34 out of 34 people found this review helpful.
Not Easy, but it Does Work
Date of Review: May 20, 2004
The Bottom Line: This is an excellent book for some children. It worked very well for us, examine it closely yourself to determine if it's right for your child.
I can hardly believe it, but my 3 1/2 year old is now reading at a 2nd grade level. No, I promise you I'm not one of those parents, the ones that put a lot of pressure on their children to be ahead in everything. But, when my 18 month old started recognizing letters and naming them without me ever deliberately instructing him, I decided to encourage his interest by reading to him a lot and buying him all sorts of toys/puzzles/etc that had to do with the alphabet and phonics. We bought foam letter stickups for the bathtub(wonderful), I made him upper and lower case letters for his flannel board, we bought the ABC Puzzle by Lights Camera Interaction(fantastic). Additionally, we bought 3 products from Leap Frog: the Phonics Bus(problematic but he did learn from it), the Phonics Desk(almost worthless), and - later - the Phonics Writing Desk(mediocre).
By the time my son was 3, he knew his upper and lower case alphabet, and new the hard and soft sounds of all the consonants and the long and short sounds of the vowels. There was nothing left to do but teach him to actually read.
I already knew how I was going to do it. I was determined not to spend hundreds on one of those expensive programs like "Hooked on Phonics", but I am not a teacher, so I needed something, a program, computer game, book, whatever, that would just lay it all out for me and tell me exactly what to do and how to do it. So, I did some research and learned about Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I bought it several months before my child was actually ready for it because I wanted to read through the entire book myself before sitting down with my child.
What is Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons?
Based on the DISTAR reading system, this book is basically 100 completely scripted "20 minute" lessons designed to take your child from not even knowing the alphabet to a second grade reading level. I know it sounds just too good to be true, but please read on. The book is intended for average children 4 & 5 years old, or "bright" 3 1/2 year olds. You basically read through the book with your child, saying all of the lines (the script) written in pink, with your child following your instructions. At the end of each lesson, there is a writing portion where your child practices writing the "sounds" (not referred to as "letters") he has just been reading. The retail price of this book in soft cover is $20.
What You Can Expect
Lesson #1
Introduces the sounds "m" (mmmmmmmm) and "s" (sssssssss).
Lesson #3
Adds the short sound "a" (aaaaaaaaa) and begins to show your child how that sound can combine with the other two sounds he has learned.
Lesson #5
Introduces the concept of rhyming.
Lesson #9
Child is actually reading words.
Lesson #13
Your child will read his first "story" (a sentence). After each story there is a picture which you keep hidden until the child has finished the story. After lesson 13 there is a story to read with each lesson. They get progressively more challenging.
Lesson #25
The story your child will read is "the sock is near a man. a cat is in that sock."
Lesson #40
Your child will read the following story:
"the cow sat on a little gate. the cow said, 'the gate is hot.' she said, 'I hate hot gates.' she said, 'I will run now.'"
By now your child understands what quotation marks mean.
Lesson #73
They finally introduce the alphabet and teach your child the names of the letters.
Lesson #74
The little lines and symbols (that tell long vowels from short, etc) disappear from the stories.
Lesson #79
The stories become 2 parters. In other words, part 1 of the story is read in one lesson, then the next day part 2 is read in the next lesson.
Lesson #100
If your child successfully completes this lesson and all the others that have come before it, he is now officially reading at a 2nd grade level.
Addressing Other's Complaints
There have been a number of rave reviews about this book, and there have been some bad ones as well. Many of the bad reviews have valid complaints, but there are a few things I keep hearing mentioned that I just have to address.
"This Book Just Teaches Memorization and Sight Reading, not phonics."
I just can't understand it, but I've actually seen a few reviews where people have said this. This book is almost pure phonics. There are actually only a very few sight words thrown into this book. Very important words that cannot be taught any other way. Words like "said." If you read the introduction to the book (very important to do so, and thoroughly, before you sit down to work with yoru child) you will see that the author argues vehemently against the sight word / memorization / whole word method for teaching children to read. Now that we are finished with this program I am in fact wishing that they'd taught a few more sight words.
"The Symbols etc. Employed in this Program are Different than Those Used in Schools and in Other Programs and this Will Confuse Your Child Later."
It is true that some of the markings used in this book are different from those seen in other programs. However, because all markings are removed for the last 27 lessons, assuming your child finishes the program there will be no need for any marks above the words and stories he reads. Also, I would assume that if you're using this book with your child, you have elected not to depend on his kindergarden or first grade teacher to teach him to read, so you may not need nor want to do exactly what they would do in his school. If your child actually finishes the program, there is nothing to worry about.
