Which book for teaching reading? 100 Easy Lessons or Ordinary Parents Guide?

[ilovemygirl]

My 4.5 y/o dd is learning to read. She knows her letters and sounds and can read some sight words and sound out some CVC words. I am looking for a book to teach the next steps of phonics rules, letter blends, etc.

I think I've narrowed it down to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and Jessie Wise's The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.

Any opinions on these would be really appreciated. Or do you have something else you highly recommend?

Thanks!

[John16n33]

We are using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  We are only on Lesson 4 so I can't give much input on it, but it really is easy and Dd seems to enjoy it.

[sh1180]

We are using 100 Easy Lessons. We have been working through it for about a year now and are only half way through it. Whenever my daughter gets frustrated we stop (she is 5 now) but now my 3 year old want to do his "reading" and is on lesson 6 :) I love it. My sister uses Ordinary Parents Guide...it seems more for teaching older kids, like 6 or 7, to read (IMO).

Good luck...Happy Learning

[Mere]

I used 100 Easy Lessons with ds1 starting when he was 5, and it worked well for us.  The lessons were, for the most part, very short and easy - important when you're working with a 5yo!  It took us about 9 months to get through it, and by the end ds was able to read intermediate-level easy reader books. 

[Queen Gwen]

Dd #1 wanted to learn to read around age 4, so I got 100 Easy Lessons out of the library (this was before Ordinary Parent's Guide existed).  By lesson 3 she absolutely loathed it, and refused to have anything whatsoever to do with learning to read for months and months afterwards.  Really, I couldn't blame her -- the "words" in the book are obviously not like the words in a regular book.  Honestly I thought it was rather idiotic, too, although I didn't let on.

She eventually learned to read around age 6.  By then I felt like I'd looked at every reading program in the universe, most of which she flatly refused to have anything to do with due to her conviction that learning to read was a horrible task. One day she was just looking at the label on a cassette tape, and suddenly realized that she could read it. After that she just started reading everything in sight.

(Twice with this child I used the most popular program that everyone here raved about, and both times it was a total disaster -- the other was using Miquon Math.)

With dd #2 I used Ordinary Parent's Guide, but neither of us can remember what age she was (I just asked her -- she thinks around age 4 or 5).  It was straightforward and easy to use.  We never finished it, since she was soon reading fluently.

My personal thought:  See what you can get from the library, and be prepared to chuck it if it isn't working.  Also, since your child already knows CVC words, etc., I'd think it would be easier to zip through the beginning of Ordinary Parent's until you find the place where she's learning new stuff -- the beginning of 100 Easy Lessons might just confuse her.

[Forsanda]

I've used Alpha Phonics by Samuel Blumenfeld with great success.

[splendiferous]

We used At Last! A Reading Method for EVERY Child, and my then 4YO was reading a few months after we began. This is relevant because my daughter hasn't exhibited any signs of advanced learning. The program was just awesome, and my 2YO can identify all the letters and their sounds from simply being a cute little nosey bug for several of the lessons.

It involves flash cards, worksheets, patience, coloring, and commitment. If your child hates flash cards or worksheets, this program isn't for you, as the author recommends using the cards even AFTER all the letters and sounds are committed to memory (takes us less than five minutes each time we use them--we still use them and plan to do so twice a week for a few more months). The author also refers to mimeographing in some of her writing, so she's a bit old school.

That said, I love this program and wouldn't think of using anything else. Of the two items you listed, OP, I've heard a lot more positive things about 100 Easy Lessons than about OPGTR.

Read the Amazon reviews...plenty of high marks from home school parents, reading teachers, and reading specialists. The only negative reviews pick at the word "EVERY", as in, of COURSE there is not one program that works for every child. Silly!

HTH

Splendiferous

[SundayCrepes]

I think learning should be fun. I've read too many people say 100 easy lessons is awful. If I tried something tedious or draconian with my son, he wouldn't want to read for at least a year or two.

I just ordered this: http://www.lovetolearn.net/catalog/product/07073 I hope my son enjoys it. It's gotten great reviews.

[TerrahMother]

We tried the electronic version of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, called Funnix. It was a flop. My child was underwhelmed with the "Listen big!" and "Wait for the click" teacher commands, and the longish short stories that lost his attention. I thought it'd be good because the pictures and activities were not "flashy" like one long goofy commercial like so many other programs. Also, I thought that I could just mute the sound and use my own voice to guide the lessons, but the lessons and accompanying workbook were too much of the follow-instruction type to incorporate into a natural learning atmosphere.

I went back to my self-created rhyming words program that I didn't give enough time before. He likes it much better and repeats the words he sees throughout the day, to my delight.

[tbone_kneegrabber]

Ds is 4.5yo and working his way through Reading Eggs online. He loves it. I think some of the games are confusing and sometimes it's more of a test of mouse skills than understanding, but he's totally motivated by it.

He only does it once a week maybe unless the weather is awful or something. He wanted to 'learn to read' and he always wanted to play on the computer and we bought the subscription when there was a new baby in the house, so it filled a specific niche for us.

[Justmee]

Originally Posted by Forsanda 

I've used Alpha Phonics by Samuel Blumenfeld with great success.

