Item #: 053794
Retail: $0.00
Rainbow Price: $1.75

Item #: 025491
ISBN: 9781932210248
Retail: $9.95
Rainbow Price: $7.50
Begins with pictorial sound and letters chart showing 63 phonemes, then has review of letter sounds, review of short and long vowel “chunks,� hard and soft ’c,’ hard and soft ’g,’ initial consonant digraphs ’ch,’ ’sh,’ ’th,’ ’wh,’ final consonant digraphs ’ch,’ ’ck,’ ’gh,’ ’ng,’ ’nk,’ ’sh,’ ’th,’ ’tch,’ initial and final consonant blends, silent consonants, r-controlled vowels, vowel digraphs ’au,’ ’aw,’ ’oo’ (long and short), ’ew,’ ’au,’ ’aw,’ ’ew,’ ’ou,’ ’ow,’ ’oi,’ ’oy,’ adding ’-ed’ and ’-ing’ (including doubling consonant or removing ending ’e’), adding ’-er’ and ’-est,’ plurals, possessives, contractions, compounds, early syllabication, homophones, antonyms, synonyms, alphabetizing.

Item #: 037716
ISBN: 9781934286012
Retail: $21.99
Rainbow Price: $17.95

What’s eye-catching, motivating, and more fun than a phonics workbook? Okay, almost anything is more “phun� than a phonics workbook. But this book, filled with crisply-photographed objects on cards, is the answer to all three - and your answer for making phonics work more visual and kinesthetic. It’s the homeschooler’s version of the school “Word Wall� or pocket chart - and a non-consumable phonics tool you’ll use with all your children as they take their first steps to reading success. This volume has over 400 sturdy punch-out cards to help them learn and practice letter recognition, beginning consonants, short vowels, long vowels, beginning consonant blends, consonant digraphs, and word families. For each skill, there are manipulative photo cards and teaching tips, usually with multiple suggestions for using the cards. In addition, the author has provided reproducible sorting “mats� to use with several of the activities. For each consonant, there is a large, master card showing the upper- and lower-case letters, an object beginning with that letter, and its name ( for example - Ff, a picture of a feather, and the word “feather“). The remaining cards for the letter F are about 2.5� square. One is an upper-case F, one a lower-case f, and the other six have photographs of objects beginning with f (fan, foot, four, fire, football, fork) along with their names, sans first letter. The author has done many things right. She has provided a “parent� cue card, put upper- and lower-case letters on different cards (for matching) and has included many “child� cards, leaving the first letter of the name blank so the child has to know, by sound, if the object begins with that letter. These, alone, are worth the price of the book. These are very versatile and can be used in multiple ways besides those in the teaching suggestions. I should note here that there are a few of the letters that have only three, instead of six, matching object cards. These are less frequently used beginning consonants - k, q, x, y, and z. I am wondering whether I can convince the author to change the next edition to supply some child cards also for the short vowels a, e, i, o, u, in the same, wonderful format as the beginning consonant cards. Currently, these are included just with large cue card and upper- and lower- case cards.

For vowel practice, there are small cue cards identifying the long or short vowel (e.g. “short e“), a picture of an object using that vowel (photograph of a bell), and the word for the object (“bell“). These are accompanied by punch-out object cards, along with the word for the object shown sans vowel. For example, one of the short e cards has the word “n_st“ underneath a photograph of a nest. Consonant blend cards follow a similar format. The consonant digraph (sh, wh, th, ch) have a slightly different format in that the cue cards have just the digraph (“ch“) and the five, corresponding object cards have no verbiage on them (for ch, we have pictures of cherries, cheese, etc.). The last group of 105 cards has three cards each for 35 different word families (also known as rhyming words!). All of the groups of cards mentioned have teaching suggestions for their use in the front pages of the book, though I’m sure you’ll invent some new ways to use them as well. New in 2008, this is a book I wish I had years ago - and one of my favorite “finds.�

