Memoria Press Phonics Curriculum Review

If you're looking for a thorough phonics program for your young student, Memoria Press has one called First Start Reading . The teacher's guide retails for $29.95 and the Student Set is $22.00.

Although this is for the Kindergarten level, I have been working through it with my daughter who recently turned four. She had already started to read very basic words, but I had yet to come up with a phonics program for her. I like that one of the aspects of this program teaches her to write the words that she is learning to read. I believe this builds literary confidence.

This curriculum focuses on three important skills:

1. Pencil grip and correct letter formation (although I personally choose to use a different handwriting style, I don't think it's going to interfere in the grand scheme of things by using this one for my preschooler.)
2. Mastering one sound for each consonant and vowel first
3. Mastering short vowel sounds, 3-letter words, and 45 common words. (taken from First Start Reading)

I'm very glad we were able to review this program because I think a solid phonics foundation is so important. I previously used a phonics program with my older son when he was in Kindergarten but was not interested in using that with my daughter because of all the worksheets involved!

This program uses one very basic worksheet per lesson with an accompaying coloring page. Additionally, this phonics program uses the vowel-consonant approach (which I prefer) combined with word families rather than the consonant vowel blending approach (you may be familiar with the ladder approach with this style.) (Here is an example of what I mean by this style.  My daughter initially learned the sound of "a" then "n" and combined those two sounds to read "an". From that she learned to read the words man, ran and fan.)

My daughter really enjoys using her new phonics workbook.

We also were given a copy of the Classical Phonics book to review which retails for $14.95. I am using this book with my 1st grader as it is appropriate for Kindergarten and 1st grade reading levels. I have found it to be very thorough and wondeful for teaching various phonics rules. Basically, this book consists of phonetically-arranged word lists for students to practice which enhances their reading fluency.  "In a word list there are no context clues, so the learner must rely on his mastery of letter sounds. For instance, if your child can pronounce each word in this list correctly – pot, pat, pit, put, pet – he knows his short vowel sounds, and you can move on to long vowels! If not, he needs more practice...." (taken from Classical Phonics) 

I would suggest using Classical Phonics in addition to any phonics program you may be currently using. It is a wonderful tool to measure your child's mastery of phonics and it "covers nearly all English phonograms and sounds taught through second grade." (Classical Phonics)

These resources are wonderful and we will continue to use them throughout the year. If you'd like to read other reviews, please check out what my fellow TOS crewmembers have to say about it.

Memoria Press also offers Greek, Latin and French curriculum as well as complete curriculum packages.

If you have any questions, you may contact Memoria Press at 1.877.862.1097.

**Disclosure: I was given the First Start Reading curriculum from Memoria Press to keep in exchange for a candid review.