Thoughts on "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"

[k2bdeutmeyer]

Good? Bad? Programs you think are better?

 

Thanks!

[~Tara~]

It's worked for mine thus far. Eldest went through it just fine. Yo dabbled in it at age 3, stopped for a few months, came back and soared. Nugget did fine.....but by then *I* was done. He never did finish the book. Doodles also has dipped her toes into those waters, but *I* just can't go on. I cringe at the thought of getting that book off the shelf.

 

It has worked for mine, I just cannot stand it any longer.

 

It's the only such program I have experience with though, so I have no compare/contrast for you.

[AmethystMoon]

We tried it with our oldest. He was 4 when we started. We took a long break and came back to it at 5. We finally put it on the shelf for good. I don't like it, he didn't like it. So we found something else.

[bbrandonsmom]

I checked it out from the library and the thing look foreign to me. I also checked out Phonics Pathways and I like the layout much better. It has the spelling rules, and takes reading slowly (or at your own pace). It is working for us so far.

I do like Phonics Road though, just haven't tried it yet.

[Angel]

Borrowed it from a friend when dd was 4, thought it was written by aliens and returned it. Dd turned 5 and I didn't have a lot of money to spend and I found it again at the library. Thought I'd see if it was less alien and -the big test- see if dd liked it. She loved it and after a few lessons I finally got the groove of it. Dd hit a small wall midway and we stopped for a month or two then when we picked it back up she flew through it and was reading two grade levels ahead. Dd especially liked that there was a "story" in the lessons of 100 EZ Lessons. Made her feel likes she was really reading.

 

So it worked great for us. We did try to follow up with some Phonics Pathways because I had read here that 100 EZ Lessons wasn't enough phonics. Well, dd hated it, too much of the same on each page. Blah. She didn't need more than we learned in 100 EZ Lessons.

 

From my experience here, you/your child either love it or hate it. I always say give it a try with the child first and go from there. I didn't like the looks of it but it was just what dd needed.

[4besitos]

I have tried it with 3 of my children and it didn't work. I finally sold it! We are using OPGTR and it's going better. Lots of families love it....just not this one.

[k2bdeutmeyer]

DD is 3.5, so we'd definitely be starting early, but she is showing a STRONG interest in learning to read. She has little letter recognition, and zero phonics skills, but.....

[MeganW]

I bought 100EZ Lessons at first, but then did a lot of reading here and kind of freaked out that it wasn't going to be enough.

 

It seems like the two most highly recommended phonics programs on this board are:

- “The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading†by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington

- "Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling†by Dolores G. Hiskes

OPGTR is VERY scripted. VERY. She says every single thing you are supposed to say – you read it word for word. It is dry, boring, and extremely thorough and effective. Kids that learn to read that way WILL be VERY strong readers, if you can get through it. It starts at the very beginning with the sound each letter makes. If your kids already know those, you can skip the first 26 lessons. It takes the average kid about 2 years to go through the whole book (10 minutes a day), and they will be reading at a 4th grade level when they are done. Most kids are ready to start this program between ages 4 & 5. If you get to a lesson that they don’t get, you are expected to park it and do the same lesson daily until they get it. You don’t move forward unless they have the lesson down.

PP is the fun, unscripted version of OPGTR. Same phonics, same skills, same results.

I was determined to use PP for the fun factor, but I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around exactly what you are supposed to actually do. So we ditched that and are now using OPGTR. To make it work for more than one kid, I use a big magnetic whiteboard and magnetic letters rather than having them look at the book itself. It’s not the most fun I’ve ever had, but I am confident that I am doing it right and not screwing this up!

[dirty ethel rackham]

I wanted to like it because I knew so many people who used it. First child taught himself to read so it sat on the shelf until I pulled it out for 2nd son. We were doing well until about lesson 70. They started to drop their lexicon for plain text and my son could not read without it. We put it away and did about 2 months of the phonics game and then did MCP phonics along with Pathway readers. He did great after that.

 

With dd, we did OPGTR. It worked pretty well with her. We had to break up some of the lessons because her eyes would get tired. She struggled with paragraphs too so we had to cut a slit into a card so that she could read the paragraphs. Her eye tracking just wasn't mature enough for it. We did some therapy for this and persevered, going at her pace. By age 8, she tossed the pathway readers for Eragon and Harry Potter and hasn't stopped since.

