I am always on the lookout for things that can help in areas where my kids struggle. I was very pleased to be able to review the Foundations level from Logic of English. David is finally ready to read and write this year. Instead of pushing him to read when he was not ready, I waited. I’m glad that I did. It’s going very well and he loves Logic of English. I was a little worried about starting at the Foundations level since he’s 7 and in 2nd grade, but he loves it and does all of the activities.
This level of the program is recommended for children 4-7 years old. Foundations is a complete reading, phonics, spelling and handwriting curriculum that is fun for early learners. I received a hard cover teacher’s manual ($38), a matching soft cover student workbook for manuscript ($18, also available for cursive), phonogram flashcards ($18), student white board ($12), tactile handwriting cards ($28), the Rhythm of Handwriting reference chart ($10) and 2 sets of phonogram games cards ($10 each).
This is David’s workbook. We did one lesson per day. Each lesson took less than 20 minutes. The teacher’s manual is very easy to follow, you just read what they have for that lesson. I did not have to do any prep work at all for the basic lesson. There are also suggested games and activities that are very easy to prepare. I loved that aspect of it! David has learned about what sounds letters, and combinations of letters, make. One of the activities has the teacher sound out a word and the child puts it together and tells you the word. Sounds simple, but this was huge for David. He has trouble sounding out a word when he’s looking at it, but had no trouble when I was having him listen to me without him looking at a word. It was great practice for him to listen to each sound and properly put them together. This simple step has helped in tremendously when reading. Each lesson has a corresponding tactile flashcard. He loved these! He could look at how a handwriting stroke or letter was formed and run his finger across it’s rough sandpaper-like image. This was also another great feature for him.
Each lesson also included working with the white board. David loved practicing on here before doing it in his workbook. He was able to practice the lesson big on the whiteboard with no pressure of doing it wrong. When he was ready we moved to the workbook. The white board is big and sturdy. There are also smaller lines on the other side.
The lessons start out with teaching strokes that come together to form letters instead of writing each letter initially. He learned about 4 different strokes before actually making letters. I was a little leery about this at first. This was a totally different approach than I have used before, but I went with it. He learned them with no questions asked and could write them and name them. He was so excited when he put them together to make a, d and g. His letter formation was great! He also carried this over to his math, where he recognized the same strokes in this numbers and started forming them correctly!
I am very impressed with this program. I’m glad I chose this level for David, but it would also be great for a 4 year old who was ready to start. This program is well researched and makes so much sense. They also have other programs for reading, handwriting, grammar, spelling and writing. They also have a fun phonics app for iphone and ipad. Click on the banner below to see what the TOS Crew had to say about Foundations and other Logic Of English products.
We Can Hackett 
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