I got Teach Your child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. No where in the book does it say IF the child needs to know the alphabet first. Does he?? My 4 year old has been using Starfall and loving it. He has learned 4 letters so far. He is pointing them out on packages and in books. (On shirts, whatever he can find.) I started with "a" and moved forward from there. But I have a 100 easy lessons now and I'm wondering how I should progress. We go over the first page (or so) of each letter already learned, all the pages of yesterday's letter and all the pages of today's letter on Starfall. (He really likes the Upper case/lower case sorting/matching game with A and B, but C and D had some other games he could have cared less about.) This kids WANTS to read. He asks to do his lesson each day. (Not pushing him, just doing 1 letter a day.)
well i've read that its often times better to teach a child the sounds of the letter before they know the name of the letter... so it might be good that he doesn't know his ABCs just yet
I learned to read with that book when I was 4!! I remember my mom teaching me how to read... I would just try it out and see how it goes. I don't think it's a requisite of knowing each letter by name, since the child only needs to sound them out.
I have used/am using 100EZ with both of mine. The author wrote it with the intention of children NOT knowing the alphabet before starting it, as the preferred method (it teaches the letter names around lesson 80ish, I believe) That being said, both of mine knew all the letter names before we started, and it didn't make a difference to their learning to read with the book. I think it is a great starting place for teaching reading. Hope it works for you.
I am finding this discussion interesting I actually taught my dd about 1/2 of her letters between K and 1st. I taught the names in conjunction with the sound. (sort of like.. "This is a 'b'. It says /b/ like baby.") When we review our letter poster (daily) we repeat something similar: "E says /e/ like elephant and /E/ like Eagle." I don't think I saw much benefit in learning either JUST the letter names or JUST the letter sounds- or even just the names and letter sounds without a word to reference. But that's just me and I don't pretend to be an expert. Hadn't really considered teaching it a different way! I've heard good things about 100ez lessons. If I had another child or two to teach, I think I would give it a go.
I'll start 100EZ tomorrow. We'll see if he likes it as much Starfall. He really likes Starfall but hopefully he'll like the other too.
This is how I approached teaching the letters/sounds. I also used an action for each one. I was teaching preschool with 2 other kids and my son. The other kids picked up the letter names first, followed by sounds, and then were able to associate a word with it. I got frustrated at first because ds just did not seem to remember the names of the letters. I finally caught on that here is what he would do: look at the letter, get a mental image, say the sound, and then tell me the letter name. I was fine with that because I knew that in order to read, he needed the sound more than the letter name. Of course, both came with practice. It just drove me crazy when I would show him the letter j and he would say the sound and want to give me 5 words that started with that letter before he would tell me that it was a "j".
I used this with my oldest even after she was reading. For her, it was for endurance. She would read a sentence and be exhausted, having no desire to read more. She was 4-5 years old. After we were through lesson 70 or so, she was fine reading 3-4 pages at a time with her AO Horizons readers. I was happy.
First lesson was today. The little sneak knew "m" even though I hadn't taught him that letter yet. We had a bit of trouble getting him to call it "mmmm" instead of "m". But no problem with "ssssss". He can't write yet at all. So I printed up a couple of handwriting pages and "helped" him trace the "m" and "s". I figured it was more a memory builder then a motor skill builder.
Did lesson 3 today. (Dad was home Friday and no time for his lesson.) He really likes the extra "alone" time with me and is now repeating all types of words. He was saying "mama", mama, mama over and over and I said "Ssssssuuuulllly" and all of the sudden he said I have a "SSSSSSSSS" in my name. So I wrote his name out and showed him his "SSSSSS". This may help with his speech too.
NO, they do not need to know the alphabet first. As you teach it you may want to emaphasize the fact that letters have a name, and a sound, just as animals have a name and make a sound. Then let them know that under different circumstances they make different noises. I think it is actually benificial if there has not been too much emphasis put on the abc song and such before teaching phonics. I used 100 lessons for both kids and that is the one area we excell in now. I followed with Explode the code. Both kids lagged it seemed then exploded the code. They just started reading fluently all of the sudden and kept right on going. It was really neat seeing them go from prek to 3 grade reading in like 12-16 weeks.
Where do you start if Your child can read some? My kindergartner is reading some and I want to progress him farther. I just got the book 100EZ for him. I did it some 8 years ago with my first son when he was 4. That being said, should I still start at the beginning and just do 2-3 lessons at a time to progress to where he is? It is looking like he is around lesson 25-35 at this particular time. Just wanted anyone's thoughts. Has anyone started these lessons with a beginner reader who has the basics of sounding out small words and knows sight words?
I helped a friend's son read using only the latter parts of this book. If, for example, he already knew the sounds that 'm' and 's' make, then we'd skip the first lesson which deals purely with those sounds. It sounds like you've already had a look through the book and realise this. The lessons are built up on each other, so as long as your son knows the sounds and can recognise the letters up to a certain chapter, he should be fine, although it might take him a little while longer to get used to how the lessons run.
I bought 100 EZ lessons and within 2 months it was collecting dust on the shelf. Kori HATED it, and it was a struggle to get him to do it. It got monotonous and boring for him, even with the file folder game reinforcements I made him. It was terribly dry. I found it helpful that he knew his letters first. He was able to spell the word that was on the page, but the signs and symbols just threw him for a loop and were frustrating. I'm not saying he didn't learn with the book, because he really did, but it was just not for us. I hope it works really well for you!
Our three year old doesn't know the ABC song. I don't think ANY kid needs to know it, honestly. The alphabet is not a word. They REALLY need to know the alphabet letters individually. The only use for the Alphabet song is to possibly remember the order of the letters.
I used the 100EZ book with my older two when they were little. It worked wonderfully. They did already know the names of the letters, but the sounds are introduced so gradually, I would think knowing letter names would be a non-issue. I am using the Reading Lesson with my 3rd child, and we are almost finished with it. It has been wonderful as well.
I found a wonderful free website that teaches young kids to read. http://www.learntoreadfree.com/ It teaches the first 55 words in a very gentle way. There are even games. It keeps up with the child's progress. You can add more than one child. Blessings, Susan
I just started this book with my son. So far I'm extremely impressed. He hates anything to do with learning letters, sounds, etc. Much prefers math and science. Anyway, today we added a to m and s. When we did the a sound followed by the m sound he figured out on his own that is the word am. You should have seen how his face lit up when he realized all these letter sounds make words. He is so proud of himself because he can read a word. He can't wait for Daddy to get home so he can show his daddy that he can read a word.
Donna Young Handwriting lessons at this link will go right along with the book, that way you don't have to do extra work. Just thought I'd share.
