Explode The Code Homeschool Review

Disclaimer:  This review is contains the opinion of myself and my own homeschooling experiences with this product.  I purchased this myself and was not asked by the company or any other person(s) to write this review.  My purpose of writing this review to help other fellow homeschoolers.

 

Explode The Code series 
by: Nancy Hall 
Educators Publishing Services

Price:  @ $9.40 per workbook
For 6 or more, the price $6.60 (classroom)
Also available online.
Recommended for grades K-4.


What Is Explode The Code? - 

This series has been phonics best seller for over 30 years.  It contains lessons to help children learn the necessary literacy skills needed for reading, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, spelling, etc. 

We use this at our own pace along with another Language curriculum.  We are on book 5 1/2 (seen in the picture below).

My son, who is 9 yrs. old, has Dyslexia.  We use this because it helps him visualize the word he is learning.  The workbook contains several pictures and he relates the word with the picture.  With traditional learning I wouldn't like this concept, but with his disability, it works wonders.  In the start of each lesson, (I am using the book above as an example), it gives the directions that are very short and to the point, which is what children of this age need to do on their own.  It shows the endings to some words and then there are several pages of different types of work to do to help the child retain these word endings.  For example:  In Lesson 3, it has words ending with -ild and -ind.  The child has to read the word listed, write the word and then write an 'X' on the picture of the word.  The student has to do 7 of these down the page. The next page has an entirely different worksheet but goes along with the -ild and -ind lesson.

My son seems to enjoy this type of work.  When we started using this curriculum a few years ago he was behind in reading, grammar and spelling.  But now, he seems to be catching up quite nicely where he should be.  This curriculum has given him the confidence to start a new page and even a new lesson on his own!

The website (EPS, listed above) has a placement test for the student to take if you are unsure of where he/she should start.  We started with book 1 and also used Beyond The Code, starting with book 1 as well.  I believe this is our 3'rd year using this.  Again, we use it with another curriculum.


EPS offers several different books for  grammar, spelling, comprehension, writing, handwriting, phonics, word study, etc.

What I thought -

I loved this!  Looking at the workbook it is all black and white inside.  I thought it was (at first) a bit dull.  However that is what my son needed!  He was being distracted by colored pages, colorful busy pictures, etc. and wasn't able to keep his eyes and mind focused on the words.  This is a great curriculum for young elementary children - highly recommended!