Back when I was a new homeschooler (sssshhh 1999!), I was led by a seasoned homeschool mom to Alpha Phonics by Samuel Blumenfeld. At the time, I was fortunate to be able to borrow a copy from my library to try out before buying. After one week of using it with my son, I had to go out & purchase my own copy!
If you know how to read you can teach reading using Alpha-Phonics. The layout is open & go - 128 self-explanatory, scripted lessons. Simple & straightforward & totally jargon free! I could just open the book, go to the current lesson, & read it to him. I remember lessons only took about 15 minutes per day. My son was about 4 when we began & was practically reading from lesson 10!
What I like best about this program is that there aren't any distractions on the page just large print calligraphy which I think is preferable for young decoders.
It also uses the word families approach in which a single vowel is presented and reading skills are developed by studying all the possible word families of that vowel before moving to the next vowel.
Needless to say, my granddaughter will cut her reading teeth on Alpha Phonics. I'm so excited to be blessed to teach another generation to read using this elegant program. More on phonics in another post!
I would love to hear from others who have used Alpha Phonics or comment below & share what phonics program works for your child.
Does the child have to recognize all the letters of the alphabet and know their sounds before beginning with this book? I was thinking about getting this combined with "Cursive First" for Alex next year. I have read that teaching cursive before print helps with learning to read and have been thinking about doing that with Alex. He's almost 4 1/2.
ReplyDeleteActually, with Alpha Phonics, it assumes that the child doesn't recognize letters or is just beginning to. The appendix has a section just for letter recognition. The first lesson is learning letters & the short vowel & consonant sounds. Focus is on recognition & pronouncing the sounds correctly such as just the "B" sound for the letter B, NOT "Buuh". I'm not familiar with teaching cursive prior to print, however, it makes sense. :)
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