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I'm a Christian Mom answering the call to educate our children at home. You can also follow me at www.facebook.com/littleschoolofthewest and on Twitter @schoolofthewest

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Explode the Code


THIS, my friends, is one of the BEST curriculum decisions I've made since we started homeschooling!!   At the end of last year I told you about the struggle I was having with Josh over language arts and that we were switching to Explode the Code.  I am SO GLAD we did!  Josh has been making strides with his reading and our school day runs so much smoother now!

Explode the Code was actually one of the curriculums I looked into while doing research last year, but after looking through a couple of the books at the convention I figured Josh would find it too boring.  There is nothing exciting about the worksheets themselves, they have no color and some of the pictures are (as you can see from the cover) odd looking.  Since Josh liked all of the colorful, fun pictures in his Horizons books I figured these would not be a hit and decided against them.

Boy, was I wrong!

Horizons math worksheets, as well as the phonics and reading worksheets, are full of vibrant pictures.  Since math is not a problem for him the pictures are not a problem.  Phonics and reading (especially when he doesn't feel like trying) is a different story.  All of the pictures and sentences that he didn't feel he could read were a stressful distraction.  

Explode the Code is repetitive enough to ensure they learn the concepts well but not to the point of boredom and frustration.  It includes phonics, reading, handwriting and spelling... what more could you want from a language arts program?!  (For Kindergarten at least :)  



    


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