Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Reviews

• Great book - but don't fall for the 100 "easy 20min" lesson

  
  By A2E0JZ69HTXS5Z on 2000-03-13
  I had to write this after reading the rave reviews from parents of 3 year olds who taught their kids to read in 12 min. a night in less than 3 months. Don't buy this book if that is what you expect.

  Don't get me wrong this is a GREAT book. I highly recommend it. But, it is NOT EASY (at least not for every child).

  My nearly 5 begged "Please, please teach me to read Mommy". After about 20 lessons of this book she begged "Please, please I don't want to read". So we put it aside for a few months. When she asked to start again we started over at lesson 1 and went more slowly. We reviewed the previous lesson, did a new lesson, read a "Bob Book",played letter bingo. Some days we didn't do a new lesson - we just read a "Bob book" or reviewed an old lesson. YOU HAVE TO GO AT YOUR KIDS PACE. TAKE YOUR CUES FROM YOUR CHILD.

  We're on lesson 94. I don't know if she reads at a 2nd grade level and I don't care. She is reading and excited about reading - and that's what it's all about.
  
  

• This book is WONDERFUL!

  
  By AYUK7W0DRBZ8A on 2000-07-14
  I'm so impressed with how this book was put together. The lessons are fool proof for the parent, as they are written with detailed directions. New sounds are gradually worked into previously mastered tasks so that the child is never given more than he/she can handle (this does wonders for my daughter's reading confidence). Before you know it, your child is reading three and four paragraphs, and the process of getting there wasn't painful at all!

  One note: I have read other reviews from parents using this book with 3 and 4 year olds. Certainly, if your preschooler shows an interest in reading, this book is an excellent choice. But NOTHING will work unless your child is READY to learn, not even "100 Lessons." Reading readiness happens at different ages (like every other milestone in childhood), and we as parents must respect our children's personal timetables (difficult to do sometimes, I know). Hey, remember when WE were in kindergarten? We spent our days playing, painting, napping (do they even nap anymore these days). Reading came along in first grade, and many of us may not have been ready to learn until then.

  That said, buy the book and use it when your particular family is ready ~ ENJOY! :o)
  
  

• Ignore the slow start, this book really works!

  
  By A1URTS2WHS8LGX on 2002-10-25
  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."
  
  

• Former Kindergarten teacher wishes she had this book!

  
  By on 1999-06-11
  I taught Kindergarten for three years before staying home with our first child. I wish that I had this book when teaching those eager five-year-olds! I am confident that all of my students would have been reading at a second grade level by the end of their Kindergarten year. I have been teaching our 3 1/2-year-old daughter how to read using this book and I am very impressed with the results. From teaching experience I can tell you that there isn't much better than this on the market. It is fun, easy for anyone to teach, and most of all, it works! Don't listen to those advocates of whole language reading--this curriculum uses phonics and teaches comprehension also, which is equally as important. This book will be all you need to turn your child into a successful reader. So, if your child is at a place where alphabet recognition and beginning phonics are boring, get this book! It is worth much more to me that the it costs to buy, and we will be using it to teach all of our children to read.
  
  

• I was very disappointed

  
  By A2OR7RGFXN23NZ on 2002-11-01
  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.
  
  

• It works!
  By A3GM6V75MV5Q1Z on 1999-12-20
  I have now purchased two copies of Teach Your Child .... The first I purchased 7 years ago to teach my daughter. The second I purchased a year ago to teach my now 4 1/2 year old boy.

  The negatives associated with the book are minimal - yes, there are a few typos and the lessons are rather bland. But on the whole the books is beautifully layed out, with easy progression and ample repetition.

  I cover 2 lessons a night with my boy. The first lesson is a review of last night's new lesson. The second lesson is the next lesson in sequence. We spend about 30 minutes reading.

  My boy is on lesson 70 now and he is quite excited about his new ability to read words! He sounds out words on billboards or on the back of the cereal box and seems to get a big kick out of the process. Reading is opening up a new world for him and I know he enjoys it.

  As for my daughter, she entered school knowing how to read because of this book. I don't think the teacher believed me when I said she could read but I figured the teacher would find out soon enough. She did and adapted appropriately.

  Yes, being ahead of the game may have lead to some slow days at school for my daughter, but I'd FAR RATHER her to be ahead than behind! And you should feel this way, too!

