100 ez lessons or ordinary parents guide?

[joysworld]

Which do you prefer and why?

[Chris in VA]

I prefer a phonics program that does not teach using special marks or print.

I used Phonics Pathways, but it is similar to OPGtR.

[marmac]

My daughter was struggling BIG TIME in school with reading. She passed Kindergarten but I don't know how lol. When we started homeschooling I looked up different methods and just picked that one cause I could get it at a store easily. Looked a little confusing at first but it wasn't once I started. I did not think it was going to work but for us IT TOTALLY DID. It keeps my temper down cause it explains everything...even what to say when they get it wrong! We just started doing Reading Eggs too and together BOOM she's a reader and all I had to do was read some lines out of 100 Easy Lessons! For us it was amazing!! I cant praise it enough!!

[marmac]

I don't know why it posted twice. Sorry.

[a27mom]

If I had to pick one I would go with ordinary parents guide.

To be honest, I tried both and neither worked for us, But I do see where I could have been able to at least use the info in OPGTR and modify it to teach to my daughters learning style. It was kind of a reference tool. 100EZ didn't seem very modifiable, and really wasn't a reference. ( oh and my daughter just moaned and groaned about OPGTR while 100EZ actually made her cry, but that could have been the order of how we used them)

[Shellie]

I taught all three of my kids to read with 100 lessons. I found it simple, and to the point. My two older ones read well, with my oldest being an avid reader. My youngest is still in the middle of the lessons, actually, but he's doing well and wants to keep going every day. I have to stop him and tell him more tomorrow after two or three :)

[HS Mom in NC]

100 EZ Lessons seems to be a love it or hate it program for most people I've met. We hated it. I didn't find it logically organized and I don't like additional symbols to teach reading.  

 

I used Homestart in Reading by Beechick to teach my older grils to read with real books.

I used Phonics Pathways to teach my youngest because I was really busy with my older two.  It's stunningly simple and efficient. The accompanying pyramid books are well worth the slightly extra cost.

[KristenR]

I've had great success with Ordinary Parents Guide.  I can't compare it to 100EZ because OPGTR worked with us so we never switched.  I have, however, tweaked it a bit for my children.  With my oldest, we used it pretty much as it was.  Just reading together on the couch for a couple minutes a day.  We very rarely ever did the extra exercises and activities that they suggest.  However, my second daughter learns totally differently and we are going through it slower and with more activities.  You can read my posts on OPGTR here and see if it sounds like a fit for your kids.

[texasmama]

I used 100EZ with little dd, and while it worked, I didn't love it.  We went about halfway through and then moved to Bob books.  If I had another child to teach, I would look at OPGtR

[konglish]

Can you see either one in person?  I was able to look at both of those books through my library system.  I didn't really care for either to be honest.  But you might feel differently!

[blondeviolin]

100 Easy is more incremental with sentences and the like. OPGTR is more thorough. My 4yo is using 100EZ and it's working well enough. I've just come to the point where no matter what I use, it's going to be a bit painful for me (nibbled to death by ducks thing).

[reign]

I like 100ezl for very young kids. We started it at ages 3-4 for my girls. Two of them had to back track some of the lessons when the stories got too long. We just did review of 20 lessons then kept moving. I followed 100ezl with OPGTR. It covers a lot more! My girls all finished 100ezl at different reading levels and with different strengths. It really helped with blending for my oldest. Of the two I much prefer OPGTR. I think you getter a better program in the long run.

[Indian summer]

We loved 100ez. I liked the extra symbols because it's the way I learned when i was a kid, and it made it easy to distinguish the various sound of the vowels. Transitioning from the extra symbols is very intuitive. I've never met anyone who had to do all 100 lessons, at some point the child just takes off reading everything. We never made it past 50 lessons and they we're short enough to sometimes do more than one in a day, if I felt the child ready and interested.

[NoseInABook]

We've had both. My oldest DD hated 100EZ and we ended up giving it to a friend. 6 months later, I picked up OPGTR and she loved it. Zipped right through and was reading books in a month or so. My three oldest were reading at 4 with it, I fully expect my littles to as well.

