Curriculum Review: Hooked on Phonics K - 2nd Grade Deluxe

My children really enjoyed learning how to read with the Hooked on Phonics program. We completed all three levels, Kindergarten through 2nd grade, in one school year. We're a home schooling family. This made it possible for me to allow my children to learn at their own pace. I let them read as little or as much as they wanted. We all enjoyed learning to read last year. Overall, I'm glad we used Hooked On Phonics, but there was one aspect of the program that bothered me.

The Kindergarten program begins with learning the basic sounds of each letter. A few times I let my children use the audio CD that comes in the box, but found that they retained everything much better when I worked one-on-one rather than letting them work independently. After the letter sounds were mastered, the children were ready to sound out short words with short vowel sounds. The Kindergarten level progresses from short-a words to short-u words and includes a list of sight words.

After the letter sounds are learned, the student is presented with his first "Read Aloud" page. It looks like this:
a t at
at m at s at r at b at c at p at

Notice that all of the endings are the same. The student must decode the first consonant and then tack on the "at" ending for each word. This is absolutely fine when a child is just learning how to sound out words. The repetition builds confidence in a young reader. However, the pattern of having a single ending per line never changes. My children fell into automatically adding the same ending to every word even when the ending changed on the next line. They weren't always paying attention to the letters. This frustrated me and made me wonder how much actual reading my children were doing. Were they reading or simply sounding the first consonant and giving the ending for that line? That said, the short and simple books assigned throughout the program helped me see that my children were learning how to read.

I think it goes without saying that children learn to read better when the reading curriculum is combined with writing. I had my children write the letters and phonograms to supplement. When my children reached the sounds made with two letters, then I had them write the letter combinations when I gave the sound -- kind of like a spelling test. Doing this helped them remember more easily what the two-letter phonograms are.

In the 1st grade level children learn how to blend consonants at the beginning and ending of words. There are also sight words to learn and short books to read. My son especially enjoyed the short books for this level because they focused on masculine characters who played sports and went on adventures.

The 2nd grade level begins with learning how to read silent final-e words and moves on to vowel digraphs and single-sound vowel-consonant combinations. The stories are much more interesting and appealing for this level. Getting to read one of the "real" books really motivated my children to finish their lessons and keep going.

Overall, I have been pleased with this program. My children are readers! From their point of view: they like the colorful, glossy books, the sticker charts kept them motivated (we really celebrated with each new reading achievement), and they love anything that includes a game they can play on the computer. Great program!