Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
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Some things I don't like: the structure. Honestly, sometimes the script is agonizingly boring, and I can't stand that you go through some of the words/stories once, and then have to go back through them again a second time. Plus, my girls are freaking out by that time! Although going back through the story a second time and asking questions is excellent for comprehension.
The biggest thing for me is just managing my own expectations, recognizing when my girls (who are partially deaf anyway) have reached their fatigue point, and letting it go to another day (which is SO hard for me, I want to get things done!).
I've also started switching it up with reading repetitive early readers, like "Dick and Jane" books, and the leveled readers from their kindergarten class. This helps with the boredom/frustration and is good for getting sight words into their long-term memory without doing flashcards. I definitely see progress in my twins. I am hopeful they will be reading independently on some level, any level would satisfy me, by the end of kindergarten.
I wish I had known about it when my son was this age, he struggled to read with the method taught at our neighborhood school - which was, "look at the picture and try to figure out what the word is", totally crazy - and he still struggles, though he has made great progress.
Overall, I think this is one good tool in helping your children really learn to read and sound out unfamiliar words
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1) Using a puppet to teach the lessons (she still likes the puppet even when the lessons get difficult)
2) I used a reward chart specifically for completing a lesson
3) After observing how difficult focusing even for 10-20 minutes was, I started giving focusing prizes for focused lesson time (sitting still, not talking about off-subject ideas, or being silly)
4) Learning that after 20 minutes focusing became especially difficult, so to complete the lesson another day.
5) Some lessons are easy for my daughter to complete because they are review lessons and some which introduce new sounds are more difficult, so I could not expect them all to be the same amount of time.
Based on educational research, the Distar reading method streamlines the learning to read process. It has been proven more effective than the traditional teaching methods (sight reading, which her kindergarten class uses). Designed for 3 1/2 to 4 year olds, this book's lessons worked well for us, with plenty of consistency and endurance. It taught me and my daughter speech and phonetics and she is way ahead in her kindergarten class now. It was a good study in focusing for a 4 and 5 year old. ...more
This book was highly recommended by my sister-in-law, Tiffany, who has used it with her kids and she told me that when they get to lesson 100 they are at a 2nd grade reading level and so she suggested I just work to lesson 30-40, which brought me tons of relief. :) Thanks, Tiffany. Sorry for all the details but thought others might want to know. It's a good resource for kids who want to start reading before school or could use some help learning to read after they have started school. I think the program seems great. If ANYTHING, my daughter is learning to sit still for 20 minutes every day to do something academic (which she needed to practice for kindergarten).
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Okay, so he pretty much hates it.... But, it's working.
This book really shows children how to sound out each letter to form words. I'm really pleased with it. As a parent who was a bit clueless on how to teach my child to read, this has been a huge help.
Like I said, we are halfway through and he is already reading paragraph (stories)
So
I'm about halfway finished with this book. My son, who is 5, getting ready to start Kindergarten in the Fall has been the source of experimentation with this book.Okay, so he pretty much hates it.... But, it's working.
This book really shows children how to sound out each letter to form words. I'm really pleased with it. As a parent who was a bit clueless on how to teach my child to read, this has been a huge help.
Like I said, we are halfway through and he is already reading paragraph (stories)
So, I wholeheartedly suggest if you need to teach a child to read that you pick this one up!
The lessons are about 10 minutes each day, you really can't beat that!!!!
5 stars!!!!!
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I didn't make him repeat stuff as much as the book said, unless he was having trouble with a particular word. I let him set the learning pace so that he didn't get bored or overly frustrated. Only made it to lesson 70-something where the lessons start to repeat but without the special writing to help you pronounce the words. But he is reading books himself no
I found this to be an easy and engaging way to teach my 5/6 year old how to read. Just sat down and went through the lessons step by step.I didn't make him repeat stuff as much as the book said, unless he was having trouble with a particular word. I let him set the learning pace so that he didn't get bored or overly frustrated. Only made it to lesson 70-something where the lessons start to repeat but without the special writing to help you pronounce the words. But he is reading books himself now so there doesn't seem to be much point in going on.
Would definitely recommend this.