  Truly, I believe that teaching reading to your child is one of the best acts of love you can ever give. This book accomplishes everything I had hoped for.

  After the lessons are over, you still need to find some easy readers for your child. There are few books around that are just right, but be persistent. Spend another six months with your child with easy readers and you'll find that your child will take off on his or her own after that.

  The overall time it took me to teach my daughter using the book was about six months. I expect the same with my boy. With my daughter, we went through the 100 lessons and then went back again through 60-100 to reinforce the earlier work.

  I think you can (and probably must) modify the lessons to suit your situation.

  Good luck!
  
  

• Great results with one challenge
  By A2CBXCRRNRGRR6 on 2001-02-17
  I taught my two boys to read with this program. The reading results were outstanding. In first grade, they both were reading on a 2nd to 3rd grade level or above. The only challenge I found later was that though this program teaches phonics (combined letter sounds, and multiple sounds for single vowels), it does not teach all the spelling rules. For instance, you teach that a silent e at the end of a word makes the vowel before it long, but there is never any mention in what e does in a word like "have" or "able." The e in "have" for those of you who don't know prevents the word from ending in v (no English words end in v), and in the word "able," it serves as the vowel for the second syllable "ble" (all syllables must have a vowel). The a in "able" is long because when a vowel ends the syllable as it does here being the only letter (one vowel can make up a syllable) it makes the long sound. My boys had trouble with spelling although they were good readers because they were not taught these rules along with the phonetic sounds. I am now using the Spaulding method which incorporates spelling with phonetics with my 6 year old daughter and she is not only reading well, but she understands the nuances of spelling. The Spaulding's book, "The Writing Road to Reading," (it may be under a new title) is put out by the Riggs Institute. I went back and taught these rules to my boys and they are now doing fine, but I believe I hampered them by not teaching them up front along with the phonetic sounds. (Wanda Sanseri, an expert on the Spaulding method, has a set of materials "Teaching REading at Home and School" in which she organizes the "The WRiting Road to Reading" in easily taught steps.)
  
  
• Repetitive, boring, pace too slow, not comprehensive enough
  By A20BPRGO03DSC1 on 2003-04-05
  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!
  
  

• Not the way to develop a love of reading
  By ALSGVIMKM5O3A on 2003-12-23
  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.
  
  
• It Works--Thoughts and tips from a dad who taught his 3 kids
  By A3NZMJ8SSU2UA7 on 2004-01-20
  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.
  
  

• I thought this was ok, but then I tried out another program
  By A2S95GMAP9F80P on 2004-09-01
  I learned to read with 100 Easy Lessons, and have taught many children to read using this program (as a tutor.) 100 Easy Lessons works, but it is boring - for the parent AND the child. A new program has come out, by the same author that is 100 times better - called Funnix Beginning Reading. The program is on the computer. There is no script to read ( the computer does all the narration!) it is animated and has two levels. Plus, students start out reading with regular looking letters from the beginning.
  
  Having used both programs extensively, I would try Funnix first!
  
  
• Not for Every Child
  By A73J1V4O2934Q on 2005-06-26
  My four-year old was *definitely* ready to read. I bought this book based on its high recommendations and apparent success rate with other young readers.
  
  And it was an abysmal failure.
  
  The lessons were too redundant, and started off WAY too basic. And of course, the intro warns of dire consequences if even ONE lesson is skipped... The strange characters were confusing to my daughter, who had already learned the shapes and sounds of each of the letters long before.
  
  As a parent, I found the psychology behind the scripts quite disturbing. For example, how is telling your child "I don't think you can finish this lesson without making X mistakes" supposed to encourage her? Maybe it would work with kids responsive to reverse psychology, but I've taught my daughter that I mean what I say, and that's just too hurtful a thing to say to her.
  
  We found this book to be dead, dull boring -- and it WASN'T because she was not ready to read. I researched other curricula and settled on Sing Spell Read and Write - Level 1, and started with that, and she's charging right through it.
  
  I'm delighted that this book works for some kids and parents. But if it doesn't work for your kid, be prepared to try something else entirely. You know when your child is ready to read -- follow his lead and find something that he'll truly enjoy (even if it's not this book)!
  
