Learning Dynamics has created a learn to read program that when used 15 minutes per day 3 days a week will have your child reading their first book in 4 weeks. Over the last several weeks we have had an opportunity to use and review the Learning Dynamics Reading Program .
Learning Dynamics Reading Program is for children who are starting to learn letters and sounds or for children who have already started reading but may be having some difficulties. There are several different components that come with the program: Lesson Manual, Student Workbook, Readers, Alphabet Song CD, Flashcards, and Letter Rewards. You also have access to online training and mP3 music downloads. Each component of the program is reusable with the exception of the student workbook. Additional student workbooks can be purchased for $18.
Let's talk about the different components.
Lesson Manual- This is a paperback 144 page spiral bound book. In it you will find general instructions for teaching each lesson and scripted lessons for each lesson. The first 32 lessons teach and review letters. They are not taught in alphabetical order. Blending is taught after lesson 6 and the first book is introduced after lesson 9. Lessons 33-41 teaches vowels . After completing these lessons children are ready to move on to the 2 vowel books. Each lesson has instructions for introducing the letter and its sounds, a story featuring the letter for you to read to the child, letter song, worksheet, and optional activity. The second section of the lesson manual has 14 lessons and teaches blends and diagraphs. After each lesson it tells you which books you are supposed to read in sets 3 and 4.
Student Workbook- This book is also a paperback spiral bound book. In it you will find a worksheet for the 41 lessons taught in part one of the program. Children have a small space to write the letters and color the pictures of words starting with that letter for each letter page. They also have pages where they match letters to pictures, fill in the correct vowel, and recognize vowels.
Readers- There are 4 sets of color coded readers. The first set (blue readers) has 23 book in it. The second set (green), third set (yellow), and fourth set (red) each have 10 books in them. The box that the set arrives in can be turned into two separate boxes. As your child finishes the lessons they can take the books from the one box and add them to their own personal library (the second box) to read whenever they wish.
Alphabet Song CD- This CD has 34 songs for your child to listen to. There is a song for the alphabet and songs for each of the letters. The vowels songs do the short sound first and then after the vowel song has a song for each of the long vowels and the two vowel rule.
Flashcards and Letter Rewards- The letter rewards are different characters for each letter made of sturdy cardboard that you punch out and give to the child after learning the letter and its sound. One set of flashcards has a blue capital letter on one side and lowercase on the other. There are also cards for the blends with word examples on the back of those cards. The other set of cards has the letter with the matching animal reward card.
My youngest, Emmie, is 8 years old. She has already learned the basics of learning to read such as the letters and their sounds and how to blend sounds to make a word. But she doesn't have enough confidence yet to do a lot of reading on her own. She also has trouble sometimes with long vowels. I was interested in reviewing the Learning Dynamics Reading Program to give her a set of readers that she could pick up and read all on her own to build her confidence and also to go over some of the areas that she struggles in.
One of things that I love about this program for beginning readers is that it has them blending and reading in a few short lessons. This is very important for children who are ready to read. They can see very quickly that they can be successful and read actual books. Everything you need to use the program comes with it, with the exception of pencils and crayons. No advance teacher preparation is necessary, you can just open the teacher manual and go. Lessons are short and will hold a young child's attention. The readers have a list of words in the front of each that you can practice with your child before reading the book.
And at the end they have a few questions for your child to answer.
As I mentioned Emmie is beyond learning her letters and their sounds, but she does like little workbooks and coloring pages so she enjoyed coloring the pages in the student workbook. To use the program with her, I had read through each of the short letter stories with her and had her read through a book a day starting with the very first book in the first set. She found the first several books very easy but that is what I was hoping for. Once she read the book we added it to her side of the box so she could read it again on her own when she wanted to. She loves books and loved having books that she could read all on her own. Each night my children are given 10 minutes to read in their beds after I read to them and tuck them in and she has taken these readers to bed with her every night. If she came to a word she could not read (the oa sound was giving her trouble) we went over the rule for the sounds in the word and practiced until she understood it. She enjoyed the lessons we had and reading the books.
One thing you may be interested to know is that that the illustrations in the books and worksheets are very cartoon -like and cute but there are illustrations of ghosts, witches, and wizards.
Learning Dynamics offers a 30 day money back guarantee.
To see what my Crew Mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!
No comments:
Post a Comment