I decided to switch gears on our phonics approach. I liked what we
were using and Carson was doing really well with it but there was just
something missing. He was asking a lot of questions about things we
were not covering yet. I felt like I was constantly telling him we
would learn that later or there was a rule for that and we would learn
that later.
I was researching other approaches to teaching phonics
when I came across The Logic of English by Denise Eide. I loved what I
saw but Essentials is geared toward older students and I wasn't really
sure how to make it work for us. I heard that the author was in the
process of writing a foundations program for Kindergarten students but
it was still in beta testing. I inquired about it and found out they
were opening up more slots for people to beta test. I was a little
skeptical about doing it because it's not finished and there are a lot
of unknowns. I decided to go ahead and try it after emailing with the
author and asking some questions.
I am absolutely LOVING the looks
of this program. It teaches all the sounds of the phonograms up
front. It teaches spelling rules and incorporates handwriting. It also
teaches grammar. I'm not sure I'll use it for grammar but it will be a
great supplement to use if we choose something else. The author has
done a wonderful job of making this program so open and go. We love
that there are so many ideas and games to reinforce the phonograms and
what we are learning. I went ahead and bought the Essentials book and
Teacher manual. I doubt we are going to catch up but if we do and the
program has not gone to press yet I wanted to have the other material to
use. The plan is to do foundations this year in Kindergarten and then
start Essentials and work through it over a year and a half.
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