Have you found something better since then? If you have more children to teach reading to, what do you plan on using? I am still going on letter sounds and recognition with DD, but I'm not sure what route I want to go with her. I did Explode the Code and Phonics Pathways with DS and liked it for the most part, but don't know if I should do the same with dd. What method do you like?

I got the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (is that the right title?) to teach 2nd dd. I printed off the first 25 lessons off of the Peace Hill Press website, and it seemed to "fit" well. I sold my copy of Phonics Pathways last year, as I was pretty sure I didn't want to use it again -- okay program, just not great for us.

Of course, we're not too far in this new book yet. By the time we get to the end we may despise it, LOL.

Wow, I just looked at the sample pages. Did you get the magnetic letters and flash cards?

No, I already have a set of magnetic letters from Rainbow Resource (blue consonants, red vowels -- very Montessori) and made the flashcards as we went along.

Yep. Bought Play-n-Talk back in 1992 for our eldest (on LP's, no less). There weren't so many choices back then, and Mary Pride's curriculum review just glowed about it.

Used it on six children now, and the four old enough to be strong readers are very strong readers . . . the younger ones are currently using it, working well so far on them as well.

I like it 'cause I'm lazy and I just put the record on and point . . . the songs are kind of hokey to me, but the children have all liked chanting with the other children.

I saw play and talk at the homeschool store. It looked cute.

I did wind up buying OPGTR, because I realized I could use it for DS in the area's he is stuggling too. We started today... so we will see. I had $14.00 in credit at the store, which made it a great deal.

We haven't decided yet. Ds is doing SSRW preschool this year and it really is great for him so we're strongly considering getting the K-1 version after he finishes this *but* it's pricey and we already have all of the Abeka K4 kit and would only have to replace the consumables so it's tempting to just use what we have. We might give the K4 a trial run when he gets to that point and just switch over if it doesn't work for him. Still not sure but we have time to decide so no biggie.

Nathan and Austin both used K12's phonics program with good success. Nathan had much better success, but he's more driven and likes to do more sit down sedentary stuff - Austin is more active.

Anyway, I am using Phonics Pathways/Pyramid and also OPG for Adam - and also using both of those with my older kids, too. I like OPG. Nathan is working in it at his level, when I need to help Austin with some things, I can use it with him... and it's working well for Adam, too. I plan to continue using OPG with Adam even though he will be going to Kindergarten this year.

Yes, we will be using Sing, Spell, Read & Write.

Sort of. LOL I used Teach Your Child to Read and Explode the Code with Bryce. We are using those things *and* Phonics Museum with Blake. I didn't feel like Bryce got a strong enough start in reading, so I started using Phonics Museum with Blake which is an awesome program!