I put the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD on hold at the library, and I am looking to just teach her letter sounds and names and start at 27. Does anyone have recommendations for this besides LeapFrog? I wouldn't mind using a DVD occasionally, but my kids are not daily TV watchers, so I'm open to ideas. I pulled out OPGTR today, and dd4 said, "I don't want that book!" I asked her if she wanted 100 EZ lessons instead, and she said she did. I thought that was so sad because she didn't like that one before, but she dislikes OPGTR even more. I had just been saying the poems with her the last couple days- not trying to make her memorize, and I think I've already scarred her in that regard. She is not liking it AT ALL. So my plan is shelf that one for a couple months while we get her letters and sounds down, and pull it out again and see if lesson 27 actually IS more fun. Maybe I'll have to disguise the book when we pull it out again :)

Does your daughter have an easy time memorizing stuff? My son is a really good memorizer. My daughter has a lot more attention problems.

Thanks, Everyone. This is very helpful. I hope the rest of the lessons (27 and on) don't have stuff like that in them. I just didn't know if I skipped it, if she would somehow not be read to go on. But I think I got it now. It's only to help her learn names and sounds.

I started her on 100 EZ lessons, and she got to lesson 25 or so. So she knows some letter sounds but not letter names. So as long as the child knows the names and sounds they can skip to 27? Is the whole poem thing just supposed to be fun, because it is just adding to her stress. I think she's ready to read, but memorizing poems that aren't really that interesting doesn't seem to be part of reading to me. Thanks for your reply.

After having two lousy electric ones, I found the School Smart one on as a bestseller on Amazon. But I found it much cheaper here: https://store.schoolspecialty.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?minisite=10046&item=468273 It was about $1 cheaper a little while back. You get free shipping if you order $50, and it was easy for me to find $50 worth - stapler, etc. If you have to pay shipping, I think it's about the same price as Amazon's with free super saver shipping. We have only had it for a few months, but I'll guess it holds up for a long time because that thing really is a TANK! My husband wanted to keep the one he'd bought from Costco, but I returned it and when he felt this one, which was actually $2 less, he was like "Whoah, I don't think that thing will break." My parents have one they've had since I was a child. I can't remember what it was called. But it didn't have as good of reviews on Amazon. I also don't think it gets tons of use like ours does.

I just started OPG, and am wondering if the child is actually expected to memorize the Five Little Vowels? My dd4 gets that A says a, and E says e, but the whole "E is the next vowel, don't you see" stuff is tripping her up. And she's getting very frustrated. The book says to go over lessons 1-26 until they are learned. Does that mean all of this stuff needs to be memorized (I've looked ahead, and turns out there is a lot more stuff like this). Honestly, this poem was kind of hard for me to memorize. And I understand what vowels are and what short vowel means! :) I would like to to OPG, as I've seen on forums that people like it the best. But I am kind of wondering why kids learn what their vowels are right off the bat. I taught my son to read with 100 EZ Lessons, and that seems much more simple. They just start with sounds and blending rather than word stuff like vowels. However, I felt like the book should have been twice as long, as there were so many phonetic rules that were not taught in 100 EZ, which is why I am looking to switch. Maybe dd4 is just not into memorizing, I'm not sure, so we'll see how a classical education goes.