You've Finished DISTAR...What Next?

I've spoken several times about how much I *LOVE* Distar ("Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons") for teaching my kids to read before or about Kindergarten. But once they finish that 100th lesson, what next?

I like to do 3 things with my little ones once they are graduates of our favorite reading curriculum: sight words, phonics readers, and random phonics/early reader worksheets.

Sight Words

I'm a fan of the Dolch lists. Here's where I got my lists and record sheet. Dolch is 220 sight words that are divided into 9 groups. A Google search will take you to a ton of sites providing flash cards and game ideas to help your child memorize the words.

I require my child to read the word correctly (with no coaching or sounding-it-out) 3 times over the course of 3 separate (not necessarily consecutive) days. Once he's done that successfully, then I mark that he's mastered that word.

Depending on the child's need, that may mean we spend a couple days playing flash card games and then spend a day quizzing him on as many lists as his attention span can handle. Tertius, being an active boy, did really well when I had him run back and forth in the yard between practicing each flash card.

 My kids loved to see my record sheet get filled up with dates showing their progress. When a word or whole list got crossed off, we celebrated!

Phonics Readers

I have a ton of random phonics readers. There isn't one particular series that I like more than another. I've just collected them over the years from various thrift stores.

We've checked the BOB series out from the library a couple times, and I guess it's widely respected, but we hated it. The pictures were boring and ugly. After getting through Distar, with one simple drawing per story, my kids are ready and eager to read books that actually look like fun books.

Grandma let Tertius borrow a big anthology of classic Dick and Jane stories when he was ready for them and that was great! He felt so important carrying around his big book that was just for him and being able to open it up and show off how far he had gotten.

These little books get read as often as the child has interest. Typically, since we have so many of them and we're eager to move on and read new stuff, they only read each book to me once. I never wanted my kids to think of reading as a chore. Phonics readers are short and rewarding and a great way to reinforce the phonics they learned  in Distar and the sight words they learn from Dolch.

Phonics/Beginning Reader Worksheets

I always seemed to have these random Kindergarten workbooks around. I'll find them partially used at thrift stores or friends will give them to me after doing only a couple pages with their own little ones the summer before Kindergarten. I've also found fun ones at the dollar store.

Usually, pages that teach or reinforce things like letter sounds, blends, and rhyming are completely unnecessary after completing Distar. I still have my little ones do them sometimes though, just because it's fun to have an easy page that they can be successful at and feel smart. Also, much of my big kids' curriculum is in the form of workbooks so this way my little ones can feel like they're doing important work like their siblings.


As I always say, every kid is different. Do what works for your child and go at their pace. Have you tried something that your new reader has loved or been really successful with? Share below!