Explode the Code- How many do you complete?

[Tarheel Heather]

My 6 dd is almost finished with book 2. How many do you complete in a 'year'? She is also doing headsprout. Just curious, thanks!

[OneRoomHomeSchool]

I'd like to know this too, just out of curiosity. My DS 6 will start book 2 as soon as my order arrives. (hopefully tomorrow!)

[Diane]

You can go as quickly or as slowly as you'd like with these. My son did books 1, 2, and 3 in Kindergarten. (that was a bit much, but he just loved them so much). In 1st, we did 3.5, 4, and 4.5, this year we completed 5 and are on 6.I would basically plan for 1-2 pages, but if I went to the restroom or something, I'd come back and my son would have 6 pages completed. He's not as enthused as he was a couple years ago. :rolleyes:

[tess in the burbs]

My son did books 1,2 last year and this year he is doing 3, 4, and most likely 5.

My daughter did the pre-ETC books over the summer and is doing 1,2, and 3 this year and will do 4, 5, 6 next year. She could do them all in a year she loves them so much!

My son was slower in the beginning than my daughter. just let them work at their own pace.

[Linda...inOwasso]

We do 1 lesson per week (4 pages). So, each dd gets 1 page of ETC per day Monday through Thursday. Mine, too, would do them much faster, but I drag it out. I have them do ALL of the writing and we use it for spelling practice as well. I get so tired of mounds of worksheets so I try to make workbooks like ETC do double-duty.

My dd4 started the school year with Get Ready, Set & Go For The Code. She's now on book 1 1/2. Oh yea, I also do all of the 1/2 books. My kids love them and they're cheap & easy to use.

FWIW, I put ETC book 4 at the END of the sequence. It deals with long/short vowel sounds and syllables and I think it is oddly out of sequence.

[Linda...inOwasso]

Oops... forgot to answer your actual question: we use all 8 in the series + the 1/2 books but we do not use Beyond The Code.

[momtolgd]

My oldest started book 1 a couple months before he turned 6. He completed books 2 and 3 in 1st grade, and will complete book 4 this week. We plan to get through 5 and 6 before he turns 8 in August, and then do 7 and 8 in Third grade. In the beginning we moved slowly since his writing skills weren't up to it (now I don't always require he do all the writing...now I know better and lighten up on writing since he's writing so much in everything he does.) Now we do one lesson each week.

My daughter just finished the 3 Get Ready for the code books, and we are waiting a shipment from Rainbow Resource center to start ETC 1. I'm not sure what her pace will be with it yet, but she moved quickly through the 3 books we've done.

We'll do all 8 books, but I don't plan on using any of the 1/2 books unless we find the extra practice necessary down the road.

[Pat in MI]

We do 1 page a day, so dd will complete two books a year until she finishes the series. So she should finish 3rd or 4th grade. HTH
Blessings,
Pat

[Jenny in Atl]

My second went through the 8 pretty quick. She just finished the last one and she is in second; she started in K. So that's like 2 1/3 a year?

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

filled in the missing pieces with Phonic Pathways. Used ETC alongside Abeka's Handbook for Reading (REALLY DEcodable) and sight word bingo.

k

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

I think the thing you need to watch out for is the speed- The books can be easy to do but are they really mastering and internalizing the concept when they read?

[Colleen in SEVA]

How many / how fast depends on what your goal is for the program. At first I used it for phonics, meaning he just had to be able to read the word and copy it from the example. Now we are using it as a spelling program, so it takes us longer to get through since he has to actually be able to spell them on his own.

I know some people skim/skip book 4 (the one with all the syllables) but IMO it is very important and helpful in figuring out big words.

I plan to go through book 8 (but reserve the right to change my mind!).

[Tarheel Heather]

Thanks everyone! We are using it to reinforce phonics learned in headsprout. She seems to be doing well, she read her Bible verse this week, completely shocked dh.

Thanks!