phonics reviews Archives - Pea of Sweetness

Ultimate Phonics Reading Program Review

September 28, 2016 by Emilee Evans

Learning to read hasn’t come easy here in our house. With our kids’ special needs and developmental delays, there have been some challenges in this process. My husband also has reading challenges and struggled quite a bit with reading growing up. That’s why I was so interested in checking out the Ultimate Phonics Reading Program from Spencer Learning.

Ultimate Phonics Reading Program is designed for both beginning readers as well as struggling readers of all ages. It is designed to improve not only reading but also comprehension and spelling as well. It teaches the foundation of reading and provides a lot of practice. Ultimate Phonics Reading Program has 262 lessons that cover 4,400 different words and 2,100 sentences total. It starts from a basic level to an advanced level. It is a 100% educational program in a form that isn’t flashy or distracting and is easy to use.
We have been using Ultimate Phonics Reading Program with both of our boys for our reading program review – a beginning reader (age 6) and a struggling reader (age 10). It’s a downloadable program with a license for use on multiple computers around your home. There are no logins or account information, and it can be accessed from any computer that has the program installed. It can be downloaded and used on any computer that is running Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP; or OSX 10.5.8 or higher on Mac Computers. We have been successfully using it on my Laptop running Windows 10.
Overall, the download didn’t take very long, and the program runs smoothly. Although it can be used by multiple children, if they are using it on the same computer, you will have to make note of where they are in the lesson. Unlike programs online where children have access to their own account and progress is saved, this program isn’t account based. Although it will start at the spot where a child left off, it does not save progress for multiple children. I simply make a note of what lesson each boy is in so we can pick up at the next lesson.

Although it is a progressive program, I opted to start our oldest son further in the program. It does start with the very basics of letter sounds, and although he is delayed, he is definitely beyond that stage. Our youngest, though, is a beginning reader, so I started him right at the beginning. There is additional information on how to use the lessons. It doesn’t have a student placement test, but it does have a reading test to determine whether or not your child could benefit from the program.
Our oldest son has been working on sentences while our youngest has been working on individual letter sounds and blending them into short words. The program is rather basic. The lessons are essential done through scrolling over letter sounds and words. With our youngest, I sit down with him and do the lessons with him (not for him), but our oldest does lessons on his own.

Ultimate Phonics Reading Program Review

I thought because this program is less flashy, it might be more ideal for our boys. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for our youngest. He has definitely done better with the “edutainment” programs. Our youngest was so put off by the monotone voice and basic lessons to the point that it was hard to get him to sit still for it. Plus, he didn’t really progress at all on his own. He required a lot of my assistance because there were just too many letter sounds at once.

Our oldest has done OK with this program. He says he does like that he is learning new words. My biggest concern for him is a lot of his reading struggles involve not reading sentences smoothly. For example, he reads each word individually and not like it’s part of a sentence. When he clicks on the speaker it does read the sentences as they should be said. It also allows him to scroll over each word individually, though. This is read in a monotone manner when scrolled over individually. I think it would be more helpful for it to highlight each word as the sentence is read rather than scrolling over each word individually.
Overall, I think Ultimate Phonics Reading Program can be a great resource for beginning and struggling readers. It could be used as a main program for beginning readers or a supplement for struggling readers. It is a supplement I am considering continuing with our oldest, but it just isn’t a good fit for our beginning reader. I truly believe each child has different learning preferences and there is no “one size fits all,” and that is definitely how I feel about this as well. If he’s not interested, he just doesn’t absorb any of what he’s been learning.

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Various members of the Homeschool Review Crew have shared their Ultimate Phonics Reading Program review as well. They’ve been using the program with children of multiple ages and abilities, so be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner below!

Can Do Cubes Review

August 26, 2016 by Emilee Evans

A couple days ago I shared my Jolly Grammar and Jolly Phonics Review. We have had also had the opportunity to review another great product from jollyliteracy.com – Can Do Cubes. This great resource from just2ducks LLC is a great companion to Jolly Phonics, and we’ve been using them well together!

The Can Do Cubes are a great hands-on supplement for phonics. They work particularly well with Jolly Phonics because the letter sounds are presented in the same order. They would definitely work as a resource for any synthetic phonics program, though. They were created based on many factors including various research on reading instruction, activities which are commonly used in successful programs, and teaching experience.

What is Synthetic Phonics?

To be honest, this is the first time I’ve heard the term “synthetic phonics,” so I, for one, was curious what it means. I know now Jolly Phonics is one, but when it mentioned it can be used with any synthetic phonics program I wanted to know what that meant.
On jollyliteracy.com Synthetic Phonics teaching is defined as “a simple to complex program where learners are taught the alphabetic code.” So they first learn the basic alphabetic code (one spelling for the basic sounds) and progress to the more complex alphabetic code (multiple spelling variations for these sounds).

