Rating: 
Summary: Every child needs this book
Review: We used 100 easy lessons as a tutoring program for at-risk 1st graders and it worked like a charm. I trained high school students and volunteers in the program delivery and they would use the book 1-on-1 with the first graders. The 1st graders loved their individual tutoring 3xs a week and when we measured their gains after 3 months we were amazed at their growth. Not only did we see huge improvements in phonological awareness in the 1st graders, we also saw even great gains in the decoding and PA gains of the 9th graders who were the tutors. At the end of the session we showed the gains that the community volunteers and the high school students obtained and it was amazing. They were so competitive with each other. I keep about 50 copies on hand, so I can give them out to parents in the community who want to help their child.Chris Jones
Longwood University
Rating:
Summary: Great Book! One suggestion
Review: This book is wonderful! My son who is 5 years old is halfway through in three weeks. Yes, three weeks! In the beginning he could not read any words except for the words Yellow and Red - and his name:) One suggestion that I would HIGHLY recommend is that you start out making sure that when your child sounds out the letters such as "L" to not sound it out like "La" or the letter "D" as "Duh". My son had a hard time in the beginning reading Old because he would say O la dah. Also, what I did that REALLY helped was tell my child to sound out EACH letter slowly and listen to what he just said and then say it FAST. (slow - fast method works VERY well IF you tell the child to listen to himself and then say it fast WITHOUT trying to guess what it says). Many times they do not know the word or never heard of it so...naturally, it confuses them:) Occassionally, if I felt that it was getting harder for him, I would go backwards without him knowing. This way he would not get frustrated and lose his interest in reading. Homeschooling with this book has been a real blessing!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Have completed 8 lessons so far with our 4.5 year-old and she is sounding out simple 3 letter words on her own. It's easy! Each lesson outlines in script form exactly what you say and do, and what your child must say and do. There are even scripted explanations of how to correct mistakes. All you need is the book, a pencil and some ruled paper. Caveats: You MUST do 1 lesson EVERY day for 100 days. No skipping days or lessons. You MUST read and understand the introduction and "teachers guide" before doing any of the lessons, or it isn't going to work. The good news is that the lessons rarely take more than 15 minutes to complete, including preparation time.
Rating:
Summary: It Works--Thoughts and tips from a dad who taught his 3 kids
Review: Overview: The book does what it says, pretty much. In just 100 lessons you child should learn to read on a first-grade level. Not just decode words, but read and understand. The lessons are generally easy. I wondered how the book would get across difficult concepts such as short and long vowels and letter sometimes having different sounds. These are worked into the lessons just like everything else-a little bit at a time and in the right order-and they were no problem. There are no big concepts to teach, facts to memorize, etc. Some parts of some lessons might be difficult, but the concepts are broken down into pieces and taught over several lessons, so there are no stumbling blocks. Just 10-15 minutes for a lesson each night. Other Books: I can't compare this to other books. This was the only one I could find when I started to teach my children and so I've not seen any others to compare it against. I know one book has a title of 20 lessons. After my experiences, I don't think 20 lessons is enough to learn anything useful. My Experience, Child 1: I started with my oldest when she was 5. I was learning about how to do this while she was learning how to read. She was (and is) strong-willed and got upset easily when she had a problem. With the book's method, when the child makes a mistake you just tell them what they should say and let them try again until they get it right-very little pressure. However, my oldest would get frustrated when she could not get it right the first time. She would get so frustrated we would had to stop in the middle of a lesson and start over in a day or two many, many times. We also did not have a lesson every day. When she started kindergarten, I stopped the lessons because of the problems we were having and the fact that she was learning phonics in school. However, what she did learn gave her a head start and helped her. My experiences with my other two children showed that her experience was an exception. I think the problem was my lack of experience and her strong-willed nature. If I had it to do over, I would have continued the lessons though kindergarten. Child 2: I started child 2 when she was 5. I had learned a lot from my first attempt and we did just fine. I did not remember to give her a lesson every day so it took a while to finish. We were only at 50 when she started kindergarten but we continued anyway. Starting at about lesson 60 or so she really seemed to catch on and each lesson got easier. She is now reading on level 3.2 half-way through first grade. Child 3: I just started child 3 when he was 4 1/2. We are at lesson 25 and he is doing even better than child 2. We are having lessons almost every day and he should be finished when he is 5. Tips: 1. Skip the "Writing Sounds" section of each lesson. This is the last part of each lesson where the child writes the letters they are learning. My first child had a problem with the "Writing Sounds" part of each lesson. She spent more time on this that the rest of the lesson and got frustrated with it very easily. On the advice of an elementary teacher, I started skipping this. She did better after that. I skipped for my other two and they did just fine without it. It does help reinforce learning the sounds, but it is a lot of effort than can discourage the child for a small return in learning. 2. Be on the look out for typos. There are quite a few of them in the book. There were all in the words for the parent, so it's not too bad. Most of them are words in the wrong color-red verses black. 3. Don't be too literal with reading exactly the instructions the parent is supposed to read to the child. In particular, the phrase "Don't get fooled" appeared a lot. This got old very quick and didn't apply anyway so I started leaving it out. 4. The book teaches pronouncing "was" as "wuz." This is an acceptable pronunciation, but I believe that "woz" is more correct. (And I'm from Alabama.) I taught mine to say "woz". You might want to do this also. (This is one of the few words like "is" and "said" that can't just be sounded out.) 5. The hardest thing for my children to learn was the leap from saying the sounds in a word to saying the word-from s (pause) a (pause) m to sam. This is really the only hard thing in the book. If you child has a problem with this, work on this with them. Tell them to try to keep saying one sound until they start the next one. They will eventually get it right. It took my second from lesson 15 until about lesson 40 to get this right. With my third child I knew this going in and emphasized the "rhyming" and other parts in the first 20 lessons and he picked it up a lot quicker. 6. Before you start, read through a few lessons throughout the book to get a feel for how the lessons progress. This would have helped me a lot with the first child. 7. Don't get stressed. It really is 100 easy lessons. If your child has a problem, feel free to backup a few lessons. 8. Try very hard not to skip days. This was really a problem with my first two. I've been better about it with my third and it seems to help.