[mom2att]

100EL worked great for my oldest. She all but taught herself very basic phonetic reading, but was getting hung up on words with tricky rules like "know" or "through." She also really wanted to learn to read. So we did half of 100 EL for about 3 months when she was 4. We took a break when her brother was born, and never came back to it because by then she was reading everything in sight. 100EL truly gave her the boost she needed.

 

I've tried 100EL with each of my boys as well, but we haven't lasted very long. Instead we've just sort of plodded along with various phonics programs and rules. They've learned to read much more slowly, and probably much more typically than my oldest.

[dietmom]

I used it with all 3 of my kids. They are now 10, 8 and 6. I taught them when they were about 4-5 years old--always before they would have begun Kindergarten. They all did public/private K and were so FAR ahead. But the true test--they are still top of their class readers. My 3rd grader really hated doing it--I had to bribe with fruit snacks. I would put little snacks on the periods at the end of the sentences so when he finished he could eat one. We did get through it though--and now still after 4 years he has the top reading ability in a class of GT kids. My 10 yo loved it--and is an amazing reader. My 6 yo also had to be coaxed but she is a good reader too. So--to answer your question. It depends whether your child will like it or not. But it worked great with all 3 of my kids--gave them huge learning advantages. They are all good spellers too--and I attribute it mostly to this program. Cheap-and highly effective for us!! We did skip the writing part--but I wished we had done it--the lessons were long at 4 yo to add that in, though!!

[SBP]

Love it.

 

Taught my two to read as preschoolers (DD was 3 & DS was 4) and then passed it on to my sister, who has used it to teach my nephews. So far, that one book has had all five kids reading by the age of 4, which works out to about $3 per child, I think :).

 

We followed it up with SWR for more intensive phonics, but for a get-your-kid-reading book, I love 100EL and would use it again.

 

SBP

[lamamaloca]

We used it with my oldest, and while he did fine with it it didn't translate into reading anything else. I think he may just have needed the incentive, and his reading jumped ahead when he found something that he really, really wanted to read. My 2nd son was not willing to do it. He thought it was boring and silly and just wouldn't cooperate. I've considered using it with my daughter, but I think I may just start WRTR at a simple pace for her.

[ElizabethB]

It is a good beginning start for many children. But, it does not teach all the phonics you need to know and the markings confuse some children (and some moms!)

 

I do not recommend it for a child that young.

 

For a young child, I recommend working from a white board with all uppercase and very big letters. You could also use magnetic letters, uppercase.

 

Start with leapfrog and then work through blend phonics or PP or OPG or Webster's speller from a white board. Also, lots of games. I will link some games later. A good book is Sydney Ledson's teach a child to read book, I think it is called teach your child to read in 10 minutes a day, it was designed for teaching a young child phonics through games.

[Closeacademy]

I've heard 2 stories about this:

 

1. your kids loves it and reads at 4 or 5

 

2. your child runs screaming from the room at the sight of the book

 

My dd hated it. We ended up spending 5 years on phonics (I should have waited until she was 6 and then only spent 2 years). I like Spell to Write and Read the best but I only teach the phonograms to my non-readers. We work with the words a little through games, notebooking pages and fun activities.

 

:001_smile:

[BatmansWife]

100 EZ Lessons is what I used to teach my first child to read. She hit a bit of a road block about half way through, so we put it away for about a month and then went back to it. We finished the book a few months after she turned 5. She was definitely reading at a solid 2nd grade reading level as the book claims. In fact, she could really read anything and everything. I remember a World Book salesman stopped by and didn't believe me when I said that she could read. He slid the A encyclopedia across the table in front of her, opened it up and said, "read this". And she did....effortlessly. His jaw litearlly dropped. So, for child #1 it was a success.

Tried it with ds. He struggled. He always tried to guess the words by looking at the pictures. Even covering up the picture he'd just guess, guess, guess. But....then again, there really wasn't any reading program (tried *so* many with him) that ever worked.

My youngest is almost 7 and is still a beginner reader. I'm sure she could be farther along in reading, like dd #1, but I didn't want to start to early with her (I think mostly because of *me*.....she's my baby and last child and I didn't want her growing up so fast, LOL!). Anyway, we are working through McRuffy K...but what I recently discovered was Reading Made Easy by Valerie Bendt. Oh my goodness......my dd LOVES this and I think it's wonderful too. There are 4 student activity books that now go along with this, they are not necessary but really add a lot of fun to the lessons. Had I known about this program I would have stuck with this for all the kids. The font is an Italic style that my dd loves; which has inspired us to use Italic handwriting now (but you don't need to).