Can Do Cube Review

The Can Do Cubes Starter Set Includes:

1 Tray of Stage 1 Cubes
1 Tray of Stage 2 Cubes
Handbook for Stage 1
Handbook for Stage 2
DVD
Phonics Chart
Word Chart

Amazing, right? Honestly, I would have been thrilled just to have the hands-on cubes, but I was impressed with all it includes. I love all the additional, helpful resources. As we progress I plan on adding the charts to our wall.
Because Chaz started Jolly Phonics at the beginning we have been using the Stage 1 cubes. The Stage 1 cubes are further broken down into groups called Cubes. So we started with Cube 1 which included the first 6 letter sounds “s, a, t, i, p, n.”

Chaz has been doing well and having fun building words. What I find so fascinating is he was already familiar with many of the letter sounds, and he could sometimes read the short words but struggled putting them together himself. Since using this hands-on approach with the Can Do Cubes, he’s been putting together many different words! Plus he’s having fun doing it!
With the Can Do Cubes they will naturally progress to building longer words and working with more letter sounds at a time. The Stage 2 Cubes even include capital letters and basic punctuation.
Overall, Can Do Cubes has been a great resource for our son! In fact, our oldest son is a delayed reader due to his special needs, and I’m going to start using them for his phonics as well!

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Different members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew shared their Can Do Cubes review. Check them out by clicking on the banner below!

Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar Review

August 24, 2016 by Emilee Evans

Our once resistant six year old has been loving Jolly Phonics from jollyliteracy.com. He has been learning his letter sounds in a whole new way and has been making amazing progress! Plus he’s had a great time singing songs in Jolly Songs to help reinforce his learning! just2ducks LLC also sent us Jolly Grammar from their jollyliteracy.com division for our Jolly Grammar and Jolly Phonics review.

Jolly Phonics Review

Chaz has been using Jolly Phonics regularly (3-4 days per week). I started him at the very beginning because he has writing challenges due to his special needs. Although he does know many letter sounds, I thought it would be best to follow the progression as it is presented in Jolly Phonics.
The Jolly Phonics program includes three Jolly Phonics Student Books – Jolly Phonics Student Book 1, 2 and 3. It also includes the Jolly Phonics Teacher’s Book in print letters which covers all three of the Student Books.
The Teacher’s Book offers daily guidance for teaching the Jolly Phonics program. It includes a detailed introduction as well as detailed information for the concepts the child will be learning including:

The Letter Sounds of the English Language
Learning the Letter Sounds
Learning Letter Formation
Reading (Blending)
Identifying the Sounds in Words
Tricky Words

I was impressed with all the details it includes. Once it breaks down into the Daily Guidance for Teaching, it explains the best way to go about teaching the lessons. We have been using Book 1, so each lesson includes a story to read to introduce the letter sounds. Each letter sound is taught using an action to help them remember the letter sound, so the story helps to introduce this action as well.

Jolly Phonics Review – Student Book 1

Chaz has been happily working through his Jolly Phonics Student Book 1. He’s been learning individual letter sounds as well as progressing to blend those letter sounds as the new letter sounds are introduced. He has been working on writing his letters as well as identifying pictures/words that contain the letter sound.
We have been treating each letter sound as a lesson. So each one is one page long. So each lesson only takes around 15-20 minutes. His biggest struggle is writing the letters. He has been enjoying the lessons so much, though, that he is actually attempting to write the letters, which is major progress. Generally he refuses to even try. We also brought out the white board to give him more practice as well.

Jolly Phonics Review – Student Books 2 & 3

We haven’t yet progressed to the Jolly Phonics Student Book 2 and Student Book 3. They are quite a bit different. In Student Book 1 we continue to progress through letter sounds and blending them together through the basic 42 letter sounds. Starting in Student Book 2 there are already full words presented right at the beginning. It presents alternative letter-sound spellings, more handwriting, tricky words and words and sentences. Capital letters are also introduced.
Jolly Phonics Student Book 3 presents more letter-sound alternative spellings, tricky words, comprehension and words and sentences. Of course, it also includes handwriting, but in this book there is free writing and dictation.

Jolly Songs Review

Jolly Songs complements what we’ve been learning in Student Book 1. It presents the letter sounds in songs written to familiar tunes. It includes a music CD you can play to sing along. I found knowing the tune alone made it possible to sing the songs without the CD. The songs also include the motions he has been learning to remember the letters.

Jolly Grammar Review

We haven’t yet progressed to Jolly Grammar. It includes the Jolly Grammar 1 Teacher’s Book in print letters and Jolly Grammar 1 Student Book. If following the recommended progression, Jolly Grammar follows the completion of all three Jolly Phonics books. It builds on what they have learned in Jolly Phonics and covers a variety of grammar concepts including: common nouns, pronouns, plurals, verbs (including conjugating verbs), adjectives, adverbs, definite and indefinite articles, sentences, questions, identifying parts of speech, improving vocabulary and using a dictionary.
I am really surprised by all it covers! The Teacher’s Book once again provides detailed information about the concept they’ll be learning as well as lesson information. Each lesson is one page long and has a corresponding page in the Teacher’s Book.