  
• Success after pre-school floundering
  By A28HO0FZDMHMPZ on 2000-07-30
  We had our son in a very expensive, "child-centered," private preschool using the overly-touted methods of the Italian town of "Reggio-Emilia," in Tuscany. These methods are pure "constructivist," which is to say, that the child is supposed to figure out everything for himself without being told - it is as though each and every child had not only to reinvent the wheel, but everything else as well, including the conventions of our written language. This way of keeping school is consistent with the non-methods of "whole language," predicated on the supposition that a child can learn spelling rules without having had them explained.

  Some whole language teachers go one step beyond, assuming erroneously that written English is somehow like Chinese ideographs, and word identification a process like reading Chinese. That is not how written English words are built or properly read. Failing to teach phonics systematically and thoroughly is disastrous for students. Such teachers were probably themselves mistaught.Such nonsense has been a staple in some (not all) schools of education, since the 1930s and earlier.

  Our son was not learning to read under this nonsystem, although he loved being read to, and showed in every way he could that he would do it himself, if only he had good instruction.

  Of course, we weren't told any of that. These were "professional educators," after all, keepers of the Sacred Secrets of Education, which were none of our business. Might we be thought impertinent for asking why things weren't working well, and why our son couldn't read? "Maybe he isn't ready," a politely expressed suggestion, with unfailing smiles, incidentally absolving the school and its teachers of responsibility. Of course, there was no evidence for that, only that our son was not reading. He could not, given their nonmethods of instruction.

  After an expensive year on this whirligig of illogic and smiling disinformation, our stomachs got queasy, and we headed elsewhere, onto the firm ground of Direct Instruction.

  I found this book on the Direct Instruction website (www.adihome.org) and bought it there, joining the Association for Direct Instruction (to get the discount, which makes the price about equal to Amazon's) and getting some of the other books listed on that site. We started our son on 100 Easy Lessons that summer and he was reading well before he was back in school (a public school), thus giving him a real head start and setting the stage for a successful school year - his new school could not fail him, because he had already succeeded in his single most important task, learning to read and write.

  The principal virtue of 100 Easy Lessons is that it gets the essential rules in place quickly and easily, when used sensibly and gently, with humor and patience. "Repeat until firm" is essential, but not when a child is falling asleep. The script is crucial, but does not absolve the parent from thinking. Use the book, but use your excellent head too.

  Written English has lots of exceptions, because it is an old language, with bits and pieces borrowed from all sorts of other languages over many centuries. The exceptions are a game to be played later, often quite amusing, once a child knows the fundamental rules of the decoding process.

  100 Easy Lessons focuses on the essential rules, not the exceptions. Yes, cereal boxes and public signs and newspapers and all sorts of things contain written words with which to practice, once a child knows how to sound words out. But first get the horse before the cart, phonics before context. This book does that splendidly.

  Buy it for your child, for birthday gifts and baby showers of your friends, for your grandchildren, and help wipe out illiteracy in America and the English speaking world. Ten Stars.
  
  

• Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
  By A8VTCBNQFUQAB on 2000-01-19
  Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is for real...it really happens. My child and I started doing the lessons together when he was 41/2 years old. We did 20-25 lessons and then took about a 6 month break. It is intense and only you can know when your child is in the right "stage" to learn. Actually, my child asked to finish the book and he was indeed reading fluently before he went to kindergarten. It focuses on phonics, but does include work recognition. The phonics component is great because the child does not feel stuck...he has tools to work through the word. I recommend it as a learning tool and a bonding time.
  
