Customer Reviews

Sing, Spell, Read and Write : Kindergarten Level 1 Combo Kit

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a homeschooler and think this is the best product available for teaching phonics and reading. I first heard about SSR&W when I began homeschooling back in 1993. I wanted to use it, but didn't want to spend so much $$$. So I used HomeRun Reading instead. It looked like a lot of fun and my son enjoyed it, but he didn't really retain any of the material, and didn't learn to read.

When my twin daughters were ready to learn to read, I looked around for another program. Every other homeschooler I talked to used SSR&W, so I decided to bite the bullet and spend the money. I figured I would only have to spend the money once, since I would only have to buy workbooks for my younger children.

So I bought SSR&W and I couldn't believe how much my kids liked the program, how easy it was to use, and how quickly and well my children learned to read. I re-taught my son along with my girls, and they learned to read together.

A couple of years later, son #2 was ready to read, and when I went to the homeschool store, I found out that I could no longer purchase replacement workbooks. Apparently the company had been sold and they had changed their policy of selling to homeschoolers. I was extremely disappointed. I ended up buying Saxon Phonics, which got the job done, but I found it very repetitive and boring. I used Saxon with child #5, also.

For child #6, I switched to Bob Jones Phonics. I quit after a month because it was just unworkable in the homeschool setting, in my opinion. (I will say I love BJ's math textbooks.)

Imagine my surprise when I was surfing the 'net for phonics recommendations and found out that SSR&W was again available to homeschoolers and I could buy it from Amazon. Since I had sold, given away and/or lost all the SSR&W materials I bought back in 1996, I had to re-buy the whole thing, but I was happy to do so if it means that my youngest four children will learn to read with this wonderful program.

Now down to the details of the program. With this Combo set you receive the following:

- Four consumable workbooks (2 Kindergarten, 2 First grade)
- Instructor's guide
- Set of 6 cassettes AND a CD with all the phonics songs
- Laminated Raceway chart
- Laminated alphabet chart
- Pen and eraser to use on charts
- Set of 17 readers
- Three sets of bingo-like phonics games
- Two decks of phonics game cards
- Treasure Box of rewards

Everything comes in a sturdy storage box. It was really fun to open the box and see all the familiar books and accessories, only updated with better illustrations and higher quality materials.

I have started my 6 year old daughter on the "Off We Go" book and my 4 year old son on "All Aboard". They are making great progress and are really enjoying it.

I don't plan on ever using another phonics program, and can't recommend Sing Spell Read and Write highly enough to anyone who wants to teach their children to read.

I purchased this Kinder-Level 1 Combination Kit for $240 two years ago on the advise of a mom with older children. Since then 5 other moms in my area have purchased it. The step by step program makes it easy for anyone to teach their children how to read. The first step is learning the alphabet and the corresponding sounds. Musical tools and games are included and this type of learning was easy for my boys. The second step is learning short vowel sounds. Each concept includes readers using words a child has learned or knows at that point. Next they learn long vowels, letter blends (digraphs), silent e, two vowel combinations, and many other reading rules. Once again the readers use words or rules the child has learned and does not skip ahead. For example, silent e stories don't include 'ea' combinations until both concepts have been presented then the story includes both rules. Another example is how 'ch' has three different sounds; sh, k and ch. These are not taught at the same time, but the readers introduce these concepts at the appropriate point. It is great to have these concepts as examples in the readers without having to search for them.

I did not follow all the instructions, but modified it to the interest of my children at the time. I did not use it as a 'homeschooling' text, but as an activity for me to engage in with my children. I skipped some of the spelling lessons too, but the results are what counts right? My oldest son, now 6, was reading at an upper second grade level at age 5-1/2. He was tested with a modified IRI form after two months of kindergarten, but his kindergarten class is not enhansing his reading ability. That all comes from home. My youngest son, now 4, is reading at a first grade level. He started with reading my 'sight word' reader from first grade when he was 3-1/2. Remember Judy, Puff, John, Jean and Spot? Who said boys are slower learners? Both showed an interest in knowing what words or signs said when they were 3 years old, so I followed their lead and introduced reading. I used sight words first even though this program doesn't introduce them until later. I have also used this program with ESL children. In the Kinder Program the cut and paste appropriate letter sounds is a great starting point for all children.

