The Latin-Centered Curriculum

Thank you for your help. I think that what caught my attention with the Phonics Museum was the art. They really have very little information on their website about what is included in the curriculum. I did not realize that the readers had such an obvious religious tone. After using Sing , Spell, Read and Write (which is a good program) I am looking for something without the "bells and whistles" as you said. I have also been looking at the American Language Series.
Well I have a couple of months to figure it out.

Mermoria Press does not have a reading program, does it?

By the way I have been reading the new Latin Centered and it is very helpful. Thank you.

Michelle

MP does not publish a phonics curriculum. Here's what the Highlands Latin School site says about what they use to teach reading:

Our primary resource for phonics instruction is the three-year SRA phonics series, supplemented with some techniques from Discover Intensive Phonics. Inaddition every family is provided with a copy of our Word Mastery Reader, a useful tool empowering parents and teachers to work individually with students in mastering phonics.

Kindergarten students read orally, practicing phonetic words, sight words, and simple sentences. Using the classic and much-loved 1st grade readers published by Houghton Mifflin in 1985, students develop into confident and fluent readers by the end of kindergarten.

-Drew

P.S. I'm glad you're enjoying the new book! :-)

***
"I wonder how far I shall carry any opinion with me when I plead for active effort to revive the general use of Latin?" - Hilaire Belloc
***

Thank you for your input. A lady in my homeschool group used the Saxon Phonics and really liked. I have not looked at it closely yet. Maybe I should know this, but what is the SRA method?

Michelle

I don't recall what the acronym is for, but SRA DISTAR was a method used to teach Phonics when my wife and I were in grammar school in the early 1980s. It's considered by many to be the best of the more recent methods, as the whole SRA method was extensively tested before it was rolled out to schools. It got a big boost from Nancy Reagan during her years as a literacy advocate while First Lady.

Here's the publisher's website: https://www.sraonline.com/

It was one of the few phonics-based methods to survive the late-1960s/early-1970s onslaught of "whole language" and other nonsense.

One of its strengths in the classroom setting, at least when I was a child, was that the phonics workbooks, the spelling books, and the creative writing component all worked in concert with the graded readers for an integrated Language Arts curriculum for K-4 or thereabouts.

Because of its reputation, and because many parents remember it fondly, the acronym still has some cache.

My wife wanted something with more structure and games than the 100EZ Lessons book offered after she looked at a library copy of it, so we went with Saxon. We've been very happy with Saxon Phonics K, and will be starting Saxon Phonics 1 around Labor Day.

We do have McGuffy & Catholic National readers around the house, loaners from friends and relatives, as well as the Bob Books (borrowed from the library) as supplemental reading material.

The Bob Books have proven very useful, as my oldest has a tendency to memorize the response or use the pictures in the readers that Saxon provides. The Bob Books allow us to check his actual reading skill.

We've found both of the "classic" readers to introduce letters in such a different sequence from the Saxon program as to not be very helpful at this time. They are their own phonics instruction method, but they require some solid knowledge and experience with teaching phonics to be very effective, IMHO.

HTH, and I'm happy to answer anymore questions you might have.

~Chris

Chris,
Thank you for the immense amount of information. It has been very helpful.

Kristin,
Thank you also. I know that you said this is based on the Spalding method, and I have been looking at the Writing Road to Reading. Is that different from what you are talking about here?

Thank you both again.

Michelle

Michelle, I have used 3 "no bells and whistles" reading programs: 100 Easy lessons, Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, and Phonics Pathways. In my opinion, Phonics Pathways was by far the best. It is simple and strictly phonics and adds spelling rules in, it has sentences with those phonics or spelling rules for copying or dictating (as they get older), and it did not drive me crazy! 100 Easy Lessons got my son reading quickly, and he did okay with simple books, but he couldn't sound out bigger words. It didn't seem very systematic to me, the way it was taught. It was when I started him on Ordinary Parents Guide (only phonics, very systematic) that he really started gaining a lot in being able to read any big word he saw. There was a lot of exponential growth. But, the scripted nature of that book was a little annoying to me. Then I discovered Phonics Pathways, and oh boy! It is great. My second son used only that and he can sound out any big word he sees. I am now using it with my 3rd child. It also has word lists using the same sound (which I think is particularly helpful) -- like boat goat coat moat throat etc. Good Luck!
Tracie

Thanks so much to all of you. You have been such a help. It's time to buy, so I am going to take all of this great information and hopefully make the right choice.

Michelle