DD hates TYCTRin100EZ...how long should I give it???

[BikeBookBread]

My 5 yo and 3 yo girls started out so excited about learning to read. Now when I pull out the good old 100EZ book they say, "No Mommy, No!!! I don't want to do it!" They sit next to me and just groan and fidget and act-up. There have even been tears. (Oh no, not tears!!!)

 

I'm not one to give up, but this is their very first intro to home-schooling. I also don't believe in education as entertainment (edutainment??? has that been coined yet? pretty good! :lol:) but I'm concerned that this might really turn them off to reading, and reading is obviously the foundation for all learning!

 

I'm embarassed to say we are only at lesson 8, and it's only been a couple of weeks (we've been really sick in our home)...

 

How long would you give it? Would you just plug along? or try something different right away???

[FriedClams]

My kids hates that method also. I would give it a few weeks and then try Phonics Pathways or Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. I know 100EZ works, but it's just wasn't for us (and we made it to the 50s, LOL!!!). Welcome to the homeschool world!! Enjoy the time with your littles. :)

[Targhee]

I would give it until they were actually reading phrases/sentences. I totally skipped sound writing. And because DD already knew CVC words we breezed through - abbreviating lessons and combing to sometimes cover three lessons in one 5 minute sitting.

 

Are they bored because they get the concept, or do they just not like 100EZ?

[TxMama]

I'd put it a way for a bit for the 5 yo and for a few years for the 3yo. Spend your time reading aloud and playing with words instead. When you pick it back up with the 5yo then slow the lessons way, way down. 1 lesson per week is plenty for a 5yo. I'd give it another try at a slower pace before discarding it. It is better to leave them asking for more than to push them too far.

 

Ruth Beechick's The 3 R's has some really great suggestions for teaching a child to read. It is inexpensive and beneficial regardless of which phonics program you ultimately decide to use.

[hmschooling]

Have you heard of Reading Made Easy? I'm using it with my 5yo pre-k'er and he actually loves it! He didn't like Phonics Pathways so much. Oh, and activity/workbooks are coming out for RME that are great! I'm doing a pre-release review on them right now and we are SO enjoying it! You could come out of it reading on a 2nd grade level, so it would be easy to take it slow and steady and still feel like you are making excellent progress.

[BikeBookBread]

I would give it until they were actually reading phrases/sentences. I totally skipped sound writing. And because DD already knew CVC words we breezed through - abbreviating lessons and combing to sometimes cover three lessons in one 5 minute sitting.

 

Are they bored because they get the concept, or do they just not like 100EZ?

 

I think that they hate the repetition...over and over and over and over...

 

I skip the writing with 3 yo, and the 5 yo doesn't love the writing either. I think I'll skip the writing part and just slim it down.

[BikeBookBread]

I'd put it a way for a bit for the 5 yo and for a few years for the 3yo. Spend your time reading aloud and playing with words instead. When you pick it back up with the 5yo then slow the lessons way, way down. 1 lesson per week is plenty for a 5yo. I'd give it another try at a slower pace before discarding it. It is better to leave them asking for more than to push them too far.

 

Ruth Beechick's The 3 R's has some really great suggestions for teaching a child to read. It is inexpensive and beneficial regardless of which phonics program you ultimately decide to use.

 

 

Funny thing is, the 3 yo is actually catching it better than the 5 yo.

[Sew happily ever after]

If they hate it I'd stop using it. If you really want your children to enjoy reading then you need to spend lots of time reading TO them right now. If you want to teach them to read then start teaching them the letter sounds--perhaps 1 per week or more if they can handle more. When they have a good grasp of several letters and a short vowel (a is the easiest to teach) then start putting a few together and having them sound out simple words--cat, bat, hit, etc. you can spell them out with magnets, make letters in the sand and sound them out, write them in shaving cream, make them out of pipe cleaner AKA chenille stems, make playdo letters, etc. have fun with it and they will enjoy it and learn to read. BOB books are very good early readers and they can start reading them right away after they have learned just a few letters. Sonlight also produces FUN TALES which I totally LOVE! They are similar to BOB books but there are more of them. And the letter sounds that are used in the book for reading are listed inside the front cover. Don't push reading on them or they WILL hate it--trust me, I did that with my oldest and thankfully I realized what I was doing and stopped pushing her and now she LOVES to read!

 

If you really feel like you must use a curriculum you should check out Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.

[Emilylou]

I might stick it out a little longer. Both my DS and I hated 100ez when we started.

But once we got the hang of it and got farther into it, we liked it.

I think we made it to lesson 85... but it took us months to get from lesson 1-20... we dreaded it every day until about lesson 20.

 

we skipped the writing too.

[Targhee]

If they are bored with the repetition only repeat until you know they've got it - that may be two times or seven but only until they've got it. No point in driving the point into the ground... you can move along at their pace, move quickly over something they've obviously got, etc. I'm sure you already know, but a positive but stable (not bubbly or melodramatic, just stable) attitude makes a big difference in their attitude.

