Beginning Steps To Reading

The reading curriculum we used this year is called Beginning Steps To Reading which is a Christian based phonics program published by Eastern Mennonite Publications (the do not have a website, you need to call for a catalog). It was recommended to me at a homeschool convention by someone who knew I had a daughter with Down Syndrome. They said the material seemed to move more slowly and had great results for children with special needs. So far I have found that to be true, but we still slowed it down even further. Instead of doing a lesson a day, we split the lessons up into two days. That one extra day seemed to help Gesserine get a better grasp of the concept. We would then spend Fridays doing some sort of review work as well as spelling and other related activities. This did mean that we spent a year covering one semester's worth of material, but my daughter actually grasped the concept and phonetics, so I think it was well worth it. I believe it is important that my daughter actually "get" the material we use, not just that she get "through it."

Beginning Steps to Reading starts out teaching short vowels sounds and adding some consonant blends. They quickly get you to where you can begin reading simple Bible stories using only the letters and sounds you have learned.



I really loved the way there was a bible story for every lesson with an emphasis on words that started with the sound you learned that day. I also love how adaptable the workbooks were. My daughter's fine motor skills are delayed and at the beginning of the school year she could not write very well. Even when she did write it was difficult and time consuming to get accuracy. To do lengthy worksheets requiring lots of writing would not be beneficial for us. However, these workbooks, while they have spaces and an emphasis on writing, also offer other options that allowed us to use them without having to worry about her writing skills.

Some pages had an option to circle the answer with a space to write the answer as well. We just skipped the writing and circled the answer.




Some pages had the answers at the top for which I just had her draw a line to the corresponding question.



For others that were less adaptable, I simply used stickers I made for her.



Another nice addition were the supplemental worksheets. They usually required her to do some cutting and gluing. This was just a fun way to reinforce the lesson while working on some motor skills as well.






Here is a video of my daughter working through one of the workbook pages. Notice how she talks herself through the problem. There are times you think she is going to get it wrong and then realize she is simply taking her time to think it through. Other questions are so easy she gets them right away. The last one is my favorite because she does get it wrong but corrects herself and tells you that she got it wrong only to find the right answer in the end.



And here we have her reading a story from the book. This was toward the end of the year when she was first learning about long vowels. After over half a year focusing on short vowel sounds, changing to using the long vowel is tough. She really has to concentrate on the long vowel, so much so that at one point she writes an imaginary "long vowel" sign over an "i" and pretends to mark out the "e" to represent that it is silent. Then she finally pronounces it correctly. While she still sometimes struggles with long vowel words, it is coming, and that is such a joy to see!