The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
Curriculum Series: Alpha Phonics
Unlock the secrets to successful homeschooling as veteran homeschooler Lisa Nehring shares her tried-and-true strategies for selecting the perfect reading curriculum. Lisa, who transformed her five children into avid readers, joins us to discuss the powerful combination of the Alpha Phonics program by Samuel Blumenfeld and Explode the Code. With just a mere 5 to 20 minutes of focused learning each day, Lisa reveals how these tools can provide a solid foundation in literacy, despite their teacher-intensive nature. Get ready to explore Lisa’s insights on why starting literacy early is crucial and how these curriculums can support diverse learning styles.
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Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my Curriculum, a series where we talk all about curriculum. I've been interviewing homeschooling families for over a year now on my main podcast, the Homeschool How-To, but I really wanted to zero in on curriculum. There's so much out there. How do I know what would work best for me and my child? How do I know what works for one child would work for the other? I might like the curriculum I'm using now, but how do I know there's not a better one out there, especially if I don't know all the curriculums? And what about supplemental curriculum? Should I be using that too? This series is to help you decide just that. I'm going to interview parents who are using all the curriculums so that you can decide the absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. The absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. Welcome, and with us. Today.
Speaker 2:I have Lisa Nearing, thanks for having me. It's delightful to be here.
Speaker 1:There are parents that are just like I. Just want to hear about curriculums to pick. Do you have a favorite that you've?
Speaker 2:used. So for English I think we had five kids, all really different learning styles and different personalities, but we started with Alpha Phonics for all five of them, which I think is one of the best phonics programs on the market. It's created by Samuel Blumenfeld. All of our kids are excellent readers and we use that in conjunction with Explode the Code Really great combo. It's a little teacher intensive, but you've set your kids up to be excellent readers the rest of their lives.
Speaker 1:I haven't even heard of this one, alpha Phonics. So this is that book work. It's not an online thing. It's not an online thing it's a book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just a workbook and they don't. It's just a list that you go through that teaches your kids all the sounds. There's some memory cards, but really excellent program. I loved it.
Speaker 1:So what age would you start that at?
Speaker 2:I would, depending on the kid. I mean, there's a better late than early methodology. I don't really subscribe to that because if your kids are able to read, why not get them literate as soon as possible? So I would say between four to six, depending on the learner Boys probably a little bit later. But all of our kids were good readers by the time they were five or six.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, okay, so Alpha Phonics, and this is, it's called a primer for beginning readers. So you would combine that with explode the code.
Speaker 2:Yeah, explode the code is fun. Alpha Phonics is a challenge. Like it was one of the few things that I did for my kids where if they finished the book they got to pick any prize they wanted and we would go get it for them. So most of them picked Lego sets, you know. But um, we did Explode the Code too, cause it's more workbooky and it seems more fun. Um, it's not like I tormented my kids with Alpha Phonics, but you again, you have to be pretty intentional. You have to sit down and like just do it with them, but it only takes like five to 20 minutes a day and super effective.
Speaker 1:And what does that five to 20 minutes look like? Like I've done a little bit of phonics work with the Hagerty phonics, which is what is used in school, so I'm not like in love with it, but I'm wondering if this is a similar sort of thing like hey, this is just what you got to learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, it starts with soft vowel sounds. So for a, it does the ass sound. So then you have reading list of uh and it just goes through a bat cat, you know fat, whatever else is in the, you know. You just go through all the letters. So you learn this one concept and then you just practice it. It is so simple. So again, it starts with the soft vowel sounds for all five vowels and the kids just practice it, and then it goes on to other vowel sounds and ends with you know the O-U and the more complicated combinations, but really sequential, very, very logical. There's no guesswork. It helps the kids learn to decode. So it's logic training along with phonics training.
Speaker 1:And would you now the explode the code? Is that also bookwork?
Speaker 2:yeah, the explode the code is actually a workbook so the kids write in it and it's just basically games that they do based on the letter sounds. So they kind of go together. They have one on like the soft a. They have a workbook on the soft a sounds, or maybe I haven't looked at it for a while, but maybe it's a soft vowel sounds. You can get that workbook in conjunction with whatever you're at in alphaphonics and then they just they have pictures, they have fill in the blanks. It's a. It's a more like gamified version of you know, it's application to the theory that they're going to learn in the Alphaphonics.
Speaker 1:So do so. Are they the same company that makes both, or do they just happen to blend that way?
