Explode the Code 1

Even though most schools will tell you they teach phonics, most really do not. At best, they begin teaching phonics in first grade after teaching high frequency words with flashcards in kindergarten... which simply teaches young children that the way to read is to memorize what a "word picture" looks like. From everything I've read, getting a kid who has learned to read this way to put in the effort to learn phonics is like pulling teeth so I was determined to teach my daughter proper reading with phonics.Once my daughter knew her letter sounds (thank you Leap Frog's Letter Factory!), I began showing her how the sounds could be "squashed" together to make words and how those sounds were inside of words. Since this concept requires a developmental leap, it can not be rushed or forced. Slowly she began to understand (she was 3.5 at the time) and one day, the light bulb clicked on. She could pick out the letters in simple words that she heard and read simple C-V-C words like 'cat'. That's when I went looking for the next step.I checked out several books from the library, including "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", "Phonics Pathways", and "The Reading Lesson". Of those, I liked "Phonics Pathways" the best and bought a copy. I began spending 5 minutes a day, a few days a week, working with my daughter but quickly realized that she HATED the book and it's boring lessons. So, I bought "Explode the Code 1". What a difference!While the pictures are crude, they were just enough to catch my daughter's interest. Since each lesson has the same format, the same types of activities, she quickly learned what was expected on each type of page - a great comfort to a young child learning to do something new and difficult. We spend no more than 10 minutes 5 days a week but she has made great progress in learning to read; happily trying to add things to my shopping list and trying to sound out words she sees other places.We also use the Bob Books (Level 1) and the Now I'm Reading books (Level 1, Animal Antics) to reinforce what she is learning and to get her comfortable reading slightly longer stories on her own. Of the two, I prefer the Now I'm Reading stories. Both are very phonics based but the pictures and stories in NIR are much better than in Bob.Should you use Explode the Code with your child? It depends...(1) Can your child reliably say each letter? Not the letter name but the basic letter sound like "c" in "cat" and "x" in "box"? If not, start with the Before the Code books or try the Leap Frog DVD "The Letter Factory". Do your child a favor and keep it fun - skip the flashcards.(2) Can your child blend letters together to read simple C-V-C words like "cat"? Does she understand the concept? If not, play word games to get her hearing those letter sounds, play "spot the letter ___" in stores where each of you try to find things that start with a specific letter. Remember, this stage can not be forced and pushing your child too hard, too soon, may turn her off to reading. It's better to wait several months and try again than it is to try to force your child to be the first one in preschool to learn to read. It's not a race, it's an education.(3) Once your child knows those letter sounds and understands the concept of sounding out words, you are ready for these books.Does your child need fine motor skills? Not really. Yes, these books teach writing and many of the pages have the child circling or crossing through choices as well as printing words - but you don't actually have to do that. My daughter's fine motor skills are only now becoming good enough to learn to print but that hasn't stopped her from learning to read. We usually snuggle up together when we use this book and she points to the correct answer instead of marking it. We simply skip the "copy these words" pages or she tells me the letters she would need to write.

I LOVE Explode the Code and this book is where it all started.My daughter began sounding out cvc words when she was 3 so I thought we were going to have an easy time with formal reading/phonics. I could not have been more wrong. Whenever we tried to move beyond those simple words, or even to read them within a book, we hit a HUGE wall of frustration and she couldn't make it through even a simple BOB book at age 5. I just kept waiting and trying to begin phonics over with multiple different programs (Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - so hard to stay motivated) but we kept hitting the same wall.We began investigating causes just before she turned six and discovered an eye issue that explained much of the difficulty, but would take at least a year of patching to resolve. What were we to do in the meantime?After lots of research, I decided to give these books a try and see what happened, even though the eye doctor thought she might not make any progress until the patching and subsequent vision therapy were complete.Was that a good choice? Our results speak for themselves. Instead of long, frustrating, tear-filled sessions with no progress my child began independently working her way through the book. She didn't fight, cry or even struggle. I told my husband that there must be "magic" in the pages because somehow our daughter was now reading and comprehending full sentences and I had done nothing! She is now reading at grade level and HAS HER CONFIDENCE BACK!Here is why we like it:1) Many people don't like the pictures, but I think they are part of what makes the books "work". My kids enjoy them. They look like what my kids might draw to illustrate the word being learned.2) Making all the sentences questions is brilliant. They have to comprehend what they read to answer the question and they are motivated to read because they want to know what the question asks and they want to answer.3) These are incredibly reasonably-priced books - very affordable for a homeschool family and inexpensive enough for any family to purchase as a supplement.4) These can be done in just a few minutes a day - and they're still highly effective!5) The sounds/words being studied are presented in several different ways. This variety keeps the interest going and also secures mastery by having the student read, write, match, use context, etc to grasp all aspects of the word (construction, spelling, sound, meaning, usage). It builds visual discrimination and incorporates other language arts skills right into the phonics so they don't even know they are doing it.6) Sight Words! Oddly enough this phonics curriculum somehow really boosted my daughter's sight word vocabulary. Again with the magic stuff! Not only was she able to go to books and sound out words that had been overwhelming before, tons of question words and other common words became sight words without us even working on them intentionally.For those of you just beginning, we now start our kids with Book 1 in Kindergarten and do 2 pages/day. I am sure every kid is different and you should pace yours accordingly but this works well for us. Also, I don't really recommend the Get Ready for the Code as I felt it wasn't necessary and I don't really use the teacher's manual for any of the books.

I’ve used explode the code with 2 kids now and currently using on my youngest who is 5. She wasn’t understanding how to sound out words before and this has helped so much. We’ve been doing a page a day, it’s not overwhelming, and she caught on quickly and enjoys the lessons