Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read - Levels 5&6 Complete: Beginning Phonics (Emergent Readers | First Grade | Ages 6-7) Paperback – May 1, 2009

I ordered 'Learn to Read - First Grade' because my little girl is currently attending first grade and I felt that she could be moving at a faster pace.

CONTENTS

'Learn to Read - First Grade, Levels 1 and 2' contains 2 modules of an eight-level reading program. The 'Pre-K' and 'Kindergarten' kits precede this one and 'Second Grade' is the last one, following 'First Grade'.

This bundle includes:

- First Grade Level 1
- First Grade Level 2
- Stellaluna - a Reading Rainbow bonus DVD containing one Reading Rainbow episode dealing with bats, sleeping and dreaming.

Each Level kit includes:

- A quick start guide
- A workbook
- A DVD featuring phonics practice for each lesson and selected workbook stories
- Reward stickers
- 4 Storybooks with one story each

Each of the 2 levels is made up of 15 lessons divided into 3 units.

Additional material is available on the Web.

THE LEARNING PROCESS

Each lesson follows the same approach: learn, practice, read and celebrate.

After the child watches and then interacts with the DVD portion where the new letter-sound associations are first illustrated and then child is asked to pronounce the words displayed on the screen, the workbook provides additional practice, including a page of cumulative practice where about half of the words have phonics learned in prior lessons. Finally, the child reads a story from the workbook or from the one of the colorful and fully illustrated story books.

Each workbook page includes special notes to the teacher/parent, guiding them all throughout the process.

When the child completes the first three steps of the cycle, it's time to celebrate/reward - she can attach a sticker to mark the lesson as 'completed'.

EFFECTIVENESS

After a going through the first level - 15 lessons - I found that my girl is looking forward to more learning. She enjoys the semi-interactive nature of the DVD-based portion and she is proud when she can read the stories with no help or little help. She is motivated by the 'easy' pace, because she can 'see' her progress (stickers) and, in our case, because she is trying to emulate her older brothers who practice 'advanced math' after school.

Since the entire 'First Grade' is only 30 lessons, there is plenty of time to complete it and there is no need to rush. Going at a pace of 2-3 lessons per week, the 'First Grade' could be covered in about 3-4 months, giving the child time to either do a lot of unstructured reading or, for those who are more ambitious, possibly starting the 'Second Grade' curriculum.

The 'reward' stickers are a stroke of genius. I was surprised how important it was for my child to 'earn' her colored star and how much they motivate her to do well - I know, it's Pavlovian but it works. She doesn't get the star unless she does well and if she doesn't get the star we do the same lesson again. About half of the lessons, possibly more than half we had to do twice but that seemed to motivate her to do better rather than discourage her. Each Unit - and there are 3 Units per Level - ends with the reading of a Story Book. This is a powerful motivator too and a source of great pride. After we completed the first Unit and she was able to read her first 20+ page book, all by herself, twice, she was so proud, she insisted to read it again to each of her brothers and to her mother and then she took it to school and read it to her class.

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Update - Sep. 2010

It's hard to assign credit here but our girl's reading abilities improved so much, we decided we didn't need the 'Second Grade' edition. A couple of months before the 2010 Summer vacation began she was already a passionate reader and a regular customer at the school library. She kept reading throughout the summer and her second grade teacher told us that "she's a natural reader".

There is little doubt in my mind that us using "Learn to Read" was a contributing factor in her progress.
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EVALUATION AND RATING

'Learn to Read' is effective in teaching children phonics-based reading and it appears to be well tolerated by my six year old. In fact, it is her reminding me that it's time for the Hooked on Phonics session now. It is most likely that we will be following with the 'Second Grade' kit after we complete 'First Grade'.

The 5 stars are well earned by a parent and child-friendly, well structured and effective learning package. I am impressed how she is now actively trying to 'sound' all words as opposed to the past where she would simply stop at the sight of any 'unknown' words (sight words?) claiming that all new words had to be learned first.

I've never seen him so excited to finish the first book so he could get the certificate at the end! Some of the lessons were a little easy for him but he's in 2nd grade and have some problems with reading so that's why we started with 1st grade. We are on lesson 2 of the second book which in this book is the ending sounds (the first book is beginning sounds). Very easy to follow! Each lesson has the words on the page then an activity or comic for your child to read and practice with. You can also register your child's hooked on phonics packet on the hooked on phonics website which gives them access to games and read aloud comics and gives access to you for worksheets. After so many lessons, you and your child will complete a unit review in the book and then will have a game on the hooked on phonics website they can play. I was skeptical about this program but it's working for my son! His grades have improved this grading period so it must be working!

I too had access to a very old series of Hooked on Phonics and prefer the old series to this new one. We completed levels 3,4,and 5. We didn't quite finish level 6 due to the fact that I am extremely disappointed in the last book, called "The Little Ghost." It's about a sad child ghost that has ".....no one for me to talk to." ".....no one for me to play with." The house he lived in belonged to a "bad witch," who took him "to be her own little boy." Then, "One day she left and did not come back, " leaving him alone. Is this a story of kidnapping and abandonment? .....After glancing at the book, our daughter actually asked me to read it first to see if it was too scary.

My daughter is often in tears when it's time to do her reading homework. I couldn't figure out why she looked up and tried to guess words rather than sound them out. Now I know. Her school is heavy on sight reading and light on phonics.
She was reading a story and smiling after the first Hooked on Phonics lesson. I have to slow her down because she wants to complete more than one lesson a day. It's been less than a week, and I can see a change in her confidence level. I'm having to retrain her to look at each word and take her time to sound it out. She's not looking into space for the answer as often now.
With this program, I have the courage to start teaching my four year old to read so I don't have to undo the school's sight reading mess later.

I started my son with the Hooked on Phonics Pre-K before he ever started school when he was 3. That one was okay, and taught him the difference between upper and lowercase letters as well as letter sounds, rhymes, etc. This first grade one is even better, imo. It teaches letter blends both at the beginning and ending of words, then has him practice with these blends in words and then read stories and books with the blends. My son is currently in first grade and is now one of the better readers in his class because he knows how to put letter sounds to make words whether he's seen the word before or not.

As an elementary school teacher, I believe whole heartedly in phonics for teaching kids to read. I've seen it work for virtually every student every time over the years. Programs like whole language just don't work from my experience. Kids learn to memorize some words, but there are FAR too many words in the English language to memorize them all. Phonics teaches kids to use the sounds of letters and letter combinations to make words and read even unfamiliar words. Phonics is great, and Hooked on Phonics is a great, step by step approach to teaching it.

I Highly Recommend this product to all parents trying to help their children become proficient readers and put them out ahead of the crowd.