[teamommy]

I think what might be meant by complete is teaching all of the phonograms including all of the sounds they make, and all of the spelling rules.

A program that says they use phonics can be teaching rules like "when two vowels go a walking the first one does the talking" (which is not a good rule because it doesn't work all of the time), or just teach one sounds for /ea/ when there are really three (explode the code uses two), or only two of the sounds of /ou/ and assume the kids will pick up the rest. Or they can teach the rules that will fit most if the time, with fewer exceptions.

I think explode the code is more of a supplement than a stand alone program. I always see it in LA programs as part of a program including other things.

Spalding (WRTR), Spell to Write and Read, All About Spelling, are all Orton-Gillingham based phonics and teach all of phonics. I think Reading Reflex is similar. Winter Promise is pretty close to this approach with their LA; they use a variety of things.

Ordinary Parent's Guide and Phonics Pathways are also thorough, but they are slightly different in that they don't teach the sounds of each phonogram all at once, and they work more with word families (ETA: at least OPG is, I think PP is also).

I haven't seen Hooked on Phonics.

I don't believe all kids need all of that phonics. I never had that as a kid and did not need it for reading or spelling. However, as an adult, I find my pronunciation of unfamiliar words is a lot better now that I have a better understanding of phonics and syllabication (from teaching my kids).