BellaOnline Forums Education Homeschooling Does Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read really work?

I hear you, Myrabeth. Children are not all ready to do the same things at the same time. One of the coolest things about homeschooling is that parents can pay attention to their child's own internal timetable, and not insist on the child being able to do X by age Y. I've heard of many a "late" bloomer who didn't read until seven or eight, but quickly became proficient once they began.

I've used 100 Easy Lessons on my 3 who are in school. My 4 year old was doing the lessons when I was teaching it to his 6 year old sister. My 12 year old learned to read at 5 with it and doesn't shy away from large words that he has never read before. I don't have any experience with hooked on phonics but most of my friends have and they prefer the 100 Easy Lessons book. They especially like it for younger children.

When my husband and I decided to homeschool our two girls, 1 1/2 years ago, everyone freaked out. Family o both sides shared numerous horror stories of kids that they knew who were homeschooled and turned out unable to cope with the world, ending up in jail, etc. Which I responded right back with all the peoploe I knew from public school just like that, okay so I didn't win any brownie points that day!

Anyway, once they realized that nothing they could say would change our minds, they begrudgingly accepted it. What else could they really do?

Then my Mother-in-law found the HOP Deluxe version on sale on E-Bay and bought it for us. And both my girls love it! They are both reading at a higher level than most of their friends that go to public school. They are reading all the time. So, yes, HOP worked for us! It might not work for everyone, we also don't do HOP everyday. I try to give variety and mix it up some so it's not the same things over and over again. We read everyday, it just doesn't have to be HOP.

HOP also helped tremendously with our daughters speech problems. Both had a little bit of a speech problem that our medical insurance would not cover and there was no way we could afford it out of pocket. I know that we could have gone to the school district and made them help us with speech, but I didn't really want to resort to that. Anyway, HOP helped them really learn the proper way to pronounce each letter and now you would never be able to tell that either one had a small speech delay!

Also, both sides of the family have come around to us home schooling and are quite proud of how well our girls are doing!

That's a great story, Marci. I'm glad your family is now supportive.

We used Abeka phonics to teach my son to read.

In my experience NO..not with my first child.
It would have worked great with my second child.

I did everything I knew of with kid #1, in the end I hired a tutor and within weeks my daughter (about to turn 9 at the time) went from reading nothing to reading on level. Years later she can read anything she wants BUT she still has to be encouraged to read books. If she could she'd stick with magazines and websites. I allow her free access to those sources but I also require her to read books in small time increments.

My 2nd learned to read on her own, but didnt tell me because she hates reading out loud. I didnt know she could read but knew phonics was for her so I bought her the first session of headsprout. She liked it alright but was bored...why??? because she COULD ALREADY READ *sigh* She's 9 now and can read whatever she wants, she's working through Ella Enchanted now.

For #3, who will be 5 next month, she's been reading little bits since she was 3. For kicks and because she kept asking for school I bought her the explode the code preschool pack, and she finished all 3 books in a month. She still looks at them now & again. I am going to look for some bob books or make her something like that, just to keep her reading until she's ready to move on.

For #4 & 5, we'll decide when we get there. I read to them daily (right now it's Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare) and will see how they are ready when they are ready!

I do not know about that product personally, but I do know that all children are different, find something that they love, but that challenges also. You will do fine!

I use word shark and number shark in my school and they Are FABULOUS!! and do K1 and K2 stages. (infant and junior!)