  
• This worked for my 2 year and 10 months old daughter
  By A2DGFWRCQAXJK2 on 2001-06-04
  Since my daughter was born, my husband and I have been reading to her every night. At the age of 2 1/2, there was nothing she would rather do than being read to. Also around that time, she started getting frustrated, because she couldn't say her favorite sentence "I can do it by myself!" regarding to reading her books. And she would frequently ask questions about different words she saw in books, picture cards, TV, etc. At that point I thought that, although a little younger, she might be ready to start learning some basics of reading. After doing some research and finding so many favorable reviews of the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Engelmann, I bought it, and started doing the lessons with my daughter. After just three or four lessons we quit, because she was was getting bored and could not do the rhyming sections, where after I said a word (e.g. "eat"), she was supposed to rhyme with a letter such as "m", and tell me "meat". Also she had a hard time doing the last section of every lesson, where the child is supposed to write two or three particular letters as an exercise. The love of learning is inherent in every young child who has not been discouraged in some way or another, and I do believe we should encourage them, but never push them. As a parent you know when your child is not enthusiastic about learning something or is getting bored, and for me that's always been the gauge to stop. If they are not having fun with a certain activity, then they should not be doing it, even if that means learning to read. Four months after having quit the reading lessons with my daughter, she started whinning again that she did not know how to read, and I decided to give it another try. Now we are in lesson 8 and yesterday for the first time, she read the words "mat" and "set" by pointing at and sounding out each letter. There were striking differences this time around, where now she asks me eargerly every day when we are going to do the "reading game". Few days ago, she also got the hang of what she was supposed to do on the rhyming sections of the book. For the letter writing section at the end of the lessons, I will prewrite the letters in dots, so she just has to fill them herself, while she says the sounds out loud. Also what might have helped her is that for the past few months she has been doing more activities with letters and words at her Montessori school, and also she has perfected her pencil hold whenever scribbling something in a piece of paper. We are not in a hurry to finish each lesson, and sometimes we spend two days in a lesson. Before I had to use bribes such as stickers or candies for her to join me for the lessons. Now I use lots of praise, hugs and high fives, and whenever she shows signs of boredom, I stop and ask her if she would like to continue the following day. Sometimes she says yes, other times she tells me she wants to finish the lesson. Besides the obvious wonders of having a child learning to read, also this "reading game" time has given my daughter and I a joyous bonding time together. I work full time outside my home, and I can't think of a more efficient and joyous way of using our precious time together. BTW, there are two other things I would recommend to complement these lessons: the "Bob Books First" (Maslen), where the simple black and white pictures will not distract a child from the real meat of the books which are the wonderful stories; and the award winning PBS Kids show "Between the Lions" and the show's website (http://www.pbskids.org/lions/), which contains lots of fun reading games for children just starting to read. Good luck to everyone.
  
  
• A total waste of money.
  By A27SLUHVR8E6O on 2005-10-10
  As an ESL teacher of ten years I know a lot about teaching children. However when I had a daughter of my own I wanted to make sure that I had the best possible materials and approaches to teach her to read. Because of its high reviews and sales figures I purchased "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Phyllis Haddox. As soon as it arrived and I opened it I regretted my decision to buy this book. It should be titled "How to Make Teaching Your Child to Read as Difficult and Boring as Humanly Possible." Anyone who wants to teach their child to read should forget about this book and its useless program. If you want your child to learn to read, teach him or her some phonics, buy the "Bob Book" series and jump right in and begin reading.
  
  
• Don't go there!!!!
  By AR9VLL5HLMCPV on 2006-05-09
  I am a kindergarten teacher in a school that uses Reading Mastery (SRA Direct Instruction Reading program). I hold a Master's degree in Early Childhood Education and am a certified Reading Specialist. I cringed when I looked at the preview ("look inside") of this book. I have been forced to use this program with my kindergarten class for the past two years - I jokingly tell my non-DI teacher friends that I am stuck in DI H - - - ! As a teacher I would NEVER recommend this appoach to the parents of my students. Furthermore, please be aware that much of the research that found this program to be successful was conducted by the people who developed the program. Much of the other research has found that the program is either marginally effective or not effective at all in the long run, some studies even found long-term negative results.
  Don't settle for this short-cut. If you only have 20 minutes a day to help your child become a reader don't waste that precious time with this program. Instead provide you child with a literature enriched environment, read often to and with your child, take them to the library (get them their own library card), use good children's literature and talk about what your are reading together. Don't settle for a 12 step program (or in this case a 100 lesson program) when it comes to something this important!!!!
  
