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!

The 3 D's of Kindergarten

Don't judge him for his Jar Jar shirt.  He's a smart boy, I promise.

This year I promoted my third Kindergartner.  I believe Kindergartners need to still be doing most of their learning through play and exploration.  They should not be sitting at a desk for several hours, staring at a whiteboard.

But also, if your child is ready and capable for more academic school work, by all means, let them have it!  When it comes to language arts, there are three things that I always do with my kinders.  And conveniently, they all start with D's.  So here are my 3 D's of Kindergarten

1. DISTAR
This is a reading program also known as "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons."  I've written several times before about why I love this reading program.

Some children are just not ready to read in Kindergarten.  They may not start until 7 or so.  And that's fine too.  I've read enough studies that show these kids are not behind academically for the rest of their lives.  But for me and my kids so far, starting to learn to read at 4 works for us.  And Distar is a fabulous way to do it.

My personal philosophy is that if a child can read, then they can learn anything!  Independence is very important to me in our family and especially in our homeschool.  Being able to read the instructions on your math page by yourself makes it possible for you to teach yourself many things while Mom is occupied elsewhere.

2. DOLCH
Once my child completes Distar, then we move onto phonics readers and Dolch to further their reading skills.

Dolch is a group of 11 lists of sightwords.  I expect my kids to be able to read each word properly on three separate occasions (without sounding out) before they get the word passed off.  That link I shared has free printable flash cards, record sheets, and games.

3. D'NEALIAN
When it comes to handwriting, I still think it's important to learn cursive.  I hated cursive writing as a child and only use it today to sign my signature and to help the girls practice their own cursive.  But I'm still glad that I learned it.

I think it's easier to learn cursive if you learn D'Nealian Manuscript first.  This is the type of writing where all the letters have little "kicks" or "monkey tails" at the ends.

We do only a little bit of writing standard block letters in preschool.  In Kindergarten is when I finally give formal instruction on how to form letters on paper.  And we start immediately with D'Nealian.  By the end of second grade, my girls were both eager and ready to learn true cursive.  It has been a smooth transition for them because they already see how each letter can easily link to the next because of those little kicks.


What are your favorite curriculum choices for Kindergarten?

Two Quick Tips for Distar

Click the link on the sidebar for "Distar" under "Labels" to understand what this reading program I'm talking about is.

1. Take Wiggle Breaks

One thing that I love about Distar is that each lesson is pretty short.  But once your child approaches the middle of the book, the stories get longer and the child is expected to read them twice in a row.  That can be hard for short attention spans and wiggly bottoms!  A little bit of physical activity, and then he can focus on the task at hand better.

As soon as Tertius is done reading the story the first time, I have him stand up and do jumping jacks.  He doesn't know how to do them correctly, but at least it's getting his body moving and blood pumping.  He thinks they're really fun, too.  I used to just have him do 10.  But recently he started insisting on doing more.  The first day he wanted to do 11.  Then the next day was 12.  He is now up to doing 18 jumping jacks before sitting to read the story for a second time.

2. Skip the Writing Section

I'm sure it's meant to serve a wonderful purpose.  And I'm sure it's great for some families.  But I have always skipped it.  

Once my kids are done reading the story for the second time and have answered the comprehension questions while looking at the picture, they're done.  Everyone of them was eager to jump up and do something else. And that "something else" does not include sitting still and putting pencil to blank paper.  

Instead, I teach my Kindergartners to write their letters using colorful handwriting books in the D'nealian/Modern Manuscript style (I can never remember what it's actually officially called-it's the one where all the printed letters have little "kicks" at the end as a way to ease into cursive in later grades.)

So Proud of My Little Boy! Learning to Read!

Tertius is learning to read and I am just blown away at how well he's doing!

He's five and will start Kindergarten officially in the fall.  Right now we are on lesson 32 out of 100 in our curriculum (Distar).  If he keeps going at the pace he's going now, he could be starting his Kinder year as a reader!

This summer I'm motivating the girls to do chores, practice German, and drill math facts by rewarding them with media time and popsicles.  Tertius can get the rewards by doing chores or a lesson of Distar with me.  Some days he has asked to do 2 lessons in one day.

At the beginning of this last school year I was convinced that I would start with him.  But he wasn't ready to sit and focus with me.  Also, at the time I wasn't ready to give him the consistent one-on-one time needed each day to really make the lessons stick.  So we did a handful of lessons (maybe up to 15?) and then stopped.  When we started again a several months later, we went back to the beginning.  And then we got lazy and fell out of habit again.  But now we're going strong.  He and I are both a lot more motivated and encouraged to keep going now that we see him making progress.

Now he's doing so well with it!  He's able to stay focused and he's making quick progress. If he doesn't care about something, then good luck getting him to do it!  On the other hand, once he has his mind set on something, there's no way you can stop him!

I am so proud of him.  It's exciting to watch my little ones learn such an important basic skill.  Sometimes motherhood and homeschooling can be so rewarding!

How I Teach My Kids to Read

 When I started homeschooling Primus in Kindergarten, I felt overwhelmed and clueless about what curriculum I should use.  The only exception was that I knew without a doubt that I needed to find Distar to teach my daughter to read. (Also known as Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.)

