Hooked On Phonics Learn To Read Kindergarten
Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten learn to read is designed to introduce the basic building blocks of reading and give children the skills to read for themselves. The goal with Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten is to make a difference in the lives of children by making learning fun and easy.
Kindergarten program: 5-6 years
Demonstrates how to blend letter sounds together to form simple words
Introduces slightly more complex words in each unit
Always ends in a moment of celebration, each unit concludes with a storybook your child reads to you
Related:
Hooked On Phonics Complete Set
Hooked On Phonics Kindergarten Reviews Level 1 & 2
Great tool for reading introduction or enrichment – By Valerie L. Criswellon
Pros:
Very easy to open and go – This program is so organized and labeled that you could probably use it without even reading the guide. But if you need or want to, the Quick Start Guide does a great job of taking the wonder and guessing away from using this program effectively.
This is important because I’ve seen a few reading programs that have so much STUFF packed into a box with obscure directions such that you have no idea where to begin.
Quality, full-color readers with great pictures to engage the child
Except for the motivation stickers (which can be replenished by buying more of any stickers) the package is totally non-consumable. This is a big plus if you have multiple children to teach or if you want to sell it when you’re done.
Not just phonics instruction, but Sight Words included too (called Helper Words). This is essential and sometimes overlooked in pure phonics instruction programs
This is perfect for parents at home to give their child an introduction to reading, some skill practice, or remediation.
Cost-effective
Cons:
For homeschooling parents, there are better choices out there. They generally require a bigger investment both in dollars, time, and effort, but they are richer and more engaging. Instead of making suggestions, I’ll let you homeschoolers navigate your own way.
The activities in the workbook are repetitive. You get to do the same stuff over and over. Some kids don’t mind this but we like more variety.
Conclusion:
This is a great, cost-effective tool for parents who want to provide reading enrichment or remediation at home. Homeschoolers, however, can find more comprehensive, interesting programs to use.
Best way to spend time teaching your child to read – By Altmed
This is a progressive phonetic learning package with 2 DVDs that teach new words (and basics of how to read) in the program and a bonus DVD with animals, advice for parents on scheduling time to spend with your children without doing it all yourself.
A wonderful adjunct to teaching your child to read, expanding their vocabulary, teaching them basic words that are mostly 3 letters in length. Program 1 focuses on the first letter in the word and the 2nd program switches to changing the end of words (again mostly 3-letter words.)
3 DVDs, 2 workbooks for the two programs, and books your child can read themselves once they’ve learned the words in the DVD programs.
This is a cumulative learning program that focuses on learning by ear (auditory), sight, and writing. It is an entertaining program for kids of this age group.
There are also rewards (stickers) included, which reward your child for learning new words and keeps it fun, and rewards at the end of the section are books that use the words they have learned.
The DVDs have words (other than the rhyming words) that are used every day in reading, such as he, and, the, etc.
A wonderful start for kids learning to read (I recall when my kids were young creating a lot of materials and reviewing many workbooks and readers that were cumulative – not an easy thing to do when you are doing this from scratch)
The only thing I see that I would add to the DVDs is sign language (which is being taught in many if not most schools now in the US).
I would add a few things from real-world experiences, but this program is a great start for a beginning reader.
They even have an interactive online website that is mentioned in the starter section of both DVDs, which shows progress, has learning games and print-outs of fun activities for your child.
The program keeps it simple for parents, is easy to put aside a half hour or so each day to learn the basic idea of reading for children that perhaps know their alphabet, or for those who don’t even know that (although by Kindergarten, I would hope most children would be reading at this level at least).
The age group it says it is designed for is fairly appropriate (says starts at age 4), although it’s best to teach the child when they first start showing interest, so some kids might start this at even 2 years old! (Kids CAN recognize corporate logos by age 2, so why not turn off the TV and have them learn what they really need to know).
I would strongly suggest getting this as a baby shower gift, as when a child wants to read, THAT is the time to teach them, and they learn best this way! (Not only for reading, such as this program but for anything).
The parent’s guide wisely cautions as well against pushing children, and allowing them time to learn! (I’ve seen this left out of other programs for teaching a child to read, and it needs to be there and is in this program).
