Reading and Spelling

I mentioned Spell to Write and Read and PALs in my last post.

Here's the deal.  Before I was a mom, I was a teacher...well, sort of.  I don't have my degree in education (it's communication with a minor in marketing), but I always wanted to be a teacher.  When I got married, Jeremy encouraged me in this and I took on a job as a substitute teacher.  After a year, I picked up a job teaching science and math to 7th & 8th graders. Almost my dream job (I would have rather had Geography and Math).  I love middle schoolers.  Then, I had a baby and my whole world turned upside down.

I am terrified of 5 year olds.  Well, not anymore so much, but I used to be.  My biggest "NO" to homeschool was "How am I going to teach them how to read?"  This scared me to death.  I felt ill equipped, and like I was treading water for several years, until my sweet friend Stacy introduced me to Spell to Write and Read.

I was intrigued...and confused.  I do not think I learned to read or spell phonetically.  I didn't even know what a phonogram was, and I couldn't name the first spelling rule besides "i before e except after c"...and I wasn't even sure if THAT was right.  With my friend patiently going through the program with me and asking crazy questions for several weeks, I began to realize how much I loved this program.

I love it so much that after 6 weeks, we started over.  No, actually, I was so lost and confused that we needed to stop and I needed to read it all again.  I knew I had missed something, but I didn't know what.  Our second time around though...and we (Nicole and I) did much better.  I loved that I was teaching Nicole how to spell by learning what sounds that letters and letter combos make (phonograms), and that through that skill she was learning spelling skills, which taught her how to read.

Still, discouragement and self-doubt  in regards to teaching reading continued.  The one resounding thing I kept hearing from veterans was "It will click.  Keep working at it, and one day, it will click with her".  Yeah right I would think.  However, I came to find out that "yes" they WERE right.  One day, I literally saw all the phonogram and spelling rules "click" with my daughter.  She went from being a non-reader to a reader within a day of that "click".  She realized that she could trust the rules she has learned and read any word she sees.

The SWR program includes ideas to teach grammar and writing in each list.  Sometimes we use those ideas...sometimes we don't.  This program has been wonderful for Nicole, and I have learned just as much...if not more!

However, SWR has been difficult for Hannah.  And for good reason, I started Hannah almost a year earlier before I started Nicole.  There was a difference between the two though...Hannah WANTS to learn to read...Nicole could not have cared less.  She enjoyed being read to, and didn't want to do the reading herself.  Hannah on the other hand is begging to learn to read.

But, SWR wasn't working for her (yet).  She really struggled with the black/white of SWR and could not even hear the difference between many of the sounds.  Nicole likes black and white.  Give me the rules, and I will follow.  Hannah...eh...not so much.

So, I decided to try something different.  We recently bought the PALs program from Institute of Excellence in Writing.  We use the IEW writing curriculum in the Essentials program of CC, and I have come to appreciate and admire much of what they teach homeschoolers.  They have devised the PALs  program  which is blended phonics and sight word system.  I was not excited about the sight words...but we need to try something!  So....here we are!

We are about 10 lessons in (averaging 2-3 lessons per week) and it's going alright.  The program comes with a lesson books that tells me what to do, a book full of pre-made file folder games that all I have to do is cut and paste together, and several files of downloadable student workbooks, readers, and such.  There is also a DVD and lots of online support.

The highlight of the program is the Phonetic Farm where the children learn letter blends by silly stories that relate back to the farm.  Hannah loves this.  She loves the stories and reciting them to help her recall what sound that letter or blend is making.  I think her reading skills have improved a tad.  She also loves to play the file folder games.  I, however, grumble and complain about cutting them out (but that will need to stop after today's sermon!)

Nate enjoys doing the program with us.  I like it because I can make it either writing heavy or not.  So, Nate can participate and cut and paste the words instead of writing them, since he is not developmentally able to do so yet.  However, I can have Hannah write her words out.

I like that some basic punctuation skills have been introduced so far as well.

All in all, I am pleased with our introduction to PALs.  I do plan to switch back to SWR in a year or so, but for now it has helped Hannah and Nathan both learn their phonograms.  They beg to do their "farm work" every day, which is a far cry from when I would whip out my SWR book with her.  She likes fun, games, and silliness...and why shouldn't she?  She is 6 years old.  There's plenty of time for being serious....not quite yet.