  
• A real life saver.
  By on 2000-12-15
  I bought this book while my son was in first grade. The school he attended used phonics and whole language in an "integrated" approach. This sounded great at the outset... the best of both worlds. We quickly found, however, that this "integrated" approach meant a disorganized approach. After three quarters of first grade, my son still could not read basic words and ranked at the bottom of his class for reading. He was placed in a special reading group for children below grade level. Although my son received additional help, this special class was very hard on his self esteem and we eventually removed him from it and increased the time we spent tutoring him at home. We began using the book at the recommendation of a retired special education teacher. My son's reading progress was very slow at the beginning of the book and we became somewhat frustrated but continued on. After completing 70 lessons, things began to click. A foundation had been built. We completed the book and later bought several other books based on direct instruction methods. We have been enormously pleased with the results. My son was tested during the first quarter of second grade and placed in an advanced reading group of children reading at the third grade level. This progress occurred over six months!! If schools used this method it would markedly improve the literacy rate in the USA. Our 4 year old son is currently completing the book and now reads at a first grade level. Buy this book if your child is having difficulty with reading. For the price, it is a great investment!
  
  
• Big talk, little results
  By on 2003-01-25
  I borrowed this book for my daughter on a recommendation from a friend. I'm glad I didn't waste my money on buying it. The first item that bothered me was in the introduction. The authors claim that if teachers used this program and knew the proper way to make corrections, there would be no children with reading problems or learning disabilities. If this were the case, there wouldn't be thousands of Distar programs gathering dust on school shelves across the country. Strange that in all the years since Distar has been around, children still have learning disabilities.

  Despite my irritations with the introduction, I decided to give it a try. My daughter did not like it. She was frustrated with the orthography because it wasn't like the letters she already knew. She lost interest quickly.

  Instead of this book I would recommend The Reading Lesson: Teach Your Child to Read in 20 Easy Lessons by Michael Levin, M.D. and Charan Langton, M.S. Although it will take more than 20 days to go through the book, it is a logical and easy program for the child. My daughter loves is and there are easy stories to read during the lessons that keep her interest.
  
  

• Teach Your child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
  By A137BJGLEQ4VCB on 2000-04-10
  I used this book with my 5 year old. He finished all 100 lessons and now reads a different beginner book each night. The book did an excellent job of teaching phonetic sounds. It builds gradually and gives a child a lot of confidence. My son went from saying the sounds for M and S to reading 150+ word story in 3 months. He is so proud of his accomplishment and is becoming a strong reader. It does take persistence on the parents part to get through all 100 lessons but its worth it. If you think it is exciting seeing your child walk, you can't believe the thrill of watching your child read and knowing you taught him. Stick with this book and your child will be reading like a pro.
  
  
• For introducing reading or remediation at school or home
  By A209Y0K2D35BX8 on 2000-06-01
  Distar/SRA Cirriculum. Simple & easy to use. Very helpful for preventing decoding errors and for those with learning disabilities such as dyslexia.
  
  I was introduced to this program in my undergraduate elementary education training. I used it successfully to remediate a large group of elementary-aged children who were illiterate. Within 5 weeks, they were all reading fluently, at the end of a 1st grade level. My colleagues used it successfully to teach 1st grade students to read, with the same success.
  
  Fifteen years later, I was home schooling my own children, relying on it to un-do the "whole language" decoding reflex my children developed in the public school system. They were taught to memorize the way words looked, rather than to sound them out. I guess that might work, if we were studying Chinese!
  
  This system is phonetically based (as is 85% of the English language!). It is simple and easy to use, with clear instructions for the instructor, giving precise pronunciation guidelines for you to model sounds accurately for your student. There is little if any preparation time involved. Furthermore, letters of the alphabet that are commonly reversed and confused, such as d and b are set in different type. This helps eliminate a lot of decoding confusion for the child. I highly recommend it!
  
  
• Excellent, Easy-to-Use Phonics Program!
  By on 1999-07-14
  We have used this book for 4 of our children so far, and plan on using it for the rest. I recommend it to new home educating families who are just starting out and want to get their child reading.

  The book has a thorough explaination of how it is to be used, in the beginning of the book. Then, throughout the book, what the parent (teacher) says (your "script", as it were) is in red print. It is fun and sometimes nicely silly. We all really enjoyed it. Each lesson takes from 15 to 20 minutes to go through (just about right for a young one). Then there are a few "letter sounds" for the child to practice writing on her own paper or notebook. Your child will probably be like mine, in that he/she will be reading and perhaps writing short stories before he/she is even done with the book. There are suggestions at the end of the book for further recommended reading, or help if the child is still moving slowly.

  This book is very easy to use and produces results, both in teaching your child to read, as well as in a closer relationship with your child. Save the "Big Guns" programs for those with learning disabilities.
  
