Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read - Levels 5&6 Complete: Beginning Phonics (Emergent Readers | First Grade | Ages 6-7) (3)

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 eachEach of the 2 levels is made up of 15 lessons divided into 3 units.Additional material is available on the Web.THE LEARNING PROCESSEach 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'.EFFECTIVENESSAfter 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.________________________________Update - Sep. 2010It'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.________________________________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 wanted to take a minute to share more about my experience with hooked on phonics, but first I'd like to give you an idea of where we started.My little girl turned six in May and just completed her first year of Kindergarten and will be entering first grade in the fall.She entered kindergarten knowing only six words and by the end of the year was up to seventy. Yet, she wasn't "reading" she had memorized lots of words but her fluency was nowhere near some of her peers. She was using her decoding skills but it was very painful and she got frustrated often. In short, reading was NOT FUN.I quit my job at the end of the school year and planned to spend the summer helping to get her confidence up. We started by continuing sight words yet something was still missing. There was no "structure" just random words (flash cards are very different then seeing words in text)So I started to look... We tried popular online learning sites and homeschool sites but she wasn't into the games. I ordered a parent lesson guide book but i didn't know where to start and it left us confused and unsure.So on a whim (literally at the airport...) I ordered Hooked on phonics First grade. When we returned home the set had arrived. I opened it up excited to begin and had my little one complete the kindergarten review page. To my surprise... She struggled. BIG TIME. While she was able to "decode" the words, it was very difficult. She was so upset that she "couldn't do it". I quickly took it away and said how great she did and how "silly mom ORDERED THE WRONG SET!!". It was then I KNEW I had to stick to something and ordered the Kindergarten set.We started lesson one last week and have already completed the first two units. Here's what's different.1. It's sooooo simple! I find myself thinking "sheesh this is so easy, I could have done this!" Yet, I couldn't!! Sometimes it's so easy you don't know where to start!2. It's so short! Each lesson is so short, I sometimes have to slow my little one down because she wants to keep going!! It's not a fight to do it because she knows it's not a "big" deal.3. It SLOWED ME DOWN! I realize now that the biggest thing we needed was someone to help MOM slow down and follow along. Prior to this program, we jumped around and I was throwing random things at her with no real rhyme or reason. Now we have a path and she is rewarded with each lesson by reading a story!!4. It tied it all together. She learns words (similar to flash cards) then practices and then reads in text. Each lesson adds on to the lesson before so they build up, not just replace. (If you've ever done flash cards then you know how frustrating it is when a child can read words on a flash card, but look lost when they see them in text!)This program isn't magic, it's simply a way to follow a path versus having to CREATE it!We are thrilled with her progress and plan to finish kindergarten and move right into first grade. Thank you hooked on phonics!!

My oldest son just turned 7. We started using this program maybe mid-year last school year. We are a home school family and he is definitely willing to sit and eager to learn. I tried a few other phonics/reading programs. He had his letter names/sounds down great. He could read simple 3 letter words and could pick out letter sounds if you said the word verbally to him. I was at a loss of what to do next. I researched a lot of different things and just wasn't sure. I felt that this HOF program was a decent price and that we'd give it a shot. It really has worked well for him. We did the first book and part of the second until summer vacation. We worked very little, if at all over the summer but he started picking up SO many words. Everywhere he looked he could read. We are a few lessons away from finishing and I am definitely going to order the second grade set. And possibly the pre-K set for my almost 5 year old. I have been really happy with the program and my son seems to enjoy it. My only con I think would be....some of the pronunciations seem to be off to me. I don't know if it's a regional thing, we are in the Midwest so I don't think we have an "accent" per se. But, my son would say it right and then get confused when the voice would say it again. I just told him he was doing it right and I wasn't sure why she was saying it that way. It was mostly in the first set a few times. Also, I don't agree with all the "helper" words. In my opinion, if a word CAN be sounded out, you should sound it out. I get that some words are really truly site words but not all the ones listed are that.I am not disappointed in this program at all. I'm sure other programs are good too but this one really worked well for us!!

thenew hooked on phonics program comes with dvds instead of flashcards and cd. I found that the dvd was less memorable than the cd. I suppose parents are less willing to spend time working through the program. The books and workbooks are excellent as usual.

This has helped my reading-challenged second grader like nothing else could. I will be buying this entire set. Great value, cheaper than tutoring, but works just as well.

Was happy with this product

We've been working our way through the HoP series and my daughter loves it. This one has many first reader books in it.