Item #: 000335
ISBN: 9781929683093
Retail: $98.00
Rainbow Price: $74.95
"It’s just common sense!" Actually, it’s the Blue Book Common Sense Reading Program and yes, everything about this program is common sense. A very complete program organized around quality children’s literature (like all LLATL programs) and covering phonics, reading, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, handwriting, and higher-order reasoning. Phonics instruction is systematic, introducing a few sounds at a time and providing opportunities to read a "real" (small story book) book which uses those sounds. The literature component - carefully selected children’s favorites - reminds students that the reason for all the hard work in phonics is the joy of reading wonderful books. And woven through both of these elements is comprehensive instruction in all aspects of language arts. Relying heavily on Ruth Beechick’s principles for teaching reading (including her letter dice activities), the program includes a wide variety of activities appealing to all learning styles. The teacher’s manual is a homeschooler’s dream with all the work having been done for you, taking you step-by-step through the 36-week program. New skills are listed for each lesson with a materials list included at the beginning. Almost no teacher preparation is needed - you teach as you read. All answers are provided within the lesson. Higher-order thinking activities are italicized. Examples and diagrams are user-friendly including the easy-to-follow references to the Student Activity Book. Each of the four parts (readiness, short vowels, consonant blends and short vowels, and long vowels) concludes with an evaluation for determining your child’s readiness for the next level. The Student Activity Book contains the materials (except for household and school supplies) needed for cut and paste, word wheels, flip books, picture sequencing, story-telling puppets, PLUS handwriting pages that teach all upper and lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation. The comfortable, natural handwriting method that isn’t exactly traditional, modern, or italic was developed by the authors. This handwriting instruction is coordinated with the phonics and includes pages for children to carefully complete and display or give as gifts.

The Student Activity Book is consumable, even having an easy-release binding that allows for clean page removal. Even the back cover is put to good use providing the miniature book covers to be added to the personal reading chart that marks the child’s progress. 28 separate readers cover short vowels, blends (bridge readers), and long vowels. They are small-sized for little hands and include black-and-white illustrations. Stories are engaging which is a good thing since a week’s worth of learning activities are built around them. The student uses puppets to retell the stories, completes sequencing activities with a series of reader-related events, and answers comprehension questions. One interesting aspect of the teacher-student interaction concerning these readers is that the week’s lesson starts off with the teacher reading the small book to the child. After several lessons thoroughly covering the new phonics steps and practice reading parts of the story, the student concludes the week with the successful reading of the small book. This is an effective variation of the typical approach because the goal of reading the book is always before the student. The materials packet is a useful collection of color-coded letter and word cards to use for learning and review along with cards used for reinforcement games and, of course, the letter dice (to be assembled from cardstock patterns). While this part of the program is not exactly consumable - you could use the various components again - the components do get a workout. If you are expecting to use the program with another child, you’ll want to save these items and covering them with clear contact paper to preserve them would also be a good idea. The program includes the Teacher’s Manual, the Student Activity Book, the 28 Readers, and the Materials Packet.

We sell additional Student Activity Books, Reader Sets, and Material Packets so you can use the program with a second student. Well-known children’s literature (Read-Aloud Library) is suggested each week, so at the same time your child is learning phonics, he is also learning other important reading skills such as literal recall, comprehension, predicting outcome, and drawing conclusions. These books are an integral part of the program and the Student Activity Book relies on them. Although usually available at the local library, for your convenience we also sell them. They are listed in order of use. Although this program focuses on first grade skills, it would be possible to use this program with a "ready" kindergartner. It would also work well with a slightly older child who is still a just-getting-started reader. ~ Janice

