[WHAT]

This seems shady. I don't think I'd spend $50 on that program because they don't even say WHAT the program is. They do not show a single child USING the mysterious program. It is weird, a new person is signing up to various educational forums and asking about this program....so I smell    and    all over this company.

Now it could be a coincidence but it seems that they are trying to drum up traffic and rack up sales by posing as a new user who is curious about this relatively unheard of product.  I think that this is a scam and wouldn't buy it.

There are a lot of good phonic options for free and for reasonably priced. There is no need to throw money after a mystery product mentioned by a mystery user. That video is 15+ minutes long and NOT ONCE do they say what the product is--is it a series of videos? Is it a PDF of lessons with instruction for the parents? Is it a printable set of games? Is it an book of learning activities and lessons? Does it include readers? Does it include video instruction? Do they give refunds? That is a very, shady ad and I'm a little suspicious of the user also, but maybe I'm being needlessly cynical.

Free Phonics Resources that Could Work with an EL Kid:

• Progressive Phonics
• Reading Bear
• Ultimate Phonics

from Spencer Learning--plain and thorough. You can download the fully functioning trial version of the program and try it if you like it. UP has their word and sentence list for free so you could use those similar to DadDudes Flesch cards if you don't like the software version and it includes sentences

• Reading A-Z

has an extensive "free sample" option and you can do download booklets from there based on sightwords, phonics, and more. VERY nice. If you want more, you can pay for access, but during your trial period you can download a TON, I can't imagine you needing more readers.

• YouTube

There are a lot of phonic videos on YouTube that you can search and work through any play list that you like.

• I See Sam

The first 52 of these readers are free online.


And those were just the free products that I could think of in about 2 minutes. Now, if you are open to spending money then there are many reputable paid options for baby reading products: There are so many options, of course there is

• BKs Little Reader

software which includes Pattern Phonics.

• Meet the SightWords/Phonics
• Hooked On Phonics Learn to Read
• program with DVDs or Without
  
  • Little Champion Reader
  • Readeez
  • Monki--See
  
  And these are just the DVD multimedia options that pop into my head within a few seconds. If you want a book/guide for you and your kids to use then know that you just need to model blending and read to them using the words and scope of these lessons.
  
  • Phonics Pathways + Reading Pathways
  • The Reading Lesson
  which --my personal favorite for the 3+ crowd.
  
  • Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading
  is very thorough--its like the UP list, but it includes an instructional guide for the parent.
  
  • Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
  
  And thats just a small sample of programs that are KNOWN to be legit and highly effective.
  Not one of the book based options that I listed costs more than $50, most of them are $15-$40 but I'm too lazy to go and price check. I'm not sure of the price of the DVD reading options.
  
  
  

Linzy, do you use the Home Instructors Guide with Singaporean Math? Which books from the program do you use?
As I understand it, there are a bunch of small books that make up each level of the program.

Textbook A and B
workbook A and B
Home Instructor's Guide A and B
Intensive Practice A and B
Extra Practice A and B
Challenging Word Problems (No A and B books)
Assessment books A and B.

Which ones do you use with your LO? I doubt that many EL parents would do assessments with their LOs just because of the nature of the student but still, inquiring minds want to know and I figure it'll be easier for you to NOT forget to mention something if I put it all up there.
I know that some people say that you NEED the HIG to do Singapores PM correctly, unless you have had "Asian Math" yourself, yet I think you've mentioned a couple of times that your younger son has a number sense from using PM that your older son doesn't have, right?

I'm just curious where are you based? Do you ship internationally? Would it be possible to get a shipping quote based on location? Is there a discount for combining purchases?

No, in order to read a word via Phonics a toddler needs to know how to a 1) blend and 2) the phonographs/letters in that word.

They can learn all of the letters/sounds first, but it isn't necessary.

That looks great PokerDad!!! Thanks for making a super tutorial too! I'll be making something like this for my future kids one day!!!

[the]

Math: LivingMath.net -- this site has booklists, links, downloads etc. This is the authority on Living Math books as it stands right now.

English grammar:

by Lynne Truss
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
The Girl's Like Spaghetti
Twenty-Odd Ducks

by Robin Pulver
Punctuation Takes a Vacation
The Case of the Incapacitated Capitals
Happy Endings
Nouns and Verbs have a Field Day
Silent Letters Loud and Clear

by Jan Carr
Greedy Apostrophe

by Marvin Terban
The Dove Dove: Homograph riddles
Eight Ate: A Feast of Homophone Riddles
In a Pickle and Other Funny Idioms
It Figures: Fun Figures of Speech
Mad As a Wet Hen (Idioms)
He also has a Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Idiom Dictionary and Spelling Dictionary published by Scholastic

Word Fun Series (by multiple Authors)
If You Were a Conjunction
If You Were an Adjective
If You Were a Preposition
If You Were a Pronoun
If You Were a Homonym
If You Were a Noun
If You Were a Synonym
If You Were a Verb
If You Were an Adverb

Words are CATegorical Series by Brian Cleary
Stroll and Walk, Babble and Talk: More about Synonyms
Straight and Curvy, Meek and Nervy: More about Antonyms
Skin Like Milk, Hair of Silk: What Are Similes and Metaphors?
Quirky Jerky Extra Perky More About Adjectives
Lazily Crazily Just A Bit Nasally More About Adverbs
Slide And Slurp Scratch And Burp More About Adverbs
A Lime A Mime A Pool Of Slime More About Nouns
Stop And Go Yes And NO What Is An Antonym
How Much Can A Bare Bear Bear What Homonyms And Homphones
Pitch And Throw Grasp And Know Soft Cover
I And You And Don’t Forget Who What Is A Pronoun
Dearly Nearly Insincerely What Is An Adverb
Under Over By The Clover Book
A Mink A Fink A Skating Rink
To Root To Toot To Parachute
Hairy Scary Ordinary

Loreen Leedy writes a bunch of educational books for Children, she has a series for math and some for English Grammar/Language Arts.

