Need suggestions for good Phonics/reading program

Hi everybody, we have officially decided we are homeschooling our daughter. I have been researching curriculm to use and I am pretty sure we are going to do Singapore essential math, but not sure what to use for a phonics/reading program. I have seen a lot of people use Explode the Code, but I'm not quite sure if I like how it is split into so many books. My daughter knows all her letters and is starting to recognize sounds of a few of the letters. She is really into doing workbooks and very hands on stuff.

Thanks
Amy

 

Forgot to mention I want to use the book "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons". I have heard lots of good about that book. Can I use that as a stand alone phonics/reading program or should I use something else along with it? Thanks.

 

I have heard great things about that book, but like most things, it works for some but not others. I looked at the book and it left me scratching my head, so I gave up on it quickly. We used the Hooked On Phonics program. I would suggest you work on learning the sounds to the letters before beginning any formal reading program and remember your daughter is still young so take things slowly.

 

I have used Hooked on Phonics and Explode the Code. My DS has done will with each. EtC does incorporate comprehension and writing where HOP does not.

 

I've used it with most of my kids (though I don't necessarily follow their script word for word as it feels unnatural. It worked great for Sage, fine for Adam and seems to be ok for Sydney and Sabrina. I've taken a bit of a break from it since we've had so many summer activities. So we might need to backtrack a little when we start back up. With Trey, it didn't work at all. We tried it over and over, each time leaving a few months or longer in between. But it turns out that Trey is dyslexic and needed a very different approach. Compared to many programs, it's super inexpensive, so I'd say go for it. Since it's not a consumable book, you could always resell it if it's not your cup of tea. I also skip the writing part of it, since I use Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting.

 

You can use it alone. In fact, it may be confusing if you pair it with another type of approach. We finished it last year, but I am going to do some reinforcing of the concepts and adding a few additional concepts this year. Nothing formal because of budget reasons, but I would love to get a second grade level phonics program to work on this year since, if they are with the book they are reading at a second grade level by the end of 100 Easy Lessons.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am definitely going to start with the "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons". I am very excited to get started with her. We made a trip to the library a few days ago and I got her some of the early reader books level 1. One of them was "Brown bear, Brown bear, What do you see? I read the first page of the book and then she was able to read the rest of the book with only a few helps from me. She read the book again today and I only had to help her with ONE word and she read the rest all on her own. She really has an interest to read and the happiness that was on her face after she read the book was awesome.