My oldest son finished this program and all the texts books when he was 5-1/2 years old. Other than a few exceptions, he has no interest in reading them again, unlike other books he owns. But it is all about the final results right? Both my sons read! When your child is ready to read this is a great program to have on hand. Enjoy!

I've wanted this program from the beginning for homeschooling. But Scholastic called and asked us if we'd like to try their Phonics program right as my son said he was ready to learn to read. So we started with that. He learned an excellent sight word vocabulary from it, but couldn't sound out words. So we tried Hooked On Phonics. That didn't work for us either. I decided I was going to buy SSR&W, and if that didn't work, hold off on phonics until he was older. We got the combo kit, and after looking through the K level, we started on the 1st grade. He insisted on going through the letters, even though he knows all of them! We are on the letter T, and moving along nicely.

I am very pleased with the instructional video and the teacher's manual. One of the first things I learned is that Bb DOES NOT say Buh! There are no umbrellas in letter land. She explains that that incorrect sound can make it harder to sound out words. It was like a big light bulb. Within a few days of starting the program, my son was sounding out small words. While I don't think it's a miracle, I do think he enjoys this program more than our others, and that helps.

If it weren't for having 2 younger children, I would say I shouldn't have bought the combo kit. My son would have been just fine without the K level. But, I do have 2 others coming up that will probably benefit from the K level.

After spending months with "How to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" and HOP "Hooked on Phonics" and various computer reading games I tried SSRW (sing, spell, read, and write) with my daughter. I can't emphasize how much better my daughter liked this program. I admit I thought it was expensive; but I can't emphasize how much stuff you get and how well rounded this program is. Did I mention we homeschool? That is definately important. I really want to do a great job teaching my daughter to read. To me, this is the most important thing I can do- teach her to read and most importantly to ENJOY reading. She got so frustrated with all the exceptionally boring material I mentioned above. The other reviewers mentioned all the stuff included, so I won't go to all that detail. I will say that we loved the cd music/songs. We know the songs so well we don't even need the music on the sing them loud and proud! I will also admit I learned phonics tricks that I had never heard before. Sue Dickson (creator) includes all the tricks we need to know to learn to read...and she did it rhyming to music in song form. "When two vowels get together they play a little game; the first one speaks and says it's letter name"...from my memory of course. There are so many great things about this program.

For criticism---It didn't spell out which book to start with; so I made my best guess and we did First Grade first. Which we did easily. Then when I was on the second book for First Grade it was getting hard for my daughter to get through all the material in the amount of days they said we could get it done in. So, I started reviewing everything again and then realized that I had completely skipped Kindergarten. So, then when I switched to those books I had to regress a bit.

Also, my daughter has a few letters that she struggles writing; for example the lower case "a". I wish there was some more options for reviewing the letters. Once you move on to the next letter in the alphabet, you don't review until you get to the next book in the series.

Well, those are really minor issues. There is a great video that walks you through the system. But, it went over the First Grade curriculum; which is why I thought I was suppose to start there. The video was good, but it should have said which books were which and marked them more clearly for people like me with a Masters Degree and sometimes a embarrassing lack of common sense!! Maybe this doesn't happen to most people; but it should be idiot proof! (for me!)

I highly, highly recommend. My daughter was 5 y.o. for this program. She will probably finish up after turning 6. Most importantly is that she likes this program. She loves the variety and music and cutting and glueing, and , and.....you get the idea!

SSR&W is a wonderfully thought out phonics & writing program. I have already seen improvement in both confindence and ability in my Kindergartener. I would not bother with the Kindergarten level unless your child doesn't have letter recognition. Level 1 was the perfect starting place for us.

I highly recommend this program to anyone wanting to find "the" reading program that WILL ensure success the first time around with only fun and NO tears!

My son, 5yrs. old and a home schooled kindergartener, devoured the information and came to "school" every day ready to see what his Sing, Spell, Read and Write lesson would be.

