You all know by know that our family loves and is having great success with English Lessons through Literature. But, when it came time for us to do our yearly standardized testing, I quickly discovered the kids needed some help with spelling. The plain dictation wasn’t working as well as I hoped it would. They needed something to help them analyze words and learn the spelling rules in the process.
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Enter a new favorite: Reading Lessons Through Literature
Moose works to find a phonogram during our “phonogram quiz”
He found it!
The first section of Reading Lessons through Literature is all about learning the phonograms. Your child works through the first 30 phonograms, learning a few new ones each day and reviewing the previous ones as you go. There is an easy reference chart in the back of the book to guide you in what to do each day for the lesson. We are following the chart for younger students with Moose, but there is also a chart for older students that are working at an accelerated pace.
Moose finds the correct phonograms to make the words, and I write them in his spelling journal.
After the first 30 phonograms are learned, you move on to the spelling journal, but still continue to add new and review old phonograms. With the younger students, five new words are learned three times per week. For each word, the phonograms are called out and the student writes the correct phonograms in their spelling journal. In Moose’s case, he spells out his words using the free phonogram tiles provided by the author. Then I write the word in his spelling journal for him.
Moose- practicing his spelling words.
After several spelling lists are completed, your child will be ready to read the corresponding story from the Elson readers in the back section of the book. Every word in the reading has already been studied and practiced using the spelling journal, so your child isn’t surprised by any new words. The first story has 20 spelling lists to complete before it is read. But after that, there is only one list of spelling words until another story is introduced. If there are any other new words in a story (such as a new name) there is note of it before the story begins and the analysis of the word is shown to the child.
Moose being silly with his phonogram tiles.:-)
Other than finding your own spelling journal to write the words in, there are no other materials needed to do this program. There is an optional phonogram workbook if you feel your child needs some extra practice, but it isn’t necessary to use. For our spelling journal, I printed off some pages with our Notebooking Pages subscription and had them bound at our local UPS store.
Our spelling notebook, along with the instructions for the spelling list.
Why do we love Reading Lessons through Literature?
*The lessons are short and effective. I have a very active 5 year-old boy who also wants to learn how to read. These lessons are the perfect length for him. One lesson usually takes about 15 minutes depending on his attention level. 😉
*There is no extra fluff. The kids like games, but they also like to get their school work done. This is basic reading and spelling instruction at its best!
*You can teach reading and spelling at the same time. I can already see this helping not only my older children, but also Moose, with spelling. It is amazing what learning phonograms can do for these two areas of language arts.
*Lessons can easily be slowed down or accelerated. Every child learns at a different pace, and this program is so easy to customize it to fit your child’s needs.
*The lessons are open-and-go. There is no preparation or set-up needed before you start a lesson. The only thing I had to prepare was the phonogram tiles. But that was a one-time thing. Now we just get out our book, phonogram cards, phonogram tiles, and spelling journal. We open the book and we are ready to go!
*The program is very affordable and can be used with multiple children. Whether you purchase the actual book or the eBook, all of the materials can be used again. Any consumables are downloads and can be printed off for your whole family.
If you have been searching for a spelling and/or reading program that is simple, but very effective, I suggest you look into Reading Lessons through Literature. The author was kind enough to list free samples for each of the first three levels of this program, so if you are interested, you can download it and take a look before you decide to buy it. I only wish this program had been around when my older two were a little bit younger. I think spelling may not be such an issue right now if they had been through a program like this. But I am so grateful we found it…even if it meant waiting. 😉
Water on the Floor 