 

 

To the right of this link you'll see a blue box with samples of reading lessons and samples from the activity books. You can also read TONS of reviews at her site.

http://valeriebendt.com/ReadingMadeEasy.aspx

Here's another link to show more pics of the activity books. I ordered my activity books from CBD with my free shipping code. I found a used copy of the RME book.

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntt=reading+made+easy&N=0&Ntk=keywords&action=Search&Ne=0&event=ESRCN&nav_search=1&cms=1

[Sunshine State Sue]

Dh taught ds to read at 5yo. I investigated and gave him the choice of 100EZ or Reading Reflex. He used Reading Reflex and it was easy and effective. That was almost 10 years ago now, and other programs have come into existence since then.

 

Good luck on finding what works best for your family.

[johnandtinagilbert]

Like many others, we used it for our oldest (there were so few options in the early years of home schooling) and had to start--stop a few times b/c the jumps came quickly. In the end, I was disappointed b/c using 100EZL along with other Language Arts materials created a very disjointed topic area overall. It also is not nearly a complete phonics program and produced what started out as excellent readers, but in the end gave me slow readers, weak in phonics and spelling.

 

My suggestion is The Phonics Road. It's amazing and includes all aspects of language arts as you move through the levels.

 

Otherwise, I'd suggest: Apples and Pears, Dancing Bears, OPGTR, Phonics Pathways, SWR, WRTR...a seriously phonics based program. Remember, "early" isn't always better and can often give the appearance of understanding, when in fact, memorization has actually occurred.

[chanda7]

I bought it for my oldest, and she was reading before I got around to using it. My youngest loves it. We started out slowly, only doing half of a lesson from time to time. At 5 1/2, she is now on lesson 75. We only do the oral parts (letter sounds, words, story, reading comprehension).

 

We are also doing Bob Books and other reading. Like others have mentioned, it is only basic phonics. However, it seems just right to get little ones on their way :)

[bbrandonsmom]

OP-my little guy is about the same age. Since he wants to do what his brother is doing, PP is working out (along w/ just a lot of reading for fun). I just point to the letter in PP (which starts out w/ short vowels, then vowel blends) and tell him the sound. Have to remember they are only 3 :)

[SBMama]

My DD is 4. We started using this book a couple of weeks ago, and she does *not* like it! She tells me "every time we do that book it is so boring." When I can get her to do the lessons, she does great. She does all of the exercises without difficulty. It seems to be working too! She will now sound out some 3 letter words on her own when she comes across them in books or starfall.com. I put 100 EZ Lessons away 2 days ago, because she dislikes it so much. I have Phonics Pathways on hold at the library, so we will see how that goes! I also ordered Explode the Code 1, because she loves workbooks!

[WiseOwlKnits]

We used it and DD is a great reader. We did stumble after it for a while because it was hard to find books that she could read - there seemed to be a gap between what she could read in 100EZL and what she could read in a book that she picked up. She can now read anything she wants.

 

I plan (and have already purchased) OPGTR with DS. It definitely looks more thorough than 100EZL, but I haven't actually used it so I can't comment on how well it does/doesn't work.

[WishboneDawn]

Loved it! But then we got Dancing Bears and poor 100EZL was abandoned and hasn't been revisited yet.

[Brenda in FL]

Used it for two kids - Loved it - although had different experiences between the two. Started at age 4 finished at age 5. Never needed additional phonics work.

 

Third child must have learned to read by osmosis listening to the others! I did not need to use a learn to read program with him at all. I would have used 100EZ with him if I had to - but I was very glad not to have to go through the book for a third time!!

[Cindyz]

We used it at age 4. He did great with the book and enjoyed it, but could not translate what he learned there to other books. I think he just was not ready to read. We dropped it for about 8 or 9 months and just played and I read lots of books to him. We started with ogp when he was 5.5 and have been making progress ever since.

[Sarah CB]

It was all that my eldest needed. After 100 EL we went over a few sounds that weren't covered (like "qu") and she worked through books from the library that were at her reading level. Her reading level slowly increased until she was reading The Secret Garden and Black Beauty at 5 years old.