While some kids might get bored with the repetition of the same graphics at the beginning and end of each program, it is consistent, and consistency is needed when teaching anything.
I’d recommend that the child be able to recognize letters (get the pre-school program too!) before starting this program.
I would also recommend this program for schools as well, from preschool to Kindergarten, and older kids as an ESL, special education, or program for children that have been neglected in this area.
The program does not really address learning disabilities, yet it is a reading program, but it should be mentioned that if a child is having problems with these basics, they may need vision checked or may need to be evaluated for learning disabilities or other health problems that may get in the way of a child who wants to learn from learning.
How do you know when your child is ready to read? When they ask things like “What does that say?” when they start trying to copy letters or write them on their own, etc.
I also STRONGLY recommend that parents read books of their interest in front of their child, and even read to them out loud (even if it’s a college textbook).
Kids are smarter than most people think, and parents can get lazy – thus the lowered standards in our schools and people who want their kids to be able to make the grade later on and be successful would benefit greatly from this program – especially if you don’t know where to start.
Don’t forget kids need to learn math skills as well!
The bottom line, this program is a great start for the little ones!
I STRONGLY recommend this program WITH parental interaction AND a comparable math program as well as a basic science program.
GREAT for homeschoolers, preschools, AND Kindergarten classes for those kids who are behind.
Hooked on Phonics. Teacher finds slightly different use – By Book Dork
Hooked on Phonics is a program traditionally used with younger children and older ones that are struggling. As a fourth-grade teacher in California, I have decided to use it for a new demographic, for a Spanish-speaking student new to the United States.
It can be difficult to provide these students with one on one help during the day, given the large number of students I have in my class. My student is very eager to learn English and as is her family, some of which speak English (these people will help her with the instructions).
Before giving this kit to my student to borrow, I reviewed it extensively and watched many of the lessons. I was pleased to see that it worked at a logical pace, covering the basic sounds through more advanced (-at in the first lesson of the kinder kit, moving to -ck in the last).
While many Spanish sounds are similar to English, there are some differences as well. The workbook and reading texts are easy to use and provide great pictures that support the text (this will be key for my English learning student).
The instructions are easy and clear, and the DVD is very simple to use. I really like that each kit includes a tougher, more plot-driven picture book as well, that exposes students to different types of punctuation.
Content-wise, I believe that this kit does a good job covering letter sounds, blending words, and vocabulary development (compound words are even covered in the last lessons).
Whether this is meant for a younger child or one like mine, an English learner, I don’t believe that this kit should be the primary mode of instruction, but does serve as a great supplemental to a teacher and classroom.
It’s just okay. There’s not enough practice – By A. M. Selbyon
We have the kindergarten set for my 4-year-old, and she wasn’t grasping the concept of blending sounds together just by watching the video and looking in the book. I feel like there’s something missing for kinesthetic learners. Watching a DVD is not very interactive, and there’s just not enough practice in the book.
Sure, I could make her watch the DVD over and over again, but since it plays the words in the same order every time, she can just memorize the order of the words rather than actually decode them. And if she doesn’t grasp the concept of blending sounds, then going to the book isn’t going to do her any good.
So, I came up with flashcards for her, and it has started to click. I will write the ending sound (-at) on one card, and the beginning sounds on other cards.
When I introduce blending the beginning sound with the ending sound, I will sound each one out separately and then begin to bring the cards closer together while putting the sounds together faster and faster until they blend together.
Then I will say the word. I do this with each word in the family. She usually wants to do this too, after we make all of the words. Then we’re ready to play games. We’ll play games where I will put the beginning and ending sounds together, and she reads them.
Then we’ll play another game where I scatter all of the beginning sounds out, and I tell her a word. She will find the beginning sound and put it in front of the ending sound. This is really the same idea as the DVD, except that it’s hands-on.
I came up with this after a week of struggling with the DVD, and she started to understand almost immediately. I also wrote all of the words on a set of flashcards and I will flash the whole word and ask her to read it.
