but it is good O-G approach for if he still struggles to sound out easy words or guesses occasionally with any type of blending like fast, glide, etc) -- I am pretty sure I own this and all of the readers. I used all the workbooks. BUT this may be an excellent way to do a quick review. It's a bit young but the truth is that if they are behind, young is often needed.


Picture me reading https://www.picturemereading.com for sight words if he is not 100% solid on sight words. My ds was guessing for a very long time and I bit the bullet. It was a very very good move for us.


Rewards multi syllable approach. http://store.voyagersopris.com/rewar...and-secondary/ We DID NOT do this in 6 weeks. We took a long time and moved very slowly doing 1/4 lessons and repeating things A LOT until he built fluency. I will say I am looking at purchasing another level for him just to refresh because he's been "guessing" on multi syllable words again (this I know I have and I will dig it out and can answer any specific questions).

My final bit of advice - if there is any deficit in sight words or sounding out words and blends, I would start over. The very remedial things are FOUNDATIONAL to reading at higher levels. It was so so hard for my ds and I to KEEP starting over but in hindsight, I was DEFINITELY given the right advice. Some kids can learn to read without all of this. What I did with my ds was A LOT. OH I never got the chance to try AAR with ds because he was ahead of when they were being released. BUT I used readers for reinforcement and fluency practice.