My son was a 6-year-old (almost 7) when I began teaching him to read, and it seemed as though he just wasn’t getting it. He had learned some phonics in kindergarten and recognized some sight words, but putting together everything he had learned just wasn’t happening. I tried everything from McGuffey readers to other phonics books and workbooks.

I then turned to online learn to read activities, and he took to these very quickly. He liked the animation and the online short books and stories. Soon he had completed many online reading lessons, as well as his phonics materials and books. I continued reading him stories on a daily basis. One day I realized he was reading well, and he began reading to me.

Then I began thinking, “Does he really understand what he’s reading?,” so I gave him oral book reports, asked him to explain passages he had read, had him write short summaries of his books, etc. Not only was he decoding words, but his reading comprehension was at a high level. He had exploded the reading code, and in a period of about 4 months, he proceeded to read 125 books–without me prompting him. I was overjoyed, because I had a child who loved to read!

Phonics and decoding are only part of learning to read; reading comprehension is more complicated. Your child can decode words (break them down phonetically) and really not understand what he’s reading. Sometimes when a child is learning to read, his energy is focused on decoding, so it’s hard to focus on comprehension too.

Online reading comprehension programs allow children to interact with the text, include vocabulary questions, and test them to see if they understand the text. There are read along stories as well as opportunities for children to be read to via the online audio. This makes interaction and comprehension a priority.

Making sure your daughter (or son) becomes a fluent reader with excellent reading comprehension skills can be done with the help of an online reading comprehension program.

I’d love to hear about your homeschool reading program; please share your experience or ask questions.

Do you remember the commercials for “Hooked on Phonics?” “I am hooked on phonics. I am learning to read . . . ” Those lines are etched in my memory.

“Hooked on Phonics” was the way thousands of parents helped their children learn to read in the 80s and 90s. Some still use it, but now your child can be hooked on phonics online, because homeschoolers are avid users of the internet for educational purposes.

I used an online phonics curriculum to help my son learn phonics, along with workbooks, and of course, reading, reading, and more reading to him. He’s in 4th grade and is reading at 8th grade level. He loved the interactive piece where an onscreen character would pronounce a phonetic sound or word, and he repeated it.

Another part of intensive phonics online, my son loved was clicking on the right answer. The program would present him with a choice among three or more answers, then he would make his choice. If he got the answer right, the online character would clap or say, “Great job, you’re a phonics superstar!” or if the answer was incorrect, the character might say, “Almost got it, try again.” He would glow when he got the correct answer, and he would be challenged to keep trying if his answer was incorrect.

Children love this approach, because there are no “Xs” for incorrect answers–just encouragement to continue moving along the positive phonics path. For correct answers, there are lots of bells and whistles, and this serves as motivation for your child to keep up the excellent work.

There’s no doubt that intensive phonics is needed to teach a child to learn to read. Yes, there are sight words that don’t fit into the phonics rules, and there are always exceptions to those rules. But once your child learns phonics, she will become a better reader. She will always “sound out” new words, because that is what she’s learned.

Your child will apply all the phonics rules and word sounds to words he’s never seen before. Although he may not necessarily pronounce the new word correctly, when he applies what he’s learned, he’ll be closer to a correct pronunciation than those who learned to read by the whole language method.

Don’t you wish there had been online phonics when you were learning to read? My son found it to be a fun and exciting way to learn!

Share your experience with phonics by leaving a comment.

I’m supposed to be setting up my curriculum for next school year, within the next few weeks. Since Tim will be official, I’m going to use my church as an umbrella, at least for the first year. They require me to turn in a lesson plan, I believe for a year, just a basic idea of what I’m going to teach.

I sat down to start this yesterday, not too concerned about it. I did this all on my own last year and had no clue what I was doing, but it worked, and it worked well! So, no worries, right?! I couldn’t figure out where to start! I clammed up, just like I did last year! He’s already doing 1st grade for language arts and math, so I’m having a hard time figuring out where to start, based on the skills they want him to be learning. He HATES repetition, so I don’t really want to start at the beginning of 1st grade. I’m really confused, and I hate that! I like knowing exactly what I’m going to be doing, it just makes everything run together more smoothly.

So, I’m going to pick a couple of online curriculums, T4L being one, and look at what is there in terms of grade level, then use that as a jumping point to write the rest. I don’t know any other way to do this and have it somewhat organized! I know I’m not the only one here that writes my own curriculum, so how do the rest of you figure out where to start for a new year?

I thought I’d blog a few of my random thoughts this morning!

As we’re winding down the school year, I’m having a hard time concentrating.  I keep planning next year in my head!

I have to decide who will use T4L.  You know, it would be great if you could do T4L ala carte….   My older son does great on his own, actually he does better on his own,  in everything but Math.  I have yet to hit the right combination for him for Math.   Since our budget is so very limited, it would be great if I could have two kids in the full program and just have Math for one….

Going dormant…..anyone?  We decided to go dormant for June and July and start back with T4L in August.  It looks like our 2 year old may be headed for open heart surgery this summer… (A personal note and prayer request here!)

I’m planning on some nature study, art classes (putting it together myself) and some light phonics and math drills using flashcards and fun workbooks.  It’ll be fun for a while, then we’ll be back on T4L!

We’ve been doing yard work and gardening.  I hope to plant a couple of tomato plants, some green beans, jalapeno peppers, etc. this week.  My boys love to see things growing.

Oh, and I know it’s late but…. HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!  I hope you all were treated like queens!

I am here with Cade, a local first grader.  He has agreed to answer a few questions about Time4Learning.

Lisa:  Hi, Cade.  Did you have a happy birthday yesterday?

Cade:  Of course!

L: Great! I have some questions to ask you about T4L.  First question…. What do you like most about T4L?

C: That writing corner thing.  You know, where you put the stickers in the story and where you get to write you own stories in the different rooms?  I like making my own stories.

L:  Yes, that’s a great feature.  It actually gives you one more chance to see pieces of the lesson and recreate a story on your own.  Very nice….  Question #2….  What do you like the least on T4L?

C: I don’t like it when I click and click on something again and again and it doesn’t work.  That makes me mad!

L: Yes, that is frustrating.  We’ve had problems with the story-links and all of the extra links in the Science lessons.  Maybe we can get that fixed.  Okay, Question #3…. Who is your favorite character and why?

C:  My favorite character was the cook guy.  I liked it when he made all the food.  I love that guy!!!

L:  Yes, I remember him.  He was in the Kindergarten math section.  Okay, and the last question…. What is your favorite subject on T4L?

C:  SCIENCE!!!  This is awesome!!  I like everything I learned about in Science.  It’s very fun.

L:  Thank you very much for telling me about your T4L experience, Cade.

C:  You’re welcome.