Rating: 
Summary: Schools should use this method!!!!!
Review: Yes, I will agree with other reviewers of the book... it IS boring, for the both the child and the parent, but that is only because the author has made reading sooooo easy! Learning to read can be very frustrating and subsequently children are turned off to reading. This book makes it anything but frustrating! The step by step method is so simple. By the 20th lesson my daughter was so excited to sit down and do it because she COULD READ! Which is very exciting for any child. I HIGHLY recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and stupendous aren't good enough words
Review: Wonderful and stupendous aren't the right words to accurately describe this book. We started with this book the first weekend in April. Although, the book says to work over 100 days i.e a lesson a day. When my daughter got to lesson 14 which ends with the sentence, "see me read", she was demanding to do 2-5 lessons a day!! I had to limit her to 5 lessons because I thought she was getting information overload. We completed the book in 45 days. We are going through the book again because I want to be sure the lessons are firmly cemented in her head. We are doing 10 lessons a day this time around. She wants to do the book again in August this time just reading the stories. I never knew how easy it could be to teach my child to read. I never knew how eager and aggressive she could be to learn how to read. there aren't enough words to describe what a difference this book has made.
Rating: 
Summary: Only good for the very Young
Review: I have a 3 year old, a 5 year old, and a 7 year old. It didn't really work for any of them, and I was extremely bored by the program. My seven year old has some learning disabilities and has struggled with learning to read. A friend recommended this book so I decided to try it. It does say up front that it is not for struggling readers, and it definitely is not. My 7 year old did 30 lessons in about 20 minutes and was bored to tears. She also found the wierd way of writing confusing. My 5 year old who will start Kindergarten in the fall wanted to try it, but she too was bored by the constant repetition. She already knew most of the sounds and letters anyway so something more like real reading would be better for both of them. My 3 year old enjoyed his time with me and was proud of himself for the sounds he could master, but I found the program very tedious so I don't plan on continuing it. There are ways to learn that are more enjoyable. Why turn them off to school before they even start.
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Summary: So SIMPLE! Really Works!
Review: Our 4 year old daughter is now reading simple senteces and we are only on lesson 34. It takes about 20 minutes a day. Very easy to use, just follow the word-for-word script. She will start school this fall reading on a 2nd grade level!
Rating: 
Summary: Great for some, not for others
Review: I purchased this book to teach my 3 yr. old son to read based on the recommendations of several friends who had great success with it. Children do read words successfully very early in this book, and that is enough motivation for some to finish the program. My son was proud of himself during the first 10 lessons or so, but his enthusiasm dwindled by the sheer repetition and lack of hands on learning. While I do believe we place too much emphasis on entertaining children in education, there was nothing fun or even interesting in these lessons that made him want to come back for more. He was also troubled by the heavy use of phonetic symbols and creative spellings - they just didn't look like the words he normally sees in books. After 25 lessons, we switched to a different method that is just as good (or better) and that he actually enjoys. To each his own.
Rating:
Summary: I learned to read with this book
Review: When I was 3 my mother taught me how to read with this book. When I entered kindergarten, I was already reading on a 2nd grade level. Now that my son is turning 3, I intend to teach him with this same book.
Throughout my life, I have always read at a higher level than my peers, and by sixth grade, was reading novels by Stephen King. I feel this book is the reason I have always enjoyed reading so much. I hope I am as succesful with my son as my mother was with me.
Rating:
Summary: The best learning experience I've ever offered a child.
Review: The people who put this material together were working with a solid phonics beginning and trying to satisfy every learning style possible. If you have the time to sit down with your child for ten to fifteen minutes at a time (longer for older kids,) then you can teach your child to read. I was loaned a copy of this book when my daughter was 4, she was reading Swiss Family Robinson and KJV bible by the time she was 6. I recommend it to anyone with a bright, willing preschooler or a 1st or 2nd grade child needing remedial work, the results are worth so much more than the cost of the book!
Rating: 
Summary: Repetitive, boring, pace too slow, not comprehensive enough
Review: I purchased this book after it was recommended by a friend, ...The advantage of this book is that it has a strong emphasis on phonics. The disadvantages I found are:
1) The lessons go at a very slow pace, are extremely repetitive, and cause boredom for both child and parent.
2) The pages are way too cluttered because the child's reading lessons are on the same page as the parental information. Approximately 20% or less of the page contains the actual reading lesson for the child. This visual clutter can cause problems for distractable children.
3) The recommended teaching style is too rigid. Reading is fun, but my oldest child didn't think so after going through the first few lessons in this book (we gave up after lesson 4). It's not possible to adapt the pace of the course for a brighter child like my youngest.
4) This book teaches only beginning reading skills and doesn't cover a lot of advanced skills. If your child manages to get through the "100 Easy Lessons," he will still only be a beginning reader. I much prefer "Alpha-Phonics: A Primer for Beginning Readers" by Samuel L. Blumenfeld. It is very easy to use and you can adjust the pace to your child's individual ability. It has 128 lessons, but you can go quickly through the first few lessons if you have a child who already has some reading skills. The "Teacher's Manual" is at the back of the book, so the pages your child reads will not be cluttered with unnecessary words. I also very highly recommend the "Bob Books" series. They are small readers for beginners and are completely decodable using skills the child knows. There are 5 sets of them and they start out very simple (one to three easy words on each page) and gradually advance by adding one or two new sounds at a time. I have tried "phonics" readers such as Scolastic's "Phonics Ready Readers," but the Bob Books are far better for beginning readers. Bob Books cost [a reasonable amount] for a set of 8 to 12 small books, but they have been worth every penny because they gave my child who struggled with reading the confidence he needed. I recommend buying "Alpha-Phonics" to teach reading skills and the "Bob Books" to give your children reading practice with books they can read successfully, even as beginners. Enjoy reading with your child!
Rating:
Summary: We wish we had found this book earlier
Review: We are a homeschooling family and when it came time for my daughter to begin kindergarten, I asked several other families what they had used to introduce reading.
We have found this book to be absolutely wonderful. The stories are engaging and the system really works. My daughter is reading the books like "Green Eggs and Ham" (listed as continuing reading sources in the back of the book) with ease now and has not even completed the whole school year. We did one lesson a day, and she quickly mastered the new sounds. I wish we had found this resource earlier when she first showed an interest in reading. We tried "Sing, Spell, Read & Write" for preschoolers, but it was MUCH more expensive and MUCH less effective. This is just a great program!
Rating:
Summary: No stress, no tears--this program WORKS!
Review: This phonics based reading program works! I was a little skeptical at first--and very nervous about teaching my son to read. I was very afraid of "doing something wrong" and hindering his progress. This book is a very gentle and wise introduction to the world of reading. The lessons are extremely easy for me to present, they are short and hold my 6 year old son's attention. He was reading simple words within the first week, and just beams now that he has had a successful beginning with reading. We are on lesson 48 now and each day he calls everyone in to hear him read. I love it! The text and the notations look weird and at first I was put off by the "scripting", but now that I see how successful my son has become at reading, and how much he looks forward to his daily lessons, I'm a believer! The book states the lessons take about 20 minutes a day. I haven't found this to be accurate. Most days we finish in well under 15 mintues. Stick with this program, and I'm sure you'll have a new reader in your home within weeks!
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