Hooked on Phonics- I really like this program!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I bought this program a few months ago and was letting my daughter watch the videos "straight through" just leaving them on in the background while she played (even though they are divided into 3 minute lessons, I would hit "play all" on my DVD player).  I do believe they made a difference although I backed off for a whole because she seemed to be getting a little bored with it. I bought the set primarily for the videos which are new within the last couple of years versus their old program from the 80's which was just audio.


I bought the Pre-K through 2nd Grade Boxed set using discount code HOP40 for 40% off. I think this has been one of the best investments in my kids reading education, it ranks right up there with LR, My Montessori House videos to teach word blending.

I basically ditched the Pre-K program all together, DD already knew all her letter sounds anyway and I don't think the songs are "straight forward" enough anyway for a baby/young toddler. I think LF Letter Factory and the YouTube Phonics Chants are a lot better.

The program consists of:

Pre K Level 1 & 2
K Level 1 & 2
First Grade Level 1 & 2
Second GRade Level 1 & 2

Each leveled kit comes with:
-1 DVD
-Several easy readers
-Reading Workbook (not for drawing in)
-Some have bonus workbooks like the K pack for drawing in (matching, writing words, etc)
-Some have flip-a-word spiral charts
-One has a "make your own book" kit in it
-A few other random things


Initially, like I said I bought it for the phonics videos. I thought I was going to have a box full of workbooks that would never get used. Well, when DD turned 23 months or so I decided to pull them out and go through the program as intended. We watch a 3 minutes phonics video in the morning (for example, covering -it words this morning) . Then later when my son naps, we do the reading workbook to earn stickers (the magic collateral and motivator of my two year old, she LOVES to earn stickers). The stickers are set up to be "earned" every few pages with a little outline where you stick the star, but with my DD, depending on the day, we give a sticker per page and sometimes even per line. I will need to buy extra stickers because there won't be enough going through them this way, but my plan is if she gets bored with it, I will buy a variety of super fun glitter stickers again and she will be more than interested (my little sticker junkie!). After a few pages of reading practice (sometimes we make it through an entire lesson, not always), we do the workbook that you draw on to circle rhyming words and practice writing letters. My DD is not ready for that, so we modify it and color all the words with crayons, talk about which ones rhyme and I do the circling, I write in all the letters for her, and she has a great time using them as educational coloring pages and they STILL get the intended job done!
 
I had a friend over to visit yesterday and my DD went to the drawer, pulled out the phonics kit, and brought it to me saying "do phonics??" She really does love this stuff, so I am being careful not to burn her out and keep that love alive.

The program is laid out really easily, I love programs that are complete all-in-one no brainer kits so this really appealed to me. The K level 1 book has been kind of too easy for her, but in a sense I am grateful that it is because we have been able to work on other areas of reading besides decoding new words. I have been able to break her of the bad habit of word guessing very easily without even trying just by using this program and she has been able to build her reading stamina like CRAZY. She went from barely finishing a sentence to reading whole workbook pages and easy reader books. So even though we have covered easy CVC words she does mostly know, she has had excellent practice sounding out some random ones she has never come across in print (like YIP) and I have been able to catch a few bad habits like reading CRAB and GRAB when it actually says CAB OR GAB, not sure why she was adding an R? But we were able to give her the extra practice she needed.

It is not a fast program but we are going through this level semi-quickly because she is familiar. It is a very deliberate, well thought out program and the quality of the video animation, books and materials, etc are all excellent. But like I said, it has been invaluable for building reading stamina. She has worked her way up to 8 page easy readers from the HOP series and can now read the level 2 eight page easy readers from Preschool Prep with full sentences. It's not that she didn't know the words themselves before because she did, but now she is able to read the whole books word after word. She still gets tired and I have to pace her, but she has grown leaps and bounds so quickly.

I think it's only taken us a month and a half to get through level 1, we're wrapping it up now. It's been excellent review, it helps me know exactly where she is phonics-wise, has built her reading stamina, and it's helpful to get an approximate idea of her current "grade level." (First grade-ish I think, but I am insisting we do the program from the beginning to ensure there are no holes in her phonics and she doesn't seem to mind). I will know she has the proper foundation in reading and I won't have to worry about any "whole word" issues that phonics-proponents are so concerned about (how much of it is true? who knows. But this is working for us so it doesn't really matter I guess.

We would never have been able to work through this program so quickly if not for LR & My Montessori House which helped her initially "click" on how to sound out words.

Also, I think many of the same words are taught using DadDude's Fleschcards and we stopped using them for that reason, too much overlap. We made it to set three or four I think. I like how this program is set up with all the "matching" pieces that layer and reinforce each other, but the fleschcards are obviously waaay cheaper!~

Anyway, I just wanted to update how DD is doing with this program for any other parents out there considering it. I am curious to what my almost 12 month old son will need in the future, he watches the HOP lessons every morning with DD, I don't know if I will need to go through all the workbook stuff with him down the road or not. I guess we'll see. I might try him on it in a year or two and see how he responds, if he blows through it quickly I guess I'll have my answer and will feel comfortable skipping it with him.

