Your Fun Fonix books have been just what I have been looking for. I have 2 grown children as well as a 5, 4, and 2 year old. I had trouble with my two oldest children going into kindergarten knowing too much and becoming bored. I know that things change, and gave it a month with my 5 year old son. I saw the signs and we decided that the only way we would be able to preserve our sons interest in learning, we must home school. He is now beginning level 2 readers.
My four year old has been having trouble with articulation and because of this he is having trouble creating sounds needed to associate with letters and letter combinations. He gets so frustrated. He is doing better since I have been working with it over the last two months and I've realized that only practice will help. There is no medical issue, we've already checked.. lol

I understand many of the issues that educators face and do not envy you. I completely enjoy teaching my children, but I can only imagine how difficult it must be to do a larger group and with time constraints.
Thank you so much for all the work you have put into this and it is working for my four year old son. My 5 year old enjoys doing the worksheets as well.
Christine

Thanks for joining the forums and I'm really glad the materials have been helpful.

Homeschooling is such a different dynamic. Both parties feel a little too comfortable saying what they really think. However, it's also awesome to get to share growth, triumphs, and time together.

Good luck and again thanks for sharing your successes with Fun Fonix. It's very encouraging on this end.

Out of curiosity, how did you come across the site?

What was it that you initially liked about the site that made you stay?

Originally, it was the funfonix because you had everything so nicely put together and saved me a ton of work, but I must say that it was the rest of your site that made me stay. I liked the way you had several activities for the different word groupings. I didn't printout any of the flashcards because of the ink consumtion... I did printout most of your worksheets, handouts and game boards though. I have an inkjet and a laser printers. We try to limit our injet cost and use it only for color printing. I printed the handouts and game boards in color and the rest in b/w. I use the handouts more as flash cards and I just cover the other pictures with a piece of paper. I have the words written out on sentence strip and they have to find the matching word in the desktop pocket chart after saying it. This works since I am only working with two children. We then use these words with our regular sight words and create silly sentences and stories.
What really increased my interest in your site was the fact that my 4 year old does speak his own language and I thought it was worth trying this approach. He has a huge vocabulary and taking this route to show him things he already knows and adding the words to them in a group format is working. I've even printed out the words to some things and taken him to some of the rooms and taped the words on the objects. He had a ton of fun when we did it to our bodies... lol Can't wait until our visit to the zoo next summer. We've only been doing it for a week now, but it is most definitely working. He is now interested in how I say the words and is copying my mouth movements to make the sounds. It's as though something clicked in him. Oh, a bonus... Daddy can finally understand most of what he is saying now and doesn't need Mommy or big brother to translate.

As to your other comment about homeschooling: I have a pretty open but strict household. I have had my two grown kids share a little more information than I would have liked, but they were never afraid to talk to me and that was a good thing in their teens. They didn't feel the isolation that many other teens go through. It's been fantastic for us to share our lives and the closeness we have. I must say that seeing that "I get it" moment in your own child is absolutely priceless.

One other thing, and I don't mean to be a pest since I am sure you have already been bugged about it...... Any thoughts on when we might see #4 in the funfonix?.....
Thanks again, I can see that you have invested a great deal of time in this site. Your hard work is helping so many, and even folks like me that were not your target. I might even be able to help you with some mini stories as I go through the sets. One of the things we do is to make up stories using the words of the week. They may not be ideal, but they might be something you could use as a spring board to build upon.
All my best.

Again, that's great to hear and I could certainly use a few short stories in the reading section

Fun Fonix Book 4 is next on my project list. I keep putting it off but December (it may take into January) looks good. I have all of the images finished. I have updated most of the other sites with new content. I just need to decide on a format for the new book. That's been my biggest dilemma as I have been wanting to add something new or change up the activities in the next books.

However, since nothing has really hit me, I plan to just start working on them and hopefully some revelation will dawn on me. If not though, book 4 will look much like book 3

I'll do my best to get that out as soon as possible. You are not the only one that's been asking about book 4 ...