Starting with Phonics

My daughter is 4 now so we are starting to home school a little more intentionally. The nice thing is that she knows all of her alphabet and sounds, so there is less pressure for us to move through a curriculum...which is really nice since I am nearly 7 mos. pregnant with number 3.

Here is where we were last year:
Our Starting Point

When I taught Kindergarten and First Grade, our school used a curriculum called Saxon Phonics. Many of you may have heard of Saxon Math curriculum which is known for its repetition. I had experience with the First Grade Saxon Math and I was not a real fan. It seemed that many of the kids did not think critically going through the curriculum which is so important for Mathematics. However, I LOVE the Saxon Phonics program.

When I was growing up I learned to read with the whole word method, so phonics was never a part of my "tool box". Luckily I was good at memorizing, but I hated to read and I always struggled with new words. I had no idea how to sound them out. When I started teaching this curriculum I really learned a lot.  I like how simple this curriculum is for the teacher too :)

Here is the Saxon Phonics & Spelling classroom package

I LOVE their readers, decoding, and progression through material. My kindergartners would start reading by week 3 of the curriculum!!!! All of my students were so successful with this curriculum. The only down side for me are their worksheets. I'm not a big worksheet fan anyways, especially since we can just do some board work while homeschooling. I will be using a pre-cursive handwriting system with her and adding some creative writing as we get further along.

I purchased the Homeschooling version K-2 off of eBay as I found deals and I have to say I wasn't as impressed. It needs a little updating. I think my versions might just be older. So...I've searched Amazon and eBay for their classroom readers and some of their flash cards to use with my homeschooling curriculum.

Decodable reader

This is a first grade decodable reader from  the teacher/school version of Saxon. These are available for each grade. They are great because the go along with what you are learning each week including any sight words and letter/ digraph/ dipthong/combination. I also love that it includes all the things they have learned up until that point too. It really gives kids confidence when they know they can pick up the book and tackle it. These black and white copies are great for allowing them to highlight sight words or find letters in the story too! LOVE LOVE LOVE THESE!


Here is another homeschooling Mom's review of Saxon.

This is the homeschooling version of Saxon Phonics K.

We just moved into our new house, so I am hoping to have our homeschooling area set up by this weekend, but I may be pushing it :)

We will be starting with the letter Ll (when we are settled) and focusing on each letter for 2 weeks. You may be wondering why we are starting with the letter Ll. I know many may think, wouldn't you just start with A and work through Z? Saxon Phonics starts with Ll, Oo and Gg. Ll and Oo are a great place to start because they make up the basic parts of all the letters with the straight line and the circle. Also, it is great because the first word you read is "log". Then, when you add Hh, you have "log" and "hog".

We are spending 2 weeks on each letter because I want to have time to be able to plan and have lots of fun with letter activities. As I find letter activities, I will be updating my Pinterest board "Now I Know My ABC's" so feel free to look around. I will also post some of my favorites for each letter!!

So...here's to getting started with a true homeschooling year!