[kizudo]

Thank you TmT for such an indepth review.  I'll definitely take another look at it because of this.

[akalori]

Wow, absolutely amazing!  Excellent job.  You are a great teacher.  I like how you color through the phonics and reward with stickers.  I think I have some Hooked on Phonics hidden away somewhere in my house.  I have to dig it out.  Thanks for sharing it with us.  Sometimes it is very helpful to watch someone else teach. 

Karma, Lori

[mom2bee]

I have a much older version of Hooked On Phonics, more explicit and less color ful that I'd like to revamp and use for a younger and broader audience but I'm not really sure how to go about doing this. I'm glad to hear that you've had a good deal of success with the modern versions of Hooked On Phonics. I think for a young child/toddler, they would be good, but for an older child, 5+ they are less effective because now the series is more aimed at making money than making people literate.

[DannyandAmy]

Thank you. You are so inspirational!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Thanks for the feedback. I just wanted to say I was kicking around skipping K level 2, only at lesson 16 (last lesson) are we getting into some newer stuff Lily needs to learn.

However, she's asking to do HOP all the time and has gotten so much faster. She can now do entire lessons at a time. There are 16 lessons in a book I think, with 3 or 4 reviews? Anyway, today she did two full lessons in two separate sittings (both at her request), I timed one and it took a little under 5 minutes with the reading and coloring. So, I am just going to let her do it.

[ariel]

Hi, Thanks for the review. After seeing this and your daughter's video, I took out a HOP Super workbook used that we purchased from the library.  It has fun activities so we tried them.  Subsequently, I did get the HOP system used from 1-5 from craiglist for only 30 bucks but this is casettes.  We will not be using the casettes, I was only planning to use the workbooks and the books.  I would have liked the DVDs though but oh well.  I also probably need the Kinder version as my DD doesn't know alphabet sounds yet.  Lets see how we make out    She has become sticker crazy :P

I was thinking about getting the Math one too but used offcourse.   The workbooks with the set are good but I have Super workbook and that is excellent with each page is colored and double the thickness. 

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Ariel- If your child does not know letter sounds yet, you would need HOP Pre-K. Kinder teaches CVC words (mat, hop, that sort of thing) while Pre-K teaches letter sounds.

Having said that, I think there are better ways to teach letter sounds. I don't find the HOP Pre-K DVD's to be that effective, they are not straight forward enough for a young learner. The songs have too many lyrics. We taught letter sounds long before I even knew about HOP. Perhaps the workbooks and flashcards would be OK, but when we were teaching letter sounds, DD wasn't old enough for workbooks yet at 16 months.

We primarily used phonics chants off youtube (FREE). Also look into leapfrog letter factory and My Montessori House. We don't have the one that specifically teaches letter sounds, but we have loved the MMH DVDs that teach word blending so I would expect the letter sounds ones to be just as good.

I will link a few of the phonics chants & songs we used in a little bit. Need to go put the kids down for nap soon.

[ariel]

The Level 1 starts with letter sounds but within few sheets they expect the child to know them.  Interesting that letter sounds is in Pre-K.  I'll take your suggestion if there are better ways then I won't look anymore. 

If you remember in another post, I mentioned I have used Doman style cards to teach letter sounds of first lower case and upper.  Both they didn't work      Now I play the phonics videos off of youtube (Phonics Chant) and other website (www.supersimpleabcs.com).  MY DD likes them but I think now she is getting bored.  But not bored as in she knows them.  So now I am using our refrigerator and putting up a letter a day but she still gets them wrong so I haven't moved passed "D".      She is just not interested in letters.    I have even tried making it fun like the other day we were playing with a ball, I used words from our acitivity to teach phonics like - d for drop the ball, c for catch the ball but today again she didn't know the sounds when I asked her.  But strangely enough, I played the Signing Time ABCs video a few times and she has picked up letter names here and there.  I on the other hand, haven't mentioned letter names at all to prevent confusion.    I guess she must have really like the ST video. 

Can you feel my angst :P    I think she gets that we use the letter to read but she is not interested in learning them. She pretends to read all the time.  And I even show her videos of other children reading. I guess every child takes their own path. 

Thanks,

[mom2bee]

The Level 1 starts with letter sounds but within few sheets they expect the child to know them.  Interesting that letter sounds is in Pre-K.  I'll take your suggestion if there are better ways then I won't look anymore. 

If you remember in another post, I mentioned I have used Doman style cards to teach letter sounds of first lower case and upper.  Both they didn't work      Now I play the phonics videos off of youtube (Phonics Chant) and other website (www.supersimpleabcs.com).  MY DD likes them but I think now she is getting bored.  But not bored as in she knows them.  So now I am using our refrigerator and putting up a letter a day but she still gets them wrong so I haven't moved passed "D".      She is just not interested in letters.    I have even tried making it fun like the other day we were playing with a ball, I used words from our acitivity to teach phonics like - d for drop the ball, c for catch the ball but today again she didn't know the sounds when I asked her.  But strangely enough, I played the Signing Time ABCs video a few times and she has picked up letter names here and there.  I on the other hand, haven't mentioned letter names at all to prevent confusion.    I guess she must have really like the ST video. 

