Alpha-Phonics: A Primer For Beginning Readers
From The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, Jan 2010: Alpha-Phonics includes a spiral-bound instruction book and a CD with the same information. This program provides wonderful instructions on how to teach their concepts step by step. You start out with a letter chart that has all the letters, both capitals and lower case on it. There are no pictures. The child learns the sounds of all the letters and puts that with the letters on the page. It may not be as visually appealing as some of the preschool reading curriculums you can buy, but there is a reason for that. When [author] Mr. Blumenfeld points out in the introduction that the child needs to identify with the letter, not with a picture, it made perfect sense because my granddaughter has been identifying letters by the pictures that are beside them [in another program]. Instead of saying the buh sound when she sees a B, she says bear. We have been using Alpha-phonics for a couple of weeks now, and she is now beginning to identify letters with sounds instead of a particular word. After the sounds are learned, you teach how the sounds go together to make a word: a and t make at, a and m make am. Then comes another letter: r and at make rat. After a few lessons, the child is identifying sound combinations and reading words and even sentences. One vowel is introduced at a time, and all the possible combinations with that vowel are explored before moving on to another. I like the fact that there is no special coding or symbols that the child has to learn as they are learning to read and then unlearn later because those codes and symbols are not used in common practice. The CD is a digital version of the book. It contains an audible introduction and conclusion by Dr. Blumenfeld and also gives you the option to either read the teacher instruction for each lesson or have them read to you. This is very helpful if the parent/teacher is an auditory learner. You can use this CD book to print out pages or display them on your computer screen and give lessons on the computer. The price of this program is the really sweet icing on the cake. Most beginning reading programs I have investigated have been very expensive. They had a lot of plastic parts with them and other accessories and were in nice pretty containers, but they really did not have any more to offer than this [Alpha-Phonics] program. When you have everything you need right there for $ 34.95, why would you care that there are no pretty pictures. Anyone that s looking for a reading program, either to help a struggling reader or to start a little one to read, would do well to purchase this curriculum. I am very impressed with the simplicity of process and how effective it has proven to be. Review by Christine Hindle, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, January 2010 --Christine Hindle, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, January 2010<br Review by Karen Andreola: Reminding us to be satisfied with moderation, my mother used to say: ...a little dab will do ya... With this in mind, I want to reassure you that it is not necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on an elaborate phonics [reading instruction] course. There is an alternative that is amazingly simple and direct-its called ...sounding out... Instead of using dancing cartoon figures or sing-songy ditties (meant to amuse, but which often distract), a child simply looks at the letter or word and repeats after you. When a child has learned to recognize each letter of the alphabet by its sound, you can introduce the blending of letter sounds. Frequent practice plus some review will be needed, but this gradual work can be accomplished in 10 minutes a day with Alpha-Phonics. This program is the little dab of phonics I gave my children each day for their...at, mat, cat, hat, sat...sort of practices. And it was plenty. --Top 100 Picks by Cathy Duffy, 2005, pgs.81-82 Review by Karen Andreola --Top 100 Picks by Cathy Duffy, 2005, pgs.81-82Review by Karen Andreola: Reminding us to be satisfied with moderation, my mother used to say: ...a little dab will do ya... With this in mind, I want to reassure you that it is not necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on an elaborate phonics [reading instruction] course. There is an alternative that is amazingly simple and direct-its called ...sounding out... Instead of using dancing cartoon figures or sing-songy ditties (meant to amuse, but which often distract), a child simply looks at the letter or word and repeats after you. When a child has learned to recognize each letter of the alphabet by its sound, you can introduce the blending of letter sounds. Frequent practice plus some review will be needed, but this gradual work can be accomplished in 10 minutes a day with Alpha-Phonics. This program is the little dab of phonics I gave my children each day for their...at, mat, cat, hat, sat...sort of practices. And it was plenty. The large child-sized, handwritten [calligraphy] letters are read by the student right out of the book. Short words are read in columns. (No need to read all the columns on the page in one sitting.) Whole sentences are introduced using words previously practiced. An inexpensive non-consumable course, complete with teacher s manual and lesson plan. Grades K through 4Review by Karen Andreoloa, homeschooling highlights.com, February 2011. Karen Andreola has been a main reviewer for Christian Book Distributors for many years. Karen has written several books on homeschooling and for a number of years published the magazine: Parents Review. She is also a frequent speaker at homeschool conventions. Alpha-Phonics is also recommended by leading homeschooling product reviewers Mary Pride and Cathy Duffy. Alpha-Phonics is also regularly recommended by The Robinson Curriculum organization. --Review by Karen Andreola, homeschoolinghighlights.com,Feb 2011Excerpts from Cathy Duffy s book: Alpha-Phonics Sam Blumenfeld s classic phonics manual, provides comprehensive phonics instruction in a simple, straightforward manner, A parent works through the lessons with his or her child, working from the book. Alpha-Phonics has heavy-duty plastic covers and plastic comb binding so it lies flat while you're looking through lessons. Print is very large, making it suitable for young readers. The methodology is solid phonics. Blending is taught via the vowel-consonant method with initial consonants added next (e.g., am taught first followed by Sam and ham). Words are taught in families (e.g., an, ban, can, Dan, fan, Jan). However, many nonsense syllables are included in the early stages to help students develop phonetic fluency. Students practice quite a few such lists, but they also move quickly into reading actual sentences. The program does not use pictures as do many other programs. The print is very large and clear with no illustrations or other distractions. The intent is that students concentrate on the letters themselves so they immediately recognize the sounds associated with a letter rather than taking an extra mental step to recall a key word associated with a picture. Alpha-Phonics teaches 44 basic sounds for the [26] letters of the alphabet. It teaches basic phonics rules, but not so many as we find in other programs. Top 100 Picks for Homescuooling Curriculum book, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, 2005, pages 81-82 --Top 100 Picks by Cathy Duffy, 2005, pgs.81-82