I am soo EXCITED, I just ordered the book How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for my 4yo dd Amalia. I can't wait to get it and have her start it.
I guess once they go through the whole book, they will be reading at a "second grade level."

Has anyone else here used this book? I'll let you know how it works as Amalia goes through it. :happy

CIAO

Well, I'm a staunch unschooler, so perhaps I shouldnt even post here, but I'd just like to give you one little tip that may save tears later; dont push your LO to work through this book if she resists it. forcing her to do it will just teach her that learning to read, and therefore reading, is a painful process.
If she enjoys the book and learns from it , GREAT!, but trust that she WILL learn to read when she is ready, and some children just arent developmentally ready to start reading at 4 or even at 7.

The book may work wonders for kids who are motivated to do it, at whatever age, but I suspect that if forced on a child who isnt ready, it could be damaging.

good luck!

I totally agree with you! But my dd WANTS to read. She'll look at the letters and try to sound them out. She asks me if she can read to me so I think at least she will be ready for some of the book. I'll bet we wont get through the whole thing anytime soon. I'm just excited to see if she can even do it. lol.. But yeah you are so right on not pushing your em if they aren't ready! THANKS :shades

If I have learned anything in these last five years, it's "better late than early, but best on their own clock". BTW, an interest in letters and what they do do not equal the congitive ability to perform the magic of reading.

We have a copy of the book Alphaphonics. It's good, because with a little curiosity and knowledge of the letters, the child can teach himself to read. Just leave it out on the couch or something.

Zephyr, Strewing Queen.

well, my DD was SUPER fascinated with letters at the age of 18mo, she learned, within a couple of weeks, she learned perfectly ALL the hebrew and english alphabets, as well as the sounds the letters made, and started spelling some simple words (cat ABA) and even WRITING legible letters!!
she also learned the logo of every car manufacturer and could identify every car on the street.
but it wasn't reading, and now, almost 2 years later, she hasnt progressed at all. in fact, once she mastered the letters, (and I started pushing her to read), she started resisting.
I do suspect that as soon as kids start being pushed to learn, then they wont.

oh, you type c a t and you get a pic of a c a t!

the problem i have with the 100 easy lessons and the other one, is it 20 lessons?, is that the adult part that i'm supposed to read is way too complicated and annoying.
why can't they just make it simple?!

and no, i ain't gonna buy another book, if i can help it. (we also have a few explode the code pre-reading workbooks)
i'll just have to come up with something that does the trick...
when the interest is there, obviously, definately ain't gonna force the issue.

One of my dds is somewhat dyslexic. She knew all the letters and sounds and all that, at a suitable age, and learned to read simple words without too much trouble. But the next step, of being able to sound out all the words in English that are neither short vowel sounds nor magic-e words (the vast majority of them), she got nowhere.

Thank G-d, we found a teacher who very slowly and painstakingly taught her each "rule" of English. "ar", "ay", "ai", "ou" (you) and "ou" (out), etc, etc. At the rate of a rule a week, it took a full year.

That's why they can't make it simple.

(Oh, and she reads now. Doesn't enjoy it, but at least she has the tools.)

Meanwhile, one of my dss just picked it up from the air, as it were. Same education, same environment, different genes. Go figure.

yea i'm pretty bummed out by this. My book never came. Someone cashed my money order and never sent the book. I've tried emailing the seller many times and haven't gotten a response at all. I did when the money order was in route and now that its cashed its ZERO communications.

silly, i mean it was only 10 bucks that I was ripped off too!! Its not like it was a high priced item. OY :banghead

SOME PEOPLE.... :angry

How did you buy it? can you report the seller?

Where did you buy it from? Internet?

I bought it off of Ebay. I had contacted them once and they said the had no record of that seller, and since it was a money-order payment instead of a credit card they can't reimburce me since there is no proof that I payed.


Oh well, i tried. I shouldda gone with my gut instinct and gotten it at Walmart. same price, no shipping and I would have had it right then and there.

hind sight is 20/20 right?!

What do you mean, no record? They hosted that seller! They have take some responsibility! It's not the $10. It's the many, many people he or she ripped off besides from you.
Do you get a receipt with a $ order?
Tell ebay that you need that seller's contact info. They must have it to have hosted him, no?

Oh, that's really infuriating for you! Do you have an electronic record of the sale (i.e. the invoice or "you won the auction" message) they sent?

FWIW, I took this book out of the library to try and it didn't fly here; but it is easy to get through interlibrary loan if your branch doesn't have it.

fwiw I didn't really like that book. I had borrowed it last year from a friend,but it wasn't for us. My 2 ds 's who were homeschooled last year , actually learned phonics (really learned!!!!!) from the "leap frog videos lol
We had taken one out the library and they just asked for it all the time ...so I found them at toysrus for about $6 each and they listened every day and sang the songs till I couldn't take it anymore :haha they actually applied what they learned in the "word factory" one to reading, ie; putting the letters / sounds together. :shrug hey whatever works, right?
ds who is in 1st grade this year is a "slow reader" at least that's what his teacher keeps saying....and I keep asking her what's the rush?
:shrug why do they "stress "the kids younger and younger all the time.
Iam thinking of homeschooling again........ :sigh

This reminds me of exactly what my second dd's teacher used to tell me, that she was too slow in learning the aleph bais, and that she should work on it at home so she wouldn't fall behind. She was 4 (youngest in her preK class), and they weren't even supposed to be learning reading until kindergarten. I think some teachers need to prove themselves by doing even more than the overpressured system demands.

I never used this book, but personally haven't had to teach any of my kids to read. They just naturally pick reading up when they're ready. Then again, I've never been able to wow anyone with four year olds who read - but it never mattered to me, I was more concerned about them learning when they were ready than what anyone thought. They all read well independently between the ages of 6 - 8.

Yeah Amalia is SOO wanting to read right now. I have been working on her phonics, and she has really been picking it up really well!! She is able to read quite a few words already!!

I was able to get a few of the lessons off-line for her to work on and the website, http://www.starfall.com is REALLY good for kids learning to read!! Its really helped alot too!!

BOTH my girls (4&2) are getting the sounds. She is CONSTANTLY asking me how do you spell___. all day long she sounds like "b b b- aa a a-- ll ll l ball" its pretty cute :grin