Can you feel my angst :P    I think she gets that we use the letter to read but she is not interested in learning them. She pretends to read all the time.  And I even show her videos of other children reading. I guess every child takes their own path. 

Thanks,

Aww, I know that can be frustrating. But forget letter and sounds for now, just go with whole word and follow her lead as much as possible. However, I would try Leap Frog letter factory. Teaches letter names and sounds together in a way that some kids I know just loved. They SOLIDIFIED like, all their alphabet names and sounds over the weekend, as I had already tried to teach them through other means but nothing was "sticking."

Just play it casually every now and then,

[TeachingMyToddlers]

It could very well be that the program changed since they revamped it and added DVD's a couple of years ago, so chances are we are both "correct" regarding pre-k/kinder content.

Those you tube chants/songs were some of the ones we used too. And another one by Barbara Milne/Discovery Toys on Youtube as well.


We did teach letter names first, I know you don't have to, but we used the preschool prep series before I ever really discovered "early learning" in the doman/advanced sense and the DVD Meet the Letters did teach the names.  ABC signs from signing time was another one she liked too, loved to sign along. Why not get the matching flashcards from their site if that's what she likes?

Just found out that Preschool Prep will be releasing Meet the Phonics in late January or February. I can't wait, my kids love their stuff! It will help my little guy learn his letter sounds because that is what I am using to teach him his letter names. He is mostly pre-verbal still. I know he knows some, but it's hard to gauge exactly how  talking a whole lot yet.

She will get there in time!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

In regards to leapfrog, a friend used Preschool Prep to teach letter names and then I lent her the leapfrog letter factory. Her 24 month old picked up letter sounds in about a week and a half total I think. She reinforced a bit with the free downloadable leapfrog flashcards. http://projectsbyjess.blogspot.com/2010/09/leap-frog-letter-factory-flash-cards.html

It's nice that it teaches letters/sounds in the same video, but the only draw back is that it's "busy" for a really little guy. Preschool Prep tends to me much slower, no plot, much more repetitive, no side jokes, etc. Leapfrog is awesome for toddlers used to watching TV or older kids that would find Preschool Prep too slow. I just didn't show it to my little guy when he was younger.

And good point Mom2Bee, are you doing LR or other whole word methods? We teach both at the same time.

[ariel]

Thanks much for answering all my queries and the support . 

We did the whole word approach as well.  I started that when she was 6 months and I still do it once a day.  I think she figured out really early that she can ignore the words and the picture would be the next slide.      She picks up the sound of the word but has not sight recognition of any of the words.

I will definately give letter factory a try.  But does it teach both upper and lower case?    Thats interesting that your kids have picked up both sounds and names together.  I kept thinking together they must be confusing.  I really avoid videos that say letter names and phonics together to avoid confusion. 

Thanks again If changing videos works, I'd be eternally grateful to you guys

[TeachingMyToddlers]

You know, I was just having a discussion with my husband yesterday about our two kids learning styles. I don't know if my son is going to be the "workbook type" like my daughter. 

I was thinking about putting flashcards in random places throughout the house for him to find (like a dog flashcard and his small dog figurine, or keys flashcard with play keys, etc) for him to stumble on.

Or putting up BIG words on the wall when he wakes up everyday for him to find, on differant doors in the house, and when we encounter them or pass by them, randomly sound them out.

Or get some sidewalk chalk and get up early or the night before and go for a walk (and hope it doesn't rain overnight) and draw a bunch of words on the sidewalk around the block, maybe a few pictures. And the kids and I can go for a walk and we can "find" them later and sound them out. Would work with letters and letter sounds too (Draw a big A, little A, and a picture of an apple). Or even shapes or whatever else you were teaching, call them "treasure hunt walks" or something.

I think custom books might work really well for him too, I always planned to do a lot with my daughter but she responded so well to flashcards and pre-made stuff I never *had* to resort to the extra work of making custom things with personal pictures of Mommy, the crib, the rocking chair, etc, that have a very strong personal interest and connection.

*just edited this for typos and clarity. excuse my ninja posting while raising two toddlers, my posts are often half-coherent!

Also, how verbal is your daughter? She may know a LOT more than you think she does. I had no idea how many baby signs my daughter knew and I assumed she was "just a baby" and had no idea. Turns out, she knew 4 DVD's worth and just never "told" me. So, don't be surprised if SHE surprises YOU! And keep with it, you are pre-loading information right now. Once it all clicks, she will experience a huge acceleration as Dr. Jones explained in his parent demo.

[Caer]

Hi, may I know how I can buy the Hooked on Phonics? Thanks.

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