Guide to the Advanced Books
The following is an outline of the subjects that will be covered in the new, upcoming Advanced Books. Also indicated is where the subjects can be found in our existing "old" books.
NOTE: This is not set in stone. We reserve the right to change the order of the subjects for optimum presentation. (When we are knee-deep in the revision of a book, we may find that a certain subject is better covered in a different sequence or in a different light.)
New Adanced Book #1
Vowel combinations with the letter "Y"
(now available)
- Teaches the vowel combinations that include the letter Y: -ay (stay, day, etc.), -ey (they, hey, key), -uy (buy, guy), -oy (boy, toy), -oi (boil, coin) and -ye (eye, bye).
- Also teaches the three main spellings of the "ay" sound -- -ay (as in day), -ai- (as in rain) and a-e (as in gate).
- And indirectly teaches that "I", "eye", "pie", "kite" and "my" are different spellings of the same vowel sound.
New Advanced Book #2
Y endings in two-syllable words
(now available)
- Introduces the concept of syllables.
- Teaches that the letter "Y" says "ee!" in two syllable words such as pony, sleepy, candy, etc.
- Teaches that the first syllable is long or short depending on the number of consonants dividing the syllables. For example, in baby and lady, there is only one consonant between the syllables, so the first syllable is "long." For example, in bunny and candy, there are two consonants between the syllables, so the first syllable is short.
- Teaches the important, high-frequency words that break this rule (body, copy, pretty, etc.)
New Advanced Book #3
Crazy Consonants
(now available)
- Some consonants make different sounds.
- Hard and soft forms of the letter "C" (face, cent, etc, vs. back, cat, etc.)
- That the letter "s" often says "Z" (his, cheese, etc.) (Expanded version -- was taught slightly in our Beginner Books)
- Hard and soft forms of the letter "G" (got and hog vs. germ and cage).
- That the letter "f" sometimes says "V" (if vs. of). (Recap - was taught earlier)
New Advanced Book #4
Silent E Variations
(now available)
- Teaches the common "variations" of the Silent E rule.
- That the "i" is short in the words give and live -- and that live can be short or long.
- The the letter "o" often says "uh" when "pinched" by a Silent E, such as in the words love, come, done, etc.
- Teaches that the letter "o" also says "uh" in several important words that end in -er (other, mother and brother).
- Teaches that the first vowel is long or short depending on the number of consonants dividing the first vowel from the Silent E. For example, in gate and bone, there is only one consonant between the first vowel and the Silent E, so the first vowel is "long." For example, in rinse and edge, there are two consonants between the first vowel and the Silent E, so the first vowel is short.
- Teaches the important, high-use words that break this rule.
- Currently taught in the OLD Intermediate Book "Long Vowel Variations," which is Old Progressive Phonics Book #10 (the last book of the old Intermediate Phonics Books).
New Advanced Book #5
Double Vowel Variations
(now available)
- Teaches the different pronunciations of the "ea" vowel combination (meat, head and great).
- The different pronunciations of the "ai" vowel combination (rain, said, again).
- The different pronunciation of the "ee" vowel combination (seen, been).
- The different uses and sounds of the "ie" combination (field, cookie, pie). (Note that "ei" is taught in a later book.)
- The "qu" digraph and its use in words like queen, quit, etc.
- That some double vowels are actually sounded out (video, idea, diet, quiet,
- Introduction to homophones (same pronunciation, different spellings) such as sea/see, week/weak, tail/tale, maid/made, male/mail, etc.
New Advanced Book #6
"R" controlled Vowels with Silent E
(now available)
- The "are" sound (care, fare, etc.)
- The "ire" sound (fire).
- The "ure" sound (cure).
- The ""ore" sound (fore, core)
New Advanced Book #7
Double Vowels containing "W" or "U"That the letter "W" is sometimes a vowel.
(now available)
- The two different pronunciations of the "ow" vowel combination (grow vs. now).
- The "aw" and "ew" vowel combinations (draw, new, etc.)