[CadenceSophia]

We failed miserably with 100EL this year with my K'er and I feel like we lost a lot of time because I was just thinking "eventually this is going to work out". Nooope!  Over half way through the school year and barely on lesson 30 we quit and started on Progressive Phonics & the SkyFish app. Then I bought OPG & the Before the Code books. This combo is going much better and I am hoping we can make up some of the ground we lost. 

 

You can "See Inside" both of the books on Amazon. Actually a HUGE portion of OPG is on there so you can try the first week of lessons and see how you like it. 

[jennynd]

My D hate 100ez.. It is certainly not EZ, she ran the other direction when I pull the book out.. She really hates it with passion. She however likes OPGTR. We did hook on phonic and then used OPGTR. My 6 yo is reading comfortably a 4th, 5 th grade level books.

[Jerico]

We used 100 ez lessons which got him reading and well. We then used opgtr to review and master :) planning on the same for my next kid too.

[coffeegal]

I usually start with 100 EZ lessons before switching to Phonics Pathways. 100 EZ lessons has a lovely start to teaching sounds and blending, but it does not cover the full range of phonics.

 

My 5th child ended up using OPGTR to learn her letter sounds. The little rhymes and jingles have been a hit with her. We're now transitioning over to PP simply because I have the book and many wonderful memories of teaching my other 4 children to read with it.

 

If you're choosing between 100 EZ and OPGTR, I'd go with OPGTR. It's covers the full range of phonics needed to read at a high level. :001_smile:

[morgan]

I prefer OPGTR, but my daughter loved 100EZ (I think it was those little cartoons at the end of each lesson that really amused her), so we ended up using 100EZ. If you can find either or both of them at your local library I would try the first few lessons and see how it goes. 

[mrsduenes06]

Does your child already know her letter sounds?  Consider Alpha-Phonics as well.

 

I taught someone else's kids for awhile and they had 100 EZ Lessons and it was awful for me.  Their oldest had learned through Alpha-Phonics, but it didn't work for the child I was teaching.  I thought it was just me, but now I'm on my 2nd child with Alpha-Phonics and it works really really well.  Very straightforward, no frills, and within 120 lessons they are reading at a very decent level.

[abdesigns]

I've never used OPGTR, but I have used 100EZ Lessons with my youngest two, and another little girl that I was homeschooling.  It was quick, easy, and got them all reading very well.  I did use some Hooked on Phonics a long the way for each of them, mostly for the cute little readers though.

[craftyerin]

Can I vote "none of the above"? I checked both 100 Easy Lessons and OPGTR out of the library, along with Phonics Pathways, when we were getting started, and I much preferred Phonics Pathways. I used it with great success with my twins, who are now reading at ~3rd grade level at the end of K. 

[73349]

I prefer Phonics Pathways or OPGTR to 100 EZ.

[Jess4879]

I didn't like either.  I checked them out of the library and I was glad I hadn't purchased them.  We use AAR, but if we didn't use that, we'd probably use Phonics Pathways. 

[Tanikit]

Neither - I did use OPGTR though not as scripted. I do not like phonics sentences - I think very often they lack meaning because they are simply there to teach a rule and I want what my child reads to mean something.

 

Nonetheless my children need a basis in phonics so I used OPGTR to teach them the rules and we read real books pointing out the phonics in the real books (they did have some sight words too which I know many people are anti, but it worked fine for mine). OPGTR was better for this since it told me what I needed to know and teach better than 100EZ lessons did.

[Walking-Iris]

OPGTR is working with my ds, especially now that I combine it with WRTR for the writing/spelling aspect.

 

He enjoys Plaid Phonics and SWO books (although I feel like I rather have bamboo splinters stuck in my nails), he does enjoy doing those phonics activity style books and talking about it with me. I let him do that as he likes. He wasn't a big fan of ETC though.

 

Now  OGTR/WRTR lessons and daily practice reading from a real book and spelling/writing are enough. 

 

 

 

 

[mamamindy]

I had both and 100EZ scared me.  My girls learned to read with OPG.  That said, we dropped phonics pretty early because they were just naturals.  Using something entirely different for DS.  I just cannot bring myself to use OPG a 3rd time.

[ladydusk]

My brother used 100ez first. My neice finished it, but wasn't reading as well as he hoped she would be. He's using OPG now and likes how it goes further and deeper. I used OPG with all 3 of my kids and loved it. (We started at lesson 27 because they all knew their letters).