Connect with jollyliteracy.com (just2ducks LLC)

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Other members of the Schoolhouse Review shared their Jolly Grammar and Jolly Phonics review as well. They have children of different ages and abilities, so be sure to check out their reviews by clicking on the banner below!

Reading Intervention {MaxScholar Review}

June 7, 2016 by Emilee Evans

Having a delayed reader, I am always on the lookout for helpful curricula and supplement programs. Generally our son does best with programs online. He is just more interested in them, and they keep him engaged, so I was glad for the opportunity to review MaxScholar which offers a variety of activities for students to improve reading skills with their MaxScholar Reading Intervention Programs.

The MaxScholar Reading Intervention Programs are online and can be accessed anywhere you have internet access. We have been using it on both a laptop with Windows 10 and desktop computer with Windows 10 using Google Chrome. Our oldest son (age 10) and our daughter (age 8). Although our daughter has caught up to her reading, it’s such an essential skill that it’s always good to learn and reinforce those skills.
For our review we have been using the MaxGuru, which contains multiple resources including:

All MaxPhonics
All MaxReading
All MaxWords
All MaxMusic
All MaxPlaces
All MaxBios
All MaxVocab

It’s really a lot of different options in one program!
Each child has their own unique account with login information. This definitely makes it easy when homeschooling multiple children because they can both do their work at the same time, and their progress and information is always saved.

MaxReading

To get started with MaxScholar both kids took a placement test for MaxReading. I’m honestly not sure how they decide where to start them, and I’m still a little unclear what the level equivalents are. Although we don’t focus too much on grade level, our children are currently working at an equivalent of the 3rd Grade level, though our son is reading more at a Kindergarten – 1st Grade level. Both of their placement tests started at a Level 7.
This was clearly too advanced for our son, and just a little advanced for our daughter. The reading placement test was, interestingly, more focused on comprehension. This is an area both children struggle in, so I was really glad it is an area they would be working on. Ultimately, our son was placed in Level 0, and our daughter was placed in Level 2. My biggest concern with the placement tests is I feel they didn’t get a lot of time “in the middle.” For example, if they couldn’t perform at a Level 7, they should have the option to test at the levels below it rather than just be dropped to a low level.
For the level 0 the Reading is simply looking at pictures and then answering comprehension questions regarding the picture. Again, I definitely appreciated the emphasis on comprehension, but even so I felt like some of the questions were subjective, and our son was getting frustrated. For example, in one picture there were people in an airport and one of the questions is “What do you think they’re going to do next?” I think based on the child looking at the picture, they might all think something different yet there was a specific “right answer.”

Our daughter had to read a paragraph then do follow up activities relating to what she read. She was rather frustrated as well. Partly because comprehension is a challenge for her due to her having ADHD. So, she was able to read it and understood it, but the comprehension questions were still challenging for her. The activities include highlighting specific parts of the story, and she was getting very frustrated. I tried to sit down and help her, but even I couldn’t figure out exactly what it was requiring either.

MaxPhonics

In MaxPhonics the kids are learning consonants and vowel signs. It’s really very basic, and I would like them to try something more challenging, but I have been unable to adjust the level. They way they use Visual, Tactile and Auditory is really great. I am actually considering allowing our youngest to use one of his sibling’s accounts for the phonics portion because it would be perfect for him (age 6).

MaxWords

MaxWords is probably my favorite part of the program. It offers help for building words, which I feel has been a big gap in other curricula we have used. They have been learning roots, different types of syllables, and prefixes and suffixes. It also includes Latin roots and Greek roots as well which we haven’t worked on yet.
They have mostly been learning about syllables. For the syllables, they are introduced to different types of syllables and are then shown a series of words where they are asked to divide them into syllables correctly. This has really been a great exercise for them!

There are the other parts of the program I’ve mentioned, but they have only dabbled in them a little bit here and there as I really wanted them to focus on the language arts.

Parent Account

Additionally, parents are given their own account to track their children’s progress. It requires visiting a website link specifically for parents – completely separate of the main MaxScholar Website and children’s accounts. I found this to be a little confusing at first because I would try to log in from the main website. Of course, once I did I would remember I needed to use the other one!
The Parent Account is full of great tutorials. In fact, I started to grasp the highlighting more thanks to the tutorials. It offers a tutorial for every aspect of the program, and has been a great resource.
Additionally, I can generate reports for each of the children. The basic report shows their score and performance in each area, the cumulative time spent on the programs, as well as a usage percentage per program. This way I can see where they are spending the most of their time! Plus, I can access detailed reports in each specific area.

MaxScholar Review

Overall, I think MaxScholar offers a variety of different tools and activities. It offers something for every style of learning and even offers learning games, which appeal to most children. It offers a lot of great content for different ages and learning levels, and I love that it takes reading beyond simply reading the words but comprehension as well. The Parent Account offers great resources from the tutorials to the detailed reports.
I don’t think it was a good fit for our kids, and I found it to be a little confusing and not user-friendly. For those who are quick to learn and navigate, this may not be a problem. In fact, many families from the Review Crew had the chance to review MaxScholar, so be sure to check out their reviews as well by clicking on the banner below.

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