Am I the only one who finds it really hard to teach reading using the parent guides like Ordinary Parents Guide and 100 easy Lessons?? I thought at first it was that I just didn't care for 100 Easy Lessons. But I liked Ordinary Parents Guide. BUT my son was struggling with it. It was becoming a huge battle. He just turned 5 so I really wasn't stressed about him learning to read but I had some signs that he COULD learn to read so I went to the library and got out the first set of Bob Books. In the past three days he has read me the first four books. He's GETTING it! And he's PROUD of it. And frankly so am I. It seems just so much easier to teach him to read while actually reading rather than using a parents guide like I was trying to. My oldest learned this way too. But he mostly taught himself.
Cool!! I love how you just went with what worked instead of trying to force a certain method. I never used a curriculum of any kind to teach reading. We just read. To learn letters, we just wrote letters on a dry erase board. Now that my kids are readers, we now do word study, phonics, things like that to refine skills, but to first learn reading, I could not stand some of those programs like 100ez lessons.
ME, TOO!!! I picked up 100 Easy Steps from the local library, and absolutely HATED it!!! Fortunately, it was from the library, and I hadn't paid for it, lol! (I tend to do that a lot!) I have three kids, and didn't teach ANY of them "how to read". We did a lot of playing with words/sounds. I did teach my eldest one her short vowel sounds, and she did the rest on her own. But I did read, read, read, and read some more to them. My youngest made "Word Family" books, or "Initial Sound" books which he very proudly "read" to everyone who would listen. I gave them my grocery list, and let them mark off things as I bought them. We would take turns "reading" a story they were familiar with. Like you, I did get workbooks to (as you say) "refine" their skills once they became readers. But I can honestly say I never taught them "how" to read!
Starfall.com is great for teaching reading, as is click n read phonics. I used those two, along with a large selection of leveled readers to get my boys reading!
I bought 100 Easy Lessons for my oldest and also hated it. I let it go and never really "taught" him to read. My oldest made it his pet project to teach my second son to read. It was super cute. So my (then) 7yo taught his (then) 5yo brother to read. With my third, I just let him run wild on Starfall. He's getting it... slowly. At his own pace.
I also hated 100EZ. I never really "taught" either of my kids to read, either. I correct them when they miss a word (like made isn't mad, because it has a magic e on the end), but once they either hear or figure out a rule, they've got it. It doesn't matter which order the phonics rules are learned, either. My kids both love(d) starfall & ETC, but they were games. They weren't instruction, really. It was what they did when they wanted to do something fun, and they'd spend 2 hrs at a time doing them, sometimes.
I also hated 100ez and loved OPGTR, but have found that the better method has been to just go with the flow and teach a little at a time. I've used some ideas and resources from almost everywhere, just to change things up now and then, but I'm a firm believer in going at whatever pace the child needs to go and they WILL eventually get it. I've taught 3... 2 kids to read now. I almost can't claim my first one, as about the time we began to be able to understand his speech (he was 4) we discovered that he could also read (on at least a 4th grade level). So, it was my resources I suppose, but he was one who just kind of got it with or without me. LOL But my almost-9yo and almost 8-yo are both mom taught and grandma (this would be MY grandma... 40+ year 1st grade ps teacher, now retired) approved! LOL Do what works, mama! You're doing great!
I tried 100 Lessons & Scaredy Cat Reading with my oldest....hated both. For different reasons. Never tried Ordinary Parent's Guide....but I have a friend who's used it with all three of her girls and swears by it. I used www.starfall.com with my oldest, finally. She got it so quickly using that. She's way above grade level and has been for a loooong time. My younger two learned to read just by playing on Starfall and never using the "formal" program. Both test well above in reading as well.
I bought 100 EZ lessons (thank God it was used and cheap), and Beau hated it and so did I. He really wanted to learn how to read, but that book squashed it for a long time. Now he reads Dick and Jane books. They go from super easy (Oh! Oh! Look! Look!) to a little harder (Look up, Dick! I see it! Oh! Look!) to the hardest (Sally said, "Look Jane! TIm is drinking milk! Tim is drinking milk like me!). I really love them. I have several that we saved from an old school house that are stamp dated in the 40's and in great condition. Beau and Pat also like doing starfall.com. It's a site I can say, "Time for school work!" and Beau can log on himself and do it with Paddy. I don't think I will ever buy a formal book for teaching reading ever.
