Gaps in The Reading Lesson?

[nena3927]

First I want to say that I love The Reading Lesson and both my 4 yr old dd and 5 yr old ds are on lesson 8 and doing well. My only concern is since TRL does not get into many "rules" of reading, will there be any gaps in their learning compared with programs like All About Reading or Abeka? Will these rules be covered later in grammar study (R&S) ? I do also add the "Explode the Code" series in with TRL. Still its hard not to compare your children to other children using other programs and how well they read and are familiar with many of grammar's rules and regulations and not wonder where the end result will be with your own children who are not taught them early on. Any insight appreciated! Thank you ladies

[bethelmommy]

We really liked The Reading Lesson and used it successfully with our oldest two without supplementing. It does not appear to cover rules as completely as AAR or Abeka, but we found it adequate (and much more enjoyable than AAR level 1 which we used briefly alongside TRL but dropped after a few lessons). What I found was that focusing on so much repetition and rule learning was draining the joy out of just learning to read for my children. The Reading Lesson was like a breath of fresh air for them and allowed them to progress through lessons quickly and painlessly. My oldest ds(7.5) then moved on through the Emerging Readers steadily and picked up new words and rules as we went along. He is now reading the level 2 DITHOR books easily for school and devouring The Hobbit in his free time. My dd(6) is going through The Emerging Readers now and they are very easy for her. She is reading Imagination Station chapter books in her free time and usually only asks for help sounding out unfamiliar names or places. For those who struggle with reading or need lots of rules/repetition, TRL might not be the best fit. However, my kids vastly preferred it over other programs we tried. They both now love to read and do quite well, despite not being able to recite every rule.

[nena3927]

Thank you very much Alicia! Very good to hear they are doing well even without learning all the "rules". I think another reason I was concerned was that being in the public school system myself and being taught sight words mostly with a little phonics in first or second grade, I was never taught many of the rules,and I find it still difficult for myself reading longer words that are new to me and wondering what each word says... a long vowel or a short vowel or does it say its name in this word??? A mom in my co-op was telling me how much it actually has helped HER reading by learning the "whys" behind pronunciation with her children through Abeka, things that she was never taught in public school. I think that is what made my mind begin to wander lol.

[Motherjoy]

We've used a fe other phonics programs before TRL, so I just use what I've learned in those books to add to TRL? Basically, learn the rules yourself and when you see your child struggle with a word, teach them the concept behind it.

[nena3927]

I actually think I am going to get another program that teaches more in depth JUST to have on hand to reference rules and such and keep going on through TRL to teach reading. Seems like the best of both worlds...they can learn to read more quickly for now with TRL and later on, if the need arises, we can pull out the other program and revisit or review any information or rules they may be struggling with. Thank you for your input Motherjoy!

[my3sons]

Many people become very successful readers without being able to voice the rules of reading. After completing a formal phonics program, dc either go into the Emerging Reader's Set because they are ready for it, or do another phonics program - a different phonics program - because they need one more year of formal phonics prior to starting the ERS. It seems some dc learn rules rather inherently and some benefit from one more go-round with a different phonics program. I'd probably just finish TRL with your ETC workbooks, and then at the close decide whether the next step is the ERS or another phonics program. Sometimes, adding more and more the first time through can break the flow of things and stretch a program out too much when it really would have just been easier to do the program as it is intended, and then do a different program the next year. This is just my 2 cents - you will certainly know best, but there are sometimes great benefits to just clipping along and then doing another year of phonics another way. Who knows? You may not even need another phonics program. It could be that just by doing TRL the way it's written will be just right. I'd sure give it a whirl before adding more unnecessarily. I do also believe that Charlotte Mason's habit of having us as parents read aloud excellent living books to our dc, read poetry together, and learn to narrate together all do help dc naturally become better readers too. It is a good idea to have dc following along - informally - as we read to them as well. Just thought I'd mention this as it has helped our dc! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie