NOTE: Veritas Press has updated and drastically changed their Phonics Museum curriculum. It now has a cartoony look and lacks the lovely fine arts aspects I loved so much. There are still copies of the old edition available, and that is the only reason I have not removed this review.
I’ve been promising this review for quite some time, but I wanted to give our family plenty of time to use it before I told all of you about it. Well, after a year and a half of using it, I think I’m ready!
The product is Phonics Museum from Veritas Press. I chose it because I like a lot of what Veritas Press offers and I wanted a more structured phonics program as I was struggling to teach my 3rd child to read. (Note: My first child learned how to read with very little effort my 2nd child taught herself to read.)
I went ahead and purchased the Kindergarten/1st Grade Combo at my husband’s urging considering I had another child who would be entering Kindergarten at the heels of #3.
We jumped in full force and we loved all the hands on activities! There were art lessons and projects, art cards to hang in the museum and coloring pages that matched each art card, an alphabet bag to hold all the treasures we found that began with each letter we were learning, puzzle pieces to spell our words, and games to play. There was even a CD with lively songs to teach reading concepts.
But, my daughter continued to struggle, so we took a 2 month break and picked it back up after that. And she began to soar! At 7, she is fluently reading on a 2nd to 3rd grade level! My 6 year old has also started the program and he is starting to sound out words as well (a huge accomplishment considering his speech delays!).
So, let me share with you some of the pros and cons we have encountered, so you can make an informed decision about the product, but suffice it to say, for us, the cons were easily overcome and were not enough to cancel out the pros of the program.
Pros:
- Lesson plans are easy to follow and give you everything you need to know to teach with confidence.
- The Readers are incredibly engaging and interesting. Not your typical early reader fare.
- The use of art in the program adds a sense of beauty and wonderment to what can often be a dry subject.
- The coloring pages include a description of the art and the artist and often his or her religious views.
- The workbooks are useful and not full of “busy work.”
Cons:
- The Lesson Plans also include plans for private Christian schools, so you have to wade through some of that.
- Some of the songs on the CD are too difficult to follow for young children and a wee bit boring.
- Some of the games would be better played with the entire family. We had to drag a sibling or two in on some of them.
- The iron-on for the alphabet bag fell apart quickly. Surely it wasn’t my ironing skills.
- We skipped 2 readers due to the fact that we do not teach mythology to children this age.
- The photos while of nostalgic/vintage quality do depict a few things our family does not care for…a shell-clad mermaid and a hideous-looking witch.
All in all, Phonics Museum has proven to be worth the money I spent on it. I know I probably could have used a much cheaper method, but the most important things Phonics Museum provided me was accountability, structure, and consistency – something I had been lacking with everything else I had tried. Perhaps it was the fact that the program was interesting even to a 35 year old homeschooling mama and sometimes, THAT is priceless!
Honey says
Amy
Thank you SO much for this review. For each of my older children I had this on my list and then crossed it off. It is definitely on my list again for the twins kindergarten year (next year). Thank you so much for your informative review. I really appreciate it. I also loved seeing the images of the product, they were very helpful. I also know now to preview and protect my youngsters from certain things as well. Thank you so much.
Blessings
Honey
Amy says
Oh, I’m so glad! I wanted to really do an indepth look at it because I’ve heard people say the website doesn’t show enough to make an informed decision.
Kalani says
Honey- you can call Veritas and ask them if there are any stores in your area that carry it. The nearest was about 3 hours from me, but thankfully we were headed right through there a week later so I was able to stop in the store to actually see it before I bought it. The lady who owned the store had used it with her kids so I was able to pick her brain about it too, which was invaluable! Just something to consider if you, like me, prefer to actually look at something before you buy 🙂
~Kalani
Michele says
Amy! We used this too for my older son when he was struggling to read. My girls had done well learning to read, he was a whole new story and we had tried everything! We loved it as well, ignored a few pictures, and rejoiced when he started to read. My youngest is learning to read on his own, so I am trying to figure out how to fit this in again, just because I like it! ;). Glad you enjoyed it, it was worth the cost for this family for sure!
Amy says
Glad to hear your family liked it too!
Kalani says
We LOVE Phonics Museum! We have used it with our oldest 2 thus far & plan on using it for the next 4! I went to school when they had cut out phonics and were just using sight words, etc so I was VERY nervous about having to teach something I really knew nothing about. Thankfully this curriculum breaks it all down and I actually learned along with my sons! I always recommend Phonics Museum to other moms 🙂
Amy says
Yay!
Tara Burton says
I don’t know HOW I ran across this post since it appears to be a few years old but I am so glad that I did! I am trying to figure out how to help my son learn to read. My daughter did the ‘Phonics Road to Reading & Writing’ which we loved and are still enjoying. I stopped teaching my son phonics altogether 4 months ago & have been trying to figure out what path to take ever since! It seems like PhonicsMuseum might be perfect for us. I tried ‘100 Easy Lessons’ and hate it so far. I would love any feedback or encouragement you might have. My 7 year old is a typical wiggly boy with a very logical mind. Reading has been frustrating because if he doesn’t understand the why of something then it doesn’t stick. I feel like this approach might really work for him. He LOVES games and feeling like he’s accomplished something worthwhile. I’m sure therw is more I could share but do you think (based on what I shared) that it would be a good fit for us? Please feel free to ask questions if you think it might help me in my decision making process! It’s so expensive & I don’t want to waste time or $!
