The Logic of English Foundations B is the second in a series of four books designed for children, ages 4 to 7, to learn to read.  The set includes the Teacher’s Manual, the Student Workbook, and eight readers.  The teacher’s manual ($38) and student workbook ($15), which can be purchased to teach either manuscript or cursive handwriting, are written by Denise Eide, and the readers ($12) are written by Kimber Iverson.  In addition to these materials, parents will also want to purchase Basic Phonogram Flash Cards, Rhythm of Handwriting Tactile Cards, Rhythm of Handwriting Quick Reference, Spelling Analysis Card, Phonogram Game Cards, Phonogram Game Tiles, and Logic of English Student Whiteboard if they have not used Logic of English previously. 

The assumption with Foundations B is that students have either finished Logic of English Foundations A, or have learned all of the sounds of the a to z phonograms and are reading short vowel words.  For those new to Logic of English, there is a “Before You Begin” section to review the vowels and their sounds.  This book covers a variety of topics including matching upper case and lower case letters, writing upper case letters, knowing what a sentence is, and reading and writing multi-letter phonograms, among other skills.

This program is ideal for homeschoolers even though it is also used in traditional schools.  It demystifies the process of teaching children to read. Each activity is specifically designed to help your child become a stronger reader.  As an adult who is a strong reader, I found myself teaching my daughter through this program and thinking, “Ah, that’s how it’s done!” or “That’s why it’s done.”  For instance, when I was in school, I was taught to clap out syllables to identify them.  This can be confusing to students, especially those just learning syllables.  However, Foundations B teaches students to count how many times their mouths open.  Each time it opens, it’s a new syllable.  Students are instructed to place their hands under their chins to feel their mouths opening.  Using this method, my daughter easily achieved a 90% success rate of recognizing the number of syllables in a word even as a beginner!  This program uses a variety of methods to teach children as illustrated above, so it’s perfect for all types of learners.  Some activities require students to jump when they hear a certain sound, other activities are games, and there are also workbook pages.  There is such a variety of activities that most kids will be excited to use this program every day because it’s not boring!  The book contains 40 lessons and 8 review lessons.  After every 5 lessons, there is a review.  If the student struggles during the review, Eide recommends that the student redo the previous lessons as needed until the review becomes easier.  For this reason, the length of time required to complete the book will vary.  We did one lesson a day unless it was a particularly long lesson or my daughter was not having a good day; then we did only half of a lesson.

My daughter, who is 7, has struggled with a speech issue and has already had 3.5 years of speech therapy.  For this reason, she’s been a reluctant reader.  Her speech issues made it difficult for her to understand the sounds when she was pronouncing them incorrectly.  I have tried many different reading programs with her, and she always resisted—until we used Logic of English Foundations.  She loves this program and the variety of activities.  She likes that she can sometimes do silly things or play games all while learning.   She really enjoyed the readers that come with Foundations B.  The stories were just challenging enough, and she thought they were funny, so she enjoyed them.

This program is a financial investment, but it is well worth the price, especially if you have a kinesthetic learner or a reluctant reader as I did.  Overall, we love the program.  However, I do sometimes find it difficult to keep track of all the little parts this program requires like the phonogram cards and tactile cards.  There are just a lot of pieces with this program. In addition, I find that there are more activities per lesson than I have the time or inclination to do.  However, this is a good problem to have because I can pick and choose the ones that will best fit my child’s learning style.  Finally, Foundations B starts with lesson 41, which may be confusing or annoying for those just starting the program.  Some may prefer that each level of Foundations start with a lesson 1 rather than just continuing on from the previous book in numeration.

Logic of English Foundation B is an excellent all-in-one program to teach your child spelling, handwriting, phonics and reading.  Because of the activities that appeal to a variety of learning styles, this program is suitable for many different types of learners.

-Product review by Melissa Batai, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June, 2016