Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Rating:
Summary: Daughter Doing Well in School Because of Reading Skills
Review: I used this book to teach my daughter to read the year before she was SUPPOSED to enter Kindergarten (she missed the cut-off date for school by one week).

After teaching her to read in "100 Easy Lessons," I was able to have her tested and SKIP Kindergarten when she was finally old enough to attend. She is now in the same grade as all of her friends. As a second grader this year she was recently tested into the gifted program. I believe that she has remained ahead of her class because of the reading skills she brought with her when she started school.

The book is broken down into simple chapters making it easy to keep a child's interest. I love the phonics and wish I had this book when my second son was starting to read!

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Summary: My 4 Year old is reading - this REALLY works!!!
Review: When my daughter came to me at the age of 3 and wanted to read, I thought, "No way!" I pushed it off until she had her 4th birthday and then bought [a diffrent]curriculum. It didn't work. I thought she just wasn't ready yet - she was only JUST four. A couple of teachers recommended this book to me. I was VERY skeptical - to say the least. I thought, "How is this SO different" and, "If it is so [inexpensive], how can it do the job?" I decided to give it a try anyway and when I got this book, I put away the old curriculum with all the bells and whistles and started this with my daughter. We do a lesson a day (including weekends). About lesson 40, she had a bit of difficulty but she pushed through it and is now on lesson 60 and reading wonderfully. She is 4 years and 3 months old. When we are in the car, she is busy sounding out all the words on all the signs she sees. She loves reading books with me. I am truly amazed and so happy for her. I have an 11 year old who was never taught to read phonetically (in public school) and has always struggled with reading and hates it to this day. I wish with all my heart I had been able to teach her with this book. Reading is a very special gift to give your child, to share with your child. Don't take it for granted that they will be taught the correct way. Buy this book. Help your child. You won't regret it!

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Summary: Marny G
Review: I bought this book for my son when he was four. It has made him become a very advanced reader. He was at a second grade reading level in Kindergarten. Now that he is in the third grade he reads books at a Junior High School level. I can not say enought about this book. My son also does extremely well on spelling tests and I believe it's because he learned to read at such an early age with this book. I highly recommend this book to teach children to read.

Rating:
Summary: teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons
Review: This is a truly great book. I am not a teacher but a mum who believes in the gift of reading. My son did not have any difficulty picking up the phonics concept using the British Letterland books but I was struggling to find an approach that would work for my daughter.
I started her with this book at 2 1/2 yrs - a time when she was happy to mimic my sounding of the letters. We had great fun and it gave her a great sense of achievement when she could very quickly put the sounds together to form words.
I liked to roundedness of the program - not only the introduction of the phonics but the reading comprehension and the associated writing skills.
Having the teaching mode written in red was enormously helpful plus the consistency of execution of each lesson gave us a routine to fall into. She did the program at her own speed - some days we didn't do any at all, others we tackled two lessons. By lesson 75 she was eager to try out regular books and has been going from strength to strength ever since.
At 4 she had a second grade reading level and is climbing ever higher. It is a joy to see her read and understand the questions in her other work books and tackle the work without me having to read or explain it to her.
I have bought or recommended this book to all my friends. It takes some effort on the part of the parent but its precious moments of development and bonding.
I believe a child learns best from a responsive adult than a tape or video any day.
Please give this book a try it's the best [money] I ever spent...

Rating:
Summary: Not for Me or my Son
Review: 3/16/2001:
I wanted to teach my just turned five-year-old daughter how to read, but her current selection of books and educational software was just not meeting the challenge. Sure, the Winnie the Pooh, Blue's Clues, My Personal Tutor software, etc did an excellent job of motivating her and teaching her the alphabet. She really enjoyed all the Dr. Seuss and Winnie the Pooh books, but all these resources were just not cutting it in regards to getting her to read by herself. After extensive trial and error this is what I found work for my daughter.

I found Reader Rabbit's Complete Learn to Read System and Curious George Learns Phonics invaluable at teaching her to sound out her words all by herself. One small note on Curious George Learns Phonics, my daughter did not like the software. It actually made her work for once, so I usually had to be nearby to answer any questions. I would recommend using Reader Rabbit for a few days before introducing Curious George.

After about a week or so I began using the flash cards included in Reader Rabbit to have my daughter memorize beginning words. I would also have her write the words in her notebook. I particularly found helpful the list with Reader Rabbit on which order I should have her learn her words.

When I felt she should probably be ready to read very easy sentences I had her start out with Bob Books First! Level A, Set 1, although I would highly, highly recommend the entire set. Bob Books seemed to be the only books easy enough for my daughter to read by herself and progress at a reasonable rate. She loves the books!

I have some final thoughts. Firstly, the Reader Rabbit and Bob Books are fine quality products but are a bit overpriced in my estimation. They are STILL well worth the investment. Secondly, you would think there would be some product or resource out there to help teach your child to read. I needed not generalities but a highly specific course of actions. I was quite disappointed in that respect, but I would be interested if such a product or resource exists.

Updated 11/28/2002:
It's been two years now and it is time to teach my son to read. Apparently, Reader Rabbit Complete Learn to Read System is no longer in production. That is too bad. It is very good educational software.

Still, Curious George Learns Phonics is the sleeper education software in existence. It's not perfect and the kiddies tend not to like it. However, it is challenging and teaches them phonemic awareness very well.

I have tried "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" due to several recommendations from individuals reading my reviews. I used it with my son and I didn't like it. Subsequently I was informed from first grade teachers (my daughter's included) and my education courses that apparently research shows that coded words (Distar conventions, e.g. e with a line over it, double oo, like the pronunciation key of a dictionary) teaches kiddies to read best. I discovered this first hand when my daughter brought home her homework to code some words. I didn't have a clue how to help her. Maybe it's just a case that daddy isn't smart enough to help his daughter.

