Learning to Read with Logic of English Foundations A

 

 

 

As an avid reader, I have always been a literacy advocate. Teaching my own children to read is one of the great privileges of being a homeschool mom. I know that reading is the key to unlocking so much potential and so many opportunities for children to learn and grow. Logic of English creates resources with the joy of learning in mind, while combining it with the science (logic) needed to master the skills necessary for success. We reviewed Foundations Level A for beginning readers.

Logic of English Foundations Level A

The Foundations curriculum is available in three levels: A, B, and C.  It is designed for ages 4-7 with Level A usually started in the PreK-K years. I chose this level with the idea that I could work with Lil Sis (6) and Baby Girl (4) together on the lessons.

Included in this complete set:

• 48 Lessons (40 instructional lessons and 8 Assessment and Review lessons)
• 6 Student Readers that develop true reading comprehension skills rather than encouraging students to “picture read”
• 22 Phonemic Awareness Games
• 28 Phonogram Games
• 10 Reading Comprehension Games
• 2 High Frequency Word Games

Level A is designed to build phonemic awareness and decoding skills. We received the Teacher’s Manual and Student Workbook, as well as the Reusable Resources. Manuscript and cursive editions are available.  We used the manuscript version.

These lessons are multi-sensory in nature, which is one of the best ways to learn in my opinion. It is especially important in the case of special needs like autism and sensory processing disorders. A one-dimensional words on a page approach doesn’t work well for Lil Sis. She needs to use all of her senses to grasp the idea that letters and words have meaning. Regardless of learning abilities, multi-sensory activities get kids involved in the process and help those lessons stick.

These activities are really fun so the kids aren’t burdened with repetitive drills that can become boring.  The lessons incorporate practical ways to work on reading skills in real life. For instance, we chose different letters on different days to feature for the day. On “J” day, we pretended to be jumping jaguars and jittering jellyfish who could juggle. We made sure to have jam on our toast in the morning and had a session of jumping rope while they made the “j” sound over and over. My girls got to play pretend and have lots of laughs and I can guarantee they will not forget the look, feel, and sound of the letter J.

This is not a program that you hand to your kids and let them go. It has a high level of teacher/parent involvement, but that is the way learning to read should be. The Teacher’s Manual makes this work much easier. Everything is laid out step-by-step so you can concentrate on the learning rather than the planning.

Because the lessons focus not just on acquiring reading skills, but also listening and speech skills, I feel that they work especially well for special needs.

Our Results

I have tried other reading programs with little results so far.  Some of it is a matter of timing. I don’t believe in pushing children to read if they aren’t ready. I offer the resources, I teach the lessons, but I’m also willing to put it aside if it becomes a struggle because I do not want reading to be something my children dread. That being said, this program really clicked for us.

From the time I first opened the box and took out the books with the friendly-looking dragon and castle, my girls were interested. They wanted to sit down and find out what it was about right away. I tried to build up the enthusiasm by telling them it was something special just for them since Big Sis (12) is usually the one who gets the new school books and things to review.

Lil Sis recognized sight words at an early age, but it was rote memorization and the words did not really have meaning for her. One of the quirks of her autism is having an amazing memory, but without the comprehension to understand what it is she has memorized.

Lis Sis started this program with the ability to recognize all the letters in the alphabet, as well as write them all in upper and lower case. Baby Girl could recognize all the letters, but not write them all.

Since starting these lessons, Lil Sis has learned the following:

• how to spell and write her name
• phonemic awareness of all letter sounds in the entire alphabet
• consonant blends such as sh and ch
• ability to read all CVC words
• ability to decode nearly every word she sees in everyday life

Lil Sis’ progress has been nothing short of awesome. It was like flipping a switch for her!  You could definitely call it a breakthrough. She is reading everything, from street signs to Dr. Seuss. She tells me what sounds words start with, for instance she will now say to me, “I want a banana. Buh-buh. Banana starts with B.”  She is sounding things out and is correct at least 98% of the time about what letters/blends words start with. She is even sounding out the complete spelling of words and noticing rhyming patterns!

Baby Girl has also made great progress with her reading skills. She naturally wants to do everything her big sisters do so she wanted to participate in the lessons. She is anxious to learn how to read, but doesn’t always have the patience necessary to work at it. Because the lessons are so interactive and allow her to get up and move while learning, she was able to make more progress with this than other things we have tried before. She has not mastered all of the skills yet, but I didn’t expect her to yet. As I said, we will work at her pace and keep the lessons enjoyable. I would rather have a child who reads at a later time and loves it than a child who reads perfectly at age 4 but has lost all the joy of reading. Reading should have a joy of discovery, not become a chore.

I have been reviewing homeschool products since 2008. There are some that have worked for us and some that have not. Reviewing Logic of English Foundations A at this particular time in our homeschool journey has made it all that much more worthwhile. It has opened a door for us to make progress that I wasn’t sure if we could do before. I can’t tell you what that does for this mama’s heart.

The Fine Print

You can pick and choose your own custom sets to include the items you need on the website so the prices vary depending on that. I highly recommend viewing the samples and reading the descriptions on the website to determine your child’s placement level.