Clank: Sunken Treasures Expansion

We didn't make it through this one. It is very complete and I can see where it can work for a lot of people. For us however, It took to long the lessons each day was going for over an hour and i thought went into pointless detail for a kid beginning to read. All the rules was to much for my girl but I can see where it can help some kids.

This set seems both above and below the capabilities of my first-grader. The coding words to aid in pronunciation seems a bit complicated, plus the fact that American English has a lot of sight words that defy any phonic rules. (I also don't remember having to code words to learn phonics.) On the other side, this set is much too repetitive to keep my first-grader interested if I follow all the prompts. The teacher's manual tells you EVERY word you are to say to the student. I skip a lot of the "fluff" and jump into the actual work. In the end, though, his spelling is good and his reading is improving, yet I feel that perhaps I should have gotten set 2 instead of 1. If you get this set, just be willing to be flexible.

I love how complete Saxon Phonics is My kids all used it and it is written in a way that didn't feel like work and didn't take a lot of prep work on the teacher's part My kids were reading above grade level and were so eager to use this program they finished before the school year putting them ahead as we moved on curriculum wise Found it to be so through that I started using the math too and found it to be just as effective Well worth the cost

I love Saxon Phonics! My son has dyslexia and I was very discouraged We had tried other reading programs but they moved too fast for him Saxon has plenty of review and it's exactly what he needed We have had many tears over reading and not one tear was shed this year due to this program and the confidence he has gained Thank you!

I have used Saxon Phonics for both Kindergarten and First Grade The Kindergarten Phonics is an excellent way to teach a child to read Coding vowels digraphs combinations etc is not that hard and really does help them when they are just starting to learn I give it a two thumbs up The First Grade Phonics gets progressively longer and the coding can become overly stressful for some students So when my son started crying we stopped coding every word and only coded those he had trouble with This is a super way to teach a child to read The lessons are scripted but once you get used to the program you can leave out some of the workI did not continue on to the Second Grade Phonics simply because he was reading well enough that we changed to a reading curriculum

I have used Saxon Phonics K and I am now working through Saxon Phonics 1 with my son It has been wonderful for him! My son has a speech problem (apraxia) and we had been warned that it may be difficult for him to learn to read But it has NOT been hard for him!! The Saxon Phonics program is giving him much success! It can be very repetitive but the constant review is very good for him When he knows a concept well we can easily skip Learning phonics has been the best thing for his speech because he is isolating sounds and is learning the correct pronunciation Now he is blending the sounds which is giving him successful reading! The other night he picked up "Go Dog Go" and he read a good portion of it himself! I attribute it to the well laid out program Saxon has made I have never taught anyone to read but Saxon has made it easy And I have learned some spelling rules that I never received as a child myself!The only complaint is some of the words they may choose for examples ie bank Yes on paper (with the rules we learned) the /a/ should be a short sounding /a/ (as in apple) but the reality is we pronounce it long I think there could be better words they could use at times considering the inexperience of a child's reading But then it is up to the teacher to catch these things and help the child along (especially with the irregularities of the English language) The program does need a lot of teacher help but to me it is worth it

I love Saxon Phonics! I have used Saxon Phonics for Kindergarten and first grade and I plan to use it for second grade I will also add that although Saxon Math did not work for my daughter she loves and has learned to read with Saxon Phonics The teacher's guide tells you everything you need to say and do There is little to no preparation time for individual lessons There are many cards to seperate but I do that at the beginning of the year using rubber bands and small inexpensive baskets Then the cards are ready when you need them The kit comes with everything you need except a stapler (for the cute and interesting books they will make) There is plenty of review- all of the concepts are thoroughly covered This program is set up for students to succeed and feel confident in their ability to readThe first grade program starts off the year with a review of each letter (one per day) and adds some digraphs that were learned in the Kindergarten program There is enough information/ review for the parent and student to understand the digraphs and combinations that are taught By lesson 12 the student begins making and reading her own readersThe card decks are reviewed daily (but not added to every day) They cover letter names letter sounds with keywords sight words accent cards and sound spelling The teacher's manual is pretty good about giving suggestions to make the deck review interesting (throwing a ball back and forth as they say the letter name/ standing up on the accented syllable/ racing against a previous time/ playing teacher) There is also a point in mid year where the manual suggests making a review deck by pulling the cards that the student knows best- those are reviewed once a week from then on (and this "Review Deck" is added to throughout the rest of the year)The lessons are organized in groups of 5 and basically follow the same pattern:Day 1- Review/ new material/ Worksheet/ Spelling List/ Homework Sheet Day 2- Review/ New Material/ Worksheet/ Homework/ ReaderDay 3- Review/ New Material/ Worksheet/ Homework SheetDay 4- Review/ New Material/ Worksheet/ Homework/ ReaderDay 5- Review/ Assessment/ Spelling TestThe homework sheet is on the back of the worksheet and can be done independentlyThe Spelling List consists of words that follow rules that have been taught in previous weeks- so there has been plenty of review It also includes 2 sight words for the student to learnThe Assessments are extremely helpful and Teacher-friendly They make it easy to see where the weak areas are and also give specific games to play to strengthen those areas- You already have the materials you need in the kit! Games are explained in the back of the teacher's manual and use the "Kid Cards" that come in the kitI have 2 more children that have to learn to read- and this is the program I will use I have used various curricula to teach other subjects (trying to decide which I like best) but I won't be changing Phonics programs!

I am very pleased with the results we have gotten from Saxon Phonics 1 My son is reading fluently! He has a language disability so of course I was concerned about getting him to read He had the basics of letter recognition and letter sounds when we started this year so I started at the phonics 1 level I had NEVER taught reading or phonics before! I didn't have a lot of time to review or prepare so for the most part I just opened the book each day and did what it said to do! The teacher's manual tells you exactly what to say and do The daily review of concepts is exactely what my son needed To me the hardest part was organizing the many many cards which can be a bit overwhelming at first So I set up a system in a few card files and now it is no problem In the readers and on the worksheets they use only the words with the rules that have already been taught so the kids can easily read through the book It has been a thrilling experience for me to listen to my son read through the readers His confidence has soared because of his acheivements and as a result he accomplishes even more He realizes that a word he can't read is nothing more than a rule he just hasn't learned yet! (but will soon!) The program is a bit expensive but worth every single penny I have bought many programs and regretted the money spent later but definately not this time! We will be moving onto Saxon 2 soon! The program is time consuming however It is not something you can just hand the kids and have them work through themselves I spent usually an hour a day with my son this year But again the investment of time was every bit as worth it as the money investment This program looks to me like it would work for any learning style It is simple to cut back on review if your child doesn't need that much repetition I would recommend this program to anyone who wants their child to get a good start in reading and language skills