MaryMak07 Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 The other week I asked about PP, 100EZ and OPGTR. I think someone mentioned The Reading Lesson. Is this a well liked program? For those who have used it, pros/cons/comparisons to the others? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stine Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 We are half way through The Reading Lesson and it has been working out really well for my son. We briefly tried 100EZ, but I personally didn't like the layout of it. It seemed overwhelming to me and my son. He did not want to participate at all. We did not attempt to use it again. TRL was available for free on kindle at the beginning of our K year, so I decided to give that a try. The layout is very simple to use and my son has enjoyed it. I ended up purchasing the TRL computer program that we occasionally use to reinforce or prep for a lesson. He also enjoys that. At a curriculum fair I looked at PP and it was also on my list of possibilities. In the end I chose TRL because it seemed like the easiest to implement and also I had the free version for a while before I ended up purchasing the actual TRL book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawberryjam Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 I have "The Reading Lesson" and we briefly used it when my first was in Kindergarten. It's ok. Honestly I love Explode the Code and AAR so much better, second time around I didn't even bother with The Reading Lesson and mostly use ETC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nena3927 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 I used TRL with my two older children with mixed success. My younger dd took off after finishing the book and was reading at a second grade level before she turned 5. My ds age 7 is still struggling with reading and he finished the book with no problems when he was 5 1/2. I really like the clean layout of the book and my children loved that cute stories were included and a part of our lessons each day. The only thing I don't like that is that it doesn't teach all the phonograms, and if you do not have a natural reader that can pick up the extra phonograms while reading real books, then you will need to to supplement with another program to round out what isn't taught. I plan to use either Phonics Pathways or OPGTR (maybe even Abeka Handbook for Reading) with my next little guy in the fall just bc of the struggles I've seen with my other son. It just depends on the child I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tm919 Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 (edited) It worked for my younger daughter although it has some annoying characteristics from a parent perspective (typos, teaches children the first two sounds of a then shows them the word "a" which sometimes uses the third sound but never teaches the child this, etc.). Pros: Like I said, it worked and was inexpensive and easy -- all major blessings. Within weeks my daughter could read at a 2nd grade level. The beginning lessons are free online. Cons: My daughter seemed stuck at the 2nd grade level because she didn't pick up the other phonograms easily. I ended up looping around and starting AAR... It honestly isn't a bad combination (kind of like giving the child a flying start, but then backing way up and helping them build their own engine from scratch when the momentum starts to fail...) but my pocketbook hurt when I realized that TRL wasn't going to be enough on its own for her. One more thing: I sent a mail to TRL people once asking about just what I said above -- when the sound isn't taught, but the word appears in the sentences, am I supposed to teach the sound? They never got back to me. I've sent messages to the AAR/AAS people and the reply has been instant. However, TRL is so cheap that I find it hard to hold it against them. Edited January 24, 2016 by tm919 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollyhock Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 I used The Reading Lesson with my third son, who was an early reader. He was four when we went through it and it worked GREAT for him. He loved it. I really liked that there were readers built into the book and there was lots of white space on each page (he had found Phonics Pathways overwhelming before we tried TRL). I also liked that there was no writing required. With my fourth son, it didn't work nearly so well. We got through about Lesson 9 before I quit. Progressive Phonics worked much better for him. I think that some of the sounds taught in TRL are a bit out of order. Sometimes it seemed kind of illogical. That didn't bother my third son because he was advanced, but with my more average fourth son, it didn't go over as well. I found the sequence of Progressive Phonics to make a lot more sense in terms of which sounds and words were taught when. I have one more child to teach reading to and I plan to use Progressive Phonics again with her. I don't dislike TRL, but it didn't work for everyone here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuovonne Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Here's some old threads about The Reading Lesson http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/269184-has-anyone-used-the-reading-lesson/?hl=%2Bthe+%2Breading+%2Blesson&do=findComment&comment=2682860 http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/23387-the-reading-lesson-vs-100-ez-lessonswhat-is-the-difference/?hl=the+reading+lesson&do=findComment&comment=191384 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.