For History
David A Adler writes the Picture Book Biography Series with a bunch of different historical figures in them

What Was ....? Series is a look at specific historical events
Who Was....? Series is a biography of a historic figures
If You... is a series of historical fact books that provide facts about certain eras/time (If Grew up With George Washington, If You Lived in Colonial Times) etc.

Science
Lets Read and Find Out Series
Basher Science Series

What type of Arabic does it teach? Is it teaching MSA?

When you resumed after being away from Saxon math for so long--how did your son handle it? Had he forgotten a lot of the math work or was it easy for him to get back into the flow of things? (I ask because Saxon's incremental approach is purported to develop and instill long term retention in students)

How long had you intended to use Saxon? Where you originally planning to do all of the elementary series (54/87) or where you going to use the Highschool level materials also?

Also, if you think that Saxon is worth finishing, then have you considered "tweaking" the way that you use the books? I know that you are supposed to do every exercise in every practice set everytime, but c'mon, what is EL for if not adapting higher level materials down to a kids needs/level. By tweaking you may find that it is easier to get through and it might make it possible and plausible for you to finish the Saxon series, or at least up to Saxon 8/7?

Why not do every lesson (reading, examples, and the "lesson practice") but do every other review problem set? So teach and do the lesson practice for 1 and 2 on the same day, then do every problem in the problem set for Lesson 2?

It could help you move through the books a lot faster, and I find that once you have elementary math down pat, it is easier to spend time on other things like problem solving, and "fun" math.

I'm so glad that you started this thread TMT! (Long time, no 'see' by the way! How are Owen and Lilly?)

I've been really researching math a lot and am actually in the process of trying to parse a bunch of information!
I was actually planning to reach out to a user on YouTube who's son Toby does some pretty advanced arithmetic at 3yo, 4yo and 5. There are a few videos of his dad doing EL-esque type activities with him, but you can tell that he's a little boy who loves to play with math and whose dad is definitely engaged.

I have been meaning to reach out to him for a while, but it had been a while since he'd posted anything until last week! .

I have found this one site/channel to be Early Learning At Home to be immensely helpful in general and she includes a lot of EL lessons and activities, though perhaps a little more traditional than the BK EL movement. Still, beautiful materials, inspirational lessons.

There is a user on YouTube who I am about 99% certain was using Jones Genuises with kids in a tutoring program, you can see short clips of kids at 3, 5 and 7 doing math/reading and if you watch the kids do their math, then you can see them tapping points on some of their math papers. Their reading videos show that the kids learned to read via Direct Instruction and using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. They haven't posted anything in recent years though, sadly . Perhaps we could get him to come and talk to us about his experience using the program if we wrote to him.

Also, I have been watching many, many, many videos on Montessori PreK and K education and I really like this demo of the Montessori math curriculum used in LePort Schools and this one by another Montessori school.

I know that someone uses Saxon math with their EL kids but I can't think who all uses it? I'd like to know how it is working for EL kids who are a couple of levels into it now.
To those who do use Saxon:
How are you guys finding Saxon Math at this point in your journey? (How long/many levels have you used Saxon for?)
What age did your kid start Saxon?
What did you use prior to Saxon?
What made you chose Saxon over other, equally popular programs?
Are you using the older editions or newer editions?
Do you use the "Warm up" and drill sheets that come with the Saxon books?
How do you teach it? Do you use the white board to present the lessons or does your child just read the lesson from the book?
Do you "tweak" Saxon to keep it fun--If so, what do you do to keep it "fun"?

Now that you've had more time and experience with the program, can you offer a review of it and give some tips about what you would and would not do if you had it to do all over?


Thanks in advance to anyone who can and does answer!

Awesome! The playlist has 16 videos for Mono Silabo in it so there are several videos to chose from!!! Thank you for this resource!

To the best of my knowledge, Scichida materials are NOT sold in the US and none (most?) are not even available in English.
I could be wrong, but  that is my understanding.

[all]

So what exactly is in the package when you buy the blocks? I was on GeoffWhites site poking around and I still can't tell.
Are all of the pieces plastic or are some of them paper? If CR has a video detailing whats in the box, can someone link me, I can't find it.

Brava mama! That was great!!!

[o]

Some general comments, it sounds like she lacks one-to-one correspondence. There are little things that you can do to really work on that skill and it won't require any new products. When you are counting, touch each item.

If you are counting dots, [ o o o o ] then count with your child like this: Touch the 1st dot o and say "one dot", touch the next o and say "two dots" o "three dots"  o "four dots". There are 4 dots: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Basically just count in a way that clarifies that:
o is one dot.
o o is two dots
o o o  is three dots
o o o o is four dots, and so one

When you are reading picture books, count pictures on the page.
When you are reading Number books, count each item one by one and say "One THING, Two THINGS, Three THINGS...Seven THINGS" where "THING" is the object being counted and when you get to the last one, say "There are 7 THINGS".

One of the members of this forum (Korrale, maybe?) wrote on their blog a short series: How and Why I Taught My Tot Math and if I remember correctly, she addresses people in exactly your position. Parents of children who come to a stalling point after LM and/or Doman.