  

• Not for the reluctant learner
  By A2940WE3SX2C5H on 1999-10-29
  I bought this book after reading the glowing recommendations. The process used is indeed thorough, but BORING! My child is ADD and a kinesthetic learner. She was bored, literally to tears (so was I!). I could not get her past lesson six. For me, it was a waste of money. If your child needs auditory and/or visual stimulation to encourage him or her, this is not the book for you. Also, it introduces an alternative spelling method that ultimately must be unlearned. This was too much for my already reluctant and frustrated six-year-old.
  
  
• DISTAR doesn't work
  By A1F7E8IFQFHAV1 on 2003-01-15
  After 6 months of DISTAR my 8 year old still is reading at a beginning first grade level. This is a child with an IQ of 140! DISTAR's orthographic method does not account for the different way phonemes can be represented. It is slow slow slow and he loses focus and attention. Try Phono-Graphix instead. This program has little research and the results don't impress me. Read up more before you spend your money. I'm returing my book today!
  
  
• Too rigid for some kids
  By A2GSGQFTV0VJEC on 2002-02-09
  I bought this book on reading the recommendations here, and I was very disappointed. My experience was similar to that of another reviewer in that the lessons became grueling and frustrating for both me and my son. I remain open-minded about the weird orthography, but the approach requires kids (mine is 4) to perform on command, turning what might be a fun time into a chore. I finally gave up after a particularly bad session in which we both became frustrated and angry. The method in this book repeatedly puts the child "on the spot" and for some children, like mine, the pressure is just too great.

  I'm sure this would be a fine method for some children, but I'm not sure how one would determine in advance how it would work for a particular child.
  
  

• SIMPLIFY YOUR TEACHING; SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE
  By A1NYN7RFYRLHE1 on 2005-09-16
  I'm using this book to teach my third child how to read, so I think it's high time I wrote a review of it. Parents, this is the only book you need to get started on the most important skill they'll ever learn. And YOU can be the one to teach them!
  
  There are lots of fancy-schmancy phonics programs with bells and whistles -- and games and prizes and treasure chests and eight million little stickers and tiny books to keep up with. If you like all that, and need all that, then more power to you. I can barely keep up with everything else I have going on, much less a complicated method of teaching my child to read.
  
  Simplify your life, and just get started. For less than 20 bucks, you'll have your child well on his or her way to reading.
  
  OK, the title is a little misleading. It's not EASY, by any means. Especially if you have an active four-year-old boy. Let him do his lessons standing up, lying on the floor, jumping up and down the stairs, out in the yard -- he's active, and let his gross motor skills be used while he's learning. It takes 10 minutes of super-focusing -- but in between the different parts of each lesson, let your child move around. You want him to love reading!
  
  Also, don't feel like you have to do the writing task of each lesson. My girls love to write, so this was fun for them. But I skipped it with my son until he was more ready to hold a pencil. Actually, we did some lessons out in the driveway, with a fat piece of chalk. He had a great time and usually ended up drawing a whole train system or town after we finished his lesson.
  
  It works. It really does. And it's amazing to be sitting next to your child the first time they learn to read the word, "see." Or "mom." ("Mom! I just read the word 'mom!'" they'll say.) It's something you'll always remember doing together.
  
  You don't have to be a reading teacher. You don't need any special skills or experience. You read the script in red print. You stay on task. And you finish the lesson. Then you praise your child and tell her how smart and wonderful she is!
  
  With each of my kids, we made a VERY SIMPLE chart that had 100 squares on it. I just used a ruler and made some lines and put numbers in them -- didn't even use the computer. It took 5 minutes. Then, after we did a lesson, I let the child put a sticker over the number. Any kind of sticker. All those hodge-podge sheets of stickers you end up with -- they work great for a reading chart.
  
  I let each child pick a reward they wanted to receive when they finished all 100 of the lessons. That gave them great incentive to get through the whole book.
  
  For extra practice, I recommend the Bob Books, which you can see listed on this site. Kids love these books -- they're adorable. Scholastic makes a good set of beginner readers as well. But you don't need anything else besides this one book -- the little Bob readers can just help reinforce.
  