Item #: 024877
ISBN: 9781600510359
Retail: $16.95
Rainbow Price: $14.95

Greek often seems more intimidating than Latin because of its unique alphabet. Most of us only come across those funny little symbols in higher-level math and science! This ingenious book, however, equates learning the Greek alphabet to learning a top-secret code needed to solve a robbery case. A priceless ancient Greek urn has been stolen, and it’s up to the reader to learn the Greek alphabet to decode clues from the eyewitnesses. There are eight units in the book, which are estimated to take eight weeks to complete if you study Greek 3-4 times per week. Of course, you could complete the book in less time or spend more time on it, depending on the ages and abilities of the students participating. Unit 1 introduces the Greek alphabet and a pronunciation guide. Units 2-5 each introduce six new letters in the Greek alphabet while reviewing previously learned ones. Units 6 and 7 cover consonant blends, vowels and diphthongs and Unit 8 is comprehensive review. The Greek letters are reinforced through a variety of exercises, including matching, solving simple “cyphers� that equate to English words, handwriting practice with the Greek letters, writing Greek words and saying them aloud, and word puzzles. The author also recommends beginning each session by singing the Greek Alphabet Song together, which can be downloaded from the publisher’s website. Although the pages seem to be intended as consumables, they are glossy, full-color and not reproducible. Because of this, you will either need a book for each student, or have them write on a separate sheet of paper. Reference charts, extra writing practice sheets, code-making worksheets and a Greek Alphabet Code Cracker Cypher Wheel to assemble are found at the back of the book, with answers to all activities. Additional goodies designed to accompany the book are provided at www.classicalacademicpress.com/greekcode along with the alphabet song mentioned above. Whether you are looking to begin Greek for Children, or are just “testing the waters� to see if you are interested, you can’t beat this introduction for the excitement of catching the thieves! 96 pgs, pb. - Jess

Item #: 039229
Retail: $54.99
Rainbow Price: $52.95

From one homeschool mom to another. Everything in this program is designed to communicate “I’m a homeschool mom that taught my kids to read. It’s easy. It’s fun! You can do it, too. Have a great time.� And I’m sure if you follow Diane Hopkins’ step by step approach wrapped with loving teacher-student interaction, that’s exactly the result you’ll get. After going through the just-the-right-size (25 pages) Teacher’s Guidebook and looking through the brightly colored cardstock that makes up the program, I’m happy with the appearance of the product and really, really impressed with the content.

Starting at the very beginning, Mrs. Hopkins has boiled the entire process down into eight steps. And even if step seven (teach phonics units containing two or more letters) has seventeen parts, she’s still managed to make a homeschool mom’s most fearful task into something that seems remarkably ordinary and doable.

The package contains the Happy Phonics Guidebook, “My Big Book“ (an almost-to-the-end-of-the-program-reader) and lots of printed, brightly colored paper and cardstock - flashcards, game components, first little readers and spelling lists. The Guidebook contains the Eight Steps along with specific how-to instructions for each step. The essence of the program is to introduce the phonics concepts a few at a time and then play games for retention. The author suggests that lesson time be about 10 minutes a day, but you may want to factor in more time to play the games over and over just because the student wants to.

The Guidebook is extremely user-friendly and written in first-person, mom-to-mom form. The step-by-step instructions are straight-forward and easy to follow. All references to the games and other supplementary material are coded with little symbols found on the colored sheets. Practically foolproof! But just to be sure, there’s a chart that lists which games/components are used with each teaching step. There’s also a chart clearly laying out those seventeen phonics units that make up step seven. And, of course, the teaching aids are clearly marked for each unit.

The teaching progression is common sense. Alphabet song; capital letters match lowercase letters; the main sound for each letter; blend letter sounds to form a word; teach common non-phonetic (sight) words; teach vowels that can make a second sound; teach through the phonic units; READ. Although she doesn’t consider them absolutely necessary, the author does mention supplementary material that she likes and that her children have enjoyed - Lauri perception puzzles, Leap Frog Phonics Library, and the Explode the Code books. In fact, she changed her original letter presentation order (used with her older children) to conform to the Explode the Code books for her younger children and in this program. She also suggests various supplementary readers.

The games and other reinforcement activities are obviously a central component of this program. Some preparation is involved, usually just cutting cards apart. I would be inclined to laminate (or cover with clear contact paper) some of the frequently-used cards and game layouts if I thought it likely I’d be using the program with a number of children. The games include some adapted favorites like Phonics Bingo and a number of creative originals like the Y Not? Game. The line art of the game components is not high tech graphics but still communicates the concept and looks inviting. Components of the games are color coded, with the little symbols marked on each game piece, so that you can easily unscramble things if they don’t always get put away neatly.

This program fits into the “complete program� category of phonics instruction, as it includes systematic phonics, reinforcement, and reading practice. The program gets your student reading on his own in an enjoyable way. Please note that it does not cover advanced syllabication, prefixes, and suffixes that tend to be found in second/third grade levels of some phonics programs. But it is an enjoyable program that will build the confidence of a newbie and provide ease of instruction for busy homeschooling mothers. All for a very reasonable price! - Janice