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Summary: Learning to Read and Loving to Read
Review: We just began teaching our four-year-old how to read using this book. She's the sixth of seven children and the sixth child to learn to read from Teach Your Child. We have never used another program to teach reading or even to suppliment this program - we get them through this book and then turn them loose on real books. Our oldest two (twelve-year-old twin girls) have been reading Plato and Aristotle and similar books for the past two years and easily discuss what they have read with their father, an advanced-degreed college graduate in philosophy and religion. Both girls read Gone With the Wind in less than two weeks and came away with insights far beyond what you would expect from a causal reading - much less such fast reading. My other readers are younger and are still reading more typical children's books, but they still are reading far above their grade levels. All of them love to read. But this is not to brag about my children. They are smart, but *not* brilliant. They learned to read well right from the start. Teach Your Child To Read gets a child reading words quickly and sentences soon after, so he or she is rewarded with success right away. As another review wrote, "easy" probably isn't the appropriate word. It is work - for the parent who must learn to "read" his or her child's fustration level and know when to encourage the child along or be willing to take a break for five minutes or even a week, and for the child, who may be learning to stick with a task for the first time. The biggest turn-off for me the first time I went through this book were the goofy stories. But now that we are going through them yet once again, I'm enjoying listening to my older children get excited over the stories again as our newest reader reaches their favorites.
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Summary: Wonderful resource for a child with learning disabilities!
Review: My husband and I were extremely frustrated with resources that were made available to our daughter at her school. We decided to home school since we saw our daughter giving up in her class due to the difficulties she was having because of dyslexia. After a month of research, we realized this method was a one-on-one version of the highly recommended Distar program. We have been using it and had amazing results!!!! Our daughter is learning to read and is excited about reading! Despite her challenges with dyslexia she is becoming a true reader and comprehending what she is reading. Many students have the ability to read without having learned each individual step, this is not always possible with a learning disable student. It is difficult to develop a love for reading when the child is struggling with each word. Learning to read requires consistent, disciplined work, so don't let the title mislead you into thinking this is a "quick fix." You still need to work, but know that this program is effective! I am a teacher and I specialize in learning disabled children. This is a GREAT program!
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Summary: This book has not hampered our love of reading.
Review: This book helped my three year old DECODE the first couple of books in the Bob Book series after just 10 lessons! My daughter and I have had fun making these lessons our own "one on one" game time. Children who know how to figure out "code" but have no skills in enjoying a book or comprehending it do not have this book to blame. A book or program can not replace a living example (parent or teacher) who is excited about reading and makes reading an adventure. A parent who reads to their child often will give their child a glimpse into a world full of adventure... and this book helps give the child their own key to that world.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the way to develop a love of reading
Review: Yes, the method used in this book has been used in countless schools and yes, it can help children develop reading skills...however....nothing and I do mean NOTHING could be more boring than this method of reading development. I am an elementary school teacher and a parent of 2 boys. I can tell you that in my experience the best method for teaching children reading skills is to read to your children books that they LOVE and that you LOVE and then begin reading them together...in time your child will develop a love of reading because it brings JOY to them and they will value the tiem spent with a caregiver who loves to read. Synthetic, hybrid literacy development systems such as those produced by SRA are boring to children and adults. They develop an odd sense of "being able to read". The child can DECODE, meaning they can figure out the code, but I have had countless children in my classes who can decode but have NO skills in enjoying a book, understanding its meaning, being really interested in the work of an author or gaining pleasure from the whole reading process. I encourage parents to not opt for the band aid of this type of reading program and opt for reading excellent quality children's literature with their children. If you are unsure of how to do this in a way that can help your child...try reading the very inexpensive book....The Magic of Reading by Mem Fox. This will give you everything you need to help your child become a literate and book loving citizen.
Rating:
Summary: Give your child the gift of reading
Review: I think this is a great book for younger children in particular. I have used it with various ages. The youngest began at two-and-a-half and was reading by three-and-a half. I have taught three of my boys to read and now use this book for remedial readers at school. I am not a teacher. This book is simple and easy to follow. I have had success with other 5-7year old beginning readers. As the book has the child sounding out words and then sentences and stories - children get really excited and confident.
I believe every child can read. The earlier you start the more your child will enjoy reading. You shouldn't have to read to your five year old - let them read to you!
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Summary: He's a READER!
Review: I want to start by saying that this program should not be used by a child who already knows how to read and is having trouble...it's used to actually teach a child to read by the assumption that they are not familiar with sounds. That said, my child was reading words in less than 30 days using this book. He could easily finish a Dr. Seuss book with little/no help at all. His eyes actually glowed with the excitement of a new sound being introduced and it became fun for both of us to see his progress. You have to be consistent with the lessons but what I like about it is that it tells you (the parent) EXACTLY what to say while instructing your child. I can tell you as a parent that if you are willing to take the 20 minutes a day and use this book, your child will be reading in no time.
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