Recently my preschool and kindergarten children burned through the phonics materials I had for them in record speed and I needed to get some more material. I landed on a lovely new get ready for reading phonics course program I found awhile back that is actually called Ready for Reading, by Jen Merckling. Friends, I could not be more happy with it! My only regret is that I didn’t find it a few kids sooner!
So back to the kids; I expected them to take the year going through what I had, but they just kept asking for more, more, more.
You know, that’s one of my favorite things about homeschooling gently through the early elementary years.
If you let a child have a childhood from ages 3 to around 5, doing informal playful studies with them instead of formal, and you wait until they are truly ready, something so exciting happens. Somewhere along they way they let you know when they are ready for formal studies, and instead of it taking years to go through a stack of drills it only takes them months or weeks. And instead of getting burnt out from years of formal study by age 7 they instead have ignited curiosity! The next thing you know reading happens so much more easily and naturally!
What I Love About Get Ready For Reading Phonics Course
There are just so many things that I love about Ready For Reading Phonics Course, Friends! From the fact that Jennifer is a licensed teacher to the fact that she is a homeschool veteran mom of 6 with 16 years homeschool experience! Jennifer has designed this curriculum to be simple, effective, practical, and very straight forward. If you are skimming this article, here’s a quick list of the reasons why I love Ready for Reading;
- created by an experienced teacher + homeschool veteran mom (you don’t get to benefit from this combination very often)
- it’s mom and novice-friendly (i.e. you don’t need to spend two months learning how to use it if ya catch my drift)
- it’s family friendly-pages are reproducible, perfect for teaching multiples and/or review-BTW, there are coloring pages for the little’s and practice pages for the more advanced kiddos so you could call it multi-grade
- affordable
- loaded with teaching tips that are fun to read
- includes games
- video tutorial to help you get started
- easy to use
- easy to organize
- support
Currently, I’m in my 10th year of HOMESCHOOLING, am in the process of teaching reading for the 4th and 5th times and am eating this curriculum up. I’ve used various curriculum’s for phonics and reading along the way, but I’ve never found a basic level 1 program that is quite as easy to start as this one. Since I’m always spinning many plates I’ve always pieced together what I needed. I love that this has everything!
I mentioned that I wish I had this from the start. The reason for this is because I felt almost as if Jennifer, with all of her teaching experience, takes you by the hand and leads you through. She makes the getting started and the whole process easy and fast. She includes so many wonderful tips and suggestions for teaching reading along the way.
One of the things I appreciate about this curriculum is that Jennifer has a very nicely done video tutorial on how to set up and use the curriculum. I wish EVERY curriculum did that!
Since I’m a big fan of open and go curriculum’s for my noisy and busy gaggle of kids I found her video a MAJOR help in getting started. Oh, and she gives some super helpful tips for organizing materials she includes too!
Another thing I love about Ready For Reading Phonics Course is that it’s affordable-especially if you have multiple children you will be teaching. It can be used for one child or used on multiple children. You can even reproduce pages for review and as much practice as each child needs.
This makes Ready For Reading Phonics Course an excellent choice for small and big families alike. I personally love that I can print however many sheets up that I need because of course the very early elementary kids want to be doing the same thing as the older elementary kids (even if they will need to do it again in a year or so).
You can choose to put the pages in page protectors or use them without. I like doing a combo. I like to use page protectors and dry erase markers as a general rule, but I like them to have practice with a pencil and to have some sheets to keep for memorabilia and assessment purposes too.
I am hoping that Jennifer creates a level 2 soon because I can only imagine how brilliant it would be!!!
What’s Included in Ready For Reading Phonics Course
Here’s what is included:
- lesson plans
- thematic units
- assessment forms
- abc strip
- flash cards-including bonus 100 first sight words so your kids can get a head start on 1st grade
- worksheets
- readers
- reading tips
- 250 pages
- BONUS first spelling course!!!
I think that whether you are brand spanking new at teaching reading and need lot’s of help and pointers, or whether you have been doing it awhile and need fresh ideas and a practical curriculum, you will love Ready for Reading to help get your child ready for reading!
Please note; Ready for Reading isn’t a complete phonics course, but rather a solid Level 1 or early phonics foundation course for children ages 4-6 at pre-k and K levels.
Other Products by Jen
You will want to be sure to check out Jennifer’s shop because Ready for Reading isn’t the only excellent product Jennifer has created. She carries delightful fairy tale unit studies to encourage your budding reader, and a beautiful and encouraging planner for homeschool moms!
The best thing about her planner (and all of her materials) is that you can really tell you are using products designed with the combined experience of a teacher AND seasoned homeschool mom.
I think Jennifer’s products are definitely more than worth her asking prices!
(affiliate link)
More you might enjoy;
How To Create A Multi Grade Homeschool Schedule
9 Steps I Used To Plan Our Home Highschool
25 Tips For How To Plan A Homeschool Year
What a great way to educate kids who are struggling with phonics!
i’ll look into this when my son’s older
I’ll have to look into this for when my littles are older.
This is nice. I can definitely use this for my baby that’s coming.
My children learn so much from games. I love these games and pages to teach them.
This looks like a nice set for home schoolers are parents with kids that need or want a little extra help.
What a great resource! I’d never consider hooked on phonics before but I’ll be looking into it.
I’ve always been curious about how homeschooling works. Thanks for sharing!
My friend just recently started homeschooling her 4 year old. This looks perfect!
That’s so interesting! This is awesome and sounds like an amazing course! So many helpful resources!
I’m a hige believer in Phonics. We need it back in schools.
Phonics are the essential building blocks for learning to read. These are great courses, thank you for introducing me to them.
I love this, and need to look into it. My daughter just started Pre-K and they are working on sight words right now and having the kids practicing writing.
I have a child who I think could really benefit from this program. I’ll have to check it out.
I really wish I had homeschooled my kids. I think it’s wonderful!
This looks like a great way to learn how to read … So important to be creative in teaching kids.
Oh no, wasn’t sure if my original comment went through. But wanted to say this would be great to share with my cousin who is starting to teach her son how to read & sound out words!
My cousin is struggling to teach her son & these would be great tips for her…will definitely share along! Thanks!
I wish this was around when I was teaching phonics. I thought I’d die during that phase.
I love the idea of letting a child be a child first and then incorporate fun learning!