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After I consulted with my sister, Rachel Deese, who is a wonderful ed
It seems gimmicky, but I highly recommend this book! I have two very good readers after having worked through this book. This was recommended to me by several homeschooling moms that I know, all of which have good readers. It must be understood, though, that this is not a grammar book. This is simply teaching a child to read the words in front of him. It uses mainly phonics, but also incorporates memorization of "funny words".After I consulted with my sister, Rachel Deese, who is a wonderful educator and has a masters in Reading, we used this book in conjunction with A.C.E.'s Word Building lessons (our main curriculum) and did fine. She was glad that phonics was the overall principle used, and that it also recognized that not all English words will hold to strict phonetic pronunciations. Her only recommendation was to be sure to keep terminology consistent between this book and our regular curriculum so as not to confuse the kids.
I must say as well that it wasn't always easy. The lessons could get tedious and frustrating, because it's a whole new way of thinking for a Kindergartner. But I would say, stick with it! After all, who says every lesson of every day of school has to be Sesame Street!? As I read the reviews on Amazon, there were some who hated the book because of this, and I suppose it is fair to say that at certain points it was difficult. Some days we just had to skip the lesson. But I'm so happy with the results.
It was definitely worth it to read the introductory material so I knew what my part was. Each lesson begins with introducing a new sound. Then there is a section of drilling, and finally the child gets to read a story. I read all the words in red, and the child follows my instruction. The book says that the lesson should only take 20 minutes, but for us it was twice as long. I suppose it was 20 minutes on a really good day when my kids were really into it and breezing through it, but this was not typical.
I'll post this video below to show how my kids read. In the video Matthew is in 1st grade and reading his A.C.E. PACEs easily. He went through the book last year. Katie was in Kindergarten. I'd say my kids are very normal. They don't have any developmental issues, so those factors may influence your decision to use it. You'll notice that they are sounding out a lot of words, and that's good! My challenge now is to get them to read outside of class time. Katie seems to be enjoying reading the most, but Matthew is proud of himself for his reading skill even though he'd rather be playing Lego's.
This book was reviewed at MostlySensible.com...
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I've used this with my three older kids with varied results. My oldest daughter soaked it up like a sponge, started kindergarten reading picture books well and ending the year reading chapter books. My second child (a son) took longer to get through the lessons, but also read well at the sta
I've just started this book again with my twins who are almost 4. They are very excited and moving through the lessons very quickly. (By the way, for those with twins, I've found INDIVIDUAL lessons work best)I've used this with my three older kids with varied results. My oldest daughter soaked it up like a sponge, started kindergarten reading picture books well and ending the year reading chapter books. My second child (a son) took longer to get through the lessons, but also read well at the start of kindergarten. My third child (a son) proved to me that one-size-fits-all is NOT what this book is about. Despite lots of efforts and his willingness to play along, he didn't learn much at all from this book at age 4.5 and 5. However, a year later, and with first grade coming up, he is now excited to start the book again and we're working on it. This time, he's doing well.
So my recommendation? Try the book for the first 10 or 20 lessons on your 4 or 5 year old. If they are interested and learning, keep it up. Otherwise, set it aside until they are older and focus on learning letters and numbers instead.
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We start off each lesson with a picture book (child's choice) then a chapter from a chapter book (my choice). Then we read the lesson. Sometimes we stop in the middle of the lesson (depending on attention span and how well the lesson is going, etc.) We always peek ahead to see if there is a "new sound" coming up. (A very exciting development, if you can imagine.) After the
I have had some requests for more information about how I teach my children to read. I use this book, and I read aloud ALOT.We start off each lesson with a picture book (child's choice) then a chapter from a chapter book (my choice). Then we read the lesson. Sometimes we stop in the middle of the lesson (depending on attention span and how well the lesson is going, etc.) We always peek ahead to see if there is a "new sound" coming up. (A very exciting development, if you can imagine.) After the lesson we read from a phonics reader. For small breaks during the lesson we often read nursery rhyme and poetry books. At the end of the lesson we read another picture book--my choice. It often has something to reinforce the lesson. Sallie gets a treat every tenth lesson. Funny how the ante rises with each child. Aerie got a book every 10th lesson, Coco got something from the dollar store. Sallie gets Polly Pockets. We pick the next prize the day the first prize is finished. Sallie usually does two lessons on the days she is close to earning a prize. I never push, and if she is reluctant, we stop the lesson read aloud and call it good. I do not use the writing portion of the book. We keep writing completely separate. (I like Handwriting Without Tears and Draw Write Now, but I use them only loosely, mostly I just let them draw and write on their own.
