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Early reader and Teach Your Child to read in 100 Easy Lessons


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I have a just turned 3 year old who has been begging to learn how to read. I picked up 100ez lessons and started in mid January. We are halfway through (we do about 5-8 lessons a week depending on her interest). The lessons are just the right amount of challenge and the format suits her well. Each lesson takes 10-15 min to complete. My question is what do we do next. Do we just follow the list in the back of 100 EZ and read through those or should we continue with another curriculum? My thought was to get her reading at a basic level and then just read and enjoy that time. She's so young, I have no concerns about grammar or spelling or anything like that. The only reason I chose an actual curriculum is I wanted to make sure she had a good solid phonics background. Is there another curriculum I need to continue with to make sure that phonics base is there or can we wait until we get to spelling? Thanks!

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Well, we moved away from 100EZ quickly because DD didn't like it. For her, Bob Books are what worked. Either way, once she was through the basics with Bob Books, we just moved to library books - Mo Willems's Elephant and Piggie series was an especial favorite. After those first dozen lessons of 100EZ, we never did use a reading curriculum, and she never needed one.

 

In short, I'd suggest that after finishing, just move to regular books. If it turns out she needs more help down the line, you can return to curriculum then.

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One of my kids did all of the 100 Easy Lessons, and she just sent into reading other books. So far she is my best reader and Speller, although the 2 older have dyslexia. My youngest was too frustrated with 100 easy lessons, so I'm using something else.

 

So you can probably just move on to books after.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

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I think it's easier to think about the "Next Step" once the child is closer to lesson 90 in 100EZ. Their performance in 60-80, the transitional lessons helps to decide where to go next.

 

Typically those lessons are the lessons that prove the most challenging for families. Some kids do really well with the 100 EZ book. I think that it works really well with 2-4yos and is a  very good "First teaching reading" program for parents because using--or even just read-reading it--can teach parents a lot about how to teach the skills kids need to read, regardless of the program that they use later.

 

Rather than worry about the "Next Curriculum" think about how to help her be successful through the second half of the book. Her performance in the rest of this book will let you know if you need to move to a new curriculum or not.

Since she's doing well with 100EZ, don't change it

 

Just keep going at her pace. A lot of parents dislike 100EZ (because it requires so much detail-oriented work from them, and the orthography is strange to them) but it's a time-tested and really solid option and one of the best phonics programs you could possibly use. But IF she begins to struggle a little in the mid-60s to 70s, when lessons get longer, then break the lesson into 2-3 sessions.

 

If she doesn't struggle as the lessons increase in length then just keep going. Don't be afraid to pace yourselves by repeating lessons and not exactly in the same order. If she's pecking away in the 60s or 70s, then maybe take a second run through a lesson from the 30s, 40s and 50s, then do PART of a lesson from the 60s/70s. Just let her practice reading stories from the 30s-50s the fast way, then read part of a longer lesson.

 

In 100EZ, the special orthography is dropped in lesson 75 and ALL of the capitals are introduced in lesson 81, so to help with that transition, you can make some 3x5 index cards into letter flashcards (1 set of upper case, 1 set of lower case) and begin introducing the upper case letters now. I think that 100EZ kinda introduces them quickly and a child who is already familiar with the upper case letters has an easier time with it, than a child who has never heard of them.

 

Do you all live near a good library? I would take out a dozen or more beginner readers each week and read them with her, running my finger beneath the words, sounding out words the way that the 100EZ book guides students too.

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Count me as another vote for finishing 100EZ Lessons and then just reading books together.  My two who learned to read with 110 EZ went straight to books after without any issues.

 

But if you want an actual curriculum, Funnix is a computer program written by the same dude who authored 100EZ that uses close to the same methodology.  I'd guess you could move pretty seamlessly from the end of 100EZ to Funnix 2.  I own the programs but have only ever used the placement tests, so no actual experience with them.

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My oldest finished 100 EZ right around his 4th birthday and went from that to reading whatever he picked up from short children's books to large chapter books. When he read a book like Harry Potter, we took turns reading a page to each other.

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I'll echo Mom2Bee and say that you have half a curriculum before you need to worry about what's next.

 

Both my kids did 100EZ lessons at age 3. Oldest finished just after turning 4, but about halfway we ran into difficulty. We took a break of a month or so, and then we started back from the beginning. With a week or two, he was back to the point at which we stopped, and he finished without difficulty.

 

Youngest was a slightly older 3 when we started, and he was able to do the program straight through with no difficulty. He finished 2 or 3 months before turning 4. He's a stronger reader than Oldest, even though Oldest is off the charts at his school (getting 4th grade books sent home from school as a K'er).

 

Afterwards, both of mine went straight to reading library books. Elephant and Piggie were great transition books, and our library had lots of simple read-alouds that were perfect (Goose, Rascal, Fly Guy slightly later, etc.). Neither continued with any reading curriculum, though now that I've gone back to full time work, they get taught at school. 

 

ETA: Feel free to PM me if you have more questions. There aren't many who do this curriculum, but honestly, I think it's great. Cheap, effective, and better at getting kids reading library books than most programs I've seen (which require multiple levels to get a child to same point). There's a reason I did it twice, but also a reason I let Youngest start at a slightly older age, even though he picked up reading faster than his older brother and was reading words without being taught before age 3.

Edited by Have kids -- will travel
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We did 100 EZ lessons when my youngest turned 4.  It took him three months to get through.  Around lesson 50 we started introducing library books, and by the end of the program he was reading whatever he wanted.  I bought a 2nd grade reader that had several children's books compiled into it which he loved, but they were the same books you could pull off the shelf: Stellaluna, The Three Bears, Amazing Grace..

It did take a while longer before he was comfortable with chapter books but picture books are very appropriate for this age so I didn't worry. 

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Eldest finished 100EZ last year, really worked well for us, I appreciated the format and my kids responded well to the style.

 

We went from there to little bear books, then frog and toad, dr seuss, and then a normal early chapter book kind of progression after that.

 

ETA: Just went back and read the above responses. Eldest struggled and slowed down a lot once we hit lesson... 55ish I think (whatever lesson where the number of lines to read practically doubled in one jump. Was it a cat story?). We moved to splitting lessons in half, and took a total backtrack to the early lessons for awhile to get better fluency with CVC words, before finishing up the curriculum. We found the curriculum shot beyond her abilities around lesson 80 as well, the sections were just too long. That's why we ended around lesson 80 and went to little bear books, rather than finishing and jumping straight into magic tree house as some people have been able to. The learning curve gets steep at the end and I think a lot of families jump off wherever it gets too hard, but that's fine because 100EZ lays a great initial foundation for both child AND parent that, from there, supervised reading and practice seems to be enough. She can now read at a 4th or 5th grade level by lexile, though her reading for enjoyment is more around the mid 2nd grade level, which I am quite happy with. 

 

Definitely take it at your childs pace. my second is racing through the early lessons right now, we're at 26 I think, but I know she's almost certainly going to hit a wall around 40 or so, at which point I'll suggest a break and then probably restart by doing 20-40 again in a few months time. Try not to see it as a set, 4 months curriculum. We jumped back and forth a lot, sometimes doing 3 lessons in a sitting and sometimes doing half of one. 

Edited by abba12
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