I found myself already using some of the techniques from "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" that I had discovered by trial and error worked with my kiddies. In any case, I still haven't used the book.

I have finally found a set of books to use after the Bob Books are all used up. I found the kiddies needed a little more structured practice before they where off reading whatever we have around the house. It is the "Now I'm Reading" series by Nora Gaydos. Again, not exactly cheap, but hey, what can I do about it?

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Summary: THE BEST book on teaching reading....
Review: Don't buy this book unless you REALLY want your child reading 2nd grade level within 4 months. I used it with my 10 year old, and am now using it with my 5 year old. It is unbelievable how easily it gets the child learning sounds and reading words. Of course, it doesn't teach phonics "rules", but they can always learn those later. The point is, the child WILL be reading at a very comfortable 2nd grade level, even starting as early as age 3 or 4. We spend maybe 10 minutes a day per lesson. It's awesome! And then it even tells you how to teach them other sounds after you are done with the book. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: I was very disappointed
Review: I was really looking forward to using this book to teach my five-year-old to read. I thought it was just goofy.

1. What is not mentioned anywhere in the reviews or descriptions is that it uses an "invented orthography." That means this book has made up symbols for some of the sounds. The letters are a different type or size to show different sounds. Then when a child has mastered these made up symbols, they have to transition to regular print! It seems like an extra, unnecessary step. It was very confusing for my daughter.

2. There is no allowance for children who have mastered some of the letter sounds, or already understands the concept of sounding out. My daughter was so bored with the first lessons, but there wasn't a way to skip ahead, because the child has to be trained on the weird way this book presents the sounds to make use of the later part of the book.

3. It presented the sounds in an order that did not make sense. Long E was one of the first presented, short E wasn't presented until 2/3 through the book. It seemed arbitrary.

I have looked at a lot of reading programs. I thought this one was a waste of money.

Rating:
Summary: Ignore the slow start, this book really works!
Review: This book starts painfully slowly, but my advice is "hold on." At first, I couldn't stand the agonizingly plodding pace. And it wasn't just impatient me. My three year old didn't see the point of saying the list of words as slowly. But we gave it a chance anyway, after all the good Amazon reviews and marketing hype on the book itself. By a quarter of the way through, we began to look forward to reading time. One small addition I made to the scripted course was to invite in stuffed animal guest teachers (see suggestion 1 below). It worked like a charm.

I love the way the parent's part is scripted. The script turns anyone who can read into a patient, supportive master teacher! I love the way all sorts of short activities make up each lesson - very balanced. Best of all is the way this book's lessons touch all the bases. They connect letter sounds with words with stories with writing and finally, with reading comprehension, the point of the whole exercise. I really appreciate the short stories and the picture from the story with discussion questions. Now that I've talked to some teachers, this balanced, comprehensive approach is a perfect way to start a child reading. It doesn't lack any aspect that they will use later, or emphasize one to the exclusion of the others.

I didn't expect the writing, but I am very happy that it's in there. I bought the book for my three year old, but I am putting my 5 year old through it too, because it is so complete and methodical.

When I first saw the phonetic alphabet, I thought it was a little strange. But my child has no trouble recognizing the joined "sh" symbol as an "s" and an "h." And the "sh" is a single sound in his mind, as are "s" and "h." The notation caused us no problem at all, and I only mention it because another reviewer found it problematic. We did not. Likewise, I wasn't disturbed by short e not being mentioned sooner. Who cares? The order presented was gradual, and as logical as any other.(Although it led to a lot of stories about ants.)

I would also offer a few suggestions:

1. If your child loves his or her stuffed animals (or Power Rangers, etc.), then you can use them to be "guest teachers." When I started with this book, I hadn't yet come up with this diversionary tactic, and sometimes working through a lesson was harder than it needed to be. With a beanie baby teaching, my three year old is far more interested in the lessons. My boy picks which animals will help each night, and then he listens intently to them. They help sound out words, rhyme, and watch him write. They are much more interesting than old Daddy, as they are allowed to have excessive personality! When it is time to find certain words in the story, my son doesn't like to just point to the requested word. He prefers to race the beanie-baby guest teacher to the words. (The beanie baby invariably loses.) When it is time to write letters, the beanie baby counts them in Spanish. And so on.

2. Check out some of the "We Both Read" books to supplement toward the end of this book. The "We Both Read" series has a complicated left page for the adult, and a simple right page for the child. You take turns reading, and continue the "reading together" experience beyond the 100 easy lessons.

So after a slow and frustrating start, which in retrospect was absolutely necessary, we both look forward to our daily reading time. We brought in the beanie babies to inject the missing element of fun. I know Matthew will have a solid foundation in all the parts of written communication, and Matthew likes the fact that his favorite stuffed animals are teaching him to read.

Five stars. Awaiting "Human Relationships in 100 Easy Lessons."

Rating:
Summary: It's just a "get started"....
Review: Although I've had success with this book, most people think this is a complete phonics program...it's not. It is a GREAT way to get your child "off and running" with reading. If your child has had difficulty with any other phonics program, use this to get them to start reading and then integrate back into your other program if you're happy with it. Most aren't structured to get them started reading, just to continue with reading. This book gets your child started and builds confidence.

Rating:
Summary: Very easy to use
Review: My 4-year-old (who has a rather short attention span) is learning and enjoying it from this book. I started using this with my older son when he was already beginning to sound out some words- he picked it up very quickly after that. The short, visual, already set-up (and descibed in detail) lessons have been a wonderful help to him, and strong guidence for me. I do not remember learning to read- I learned early enough that my earliest memories are of novels. I had no idea how to teach a child to sound out words- this has been a wonderful help- and is so detailed it tells you exactly what to say and do.