Sallie and I have started to incorporate some writing time into her reading lesson. She dictates a story to me, I write it, fold it, staple it and she illustrates it. We've done that a couple of times now and it has been great fun. She usually uses a couple of the words for her lesson, so I am careful to point those out. She loves to read her book to me when she is finished.
So there you have it! Luckily, my children haven't had any reading troubles (eye problems, dyslexia, ADD, etc.) So learning to read has been fairly easy and painless as well as fun for all of us!
Note:
Sallie is on lesson 57. This is a great "teach your child" to read book. But, I think it only works after hundreds of hours of reading aloud. If I was starting from scratch with a new reader, I would still recommend hundreds of hours of read aloud, but I would also look into Jessie Wise's "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading." I haven't used it, but it looks fantastic, and I have really loved her other "homeschool" aids. Just a thought.
N0te:
I have used this book to teach Aerie and Coco to read. I cheated a little and customized it (turned it into games) for Coco, but by the end of the book (along with lots of read aloud at home) the child is considered on a second grade reading level. I'm starting to use the same "games" with Sallie, like "say it fast" and "say it slow", but we won't start on the real lessons until she is 4 or so.
First, as to the methodology: It teaches a special orthography to introduce different phonetics. I didn't have a problem with this, but I think it was frustrating for my son. It isn't until lesson 73 that the standardized alphabet is introduced--which means that for literally months, This book comes highly recommended, and I have no doubt a lot of people have had success with it. But I hated it. On the plus side, my son did learn to read, it is comprehensive and very easy to use. On the other...
First, as to the methodology: It teaches a special orthography to introduce different phonetics. I didn't have a problem with this, but I think it was frustrating for my son. It isn't until lesson 73 that the standardized alphabet is introduced--which means that for literally months, he thought he couldn't read because he couldn't pick up a normal book and read it. It also meant he couldn't practice during the day with normal books. We started doing two lessons a day just to get through it quicker so he could see that he had learned something. I also question the wisdom of not introducing certain phonetic rules, like the long vowel if an 'e' is at the end of the word, earlier. The child is expected to read such words in standard type several lessons before the rule is formally introduced. And so, not having learned the rule, when my son got to the standardized type, he had no idea how to figure those words out. I went off script and introduced the rule myself. I don't know how he ever would've figured it out--was he supposed to infer the rule on his own? It was terribly frustrating that he was expected to read words without knowing how to sound them out. I am also confused as to why the book didn't introduce some letter combinations at all--like 'oa' or 'ci' and 'ce'. I had to tack on a lesson at the end to introduce those.
Second, the manual itself: The editing in this book has to be the absolute worst I've ever seen. In one lesson, I found FOUR different typos (the script would refer to circled letters and none would be circled, for example). If you're going to teach a child a specialized orthography--if you're going to teach him that 's' and 'h' make a different sound when they're connected than when they're just right next to each other--well, at the very least you ought to make quite sure you are consistent. The book was rife with such mistakes--even my son pointed a couple out. I finally took to using a black pen to fix the text as we went along. There is no excuse for such sloppy editing in a reading manual of all things!
And I haven't even mentioned my minor complaints--the illustrations are poorly drawn, a few of the stories involve a hunter with a gun (thanks including unnecessary violence, book!), too many of the reading comprehension questions are yes/no questions, etc.