I was also going to say Alpha Phonics. We use that and BOB books.

[onatightrope]

None of my kids liked 100 Easy Lessons.  I like ProgressivePhonics.com  -- free printable primers (or you can use them as e-books) that are funny and worked very well for my kids.

[elizawill]

i feel bad, but i really hated 100 ez lessons. ordinary parent's guide was pretty good imho. of the two, i would definitely use OPG.

[Ahimsa]

I hated Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I thought it was too scripted and I didn't feel that I could deliver it authentically. My son used Starfall to learn the basics, but he wasn't progressing to much beyond reading cat and hat type words. We do K12 through a public charter, but we didn't like their phonics program either.

We just started with Progressive Phonics and my son and I both like it. We started at the intermediate level, and after 2 weeks of it, I am already seeing improvement. He likes the silly stories, and the reading together part is key, because the meaning of the stories isn't lost while he is striving to decode words (a problem we were having trying to work through basic readers.) We do each lesson twice and then play the memory game, but skip the worksheets, because he doesn't like them.

[homeschoolingmama]

100 Easy Lessons bored us!

I don't really know the other one.

I have "taught" my 9yo, 7yo, 6yo and now 4yo to read with BOB books.  They are little sets of books that build on each other.  The first book is called Sam Sat or something like that.  It built my kids confidence in themselves and got excited to continue.  One page would say Sam Sat.  Then the next pg was Matt Sat.  I would talk about the picture and laugh when they sat on each other.  That got them interested in what they were reading too.  After each pg we high five. 

To start these books I think children should know their letter sounds and beginning to put them together into a word.

By the end of the 5 boxed sets they move onto Dr. Seuss.

Each box teaches different things.  My kids love them.

[greenemami]

I looked at both of those books and wasn't really into either of them-neither seemed like a particularly "natural" way to teach reading.  Like the PP, I started using the BOB books-we are just on the second book of set one and my dd is really enjoying them and feels so proud that she can read a whole book by herself-at the end of the week, we have been reading it to daddy and she gets so excited. I agree that your child should know most of the letter sounds first though.  Good luck!

[chenchen]

Originally Posted by homeschoolingmama 

100 Easy Lessons bored us!

I don't really know the other one.

I have "taught" my 9yo, 7yo, 6yo and now 4yo to read with BOB books.  They are little sets of books that build on each other.  The first book is called Sam Sat or something like that.  It built my kids confidence in themselves and got excited to continue.  One page would say Sam Sat.  Then the next pg was Matt Sat.  I would talk about the picture and laugh when they sat on each other.  That got them interested in what they were reading too.  After each pg we high five. 

To start these books I think children should know their letter sounds and beginning to put them together into a word.

By the end of the 5 boxed sets they move onto Dr. Seuss.

Each box teaches different things.  My kids love them.

Also echoing this sentiment.  I bought 100 Easy Lessons, looked through it, and just knew I wouldn't use it.  The thing is, in order to be willing to sit through that, you'd have to start before they really have hit reading readiness, in which case, you're pushing.  If you wait until they're showing signs of readiness, the book is simply too tedious and seemingly condescending (by which I mean that it results in a whole lot of "I already KNOW THAT" type comments from the child.)  For most kids, reading really teaches itself - they just need access to appropriate level materials, a literature rich environment, and to have reached reading readiness.

[Mere]

The one thing I will say about 100 Easy Lessons (I am in the camp that liked this book) is that it is SHORT.  It looks weird, but you quickly get used to the format (and ds transitioned into normal letting no problem).  Maybe it's not super exciting, true, but come on, it's just 'learn a letter or letter combination sound, practice it.'  In the beginning It takes 5-10 minutes per lesson max.  It was perfect for ds who, at age 5, didn't know a lot of letter sounds, was receptive to learning how to read, and had a very short attention span!

[3littlelambs]

My 4yo learned the letter sounds from starfall.com and then once she was able to begin sounding out CVC words, we started with Bob books. She loves them too. I just ordered Happy Phonics which I've read great reviews on. It is basically a lot of games which teach the phonics rules. I wanted to build on the Bob books and feel she is just too young to sit for any length of time and use a workbook, so I thought this would be a good fit. She also loves the leapfrog phonics DVDs. We borrow them from our library. 

[thefragile7393]

Originally Posted by tbone_kneegrabber 

Ds is 4.5yo and working his way through Reading Eggs online. He loves it. I think some of the games are confusing and sometimes it's more of a test of mouse skills than understanding, but he's totally motivated by it.
He only does it once a week maybe unless the weather is awful or something. He wanted to 'learn to read' and he always wanted to play on the computer and we bought the subscription when there was a new baby in the house, so it filled a specific niche for us.

My son loves reading eggs too!  It really helps him a lot.  We tried using 100 Easy Lessons and it completely threw off my son because the style.  It was good with showing how to pronounce the sounds of letters but he had such a struggle trying to read the little sentences as the lessons progressed.  He started to cry every time he saw it.  We had a little more success with the Parent's Guide and if those are the only two you are interested in then I would definitely go for the Parent's Guide.  He's 6 now...and he currently does Reading Eggs, the phonics program from Tanglewood School with reinforcement with Spectrum Phonics K workbook and BOB books level 1.