Sunday, February 10, 2013

Book Review: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

I learned about Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons through reviews by homeschooling moms with a lot more experience than me. I checked it out from the library while my oldest daughter was only 2, and confirmed for myself that this was the book I wanted to use when it came time to teach my children how to read. In the past 6 years I have acquired a copy from a friend who didn't like using it herself, have taught my oldest to read (at 6 years old she is reading at a mid-2nd grade level...maybe late 2nd grade), and have begun using it to teach my 4.5yr to read.
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The introduction exhorts parents NOT to change ANYTHING, but to read the script exactly as written and use the lessons exactly in order, as the authors have much more experience at teaching children how to read than the parent or teacher using the book. Well, they have more experience at teaching, but I have more experience at understanding my own children. Furthermore, the program was developed to help older children still struggling to read at basic levels, not necessarily young children without a past failure. So I follow the script mostly, but skip lessons when a child is bored, use a different setup for handwriting, and adjust my expectations based on the child I'm teaching.
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I offered lessons to my oldest daughter when she showed a lot of interest in reading, but found she wasn't remembering the sounds from one day to the next, at all. So we put the book away for several months and didn't begin using it in earnest until she was 5 years old. By then she was truly ready and within 20-30 lessons was finding the pace too slow. Every second lesson was introducing a new sound, so we skipped the lessons in between. We stopped only about halfway through the book and started a novel (Dinosaurs Before Dark), her reading one page and me finishing the rest of the chapter. She has always loved books so her motivation has led her to practice incessantly, making her the accomplished reader that she is already.
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I began teaching my second daughter when she was only 4yr and a couple months old. Because she is younger, her temperament is different, and her life experience is different, we've moved at a slower pace through the book. We haven't skipped any lessons yet (25 lessons in), and we're not likely to begin anytime soon. It takes her more reviews to remember each letter's sound. We complete about 3 lessons each week and will probably continue through lesson 70+. Yet even with the slower pace I anticipate that she'll be ready to begin actual chapter books with me before she turns 5 next August, maybe even by summertime. She likes to have other people do things for her, but there are plenty of times when no one is available to read aloud to her when she'll have the opportunity to practice on her own.
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I don't think this book would motivate a child who doesn't want to read to begin with. If books were not such a significant portion of our daily life, my girls might not be ready to begin reading for a couple more years, might need to use a different (more exciting) program or need to work through more lessons, and might need more in-between books after they learn how to read before they're ready to co-read chapter books. Yet for children who LOVE books, this gives a fantastic foundation to reading, using a phonics approach that enables them to sound out any unknown word. It will be interesting for me to see how different my 4yr responds as we conclude our lessons in a few months. Once I taught my almost-6yr the foundations of reading, she took off, skipping through a first-grade level in just weeks by her constant independent practice. I suspect that her sister will move more slowly, but surely, reading perhaps at a first grade level throughout the first half of her kindergarten year. But she could surprise me and move just as quickly once she's ready for "real" books!
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Linked with Works for Me Wednesday

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