Alpha-Phonics~ A review

Teaching a child to read has to be one of the most daunting task facing a homeschooling mom. I remember the days of teaching my first born, who has great dyslexic tendencies, let's just say it was very stressful for me. I really wish that I had tried Samuel Blumenfeld's Alpha Phonics program way back then.

I have come a long way in my homeschool journey and, I can tell within the first two minutes of browsing a curriculum if it is one that I would stick with.
 I like no frills.
 I like minimal teacher prep..... look.... I just don't want to be cutting and pasting and setting up games for hours.

Alpha Phonics fits the bill. Open the book and get started.

 Let me share a little about the program in detail. All you need to do this program is the Alpha-Phonics book. That is it.
In the textbook the student lessons begin on page 3....not a lot of fluff to go through before you start!
The back of textbook, on pages 131-150, includes a complete set of instructions for the parent/tutor. There is also a page that features the cursive alphabet and 159-168 have a pre-reading alphabet exercises. You start with the short vowel A and on the last lesson page, which is lesson 128, the student will be reading words like "gymnasium" and "hypnosis"........ now that is a lot of learning in 128 lessons! All in one, easy to go through, NO TEACHER PREP, book! Also, if you prefer the computer, there is also included a CD-Rom you can plug in and go through that matches the workbook. It is not a high tech CD-Rom with lots to annoy and distract the tutor or the student. It is very basic, but gets the job done.
 

This is a screen shot of the opening screen of the CD-Rom

Screen shot of lesson 1

But should you need more, they haven't left you on your own. This is where a lot of single book reading programs may hurt themselves, you CAN get a workbook and readers that  perfectly go with the basic Alpha-Phonics book. I can remember using another program that is just one book and wishing that I had these two things. I felt kind of lost as to how to supplement my children's learning to read experience. I bought readers, but I was really unsure of which levels to buy and what to expect from my child.

If you want a time tested and well thought out method to quickly teach your child to read then you should try this! For under 40 dollars you not only get a full phonics program, but handwriting and spelling can easily be taught from the one Alpha-Phonics textbook.


Please follow any of the links I have added to the Alpha Phonics Site. They have a ton of free sample pages and videos to help you get started or to decide if this is the right program for you.



And lastly, I'd like to include an excerpt  from the publishers of Alpha Phonics because it says a lot about the kind of people that I like to do business with.

"How can we make this offer of the Alpha-Phonics book and the Alpha-Phonics the Book on CD ROM both for the price of the book alone?
Also, why are we doing this?
HOW? The Paradigm Co., Inc. publishers of Alpha-Phonics and the CD ROM version have worked hard to make this possible. First, we have made special arrangements for the production of the book and CDs in large quantities so as to make a significant savings without sacrificing any quality. Second, we have made special arrangements to save on royalties. Third, we are reducing our profit margin on the products to an absolute bare minimum. Fourth, we believe increased volume of orders by virtue of the exceptional value offered will cover much of the extra cost of providing both items for such a low price.

WHY? The Paradigm Co. is as much a ministry as it is a business. As such we attempt to save little minds from a life of actual illiteracy or functional illiteracy. Profit, therefore, is not our goal. Naturally it is important that we operate at a level which will enable us to continue with this ministry on a permanent basis, but to simply make a big profit is unimportant.
A second reason for this special offer is that we are a relatively small company competing with many much larger firms. We believe most sincerely our Alpha-Phonics intensive, systematic phonics reading instruction program is probably the best all round program available. In order to be able to help more families succeed in teaching their children to be good readers we needed to find a way to stand out among the field. The answer was for us to be able to offer our absolutely unbeatable product combination at an absolutely unbeatable price.
Will the low price be only temporary? NO! We plan to keep this price indefinitely.
If you order from one of our fine vendor/resellers please be sure to use this specific ISBN number: 9780941995306"

Many blessings and Happy Homeschooling!


P.S. Wow! It has been a long, long time since I have blogged.....hope to change that this coming new year!  I was given the Alpha-Phonics textbook, workbook and readers in exchange for my honest review.