Speaker 2:They blend really well together, but no, they're not the same company.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you would do them. You wouldn't finish Alpha Phonics and then start Explode the Code. You would actually do them together back to back on the same day. Yeah, I would. Yeah, okay, awesome. And how long do you think it took your child from like to finish the book from beginning to?
Speaker 2:end the Alpha Phonics and Explode the Code. So my oldest daughter we were doing Alpha Phonics and Explode the Cloud. So my oldest daughter we were doing Alphaphonics and we're doing the memory cards as she's doing it. And then we did it for a couple months and all of a sudden she just read we were driving to church one day and she looks down at my husband's pile of books and she goes does this say the greater Greek lexicon? And we just looked at her and went, excuse me, she had just decoded it.
Speaker 2:Now one of my other kids it took them like a year to get through the book, like they. They kind of slogged through it. It wasn't really super fun for them, but they, but they, my kids enjoyed school. I mean, we're kind of a nerdy family, so they, that was one of the curriculums I sat down with each individual child and did with that kid. So we enjoyed our time hanging out together and stuff like that. But it took her longer. And then you know, a couple of the kids it just took like all year. They were just like, ok, well, we've got to do this. All right, we're going to do that. So I mean, it just depends on personality, I think, but I would say probably. It's going to take about a year, but by the time they're done with Alphaphonics they're going to be at a really solid third grade reading level and functional literacy is at fifth grade level.
Speaker 1:So they're well on their way to being really literate. Oh, wow, wow. So if you did it at five years old, they would be six at a third grade reading level. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Which says a lot and it is hard. So, yeah, when you think about a classroom of 25 kids, it's really hard to give that one-on-one attention to. So if you know you're saying cat, mat, hat, bat, but then there's like 10 of them over there that are just looking out the window or whatever Um, they're, they're missing a lot of that and I think that you know that's. That was an early realization to me too, when I think like, oh my God, back when my kid was five and I was trying to teach him this stuff and I do think that was just too early for him, but it was good exposure but I was getting frustrated why aren't you learning this stuff? But it did dawn on me at one point that he might not be learning it enough to be like retaining it and feeding it back to me.
Speaker 1:But something is sticking because we're doing this one-on-one and not in a classroom where he would just be so distracted he wouldn't even be hearing the teacher something sticking. And I can. Now that we're a year later and I kind of I gave up about six months in last year too and I said you know what, if I'm, I'll just read you books Like I. We're not pushing the reading anymore, because I don't want him to be hating it you know.
Speaker 1:So we, now that he's six, and he's got six year old friends in first grade at school and cousins that are a little bit older that are like you can't read yet. Um, he is getting that oomph to like, oh, do want to know how to read, and so now he's kind of getting we we picked back up on on stuff. But I'm definitely going to check this out because I think this would be cool and it'd be.
Speaker 1:It's cool because now that he has primed a little bit, he might think, oh, I know this stuff and glide through the first part a little bit more easily and then it picks up. I'm sure gets into like breaking up the words into you know, syllables, that sort of thing. Does it have them reading actual sentences by the end?
Speaker 2:It does. Yes, and I do think you touched on something really important, because I was I was raised this way. You are presented a lesson and you need to know it, and one of the things I've realized over years of homeschooling and educating and doing co-ops and starting True North is that there is so much value in overview. Like we all learn that way, naturally when we're teaching ourselves something. Like when you started out with sourdough, you probably made a batch that wasn't so great and you're like not a big deal. I overviewed the process. I know some better things now and we have to apply that to education too. Like I love what you did with your son. That was amazing. Great job, because you're like.
Speaker 2:This isn't his jam. Right now we're going to read, so he has those beautiful words in his head. He understands the flow and rhythm of language better and the sounds of language. Now you can go back and go. Okay, take two, he knows the recipe a little bit better. We're going to just tweak it and that is great educational pedagogy right there. So great job, I love it.
Speaker 1:It's just from interviewing all these wonderful homeschooling families that I even knew to do that. Because, yeah, you think you're not up to par with the kids what they're learning in school, and it's like take a step back, mom. What's the point of homeschooling if you're just going to replicate what they're doing in the school?
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly All right, Lisa, thank you so much. You're welcome. It's been so fun. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Please consider sharing this podcast, or my main podcast, the Homeschool how To with friends, family, on Instagram or in your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it going and the more hope we have for the future. Thank you for your love of the next generation.