 

My second guy was difficult. Teaching him how to read was like banging my head against the wall for 18 months. We worked through 100 EL and near the end of it I added in the phonograms using SWR cards. Those helped him and eventually things began to click. He didn't love reading until this year (he's 10) and now he has constantly got his nose in a novel.

 

My last one did great with 100 EL. He finished the book and then slowly worked through other books that he could read. He is in grade 3 this year and reads at about a grade 3 - 4 level.

 

I'm in the middle of 100 EL with my last child. It's such a simple and easy way to teach reading. My last one reminds me of my first one - he understands the lessons easily and remembers the sounds from day to day. I don't think he'll need anything else after this, he's already picking things up so easily.

[*Jessica*]

I bought it to use with my just-turned 5-year-old. He hates it, and so do I!

 

I'm going to go with the combination of Hooked on Phonics, LeapFrog videos, and Tanglewood Education's Really Reading program that I used with my older son. My older son is almost 7 and reading at a late 4th grade level, so something there must have worked.

[jenniferlee]

Love it.

 

Worked great for my first 2. They are both excellent readers.

Took longer for my 3rd, but still successful. just had to put it away a few times.

 

Starting on my 4th (and #5 is sort of tagging along) we're about 20 lessons in and he's doing great. I really have enjoyed it. Weird and scripted and I was so dubious about all the strange letters etc. But success is success!

 

Jen

[dkholland]

but I wanted to comment also.

 

I have taught all four of my dss to read with 100EZ. They are all excellent readers. For two, I did continue with "reading lessons" using SL's I Can Read It program. But we never make it through the whole SL schedule with it, before they took off reading books from the library.

 

I think of all the things we have done together homeschooling, teaching my boys to read has brought me the most pleasure. Looking back, I really miss the cuddling on the couch together. I know my goal is to lead them to indepenence, but some days, I would like to have one day of them bringing me the100 EZ book and asking to be taught!

 

We are such readers that we do still read aloud some even with high schoolers!

 

It is an inexpensive book and can be found used many places. If you try it, you haven't lost much if you hate it. It is not a difficult program and I love that you don't need anything else.

[rieshy]

I used it for 3 of mine- and just pulled it out again. I've never finished it- by about 1/2 way to 3/4 of the way through my kids have been ready to switch to very easy readers and silly personal messages and stories that I write.

 

Though I "use it" I have never had my children do the written work that the books calls for. I also never go by the entire scripted lessons- too long and monotonous for our needs.

 

What I love about it is the arrows and the order of the sounds. It seems to make sense to most of my family's learning style.

 

One exception- my oldest daughter absolutely despised it. She learned to read on her own by age 4 but I was worried that she needed some phonics and tried to use the book retroactively. That was a dismal no-go! She never did any phonics but copywork seems to have turned her into a great speller anyway.

 

I particularly like the no bells and whistles approach.

[Plucky]

I taught all 4 of my kids to read with it. It's easy and non-time consuming.

[StephanieZ]

It worked just great for my 3 dc, but I never tried anything else, so I can't compare.

 

I do like adding ETC b/c it helps with spelling skills.

[ElizabethB]

Here is a good games thread, except I would not play the sight word games that someone linked, you just want to work on phonics.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205315&highlight=Mona+games+game

[Mom-ninja.]

Horrible for us. Horrible. Will never look at it again.

[girlymama]

Taught all 3 of my dc to read. Oldest was in PS kinder and I decided to teach her to read since the teacher wasn't doing it. She was reading at 2nd grade level by the end of school year. 2nd dd was 3 1/2 when she started and was reading at 3rd grade level by 4. Last dd was reading at 3rd grade level by 3 1/2. She was my earliest reader.

 

All are great readers and and my younger 2 are great spellers. Oldest still struggles with spelling but I think it has to do with natural abilities.

 

We did use the book version but then used the funnix 2 cd after to reinforce the reading. It is definitely more fun and colorful on the computer. My older 2 would come and watch the younger one do the funnix 2 because they loved the stories.

 

HTH,

Madonna

[Hedgehogs4]

We used it with my oldest, and while he did fine with it it didn't translate into reading anything else.

 

:iagree: same thing for us...ds could read everything in that book but nothing outside of it, and i was freaking out. part of it was just a maturity thing...reading hadn't "clicked" yet. my dd5 is interested in it and likes it when i pull it out, but she's a completely different kiddo. she is working steadily through OPGTR, Bob books and McGuffy primer.

[musicianmom]

It worked fine for my oldest, and it was easy to use.