more Starfall

Have you seen the more.Starfall.com site yet?  It's lovely.  Well, a better description would be cool, colorful, engaging, fun.

 My two youngest (ages 7 and 5) had been messing around with the free version for a few months.  While they loved what they saw, they were always mad there wasn't more.  And I was too frugal to want to pay $35 for a one year subscription.

Fast forward to me agonizing over school plans for the upcoming year and wondering what to do with my 5-year-old who technically only has 30 minutes of "school" time, in addition to story time.  He usually sits in with us but sometimes (okay, often) gets bored with us and starts to cause problems.  I know MOST 5-year-olds would not do this...he's an unusual child. 

So I sat down and gave the more.Starfall site another look.  Hmm, early phonics and reading.  Games.  MATH!  Colors.  Nursery rhymes.  I took the plunge and bought the subscription and that's when my jaw dropped.

I now have access to HUNDREDS of worksheets.  Now, I'm not a worksheet mom but they do have their place for keeping little hands busy.  These are fun worksheets, cool activities, puzzles, word family printables, handwriting, sorting, coloring and the list goes on.  

AND THEN...I saw the lesson plans.  They have 31 weeks worth of lesson plans (mostly geared to kindergarten) which blends phonics, science, math, reading and all sorts of fun things.  It gives you the teacher prep involved plus lists what you’ll need each day then gives you step-by-step instructions on how to mesh everything together.  I'm not sure this is something I'll use, but it's nice to know it's there!

My two little guys have loved using the full version.  They can easily navigate without my help (the interface is just like regular Starfall).  When I’m teaching the older boys their individual subjects (math, reading, spelling) I let the younger boys explore more.Starfall or work on some of the activities I’ve printed.  I'm so pleased with the variety of tools it provides, not only for the kids, but for me as the teacher/parent.  

The Reading Plan

I'm teaching my last child to read.  It's a bittersweet thing.  I've used this same general plan for all my kids....he just has a few resources that the older boys didn't have.

It's hard to show in a list like this, but once he starts reading the Now I'm Reading series, he will read one book a day AND play a game or watch a Starfall video.  We spend between 10 and 20 minutes on 'reading instruction'.  Some time in a book reading and some in a hands-on type activity.  I usually have him watch the movies on his own, during a time I'm working with his older brothers. So, on any given day he reads a short book with me, we play a game, and he then watches a movie, plays around on Starfall, or does a worksheet.

I use a lot of games from Happy Phonics (HP).  I'm only going to link to it once!

Leap Frog Videos

Starfall (basic ABCs)

Keep Away*

Letter Go-Fish

Alphabet Bingo

Muffin Match (upper/lower case letters) - from HP

Castle Game (short vowel sounds) from HP

I Can Read Cards (HP) – CVC words - from HP

Starfall Learn to Read games 1-5, Skills movies #1-3

more.Starfall – Word Machines

more.Starfall – Short Vowel Pals

Meet the Sight Words (dvd – watch one video every few days, do coloring pages)

Build a Sentence – some sight words, mostly CVC -from HP

Scrambled Sentences - sight words, mostly CVC -from HP

Meet the Blends (dvd)

Starfall Learn to Read, Skills movies #4-8

Meet the Digraphs (dvd)

Start Now I’m Reading series by Nora Gaydos

Animal Antics books 1-5, then Playful Pals 1-5….

then go back to Animal Antics books 6-10 and Playful Pals 6-10

Read one book a day, repeat the same book for 2 to 3 days….continue to move through the series (Clever Critters, Snack Attack, Amazing Animals, On the Go**)

Sight Word Bingo; Roll, Keep, Say or Keep Away*

Silent E game (HP)

Starfall Learn to Read games 6-10

Climb the E Tree (HP) – various sounds of “e”

Sight Word Bingo; Roll, Keep, Say or Keep Away

CH, SH, TH, WH Game (HP)

The E-A Game (HP) – watch Between the Lions EA video

Starfall Learn to Read game 11

Starfall Learn to Read, Skills movies 9-11

Climb the E Tree, gradually move up to level 4 (HP)

Sight Word Bingo; Roll, Keep, Say or Keep Away

First Nurse Game (HP) – er, ir, ur, wor, ear

Starfall Learn to Read games 12-14

Y Not? (HP) – y_____, _y, ___y, and __y__

Three in a Row (HP) – oi, oy

Sight Word Bingo; Roll, Keep, Say or Keep Away

Boat Launch (HP) – au, aw

Mountain Climber (HP) – oa, ow, oa

Silly Sentences word strip game

Space Race (HP) – gn, kn, wr, ____b

Climb the E Tree last level

Begin Dr. Seuss, Frog and Toad and other books

Begin All About Spelling Level 1 (unless his writing is good enough to start earlier) - I feel like this program fills in any holes I might have missed.

* Keep away is a game where I hold a stack of cards.  I show him one card at a time and if he knows the letter sound, name or word he can keep the card.  If he doesn't, then I keep it.  Whoever has the most cards at the end, wins.  I always lose.