Our Experience
As eager as my son was to learn to read and ultimately liked the feeling of having learned what was in any given lesson, I should say that he did not enjoy these reading lessons for themselves. The book is really, really boring for a child. Most of the stories are cute enough. But everything is black and white. However, my son did want to learn to read, and this was the avenue I chose for him. And, ultimately, the book really, really did work.
Since my son didn't particularly like this program, I decided to supplement it with some other more fun things. About 25 lessons in, I went and bought the first set of Bob Books (review coming) for him to read. And, when we were at lesson #50, we started him on the Headsprout.com program, which he really loved and which helped reinforce some of the skills he was learning in the reading lesson book.
Complaints
Bad Title
"Easy Lessons" my a--! Don't let the title fool you. This is not an easy process. This book takes the guesswork out of teaching your child to read, but it will take effort on your part and your child's part in order to complete this program. This program really did work for us, but there were spots where we definitely struggled. Overall, though, my son felt proud and accomplished at the end of each lesson.
Numerous Type-O's
Read every lesson carefully yourself before sitting down with your child. I found typo's in probably 50% of the lessons. And these typo's were often things that had a significant impact on the child's ability to complete the lesson. I actually had to take a black marker to the book several times to correct mistakes that would have confused and frustrated my child. I think typeo's are expected in most books, but in a book like this, it's really very important that they be a rarity.
Somewhat Boring for the Child
Yep, my kid was bored with this book. The illustrations are small and just black and white sketches. Most of the stories are amusing, but you don't get to look at the picture until the very end.
Certain Major Sound Combinations Completely Left Out
We got through the 100 lessons and I was shocked that certain sound combinations were never adressed. Like "al", "ir", "ur", "igh", etc.
Designed for Children 4 to 5 who have had no previous reading instruction at all
My son had been given a great deal of phonics and alphabet instruction before we began this program, so the first lessons were really kind of confusing to him. After awhile - in the way of young children - he simply accepted the new and slightly conflicting informarion and did fine. But, I would say if you know you're going to use this book, you might want to either hold off a bit on teaching the alphabet and phonics to your child until they're ready to use this book. Or, better yet, read through the book and try to make your instruction conform to the DISTAR program's standards.
What We Liked
What can I say? This program is labor intensive, but straightforward and it works! All the little complaints seem pretty petty when you after a few months working with this book your child is reading at a second grade level.
Is Your Child Ready?
I am absolutely no expert, but I do have some opinions I'd like to share on this. The book says it's appropriate for average 4 & 5 year olds, and "bright" 3 1/2 year olds. Everyone wants to think of their child as "bright" but I'm not sure that basic intelligence is as important as a few other things.
Are They Interested?
My son was not particularly interested in doing these reading lessons. He found the book itself to be boring and a bit of a chore. However, he was expressing a definite desire to learn to read, and this book was the avenue I chose to get him there. When we started this book, he already knew the beginning sounds of every letter and I felt the next step was to learn to sound out actual words and read. Because the book assumes your child knows absolutely nothing about phonics or letters, I didn't want to wait too much longer.
Are Their Language Skills Adequate?
My son has been speaking in full sentances understandable by strangers since about age 2. Therefor by age 3, when we started this book, I felt that his language skills were adequate for this book. Still, when we had difficulty, it was with his ability to pronounce the sounds in the book properly. For example, when we got to the "th" sound, my son wanted to say "f", because that is his habit when talking. And, my son still has some difficulty pronouncing "l" properly. Once over these hurdles, we were okay. I don't recommend this particular program for very young children at all unless their language skills are very good. Every mispronunciation you notice with your child in his every day speaking will impact his ability to be able to get through these lessons.
Motor Skills?
At the end of each reading lesson there is a writing lesson, which could potentially be very important for your child in reinforcing the sounds he learned in the lesson. If you're child is not ready to learn to write, you may want to hold off awhile on this program. My son was having a great deal of trouble with the writing, and it was making these lessons to long for us, so we just didn't do it. And he still learned to read just fine.
Attention Span and Listening Skills
The author of this book claims that these are 20 minute lessons. That is just flat out untrue, once you get about halfway through the book. And, if you're doing the writing lesson, it's probably not true from about lesson 10. Without the writing portion, and on a very good day, the lessons with long stories (the ones at the end are actually hundreds of words) took us about 30 minutes. Your child needs to be willing/able to sit with you and really listen and respond for that length of time. The lessons should be done in one sitting, because the 1st exercises are designed to prepare the child for reading the story, then after reading the story there are comprehension questions. You might, however, be able to do the writing portion separately from the rest.
Final Thoughts
I am very pleased, personally, with this book. I'm obviously thrilled that my 3 year old is reading so well. But, you should check this book out from the library and read it through thoroughly, and think about your own child's personality, before deciding to go this rout in teaching your child to read.