I didn't gain my conviction about Distar by reading the research or reviews, but because I had seen it in action first hand all the years that I volunteered in Mrs. Bhatti's Kindergarten class.  I knew that this was a program that had been around for decades and worked.  I also appreciated the fact that it is totally scripted for me, is a step-by-step phonics approach, and each lesson takes only about 15 minutes.

I was very pleased to learn that it was available in a format specifically designed for parents to do one-on-one with their child.  The first thing I did when it arrived was to tear out every page and put it in a binder to make it easier to use one page at a time.

The method claims that it is great for young children (your child doesn't even need to know all the letter names before starting!) as young as 3 and a half. This fits perfectly with my philosophy about learning to read: teach your kid to read as soon as you can and then the whole world is open to them; they'll be able to learn anything!

Primus was almost five and a half and very bright and she zoomed through the first half of the book, doing a couple lessons each day.  I started Secundus when she was about three, I think, but stopped not long after because her speech issues were making it hard.  We started again slowly when she was four and she did really well.  Tertius is now four and starting his last year of "preschool" before Kindergarten and I am excited to start him out with it.  I've been working all summer preparing.



















One downside to this book is that the parent's script and the things the student is supposed to read are on the same page.  That makes it really hard to work with a wiggly child who would rather lie down and hold the page over her head or jump up and down. I knew Tertius especially would need to be able to hold his own word cards so he can focus on one at a time while I can still have my script in front of me.  

This project has taken me hours and hours to complete, but I am confident that it will pay off!  (I later found these are available for purchase here but I still would have made my own cards because I could not find it available through any of my school's approved vendors and I like the color coding.)

As you can see, I've color-coded everything to keep them organized.  I've also written on the back of each card which lesson number they're used in.

 For the letter sounds I cut 9X12 pieces of construction paper into 16 pieces.  For the words I cut the construction paper into 12 pieces each.

I also laminated them with clear contact paper for extra durability.  But only the front sides because, dang!, that was a lot of cards!

I also made copies of each of the stories and put them in a separate binder.  The shorter stories are laminated and the ones that take up a full page are in sheet protectors.

Starting with lesson #74 the program transitions from the weird look of Distar into a normal font.  At this point, instead of making individual word cards, I kept each block of practice words together like they appear in the book. These are stored in the sheet protector with the associated story.

It is so fun to watch the kids start to master reading and be excited to show off their new ability to daddy!  School starts on Monday and I can't wait to start this new journey with my boy!

Phonics vs Sight Words

I feel very strongly that too many kindergarten and first grade classrooms focus too much on Sight Words and not enough on Phonics.  My nephew's school does sight words.  We chose to do Distar with Primus.  (Distar is very heavy phonics-based.)  Primus, as a kindergartner, is reading better than my nephew, as a first grader. 

Now, of course this could be because Primus is a girl, or that she is naturally talented at reading, or any other number of reasons.  But for the sake of this argument, I am going to assume it is because of this Sight Words vs Phonics issue.

I was looking at nephew's sight word list and one word that jumped out at me was, "like."  Seriously?  This is a sight-word?  How about instead of teaching him to memorize this word, you teach him the "silent-e" rule?  So then that way he can apply that rule to many, many different words he will encounter?  "Like" is definitely a word a child should be able to sound-out. 

Or how about this word, "it."  Really??  How hard is it to teach a kid what "i" says and then teach them what "t" says?  And then with that knowledge they can sound-out "it" or "tip" or "tin," etc.  Why do they need to emphasize memorizing this little word, "it?"

Am I way off base?  Do I need to observe one of these classrooms in action?  Admittedly, I have only ever had personal experience with Distar.  Am I missing something?  Also, I do admit that the American-English language is kind of ridiculous and that there are plenty of words that don't follow any of the phonics rules.

Anyway, now that Primus has finished her 100 lessons in Distar, I am kind of at a loss of what to do.  One of the things our ES (the teacher at the charter school that checks up on us) suggested is now working on high-frequency words (sight words).  So, given that Primus has a really good background in phonics, I've decided to give it a go.  I've downloaded all the Dolch lists.  It will be fun to see how fast she can zoom through and pass off words that she already knows how to read.

I also found this good website that has printable record sheets and games for using with Dolch.  The games sound really fun.  So maybe we'll get a chance to play some of them.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Wiggle Worm

Something I am learning about Primus is that she cannot sit still.  I have never noticed this before.  But when I sit with her to do her reading lesson, she can't seem to sit in one place.  (We usually sit on the couch so I'm wondering if it would be better to have her sit at a table instead.)  She slouches, lays down, sits on her feet, sits on my lap, crosses her legs, etc. 

I guess it probably isn't a problem, and it doesn't seem to be an indication that she is bored.  But it is driving me crazy!  Today we did her lesson while sitting on a bench outside Secundus' preschool class.  After only a couple seconds, she had wiggled so much that I couldn't keep up or see what she was reading.  So I made her stop, stand up, and go through a series of physical actions to shake out the ants in her pants.  Then she sat down and did a little more reading. 

She had to do this I think 3 times during 1 lesson.  I'm not sure if it actually helped, but she thought it was great fun.  And I guess that is important, too.