- That the "ew" sound has different spellings (moon, cute, grew, shoe, move, etc.).
- The "ou" and "au" vowel combinations (e.g. count, out, house, haunt, cause and because)
New Advanced Book #8
"R" controlled Vowels with Vowel Pairs
(now available)
- The "air" sound and its different spellings (chair, care, bear, their and there). Also teaches "are" as an exception.
- The "ear" sound and its different spellings (clear, here, deer).
- The "our" sound and its different spellings (shower, our).
- The "or" sound and its different spellings (pour, poor, fore, for).
New Advanced Book #9
More "W" controlled Long Vowels
(Coming soon)
- Teaches the beginning of word "W" controlled vowels (word, work, want, etc.)
Currently taught in Old Progressive Phonics Book #13.
New Advanced Book #10Silent Letters(coming soon)
- Silent K (knew, knew, knock, etc.)
- Silent L (walk, could, half, palm, etc)
- Silent B (lamb, comb)
- Silent N (autumn)
- Silent H (hour, what, why, etc)
- Silent W (whole, who, wrist, write, etc.)
- Silent T (watch, catch, etc.)
- Silent D (edge, bridge, etc.)
- Silent C (scent, science).
These silent letters are taught in a variety of old Progressive Phonics books, but mainly in Old Book #13.
New Advanced Book #11
"gh" words
(coming soon)
- Teaches the many variations of the "gh" digraph.
- Silent forms (such as night, bough, through, though, thought, caught, etc.)
- When it says "F" (cough, rough).
- When it says "G" (ghost, ghetto).
Currently taught in the second half of Old Progressive Phonics Book #14 Part One
New Advanced Book #12
Plurals
(coming soon)
- Teaches plurals and the basic spellings and pronunciations.
- Teaches pluralizing a word that ends with a letter "y" (candy to candies, etc,)
Currently taught in Old Progressive Phonics Book #12.
New Advanced Book #13
Verbs
(coming soon)
- Teaches the basic concept of verbs, and the three basic "add-ons" -- "s" (he runs), "ed" (she jumped) and "ing" (the dog is running).
- The three pronunciations of the "-ed" add-on: as a "t" (jumped), as a "d" (dressed) and as "-ed" (waited).
- A very brief introduction to the subject of irregular verbs.
Currently, only partially taught in Old Progressive Phonics Book #12
New Advanced Book #14
Common Endings
(coming soon)
- Teaches the "en" ending (open, broken).
- Teaches the alternative spellings, "on" and "in" (wagon, melon, raisin, basin, etc.).
- Teaches the "le" ending (little, apple, title, etc.)..
- Teaches the alternative spellings, "el" and "al" (towel, tunnel, barrel, final, local, petal, plural, etc.)..
- Recap of the "er" ending (sister, tiger, etc.)..
- Teaches big, bigger, biggest. .
- Teaches happy, happier, happiest..
- Teaches "ly" and "ily" endings (slowly, happily)..
- Teaches the different spellings of "sh" shut, mission, nation, Martian, special, ocean, sure)..
- Teaches the two different spellings of "ch" (such, picture). .
Currently mostly taught in Old Progressive Phonics Books #15..
New Advanced Book #15
Punctuation Basics
(coming soon)
- Teaches the basics of punctation --what is a sentence, commas, periods/full stops, exclamation marks, question marks (and question structure) and quotation marks..
Currently taught in Old Progressive Phonics Book #15.
New Advanced Book #16
Contractions
(coming soon)
- Teaches the most common contractions in the English language (won't, can't, doesn't, I'm, I've, etc.).
- Teaches you're vs. your, and they're, their and there.
- Teaches apostrophes and possessives.
Currently taught in Old Progressive Phonics Books #14 and 15.
New Advanced Book #17 Syllables
(coming soon)
- To help kids be able to read bigger and better words, the rules of syllables are taught. Some points will be re-caps of rules taught earlier, but this is a complete listing of the essential rules of syllables.
Currently taught (but only partially taught) in Old Progressive Phonics Book #15.
