Phonics vs. Literacy

by Joy
(Oklahoma City)

I am homeschooling my daughters after twenty-two years of teaching first and second grades in the public school setting. My experiences have shown over and over that there is no SINGLE method that will teach EVERY child to read.

My oldest daughter learned with a phonetic approach, and she is an excellent and avid reader.

However, my youngest could not get the hang of phonics. When I switched her to a sight word and context clue method she really took off in her reading ability. Her spelling is still behind since she does not have the phonics rules to fall back on.

Most children do learn to read no matter what approach is used. The real question is: what method will be best for my child's learning style?