I will definitely not use this book with my other children. ...more
After some difficulties with the power struggle with the first child, I adjusted and changed some things with the second child. Made a big difference. The key to winning the power struggle with your child is to take it easy and be flexible. If your child doesn't like the writing lessons at the end, don't do them (we hardly did any, because neither of my kids liked them). They get plenty of writing practice in preschool and kindergarten anyway. I have friends who say this was their child's favorite part, so they did extra time writing. When it comes to the second story reading, we would only do it once and save the second reading for the next day. Then the next day, we started with reading the previous days story (the second read) and then moved onto the new lesson and did the same thing at the end: read the story only once and save the second read for the next day. Keeps the kids more interested that way. Also, you don't have to follow the script Word for Word, adjust it to your everyday vocabulary and keep it fun. If you make it seem like a chore, they react accordingly.
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I'm now teaching my son to read this way (we started when he was four, and he's now five. It has taken us about five months to make it through the text--with a few breaks when he was getting too antsy and negative), and though t
I taught my daughter, Madeleine, how to read by using this system. She wanted badly to read like her big brother. She flew through the lessons, doing two in one day and progressed quickly. She's good at deciphering symbols and recognizing rules, so it worked well for her.I'm now teaching my son to read this way (we started when he was four, and he's now five. It has taken us about five months to make it through the text--with a few breaks when he was getting too antsy and negative), and though the progress is slower, he's still grabbing all the concepts and despite his bouncy-ness is reading nicely. We're on lesson 88!
If you're interested in doing this, you have to completely buy in to their system. I don't think going half way would be helpful for a child--just confusing. I don't really like the physical feel of the book. It's big, and might be more helpful if the spine could fully open. And the illustrations, though humorous, lack a certain whimsy and taste.
my two cents :)
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UPDATE:
I still like this book, but the authors have made a computer version that is so much better and even easier to teach and learn. It is called Funnix. It is very inexpensive and about once a year at the holidays is offered for free download.
I only wanted to check out this book to read the introduction and instructions. Everything looks good and I think we will probably use this to begin reading instruction if we're ready to start that before we start K. The only issue or confusion I had is that this book claims to be appropriate for children as young as three and
My son is not ready to begin reading lessons yet. At the time of this "review" he is 3 years and 3 months old. I can see him being ready to begin in 3 to 6 months, though.I only wanted to check out this book to read the introduction and instructions. Everything looks good and I think we will probably use this to begin reading instruction if we're ready to start that before we start K. The only issue or confusion I had is that this book claims to be appropriate for children as young as three and a half but there are writing portions in every lesson, from what I could tell. I think most probably any 3 year old that is ready to begin reading still lacks the necessary motor skills to begin writing. I have read that this is especially common in boys, even when they are not early readers. We can reevaluate when we get there, but I imagine I will have to alter the writing tasks to allow for tracing or finger painting or simply skip them altogether.
...more - repetition of all the lessons woven together (spiral)
- handwriting in every lesson
- lessons appear short
- method of teaching pre-reading and reading skills is brilliant
- I liked how they made little changes to the letters to make it easier for the child to differ I wanted to love this book, but it was just taking way too much time, and my daughter was getting frustrated. We're going to try "Explode the Code" instead, but maybe we'll come back to this one. I really, really like their method:
- repetition of all the lessons woven together (spiral)
- handwriting in every lesson
- lessons appear short
- method of teaching pre-reading and reading skills is brilliant
- I liked how they made little changes to the letters to make it easier for the child to differentiate "ta hha" as "Th"
- I liked the black-and-white pages and occasional pictures. I felt that it helped us focus on the words instead of pictures. But that was something that my daughter didn't like about it.
Great methodology, just didn't work for us this time. ...more
I knew he was smart and didn't belong in special ed so I purchased this book. In two weeks he was reading at grade level and by the end of the book he was reading at a 3rd grade level well above his peers. Any time a friend comes to me and either wants to start teachi
My son was having problems learning to read at school. The way that they were teaching just wasn't helping him at all! They finally told me that they wanted to place him in special ed as he wasn't learning with his other classmates.I knew he was smart and didn't belong in special ed so I purchased this book. In two weeks he was reading at grade level and by the end of the book he was reading at a 3rd grade level well above his peers. Any time a friend comes to me and either wants to start teaching their child to read or their child has a problem keeping up with reading at school I recommend this book. I always get rave reviews from them by the end of the book.
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One more child to go!
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