100 Easy Lessons reading Program?

[Vipers_Princess]

forgive me for being uber sleepy tonight, I'm sure it's already been discussed somewhere, I just can't seem to find it. I was reading our state hs'ing magazine here at the library and saw that it got rave reviews from a retired teacher who is hs'ing her grandson. I've heard mixed reviews of it before, and for some reason I keep considering it again and then shelving the idea for some reason.. Kait is really into pre-reading and working on sounds, and I'd love to give her an extra boost with her final few weeks of ps, and over the summer as we jump back into natural learning... TIA

[Leslie]

I've read that, when a child is ready to learn to read, any program will work, so it doesn't make sense to pay a lot of money for a complicated program with lots of bells and whistles.

I've taught three kids to read with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The first one rushed through it and was reading real books at four years old. The second one had a hard time with it, so we put it up and tried again a number of times and he finally finished it and was decoding books at 7, but didn't really get into reading til he was 9. My youngest son started at age 5, got flustered, so we put it up and tried again a few months later and he did fine and was reading at 6.

I gave the book away because I thought we were done, and then I ended up having another baby. :) I plan to buy another copy and use the same program when this baby is ready to learn to read.

I like that it gets them reading fun little stories right away, which is a confidence builder. It doesn't have long lists of phonics combinations that make no sense. I wouldn't want to read a list like that, and I doubt a child would, either. It doesn't teach straight phonics, which maybe is supposed to help with spelling? But all my sons are good readers even though they've never done a straight phonics program, they have no problem trying to figure out new words. We do dictation to teach spelling.

[Micah]

You could always buy it off the used curric boards to see if you like it or not, or if you prefer to buy new, it's fairly easy to resell.

Personally we didn't care for it. :)

[CelticJourney]

I used it for both my girls (now 10 and 7). The thing about using it with younger children is that you have to be prepared to put it aside if they run into problems. For example, both my girls wanted to learn early and both of them had to take about a month or so off when it came to blending more than two sounds. As with any method, you have to be prepared to stop when needed.

[Winkie]

it worked for my 4yo ds. i checked it out from the library & just kept renewing it. he loved his "reading lessons" so much that he'd want to do 3-4 at a time, not just one. we did skip the handwriting practice though.

[ChristineG]

I have used this for our first two children when they reached reading age. Everything went very smoothly, they immediately went on to read 'real' books and are incredible readers at ages almost 7 and almost 11. I agree with Leslie, that when a child is ready for reading any program will work. (Obviously, the opposite is probably true, too.) This book can easily be found for $10-$15 used, so there is little to lose as far as I can see. I feel sad when I see moms spending huge amounts of much needed money on reading programs when they could simply wait longer for their child to be ready and spend much, much less.

I think this is a great program and nice and inexpensive, which is one of my favourite parts. :)

[mommyTay]

We are one of the few that HATE this program. My dd is dyslexic and also has an anxiety disorder. We didn't know this when we tried to use 100 easy lessons. I thought we would do well, she knew her alphabet and was excited about writing her name and letters in general. She saw those very wordy pages and it completely over-welmed her. :banghead It took me 2 years to get her beyond panic and ready to give reading another try.
We did much better with Phonics Pathways. The pages are very basic and large print. She is finally a happy reader, but it was a long stressful journey.

[rachel]

We've been using this with our 5yo daughter with great success...she likes it a lot and sometimes asks to do 2 or 3 lessons instead of one.

[lotsomama]

We are one of the few that HATE this program. My dd is dyslexic and also has an anxiety disorder. We didn't know this when we tried to use 100 easy lessons.

My youngest is very emotionally sensitive too. I got the shivers just contemplating using this with my youngest dd when I looked at it in the book store. I used the AVKO http://avko.org/Freebies/SASO_TOC.htm (http://avko.org/Freebies/SASO_TOC.htm) program with her along with some Bob Books and old Lippencott phonetic readers I picked up used. We needed a more relaxed approach and this really worked well for us. She is getting more confident and fluent all the time.