Abeka's approach to "special sounds" is the best I've seen. All of my children learned to read with their phonics, and it worked so well. My mom's first encounter with phonics was when she started homeschooling me in 2nd grade. She learned by memorizing words in the 60's, and it makes me wonder if that's why she doesn't seem to enjoy reading. Other than reading lots of books to me when I was young, I've never seen her read anything other than her Bible and a devotional book. She did learn with Abeka phonics when my brother went through their video program, and everything made so much more sense to her after that.

I agree with you on this, America. We do not need to copy and paste exactly how CM taught the subjects but take the philosophy and the overarching structure (short, varied lessons, good&beautiful literature, etc.) and apply it to a phonics program. I’m enjoying seeing all of your curriculum picks for this upcoming year ❤

I also felt wary of CM's approach to teaching reading. There's a lot of research to show that reading by sight is failing kids. I chose Logic of English Foundations for my son. It is so systematic and thorough and my son has really enjoyed it and made fantastic progress. I highly recommend it. Cindy from "Our Journey Westward" wrote a blog post on why she believes Logic of English is a good fit in a CM homeschool. Her experience was with their Essentials Program. Anyway, thought I'd share what has been working well for us in case you want to check it out.

@AHeartForHomeEducation

24 күн бұрын

I really considered Logic of English for some time! I'm so glad to hear it's a good option from another CM mom!

I really appreciate your honest videos about Mason’s methods. While I overall adhere to many of her methods, there are somethings that just have not worked with my child and I don’t hear enough testimonies on those struggles. Thank you for providing alternatives as well!

Another great video. We’ve tried all of these and I love the Abeka handbook. We like the simplicity of the AAR books and Alpha phonics is tried and true. Sometimes using a mix of all works best. Never hurts to mix things up. That’s what’s worked for us.

@AHeartForHomeEducation

24 күн бұрын

Yes! Different programs have different strengths, so it's okay to tap into all those strengths as needed.

Thanks for this video! We aren’t CM purists but I knew my son needed something very clear and phonics based. I’m using Treasure Hunt Reading with my son and he’s doing really well with it…we’re going very slow and I don’t force all of the handwriting. It’s made to take us about 2yrs and follows the Ortan-Gillingham method like All About Reading. It’s free but I bought the book off Amazon because I didn’t want to print it.

Oh my goodness! Whenever people explain the CM approach to reading, it sounds so inefficient and time consuming! Glad to know I am not the only one!

@AHeartForHomeEducation

Ай бұрын

I agree completely!

I agree with you! Great video and explanations. I really like Simply Charlotte Mason’s Delightful Reading kits. We have Level 2 (mostly word building and CVC so far, but it builds on bigger words). I feel like SCM filled the gap of traditional CM reading. Level 1 is playing with letters and learning their sounds, level 2 works on phonics with a lot of word building with letter tiles and simple, fun games to practice words (and the teacher guide tells the parent how to teach the phonics rule for each lesson) while Level 3 does more of the traditional CM with reading twinkle twinkle and other known poems. I’ve loved it so far. We received BOB books from family, so though the illustrations are so simple and ugly in my opinion, they’re doing the job as my son becomes more confident in CVC words. Looking forward to more to moving to early reader living books, though!

@AHeartForHomeEducation

24 күн бұрын

I'm glad those worked for you! I used Kit 2 and it wasn't guided enough for me and my first time teaching reading. But they are beautiful kits!

This is exactly what I've been doing too! I started with the CM approach to beginning word building, then use AAR/Alpha-Phonics to be sure we're covering all the phonics rules with no gaps! I wish I'd had this video a few years ago!

Thank you for the thought, experience, and research put into this video. I agree the original CM approach to memorizing words are no longer seen as effective. It was nice to see the alternate resources you recommend.

I have a very piecemeal approach too. Someone gave me the program Spell to Write and Read and i haven't used it with my children, but it was the first time i had ever heard of phonics rules. I got so excited and use them all the time in helping my kids through their reading lessons. We've really enjoyed Under the home phonics because it starts with ear training, and (it goes well alongside abeka readers i got for free) and then we've used McGuffey readers once they know their cvc words, and Alphaphonics for some review.

Yes! Thank you for this video!

A whole generation was not taught to read because of the adoption of the whole language approach. It was awful.