**more.Starfall has many beginning reader books in the “More Phonics” and “Backpack Bear’s Books” sections if he needs more practice than the Now I’m Reading books.

All About Reading

As I've mentioned previously, I love the All About Spelling program.  And now they have All About Reading Level Pre-1, available tomorrow!!!  I have been (impatiently) waiting and I'll be first in line to buy.  (There will be other levels in the near future and all will correspond with the AAS program.)

The author, Marie Rippel, has offered two free e-books for you to preview.  You can download them here.  If you want to buy the program, you can purchase it from the All About Spelling site (please use the link on the right so I can get a small commission!) or you can use this link.

Here is more information from their official announcement:

Level Pre-1 teaches preschoolers and kindergarteners a very specific set of skills that we call the Big Five Skills. These five skills help young children understand the basics of language and how it works, preparing them to learn to read. 

With All About Reading Level Pre-1, your child will play special games, enjoy little crafts, and engage in charming storytime activities--all the while absorbing these all-important Big Five Skills. 


Updated to add:
They just lowered the price as of last night!  And they are offering $20 in free product if you order before March 7th.


Updated August 2011 - I did order Pre-Level 1 and then I returned it.  My youngest son (who was 4 at the time) already knew his letter names and sounds and was putting simple words together.  This program, while EXCELLENT, was too easy for him.  I loved the activities and instruction and really debated whether I'd use this for him.  I even made my husband sit down and look through it (twice).  The conclusion was that it would have been busy work for him - he would have enjoyed doing it, but he had already mastered the skills.  Pre-Level 1 would be perfect for a child just learning their letters and sounds and the activities are varied and fun.  Some days I wish I had another child to teach reading to....

My favorite things for teaching reading

I am by no means a reading expert, although I do like to read.  And I've taught 2 of my 4 children to read - the 3rd taught himself when he was 4 so I'm not sure he counts in the total.  Anyway.....

I have tried a number of reading programs/books and have finally found the ones I like best, the ones that work for my kids (all of them!) and the ones that are easiest for me to wrap my brain around.

1.  Happy Phonics.  This program contains mostly games.  It follows a logical sequence and has a great little teacher's guide to help you understand which order to do things.  My kids LOVE the games.  Even after they have "graduated" from a game, they will go back years later and play them.  The older boys are asking if they can play with the younger ones.  Not only does the program work, the kids have good memories of it!

One of the things I like best is that because they are games, struggling readers are more willing to practice over and over.  Reading (well, language in general) is very hard for one of my 10-yr-olds and Happy Phonics worked marvelously for him.  We could go over the same sounds, in the game, over and over again and he wouldn't complain one little bit.

I did cut out and laminate all the cards so that the program would last longer...that took a while!  But it has lasted for over 5 years now with one more boy to go.

2.  Now I'm Reading Series by Nora Gaydos.  These books work PERFECTLY with Happy Phonics.   Each book focuses on a specific sound, or combination of them.  The illustrations are fun and the text is silly.  My boys love them and I don't mind hearing them read them over and over and over again.

I have used Levels 1, 2 and 3.  By 3 a child could most likely start reading "easy readers" but Level 3 was specifically requested by my 6-yr-old so we're using them.

Each time the child reads a book they get to put a sticker in the front.  Sadly, there are only 4 stickers per book and we've read them more than that.  And now my youngest son won't have the coordinated stickers.  I do wish you could order additional stickers.

The books (10 in a set) are kept in individual plastic sleeves, housed in a hardbound book.  They are excellent for keeping all those small books together.

Updated to add:  I love how the books build on words.  For example, the first page might read, "A cat."  The next page will be "A tan cat."  The next will read "A tan cat sat."  And it builds from there.  It has really helped my boys with their confidence because they can read faster and they remember the words better.

I just read through Snack Attack with my 4-yr-old this morning and I noticed 2 of the books have characters that steal things and there is no remorse, repentance, punishment, nothing.  Not so cool with that.  I might have to go in and edit the book.  Or pull them out.  I haven't had that problem with the other books.

I'm working on a list of how Now I'm Reading correlates with Happy Phonics.  I'll post that soon.

3.  Starfall.  It's an online program and it's free.  I use this mainly when they are younger to help learn their letters and the sounds.  As they progress there are some fun little videos and short games they can play.  I consider this more of a supplement than an actual program, but it is well loved in this home.

4.  Explode the Code workbooks.  My kids will say they don't love these, but they do work.  I wouldn't say this is "my favorite" but we keep using them because they have really helped them understand the language better.

And in case you are interested I tried the following without much success:

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Phonics Pathways
Progressive Phonics
The Reading Lesson
various levels of Bob Books

Well, I should say we had success with one boy, and not much with the other.  In every one of the above mentioned programs/books he hit a wall and couldn't get around it until Happy Phonics.  I'm sure any of these books would have worked for the now 6-yr-old, but he heard us doing Happy Phonics so often that he learned to read on his own.