  As a busy parent, this is one of the most enjoyable things you'll ever do with your child. But don't feel like you have to rush -- do a few lessons, and if you need to take a break, then do. I highly recommend Raymond and Dorothy Moore's BETTER LATE THAN EARLY if you're the type to freak out that your three-year-old can't write his ABC's. Too many parents push their children and ruin their eyesite at a young age.
  
  Have fun watching the light go on!
  
  --Reviewed by Heather Lynn Ivester, Mom 2 Mom Connection
  
  
• Mom of 4 Boys
  By on 2000-01-05
  Great Book. The best sixteen dollars that you will ever spend. My oldest boys (twins) knew their letters and letter sound before starting Kindergarten, however they could not make the jump to actually reading. When they started 1st Grade they still were not really reading. I bought this book at the end of September and their reading skills have taken off! The lessons are silly, but fun. My boys enjoy their lessons and their confidence is soaring! We usually don't do the writing part of the lesson--so our lesson are usually less than 10 minutes. I review the lesson from the night before and then go on the the next lesson. I am also learning about phonetic progression and tips for reading comprehension. I have also started teaching my four year old to read (we do a lot of reviewing of past lessons) he loves it and loves using the same "reading lessons" that his older brothers are using. Buy this book, you will love it.
  
  
• How to teach your child to read 101
  By A59NMIMWE2S85 on 2000-11-26
  If your a parent wondering how in the world you can teach your child to read, buy this book.

  After 7 months I can say we have finished this book. My son is now wanting more lessons. I can honestly say this book works and he can read at a very good level. I can remember when we first started, lessons 90 through 100 looked impossible to him. He could not believe that he would be able to read a page and a half. Now he does it without hardly any help. From some of the earlier reviews, I have read how they are teaching there 3 years old to read. This book will help the very young, but could also be used for older students (I would say up to 3rd or 4th grade) understand the basics.

  The book is very easy to understand. The adult reads the RED print, the child will read the very large black print. Almost impossible to mess up.

  The lesson are broken down into 7 to 8 tasks. These tasks will reinforce the what they are learning through rhyming, repeating sounds in different words, sound writing and various other method. These tasks will gradually increase in difficulty and will start with the child learning the sounds of each letter and will progress to reading words (cat, dog, big) and then to short sentences. Finally they will read paragraphs and short stories. Each lesson will review in some aspect what they have learned before.

  This is a great book for you parents who want to teach your child to read. It will take time and dedication on your behalf. You must be the one to take the time to set time aside to do the teaching. It took us 7 months to get through this book. Some days you need to step away from the book when the lesson is not going well. If you stick to it, you will be amazed in the improvement of your child's read ability.
  
  

• We were bored to tears and had to stop :(
  By A10N8BP5Y2A7HU on 2001-02-08
  I started this with my daughter and things started out great! She was getting the concept fine, but the further we got into it, the less enjoyable the lessons became. They became dry and repetitive in the method used to learn and it did not keep either of our interest. I made a decision to stop and try something else. I switched to Reading Made Easy by Valerie Bendt and that made all the difference in the world!! My daughter now LOVES her reading lessons and she is doing wonderfully!
  
  
• Succeeded when $300 of home-school curriculum didn't.
  By on 1999-06-06
  When my husband and I decided to homeschool, we looked at a lot of different curriculums and found one that we thought was just the best thing on the face of the earth. It was $285 for about a year and a half worth of books. After four months of repetitive drills for over an hour each day, my son and I both hated school time.He just didn't see the point of all of those blends he had to repeat over and over. And with a two year old and a two month old I had trouble staying encouraged to do it. Then my friend introduced me to this book. Her daughter who is 1 year and 7 months younger than my son was on lesson 40 and doing wonderfully. I headed straight to the store. By lesson 13 (which was just day 4 for us because of the foundation that took 4 months to lay) when he read his first sentence he was totally hooked. FINALLY all those letters meant something. We usually did 2-3 lessons a day. We have completed the book and he is now reading wonderfully and loving it. Our other curriculum hasn't left the shelf since. This will be our phonics curriculum for teaching all of our children. It alone was worth $300.
  
  

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• Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers
• What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning (Core Knowledge Series)
• Bob Books Set 2-Advancing Beginners
• Bob Books Set 3- Word Families
• What Your First Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good First-Grade Education (The Core Knowledge Series)