 

I hope that it can work for you, and if it doesn't then there are some good alternatives out there. I knew it worked for us when DD started correcting my reading of the red scripted part :tongue_smilie:

[Alphabetika]

My dd hated it, too. If you know for sure that they're ready and want to learn to read, try Phonics Pathways. (I speak from experience). Simpler, not so scripted and stilted for the parent, easy to break into very small chunks. If they seem to have lots of trouble, take a break and try again in several months. Hang in there!

[Amber in AUS]

We picked it up and put it down many, many times until we hit about lesson 20 then we charged ahead. We are now at lesson 97 admittedly we have been there for a couple of months as i don't really see the need to finnish it immediately because my DD is now reading at a 4th grade level all thanks to that book and a little work in Webster's Speller.

 

We made a star chart and for every lesson she got a star when she had completed 10 lessons we went to the foreshore for ice-cream and a play. At the end of the book we are having a little party. It makes it fun for them, and there is incentive to get on with it.

 

We didn't do the writing portion either.

[Julie in MO]

Hi,

We used Phonics Pathways, which I really liked. I remember my daughter putting up quite a fight when learning to read. She's now 13 years old (and a voracious reader!) I kept my Phonics Pathways because I think it would be useful to help adults to learn to read (those for whom English is a second language). Recently my daughter was reflecting on those *hard* days of learning to read. She said she hated it because she had to think so much and "thinking was much harder to do when she was little." She wanted to play, not think (she remembers all this!):lol:

 

So, hang in there. I don't know why, but kids seem to have a love-hate relationship with learning to read. You might also tell your child that even after he/she learns to read, you will still do read-alouds. My DD told me later that she was afraid that I wouldn't snuggle and read anymore if she learned to do it herself.

 

Blessings,

Julie

[ElizabethB]

At that age, I've found that a white board works a lot better than working out of a book. In my Webster link in my signature, I explain how I did that, also there's more information in this thread about how to use Webster's Speller:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70153

 

My daughter loved being able to choose the color of marker we would use for the day. If she was especially lucky, we would switch colors after a bit!

 

Here's a fun game you can use to teach the phonics basics:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

 

And, my overall recommendations for teaching a young beginner to read, with more ideas for games with magnetic letters at the end:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/newstudents.html

 

I also found that spelling along with reading really helped cement the phonics in the brain.

 

It takes a lot of repetition until they catch on, keep on chugging and trying different ways, you're right, it is foundational.

 

Edit: you can use a white board with any phonics method. I would recommend 2, one for little sister. (Just watch her like a hawk or make sure you're not near anything you don't want permanently disfigured. Or maybe a 3 year old girl will be OK when told to just draw on the whiteboard, my daughter might have been. My boy when he was 3, however...)

Edited March 25, 2009 by ElizabethB

[Melinda]

We have 100 easy lessons, Phonics Pathways, and Ordinary Parents' Guide for books that teach reading. At times, I have used all three. My oldest DS despised 100 EZ and PP, but enjoyed OPG as long as we moved quickly enough. I am going through the process with DD4 now, and she enjoys PP and 100 EZ (100 EZ, especially), but can't stand OPG for some reason.

 

With 100 EZ, we were doing one lesson/day, but skipping the writing part (she knows how to write the letters and which sounds correspond). We are still skipping the writing, but covering several lessons at a time -- we stop when she says she's tired.

 

My kids are *loving* All About Spelling, which also teaches phonics but makes it a lot more fun. They actually ask to do AAS, whereas before they were not interested in reading lessons at all.

 

Good luck and I hope you find something that works quickly and easily. Two last things, though. If they are 3 and 5, and in tears of frustration after you try a few different approaches, I would put it away for a couple months and try again. Or, maybe try teaching them separately. Also, giving my 5yo a learning style assessment has completely changed his attitude with regards to "doing school". He learns in a much different way than I was teaching, and just knowing that has helped a *lot*. Again, good luck!

[BikeBookBread]

You have all been SOOOO encouraging! BIG HUGS! :grouphug:

 

I love all of your ideas. I have been most skeptical about the writing portion from the beginning, given WTM theory stresses reading before writing...so it's nice to know that others have ditched that part.

 

We already do the sticker chart thing; it has been the one thing that has really gotten us this far.

[crazymom4]

I've had 1 out of 3 darling children succeed at 100EZ....and she was just plain driven to read...I get that it works...which is why I picked it up for the other two and tried it...I'm just not sure it works for every child...my oldest daughter was 6ish when we needed something to work and Phonics Pathways ROCKED for her. My ds4 is absolutely positively enjoying every second of Reading Made Easy...you don't do it every day...they suggest a day of review in between...I feel it gives them time to roll it around in their brains for awhile and then move on. There are different kinds of activities and every lesson ends with reading a book the child picks out...we LOVE LOVE LOVE it here!!