Joyce Herzog is a teacher that has authored many products over the past two decades. I am pleased to be able to review her Scaredy Cat Reading System Level 3 as part of my participation on the Schoolhouse Review Crew. This product promises to teach most basic phonics concepts, comprehension, word building skills, and spelling.
What’s Included and How Much Does It Cost?
You will receive a Teacher’s Manual, Student Activity Book, 2 Audio CDs that contained the scripted lessons (transcripts are included in the Teacher’s Manual as well), and a Fun Learning Pack which includes several games and flash cards with words and phrases that are taught in the lessons.
The Scaredy Cat Reading System Pack with Story of Letter Master mini and Reader included retails for $100. Additional Student Activity Books are$30 and would be perfect if you have more than one child using the program, or if you’ll be reusing it when younger children are ready for it. You can also purchase additional readers for $, and the optional supplement, Read and Draw which has 20 different stories that your student illustrates for just $15. (I really want to get this for my daughter, because she LOVES to illustrate things!
Who Should Use This System?
Anyone with a child learning reading can use this system. There are multiple levels available, and I would say that the level my daughter worked on (Level 3) is most appropriate for 1st or 2nd graders. If you are wondering where to place your child, check out this placement test.
I love that the program teaches to all learning types. Children will listen, read, participate in activities that are hands-on, and verbally respond to the Coach. Through lots of practice and fun methods of learning, it is easy to help the student thrive and master the material.
Scaredy Cat Reading System
PROS:
- The lesson guide for the teacher has a TON of suggestions. Before instruction even begins, there are dozens of suggested games and activities, as well as specific guides on how to teach the Scaredy Cat way.
- Plans are provided to help keep instructors on track as far as scheduling lessons and activities in the Daily Menu Plan.
- Each lesson begins with instructions for the coach, including what will be reviewed in the lesson (and if it was covered in past levels of The Scaredy Cat Reading System), what will be taught, and suggestions for implementing the lesson through various activities and casual evaluations.
- Each lesson has an audio script available, so coaches (parents) can read it aloud to their students or there is also an audio CD available for each of the lessons that will take care of that step for you! I love this because I can let my daughter listen to the lesson while I’m helping another child with their schoolwork and know that when I come back, she’ll be ready to participate in some learning activities.
- Practice words and sentences are included for each lesson in the teacher’s guide.
- The Student Activity Book includes a Mastery Chart for you to fill in when your student masters a skill within the reading system, so it’s easy to quickly see what has been achieved and when.
- Review games are suggested for each lesson in the Student Activity Book. They use flash cards included with the system and/or common household items, and there are many different types! Kids shouldn’t be bored with these games, because there is so much variety. I love the creativity in this!
- There are tons of worksheets available in the Student Activity Book to engage students in the material. I love that there are traditional worksheets, plus there are games and word puzzles for extra practice. I feel that these are not all necessary to complete each lesson, but for kids that really enjoy doing practice pages, it’s an awesome option. I liked these, as well, for extra handwriting practice.
Cons:
- As the Coach, you will have to learn a new method of teaching your child how to read. All of the tools are contained within the program, but it will take a little bit of reading and preparation on your part. While it is mostly open-and-go, there are some activities that will require more preparation than others.
- You won’t know exactly how much time or planning that will be needed until you dive into it. Each child learns differently and will need a different amount of practice through the worksheets, games, and activities. This isn’t really a bad thing, but if you were hoping to devote X amount of hours per week to reading and get through it all within X amount of weeks, you may have to be a little more flexible, depending on your student!
A Final Word
We enjoyed these lessons. My daughter had never done such a fun reading program before and had been jealous of her brother’s reading lessons in the past. She is more used to a scripted read and write sort of phonics and spelling lesson, so the games and activities included in this really excited her! We went through the lessons quickly, and I was able to have her do many of the activities with her brothers, so it saved me a little bit of time when I had to take a break from teaching to put the baby down for a nap or to prepare dinner. That’s another reason I loved the audio CDs of the program. They saved me a bit of time as well.
I liked that I was able to schedule the lessons and work on them how we wanted. It’s very flexible, and I was even able to work on many of the activities on the go, while in the car and in waiting rooms. There are no complicated supplies required, and Grace was excited to work on it because it was so much fun. She loved the word puzzles and games.
I can’t wait to finish this program with my daughter. I know that I’ll be purchasing another Student Activity Book for one of my younger boys to use in another year or two when they are doing the program, and probably the Read and Draw resource for my daughter. It looks like so much fun, and is a perfect learning companion!
Ned says
you get to review some of the best programs Jenn!