We just used the I can read books from the library. That and the little yellow, blue, and red books we traded off with my sis. It was easy smeasy! lol
I'm also partial to the "Real Kid Readers" from the library. Real people pictures, and a rhyming story that emphasizes a particular vowel sound. The story is usually really cute, but not dipsy.
We never used any of those programs to teach ours to read either. I don't think they're necessary for most people. Both our kids have been read at least one story every day since they were 12 months old. Before they were 2 they knew all the letters and the sounds they made from us reading to them so frequently and pointing out letters on their toys, on street signs, etc. and asking us what letter it was. We never stressed it, they just genuinely wanted to know since they saw them so often. Once they could recognise a particular letter ("S" was the first and easiest for both somehow), they'd tell us whenever they saw it, and start on another letter. "Look, there's an M! Mmmmmmm..." Before they were 3, they could each read their own names and a bunch of soundable words, like "mum" and so on. They also liked words like "DVD" and "TV" which are spelt the way they sound. We would ask them during stories to read certain words and they quickly got the hang of sounding them out. They'd try to read every word they saw on signs and things. While each of them was 3, they got to the point of being able to read more and more words with greater ease. They could independently read Dr Suess books and others at a similar level. They'd still get a story every day, but also read a book on their own (or back to one of us!) a few times a week. By the age of 4, each one could read at what we determined (using one of those test things) was a grade 3 level. It was no special effort. I think it's largely due to being read to so very much, and thereby becoming so easily familiar with letters, their sounds, and words. We never planned "this is how we will teach them to read" because they were already learning in their own way.
I got 100EZ lessons at the library and felt it wasn't a very good fit. We do like the Bob books and I did find a fun & free phonics website that we use called Teach the World to Read. Here's their link: http://www.teachtheworldtoread.com/
I didn't use a curriculum to teach Ems to read. We always read and she picked up on it and was reading before Kindgergarten. Once we started a formal education, we used a curriculum to help with more advanced reading and rules. But the best way to teach a child to read is by reading.
I agree with Patty! The best way for your children to love reading is for you to read to them. I love it when my boys ask me to read them stories. Even if it is the same story over and over again. I think the librarians hate us because we can check out a ton of books at a time.
My DD is learning advanced phonics now with books (prefixes, suffixes and multisyllabic words). I did use the OPGTR word lists to make sure she knew the phonograms and how to sound out words, but I never let her read any of those sentences in there since they are so contrived it frustrates both her and me. She prefers real books and always has. We do a LOT of shared reading.
All I have done is read to them from pretty much day one. I read books just about every night, I have my older son read every once in awhile, no pressure. He will be 7 in July, so we just take it easy. Sometimes he will read a "big" word all on his own, never seeing the word before. Takes me by surprise, that's for sure!
Yes, my oldest taught himself to read playing on starfall.com! I can't take any credit for that. He picked it up pretty easily. Colton is doing great. We practice a little everyday and I'm very pleased that he is still excited and enjoying it. And never fear, I got 100EZ lessons from the library too so other than some late fines it doesn't cost us anything. lol
I learned to read by being read to. For HOURS at a time!!! I could read by the time I started first grade (there was no kindergarten then). My daughter read the same way. By the time she started kindergarten, she was making her own lists of rhyming words. DS was way too ADHD (emphasis on the H) to sit still to be read to, so he learned to read the hard way -- public school. With some additional assistance at home. I was thrilled the first time I had to tell him, "Put the book away, turn out the light, and go to sleep!" I tried 100EZ with his son when he was 4, sort of as an experiment. I remembered the public school I worked in had used Distar years ago for reading in the elementary special ed class (but that worked, so they quit it), and 100EZ is basically Distar, with the funny alphabet. DGS was intrigued at first, but after about 12 lessons he was SO done with that! After that, I showed him Starfall, and he loved it and learned most of the letter sounds when he visited us every other weekend. When he was in public kindy, he developed a hate for anything related to books or pencil/paper, except Starfall which he would play occasionally. This year he's back with us for first grade, and I've used CLE's LTR. Plus tons of read-alouds, and Abeka's K4 and K5 little paper readers, Christian Liberty's preschool and kindergarten readers, Dr. Seuss books (he's just about memorized Green Eggs and Ham, which was his dad's favorite), and Spongebob leveled reader/comicbooks, and Cars leveled readers, and Pathways preprimer and primer, and the old Ginn Basic Readers (from the 60s) preprimers and primer -- similar to Dick and Jane, but with Tom, Betty, and Susan.