This all sounds like a no-brainer, but I wonder why H.O.P. doesn’t include flashcards or at least encourages the idea of making your own cards.
Get It Right Now – By Mikeon
I am not going to go into detail about this software because many others have done so. But I will tell you this — I have always been a skeptic about “Hooked on Phonics.” Nevertheless, I wanted to get my son, age five, up and reading on his own. I decided to give this a shot, so I got it for Christmas.
I told him that it was a new computer game with which I needed his help. I ran it with him the first time and while it is somewhat simplistic (maybe that’s the key!), he blasted right through the first lesson and was really happy about doing so.
He now asks me if he can help me more with “my game” almost every night when I get home from work. Then he asks if he can read a book to me before bed, rather than the other way around. If that isn’t the mark of a successful product, then I don’t know what is. I will say it again — get it, right now.
A must-have for Kindergarteners not yet reading – By Carol in Virginia
Frustrated by the fact that my 6-year-old still wasn’t reading, I took a friend’s advice to buy this kit. I’m SO glad I did! My daughter has had such a great time working with the program (which was a bonus to me) and she’s now reading.
Her Kindergarten teacher recognized she had gained 13 letter sounds and 6 points in spelling with just three Hooked on Phonics Chapters.
Worked for my delayed child – By hapaon
My youngest started this just before he turned 3. He could only stand to watch the DVDs which we did almost daily but forgot to watch often enough. We didn’t bother with the workbook.
I couldn’t tell if he was learning anything because he didn’t speak much and was hard to understand, but we watched the videos until he went through it all and we got the first-grade set. Shortly before his 4th birthday he was watching my oldest, first grade at the time, do his language arts online.
A five-letter word appeared on the screen and to my surprise, he shouted out the word before his big brother could. I was so excited I shouted for my husband to get upstairs. This went on several more times.
My husband pointed to the word Africa on our puzzle map and asked him what it said, my little guy looked at it a few seconds and then plainly said “Africa” as easily as if he could talk the whole time.
The mistake I made was to switch to “teach your child to read in 100 days”, which is actually excellent as it worked wonders for my daughter, but my youngest son is either stubborn or impatient to learn from a book.
It felt like we were trudging through the mud because he could be so resistant and obstinate at times. He could read he just didn’t want to. What can I say? I was trying to save money. I am now using hooked on phonics with him again and invested in the Grade 2 set.
Big Jump from HOP Pre-K to Kindy (How we solved it) – By Mayflower Girlon
I bought the Pre-K set about a year ago for my daughter and she loved it. Even though she already knew most of her letters and sounds, it was a wonderful program. Every day, she wanted to do Hooked on Phonics. We breezed through it in about two months. So, I then ordered the Kindy set for this fall.
It’s a big leap from the end of Pre-K. We took about a week for each lesson, and I still don’t think she was getting it, so after lesson three, I put it away.
Then, in an email, I received a code for 5 weeks free of Reading Eggs (online phonics program). I used Click-n-Kid phonics with my older kids, so I was familiar with online reading programs. I just didn’t expect Reading Eggs to be so wonderful.
She zoomed through it… and within the first week ( a group of about 10 lessons), she was back at a HOP level. By the end of week two, she was reading sentences like, “Can the cat see the bat?” I *then* went back to HOP and used them together. That worked wonderfully. She also enjoys using Letters and Numbers for Me
If your child is having trouble making the leap from Pre-K to Kindy, I highly recommend trying a different program. It might make all the difference.
A Complicated Approach to Learning to Read – By Jennifer Spinner
It’s easy to see the appeal to this approach – stickers, books, DVDs – but I can’t help feeling that it’s just too much.
We had great success using the far simpler (and less expensive) approach found in Alpha-Phonics. You could keep it even easier with Ruth Beechick’s method found in The Three R’s.
Now, if you LIKE a more involved method, or your child/children respond to incentives such as stickers for learning, this is definitely a solid program content-wise and has worked for many, many children. The key is knowing HOW your child learns in order to determine whether this program is for your family.
You might find helpful a copy of Better Late than Early by Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore before trying any early reading program.
Recommended, with reservations.
Hooked on Phonics Books
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