Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
My six year old learns best with systematic lessons. He needs plenty of review and baby steps forward, to help him feel confident in his learning. Because of this aspect of his personality, PRIDE Reading Program has been a great fit! He was excited to see the different components of the PRIDE Reading Program Level Kit and get started using it.
After a quick placement test, we discovered the PRIDE Beginning Consonants Program Set was the level he was ready for.
What Is the PRIDE Reading Program?
Based on the methods of Orton-Gillingham, PRIDE Reading Program is designed to help struggling readers master literacy skills. It contains engaging multi-sensory activities, and plenty of repetition that some students need to learn.
We received a Student Kit and an online Teacher’s Guide. The Student Kit contained a student workbook, PRIDE Reading Cards, and a colorful poster.
The online teacher’s guide is scripted, so you will always have the examples you need. Setting up for lessons each day is really simple. When you open up the teacher’s guide, each section is in an orange box. The black are items you do, and the blue is what you say.
The student book has worksheets corresponding with the lessons. There are activities, such as finger tracing, and identifying the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. You didn’t always complete an entire worksheet in one lesson, so it’s important to pay attention to the order of things in the Teacher’s Guide.
The Teacher’s Guide is an essential component. Without it, your child won’t have the systematic, sequential lessons that make this reading program work so well.
You’ll also find several sensory activities. My son really enjoyed this one. He was asked to put raisins along each letter, identify the letter and sound, and then eat the raisins.
How Did We Use the PRIDE Reading Program?
Four days a week, my son and I sat down to do his lesson. I typically kept the teacher’s guide on a tab on my phone, so I didn’t have to worry about setting up the laptop near by or anything.
Then we worked through a day’s lesson. Occasionally my five-year-old daughter joined in on the learning fun.
The lessons are designed to be short, and engaging. My son often wanted to keep going, I appreciated that the lessons weren’t full of fluff. Everything was directly related to learning letters and letter sounds.
There was emphasis on phonological awareness in each lesson. This really helped my son begin to learn the letter sounds better. Here is an example of the scripted portion for that activity. You’re asked to have your child raise their hand if the word you say begins with the letter they are working on.
By closing their eyes during this activity, the distractions are minimized and they can more easily focus on what they’re hearing.
Sound cards were also used frequently. We also used these for some additional activities, such as having my son hide them for my daughter to find, and putting them in alphabetical order. The cards are on quality card stock, and have held up well to lots of use.
There’s an empty storage box included, along with the box full of cards. We used the empty one to store the cards we were currently working with. That way we didn’t have to dig through all of them to pull out the right ones.
What Did We Think of the PRIDE Reading Program?
My son is learning his letters and sounds. He has been enjoying doing his reading lessons each day, and especially enjoys the sensory activities.
Here was another of his favorites. We filled a little pencil box with salt and he got to write each letter he was learning and say the sound. I don’t think our salt worked quite as well as plain table salt would have, but he still had a good time and practiced his letters.
Though I’m not normally a fan of scripted material, I do know that it is the best for some kids. My years teaching in special education classrooms helped me to see that the off-the-cuff examples and flexibility that some kids enjoy is not best for every learner.
I know this program would not be a good fit for some of my kids. But, those ones aren’t the ones struggling. For struggling readers, this approach is very effective. Especially when you take the time to do the lessons consistently.
All in all, I really recommend this program for kids who are struggling to learn to read.