Tara 🙂
Amy says
I honestly don’t know. We’ve used it for 3 kids successfully and really liked it (I’ve tweaked it too). It is expensive, but I was at my wit’s end! You might try calling VP and asking questions of them and ask if they have a money back guarantee.
Tara Burton says
Thank you so much! I am at my wits ends with teaching my little boy. I’ll give them a call and see if I can get some questions answered. I taking for appreciate you taking the time to answer! I know your time is precious!
MJ @ Creative Madness Mama says
Are you still using this program now with your next ones?
Amy says
Yes! I’ve used it with 3 children so far. 🙂
Heather Y says
Thank you for the in depth review! How long would you say a typical lesson takes?
Amy says
Not long at all. At the longest 30 minutes, but most days it is more like 15.
Kerry Marsh says
I will offer an opposing view because it’s always good to get both sides. I think Phonics Museum is great IF you have a kid who is very verbal and would learn to read if you stuffed them in a closet for a year! If your small one has ANY tendency to struggle with reading, this program is AWFUL.
I used it very successfully with my oldest– a very verbal, natural reader and writer. It was great. Then to the second child, who struggled a LOT, but did read eventually. He is now a good reader, but was probably average learning to read. Then I hit child number 3. My DS, aged 12 now, is diagnosed dyslexic and we have been down a long road with him. I have learned TONS about teaching children to read, and I now look back at Phonics Museum and wouldn’t touch it again with a 10-foot pole. There are so many programs out there that teach children thoroughly, systematically and fully… and they are SO much less expensive. I have since used both All About Reading and the Logic of English with smashing success. I have several other children with dyslexic tendencies that I KNOW would have tanked with Phonics Museum.
So please be really careful before you buy this. If your littles learned to talk early and very clearly, can do all the pre-reading indicators like rhyme and separate words into the individual sounds with NO problem, and generally show good aptitude for verbal learning, then go ahead with Phonics Museum. Otherwise, PLEASE try something.
Kayla says
Thank you for this review! I did buy it but was having issues trying to figure it out. It makes a bit more sense now. And after reading the comments I think I did a good pick for my kids (myself.. not so sure about lol). I will be starting this with my daughter who just turned four, I am sure I will run into things she isn’t quite ready for but no worries since we will be doing this for kindergarten and first and if it takes a bit longer to go through than the other subjects that is fine. My son is already so interested in learning to read as well so hopefully some of the activities he is able to do. He is only 2 but he can sing the abc’s and dissect word sounds and is already starting to recognize letters. We also play board games all the time with both of them so he is pretty quick. I’m excited to jump into the home school world after years of research, hoping for the best with this curriculum! Thanks again!
oh and I appreciate the mention of mythology and the pictures, I will sure to be on the lookout and do plenty of prep work because we do the same thing in this house.
Louise O'Neil says
Not sure you will see this since this is a relatively old post… I am looking for a reading curriculum for my gifted 4 year old. I was wondering if you continued to use this and if you think it might work with an intense and active 4 year old who wants to learn to read.
Amy says
I do still use it! So far, I’ve taught 4 children to read using it. 🙂
Kat says
Thank you for your review! Scouring for more information on this curriculum! I appreciate your time!
Questions:
1. Is there a curriculum you used after the K-1 Phonics Museum program that was an easy transition for the next level of learning?
2. How do you feel about the handwriting component? Did you use it or did you incorporate something else with it? (It seems that it may be similar to BJU’s slanted handwriting?
Thank you!
Amy says
Hi Kat! I went straight from Phonics Museum to assigning reading-level appropriate books. I would have them read aloud to me periodically, but what I’ve found is that once they finish the program, they are ready to read on their own, and flourish from there without any extra teaching. I did not really use the handwriting because there just wasn’t enough there to make it a real handwriting course. We use Handwriting Without Tears.
Carrie D says
Thank you for this review, even if it’s been a few years! I actually called VP yesterday and asked them some questions, as I’m interested in getting it for my daughter this year. I asked the rep on the phone how long each day’s lesson takes, and she said “about one hour”. I almost fell over! I can’t devote that much time to it, and my little girl doesn’t have the stamina to keep a lesson up for an hour! (Who does, at this age?!) Now I saw in your comments that it’s taken you about 15 minutes each day. There is so little information on the web about this product. . . could you possibly detail a little more how it only takes about 15 minutes a day? The rep at VP with whom I spoke had never used it, so that may be part of the discrepancy. Thank you for any more information you can give!
Amy says
I really need to update this post because you are right, there’s not much info out there on Phonics Museum. While you can definitely spend an hour doing lots of “teaching,” I find that sitting side by side with your child and going over the pages together does just as well, and doesn’t require tons of time.