There are many ways to customize the pace of Foundations. If you find that your student is overwhelmed, we encourage you to adjust the pace to what works for you and your student. This may mean that you take more time to complete lessons to meet the needs of your student. Keep in mind that mastery happens over time and will vary from student to student. The most important thing is to consistently work with your student to help develop reading and spelling skills. 

Tips to Slow Down

1. Avoid setting goals of how many lessons to complete per week. Instead, set a time limit each day. Stop the lesson when the timer beeps and pick up where you left off the next day. 
2. Take a short break from new instruction and spend a few days reviewing concepts through games and activities found through Foundations. The additional practice will help to strengthen foundational skills before going on.
3. Make sure you are playing the games in the Foundations lessons. Though these may increase the amount of time spent on lessons, they make learning more joyful and help to make concepts stick better in the brain.
4. Begin each lesson with a review of previously learned concepts in the areas your students struggle with the most. Play a phonogram or high-frequency word game. Reread a Foundations Reader or activity pages from the Foundations Student Workbooks. If your student needs additional handwriting practice, play a handwriting review game.

Slowing down the pace and incorporating additional practice will develop mastery and help keep the student (and parent) from getting overwhelmed.

Priorities When Setting Your Pace

Phonemic awareness and phonics are foundational skills for learning how to read and spell.

• Practice basic skills daily, especially phonograms and high-frequency words. 
• If your child struggles with skills on the assessments, take time to complete the practice ideas provided in the assessment.
• Mastery of every skill assessed is not expected before moving forward; however, it is essential to continue practicing weak areas.
• Lesson pace and the amount of time to spend each day depends on the particular child or class. 
• Consistency is important! It is necessary to provide daily instruction and not allow too much time to pass between lessons.
• The best way to build reading and spelling skills is using short, frequent, varied, and fun practice. 
• Trust your sense of how your student is doing!

For information on the suggested pacing of Foundations, check out our article Typical Pace through Foundations.