STARTS AT THE VERY BEGINNING My son had only been to preschool and wasn't even able to recognize and give the sounds for the letters when he began Sing, Spell Read and Write this year. He began Sing, Spell, Read and Write in September and finished in mid-January. He now reads books and confidently sounds out words he hasn't come across before. He moved on to Level 1 and his excitement about the program is just as fresh as when we started.

RESULTS WHILE HAVING FUN!! I look forward to our Sing, Spell, Read and Write daily lesson just as much as my son! Learning is enjoyable when it is fun. My favorite part of the program as a "teacher" is that the author makes it literally impossible for a student to get through the programs without the basics solidified if the program is followed as prescribed.

A COMPLETE PROGRAM Sing, Spell, Read and Write does not hit-and-miss. The author takes a very logical, systematic approach and makes it fun and memorable for parent and student. Although thorough, the program is anything but redundant or boring. All of the author's thoughtful, thorough planning sets the student up to succeed, keeping them encouraged about their abilities and engaging them so they desire more "fun" (learning).

ORGANIZATION AND PREPARATION TIME The instructions are straightforward and simple. A parent/teacher instruction video, color-coordinated manuals and workbooks, and a train track the student moves along to physically "see" how far he's come makes this program pleasantly easy and fun to implement. The program takes very little daily preparation, so the bulk of the time gets to be focused on doing the fun daily activities!

I feel my son and I got more than our money's worth out of Sing, Spell, Read and Write.

A quick note about the other levels. My first grade gdaughter is in Level 1 Raceway and my 3-year-old is using the pre-k Sing, Spell, Read and Write Program. Both levels are just as fantastic as the Kindergarten program, in my opinion. We all play the phonics games and sing the songs together before moving on to each child's separate activities each day, and even the younger ones are soaking in some of what my oldest is doing in Level 1.

I have used this program with various students for the past three years and have found it to produce the BEST/MOST EFFECTIVE reading progress for my students. The songs only reinforce student learning and make it fun for the kids. With even only 15 minutes a day, your child WILL learn how to read.

My 5 yo daughter really likes this curriculum. We tried "how to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" and she HATED it. She would actually cry when we would try to get through a page of it. Mind you if I pushed her she would read just fine, but the point is that she didn't like it. She didn't like the boring format. But, the SSRW program is full of fun and she really enjoys it. She talks about how great the games are. The prizes are beyond cheap, and she often opts to just bypass the "treasure chest". She does like the homework, loves the music and songs, loves the "race track" as she gets to move around the track. She loves learning in this fun style and that is what I enjoy- teaching her to enjoy learning. Is it expensive? A little, but you really get a lot of stuff. Lots of books and workbooks, and music, and games...you get the idea. A vhs tape comes to teach you how to do the program, but my vhs didn't work so I was dissapointed about that. My daughter and I recommend this curriculum. She is a bit of a "socialable sue"/"dominant concrete random" for those of you who know what I'm talking about. She is the type of learner that needs things to be fun, exciting, and colorful to keep her interested. Some kids may get distracted by all the diversity this program gives; but for learners like mine, the more diversity the better. She learns from the songs (auditory) the actual writing letters and words, visual, it comes at her in many different ways and styles. Good luck - this program really worked GREAT for us! Highly recommend.

This program is pretty good but I absolutely don't think it is worth the money. We used Abeka K4 for my now 11 year old daughter and if I could rewind I would have gone back to Abeka and just done less of the 'stuff'. My current pre-reader is 6 and struggles a bit so we thought SSRW would help because it is a multisensory program. We had looked at it for years and finally took the plunge after they raised the price, of course. It hadn't been updated but the demand was greater so they added more than a hundred bucks to the price tag.
Just for background, we have also tried Teach your child to read in 100 lessons and hooked on phonics and I give both a thumbs down. Those just didn't work for us. I do put SSRW above those 2 program but it should be, based on the cost. I'm thinking we may sell this program after the 6 year old is done and go back to Abeka for the 4 year old.
We have gone through all of K and are on lesson 5 of level 1. I'll update my post if I decide this program is worth the money, but I doubt it.

I finally broke down and purchased this program when, after completing first grade, my daughter still couldn't read. I took her out of school and am homeschooling her using this program, and she loves it! She has greatly improved and my 4 year old son is also wanting to do it every day! We love it and highly recommend it to anyone.