Any fans of "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons"?

Hello, my name is Erin and this is my first post! Please bare with me as this all new to me. I very much appreciate any words of wisdom you have to share.

I have been working with my preschooler on learning to read. We started out with the BOB books (level A) and he made it through the first 24 fairly easily. We started out on level B and learned he was quickly lost on book 1 as words like "begged" and "pennies" were introduced. He was no longer able to sound everything out in this set.

A friend recommended the 100 easy lessons so we got started on that. One of the first sounds introduced is the long e sound. He asked to read a BOB book after our lesson and now he pronounces "men" as meeen or "mean" after having worked in the 100 easy lessons book.

I am so confused and I don't want to confuse him. Is it best not to supplement with other books while working in the 100 easy lessons book. It seems to have wonderful reviews, but I am not clear how to translate it to other reading.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. My apologies if it makes no sense, as you can tell I am thoroughly confused.

 

I used 100 EZ Lessons with my son.

I'd say it'd be good for you to cut back on having him read other books until you're further along in the lessons. 100 EZ Lessons uses a number of special characters (like the long E with a line over top) for the first while before gradually transitioning to the standard alphabet. If you read ahead in the book you can see how that happens. It can be confusing at first. Just save your son's reading for school times. If he insists on reading on his own, simply correct him when he's wrong, but don't turn it into a lesson. (Though you might point out that the E in Men is missing the line over the top.)

I liked 100 EZ Lessons, and it worked well for us, but it sure can turn into a long, boring slog after awhile. We kept it to 15 minutes a day, and rewarded our son with stickers and gummy bears.

 

Oh, thank you so much for this! This is so helpful! I will keep plugging along with EZ Lessons (he actually loves it) and set aside the other reading until we get further along. I was having trouble seeing where it would translate to the standard alphabet and all come together.

 

I currently use it with my 2 boys. I'll be frank, it's boring. Dry. Scripted (which can eb a good thing too). I had to do a little extra to enforce the sounds and words with my boys, it also gives them something to look forward too.

First we have a chart and they sticker the chart when they are done with a lesson. Every 25 lessons completed they will get to visit SHatto Dairy to pet the baby cows, and go to the mall to ride the HUGE carousel. At the end of all 100 lessons they get to do teh previous, and go to a beach in Maryville at a lake.

The games I made are "Sound Bingo" (just the letters on a bingo board, I call out a sound and they have to find teh corresponding letter), "Word Bingo" (it's a little harder, I call out a word and they have to find that word ont heir Bingo card, spell it, sound ti out, and say teh word again), and "Toodle's Letter search (Toodles as in "Mickey Mouse Club House". I write a word on a piece of paper with one letter missing, I have alphabet letter cut outs and I place them in the spots on Toodles. I say the word I wrote down and ask him to find the missing word on Toodles. It's funny to hide Toodles first, look at the word next then when we're ready to find the letter we say, "OOOOOHH TOOOOOOODLESSSSS!)

Little reinforcements like that really help.

 

Great ideas to add some fun into it!

My son is such a little grown-up so he thinks the thick adult-like EZ book is so cool, haha!

 

I used 100 EZ lessons with my son and it was a rough start but once he got going (learned he was moderately deaf) it worked out for him. He did have the same mix up when reading outside the manual but after time it went away. We finished it up about a month ago and now he's just reading and using the Explode the Code Books

 

I used it for my youngest.. We both had a love/hate relationship with it.. She liked it at first and then she was bored with it. She was learning from it but the dry lessons were tough on her. I do admit that she did actually cry over having to do the book towards the end. That's the part that I hated. The passages are supposed to be read two times. I finally decided to have her read it only once. But we did go ahead and work through the tears. I bribed her with small treats after every 5 lessons she did. So basically once a week she got something like a snow cone or pack of gum. Then, when she finished the book we had a small celebration that included HER donating it to the library to help some other child learn to read.

 

I used it with my daughter and she and I went round and round...it just wasn't for her. I know plenty of people that have used it and had plenty of success. I decided to go to headsprout website and that is how both of my kids learned to read and loved it.

If your child likes it I'd say continue using it but don't read other books until the concepts are well in hand. We didn't read anything outside of headsprout until we finished the first 40 lessons and by then both could read beginning books fairly easily.

Good luck!

 

I borrowed it from the library. Am very thankful I didn't buy it; I HATED it from day one! It just wasn't at all my style of teaching. We returned it VERY quickly!

 

I also tried it but hated it. We only went through about 20 lessons beofre I ditched it.

 

Okay...she asked for FANS not haters! LOL

I used it too, for a time, and was not a fan.

But I would say if YOU like it and your SON likes it, keep at it. BUT since it's teaching method is different than most phonics type systems DON'T mix it with phonics readers until he's started to learn the difference between long and short vowel sounds.

OR...if you're not enjoying it, or it is really confusing....have you seen www.starfall.com?

This is what I went to after the first 30 or so lessons. My oldest picked it up in a snap! I didn't bother with any other program with my other two. We went right to Starfall.

 

YEP! Just because it didn't fit MY teaching style doesn't mean it won't fit yours!

 

I just began homeschooling in November, but that is what we used with my dd who had just turned 5. She LOVED it at first and a lot of days did 2-3 lessons a day, but towards the end of the book she was reading so well that the lessons drove her crazy, however with that said, the reason that she was reading so well is because 100 Easy Lessons worked for her. So yes, we liked it!

 

We also bought it(wish I would have thought about the library having it) and my boys hated it. We didn't make it very far before we tossed it aside. It was not to our taste at all.

 

I've learned over the years to check with the library first. There were several things (SOTW, Spelling Power, FIAR to name a few) that the library had. Some I went out and bought, and some I knew were just "wrong" for us!

 

I am a "fan" of the book! I used it for all four of my children and had huge success. Even with one of my children that is extreme dyslexic. I was going to use another book with him but he took one look at and cried. He moved quickly with EZ lessons and reads very well now. My kids still remember the stories. Good luck with homeschooling and teaching your child/children to read.

 

I have used it with my two oldest kids. It was a love hate relationship. We do not love it, my kids hated it around lesson 50. But my kids also read really really well. Well above grade level. And it wasn't so terrible that they didn't learn anything. Just not their favorite. My 2 cents... Just make it your own. We only read the stories once. I would work on site words with flash cards to give them some words they just knew. We didn't finish all the lessons. Once the kids were reading books outside of the lessons we stopped. Read with you boy often and you will know which words they will miss and need help figuring out. Have a mini lesson on those words. EX. My boy had a hard time with light. So we worked on words that had the ight for a few minutes and he was good with it after that. The list of books in the back is a great list to use.

 

Aggie had one piece of advice that I REALLY would like to emphasize. "Just make it your own." No matter what curriculum you use in any subject, there will be things you like and don't like. Adjust it to fit YOU. Do what works, throw out the parts that don't. Don't become a slave to your curriculum.

 

Oh Jackie that is so true. I found out the hard way the first few years of HSing. I was so focused on finishing the books we bought I kind of sucked the fun out of it. Sometimes you know right off and others it takes a few weeks. We have learned to adapt on the fly so to speak and it is a lot more fun now. It still breaks my heart when I spend money on books that we have to discard because we don't like them.