Many people like "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons". I borrowed it from the library, and HATED it, but that's just me! I think I'm also the only person alive who doesn't like "Five in a Row", LOL! You might want to see if you can get a copy of it to see if it will work for you. I don't use any particular program for teaching reading. I am assuming your child already knows all the alphabet, and has an idea of initial sounds. You can get on the computer and get clip art pictures, print them out, and glue them into books..."Phillip's 'D' Book", "Phillip's 'R' Book", etc. One picture per page. We also have an "-AT Book" and an "-EN Book". I give dittos where there are color words written on the picture. I made a computer printout of color words in the right color. He can match the word on the page to the colored word on the page to get it right. He has also matched the word on his crayon!!! I do short vowel pages, and watch "Between the Lions". We get lots of easy books from the library, but many of the "Level One Readers" assume a child has a basic sight vocabulary. I have found that frustrating!!! I have found that the "Wonder Books" series are very phonetic, and can be worked with kids without a strong sight vocabulary. There's lots of repetition, and they target a specific sound. They are written by Peg Ballard. Also, I really like the "Real Kids Readers". There's different levels. They rhyme, and the kids kind of like the "real" pictures in them. I also like Spectrum's (McGraw-Hill) reading workbooks. But K was too easy for Phillip, and Grade 1 was too hard! I think he's just about ready to start Grade 1 now!
I agree too, I didn't like *Teaching your child to Read...blah, blah*... Here are some other choices that I like.. 1. Explode the Code Primers with Reading Made Easy 2. Saxon Phonics K and Phonics Pathways along with some other graded readers of your choice 3. Phonics Pathways Bob Books and Explode the Code 4. My Father's World is excellen and laid out and stand alone..What grade? 5. This year I used Ordinary Parents Guide To Reading along with Fun phonics book and books by Modern Curriculum Press. 6. There is also Sing,Spell, Read and Write. 7. Abeka graded readers and workbook.. I hope this helps gives you some direction..
I bought Tanner a pack of sight readers books from Scholastic and they are wonderful. They teach the first 50 sight words which are crucial for children to know first. I would suggest something like that. Tanner can now read some of the books by himself and he loves them.
Oops, I forgot. I started teaching simple sight words first...like at, in, up, etc. Once children learn words like "at" they can easily pick up words that blend into it, like "cat" or "hat" after they know "at". Google the Dolch Sight Words list to get the list of sight words recommended for each grade. Every other week I introduce a new sight word and do activities around it and review it. I even have little cards with the words attached to the fridgerator so they are always around them. We look through magazines to find the words they know as well, and look through books to find the ones they know. Whenever we are reading a story I stop at a word they know so they can read with me.
I am always looking for the perfect curriculum. I haven't really found it yet. I have used Sadlier Oxford phonics this year with my preschooler. I liked it. He already knew the alphabet and most sounds. He did well with the SO. I also blended in lots of phonics type games and sight word readers. I have used other various phonics/reading workbooks as well. I have Hooked on Phonics. We have only used the pc game with it. I plan to incorporate the lesson books soon to see how ds does with it. One thing I have used with my dd (now 3rd grade) is the MCP phonics workbooks. They are very good in my opinion. Also, I like the Scott-Foresman reading textbooks. Those two things make a good combination for Reading. I suspect that I will continue that tradition with my preschooler when the time is ready. Good luck!
I used "Teach your Child to read in 100 easy lessons" for awhile...for the first 44 lessons Sami BEGGED me for reading lessons. Cried cause I wouldn't let her do several lessons a day. Drove me nuts! on lesson 45 she announced she dosn't ever want to read anything ever again. I Stopped letting her do them much (She asks now and then but then gets mad cause the stories have more than two lines of text and throws fits.) in two months we managed to get to about lesson 53. every time she cries and refuses to cooperate. I don't know what magically changed between lesson 44 and lesson 45 but It's got me about ready to chuck the book in the trash! I think the 100 easy lessons may just advance too fast.. it ends on a second grade reading level and Sami is only 4. It may be an age thing.. How old is she? Anyhow, something to consider if you look at that one. We switched to The Disney Princess Spelling book I found at the dollar tree (I have no idea what grade level it is but Sami understands and can read all of it except the excersie where she has to cross out the words that are spelled wrong. We only have two princess to go (Doing a princess a week). Since Sami is little and ahead of herself and dosn't want to read, I'm gonna get sneaky for awhile.. I'm setting her computer back up and installing a bunch of computer story books, reader rabbit, Sound it out land and the phonics Sisters on there.
I also hated "100 Easy Lessons" (more like a million hard ones). I LOVE the Explode the Code series. They have been wonderful for my daughter who has a visual perception disorder.
I taught all three of my children to read quite inexpensively. When my oldest was one year old (she's now almost 17), I happened upon three little books at a rummage sale. They were published by Modern Curriculum Press in 1967. (Total cost to me was less than $1.00) As far as I can tell, these books must have been the first three primers in the reading curriculum at a school. The first one starts out with sentences like: Ann ran. Jack ran. Pal ran. Short vowels first, then long vowels. By the end of the third book, my kids (who each started using the books when they were around 5 years old) were well on their way to fine reading skills. I always search rummage sales for the older readers from public schools. Vintage 1960's. They approached reading very methodically, and I think they are great for teaching reading. Of course, this may not be helpful to anyone else since the books are not commercially available. Yet, I wanted to share this experience just to let you know that there are multiple ways for kids to learn to read. I think our modern society has tried to equate learning to read with rocket science. So many expensive curriculums! I'm glad I happened upon a few little old readers before I purchased anything else. Our progression: Learn all consonant sounds. Learn short vowel sounds. Blend consonants and short vowels. Learn long vowel sounds. Blend consonants and long vowels. Most importantly, do it every day. Do a little every day.
Northwriter, that's pretty much how I do it, too! My oldest was one of those kids that, about a week after her fourth birthday, asked, "Mommy when are you going to teach me to read?" So I started giving her short-vowel dittos (she already knew her consonants), and never made it any further. She took it from there, and was reading "Charlotte's Web" semi-independently at age 6. So it spoiled me for my middle one, who is more of a "normal" child, LOL! Another important thing is to instill the LOVE of books. I truely believe that if you teach a child to love books and reading, they will push themselves because it's something the WANT to do. If they don't love books, then they see reading (and learning to read!) as a chore. Of course, that doesn't mean they'll want to spend every waking minute with a book! Let those active boys be active, running around outside playing with swords and all!
