Has anyone used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons?

Jen&Len

I am not a home schooler, but we didn't sign DS up for anything during the summer and I wanted to do a little something with him every day.  DS is 4.5 and we are starting to teach him how to read.  He knows his phonetics well and understands how to sound out words.  I taught him a little without any resources, but I am not sure how to teach the exceptions and combo sounds.   At his request one day, I wrote out a list of 50 or so 3-letter words off the top of my head.  To my surprise, he could read them all fairly easily.  He isn't very fast at words he isn't familiary with and tries to guess the word before he finishes sounding it out.  That is totally fine and understandable...I just wanted to give some background.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons was recommended to us because it had relatively short lessons.  I work, so I only have an hour or so between when I get home and when I need to get dinner started. I just got the book and briefly perused it. I noticed that the first few lessons taught phonetics of each letter. Is it okay to skip to a lesson further into the book or would the later lessons not make sense?  I also read in reviews that kids have a hard time with spelling the words when using the method in this book.  Is there another program that would help with spelling?

hayleydeee

Once I saw a homeschool forum thread about what people most regretted buying, and I was surprised to see how many people listed that book. Most people didn't really give a reason their than the kids got super frustrated and/ or bored. 

Have you looked into the Explode the Code series?  

baby_mama88

I personally have not, but a friend said it worked great with one of her boys but not the other...so i gusse it depends on the child. And if i were going to do it i would start at the begining and reward for each lesson finished with a bigger reward for finishing 10...that kind of thing. To keep him encoraged when the lessons become more difficult. Good luck

gaftgirl

I love, love, love Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington!!!!

Littlejen22

If he is ready and I mean really ready versus you want him to be then I would just get books lik Bob Books or if he gets more advanced the Step into Reading level 1 books and have him read. My son started reading at that age and is a very advanced reader finishing first grade but I personally do not think you want to sit him down with lessons on how to read and exceptions. That are a first grade skill. Let him read and when he stumbles over a word you can try to teach the rule if you feel necessary or just tell him the word and consider t a sight word.

mikescutie7

I was homeschooled starting in 2nd grade, but before that my mom taught me to read when I was 4 using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I can still remember how much I enjoyed learning from it, and my mom made it even more enjoyable by giving me rewards each time I learned 10 lessons, with a grand prize when I finished the 100th. To this day I love reading, can't get enough books, and was always ahead of other kids in my reading level. I can't wait to teach my own kids some day using that book

Five Lives

I have taught my children using it. I have never had to use all 100 lessons. It has worked well for all of my children so far. My fourth is now partly through it. What I like about it is that it tells me exactly what to say as the teacher. That eliminates some frustration for me. I do not like that the letters the kids learn to sound out are so different from the ones they learn to write (although they are easy to decipher, and look similar to typed letters). The lessons are short and easy to get through. My kids have liked it pretty well, and three of them are fabulous readers. (The fourth is still a beginner.)