Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons: Revised and Updated Second Edition

I first bought this book in 2004 when I had a rising 4-year-old. She was a very keen little learner anyway, knowing all her letters and sounds. Using this book, she was reading independently by the time we got to Lesson 33. Three children later, they've all stopped before Lesson 60, reading independently. I don't think that's entirely up to my brilliant children <smile>. I think it's due in large part to this book. Why does this deserve to be the top book for teaching a child to read? Well, I've seen a lot of styles of reading education: Montessori, whole book, phonics, etc., as I am a homeschool teacher as well as a trained secondary school teacher. This book is the best because: it teaches letter sounds phonetically; it teaches how to write them from Lesson 1, choosing two letters at a time; it teaches blending better than any other method I've ever seen (it isn't kuh-a-tuh, but cat); and because it introduces "b" a long time before it introduces "d", there doesn't seem to be the confusion between those two letters that other methods struggle with. The best thing about it is, that as a parent, it's completely foolproof. You simply read what it tells you to read, in the way it tells you to read it, and honestly, bob's your uncle! There are three things that I think are important to remember, though: first, you as the parent have to be consistent in working through the book (c'mon, it's only 15 minutes at the most, so fitting it in as daily routine shouldn't be impossible); second, your child has to be ready and willing, so you might have to try to start it on several different occasions (note: you might have to whiz through the first ten lessons if you're child is anxious to start -- I had one who kept wanting to do Lesson 55 from the beginning, and though she wasn't actually capable of doing it, I realised she wanted to start a bit further ahead in the book than Lesson 1); and finally, read aloud as much as you can of other books so the child can see the joy and pleasure in the whole experience and not think of it as yet another chore centred around homework.

I bought this book 6 months ago to start teaching our then 3.5 yr old daughter. We felt she was ready to at least start learning phonics (she started talking at 18 months old) as she was showing an increased interest in 'reading' and 'writing' (although she's certainly not a 'gifted child'!). I have to say I didn't really believe that the book would "do what it said on the tin", but I am delighted to say it can! We are now on Lesson 70 (of 100), and I am amazed at what our daughter can now read at just 4 years old! The book recommends that you do a lesson each day. We don't always do that, as some days we don't have time, but I would certainly advise not leaving more than 1 or 2 days between 'lesson days' and definitely make time in the morning rather than the afternoon. However, you must read exactly what is on the page, as I've tried 'adapting' it to what I thought fitted my child best and I ended up going back a few lessons and reading it verbatim. The only extras I do put in are a lot more praise. The book is recommended for "bright 3.5-yr-olds, and average 4 and 5 yr olds". I wouldn't suggest any earlier, as your child will need to write each letter they learn, and so they need to have developed their fine motor skills sufficiently. However, even if you only manage 20 or so lessons before your child starts school, it will help them no end, as it is exactly the system used in schools. Finally, I was once told by someone trained in education that there are always 'natural readers' who are able to be told how a word sounds and remember it. That's all well and good until they try to read a word they haven't seen before! This book teaches how to read words properly by learning 'phonics' and blending them in a way in which we speak ourselves. Therefore, your child will eventually be able to pick up a book and read it, and attempt a word that they have not seen before themselves! Imagine their absolute joy when they achieve that on their own... I cannot recommend this book any higher...it's extremely good.

I love this book. I started using it to teach my son to read when he was 3 and a half years old. In my eagerness, I probably started before he was ready because it was a bit of a struggle getting him to concentrate. So we put the lessons on hold for a while. Over the last year and a half, we've revisted the book several times. He's now in his second term of reception year and his reading is at an advanced level in comparison to his peers. Nowadays, he loves doing a couple of lessons whenever we have time before bed (I have a younger child who protests if her brother gets all the attention!) A couple of key changes we've made - I've dropped the writing part of the lessons. I think he found this section a little tedious and it played a role in his decreased concentration when we first started. This has turned out to be a bonus as his school teaches a cursive writing style from the very start of reception so if we'd persisted he'd have been exposed to, and confused by, two very different writing approaches. The other tip I can give is to be aware of the American style language used throughout the book, and adapt your words accordingly. One example is a 'full stop' which is referred to as a 'period' throughout. These are minor issues however. The book is fantastic and it enables any loving parent to give their child a firm foundation with regards to their education. The ground we've covered far surpasses the classroom teachings at my son's school, and it's been fun and a fantastic bonding experience. I've now bought this book a few times as gifts for friends.

Tonight my daughter (age 3 yrs 8 months) read her own bedtime stories - proper little tales, not just "cat sat on a mat". She has done about 80 of the 100 lessons, no more than 20 minutes a day and about 5 times a week. She's very bright but due to having an October birthday, won't start formal schooling for another year and I knew that she would be very frustrated without some intellectual challenges. She asked to learn to read and I had no idea how to teach her - how you you explain "read" and "red" and "read" and "reed" and so on? This book tells you - it is VERY proscriptive, you must say the words exactly as they tell you, even down to how to praise your child (but I slipped from that a little as we went on and grew in confidence). Other reviewers have criticised the strange symbols and the use of little letters etc, and I wondered how she would move from this strange almost-code to proper writing, but she just did. I can't explain how, but her mind coped with it with no problem at all. To start with, I found the programme daunting - pages of explanation before you get into it, and I worried I would set my daughter back by putting her off reading entirely. This was not the case at all. Good points: + it really works + you start to see results very soon + the child gets a great sense of achievement + the authors really know what they are talking about, even if you don't believe it at first - for example more than one lesson back to back is inadvisable, even if your child finished the first lesson eager for more. Bad points: - it is American, so one has to translate "sidewalk" and "mom" etc - there are far too many typing errors, missing the pronunciation marks off letters etc, we had to go through the book putting them in with black pen. - some of their pronunciation is bizarre: "for" to be pronounced rhyming with "mower" for example?! Is it the American accent, or is it just sloppy editing? We just ignored this after a while. For me it loses 2 stars for the sloppy editing, but as the programme still works so effectively, I've given it a bonus star to make up for taking off 2 - the programme is almost perfect, the publishers need to sharpen up their act! I will use it again for my son. PS (added later) she's now nearly 4 and on stage 2 of the reading scheme - her class mate have not started it yet!

Our daughter was starting to read quite a few words by herself, so I decided to get us a book to help us approach learning to read with a bit of 'structure''. (My daughter is under 5, and we homeschool; structure is something we don't use much!) We are loving this book. So far we have done 16 of the 100 lessons and it is amazing to see how her whole approach to reading has 'come together'. The lessons are really simple, and you, as 'teacher' are told exactly what to say to your child at each point in the lesson, which works surprisingly well. The book uses the phonics method, with an ingenious slightly-modified alphabet that originally put me off - for about two minutes. At the end of each lesson there is a simple exercise in writing the sounds you have learned, so it also teaches writing, and from about lesson 14 onwards, there are little comprehension exercises. It's all taken at a really slow pace, but the results are amazing! A lesson takes between 10 and 20 minutes. My daughter loves having her 'grown up' lessons but they do not overstretch her attention span. I would recommend this book to anyone. One tip, before you start the book, have on hand an exercise book with the pages lined for children's writing practise. This is great as a record of your child's progress, can be used as a book mark and adds to the sense of achievement she will feel as her lessons progress. Joolz

I cannot recommend this book enough. Having now completed the 100 lessons my reception age child (who would much rather play outside or on the nintendo) is now performing exceedingly well with reading and has been confirmed by the teacher as reading at year two level (which now means I will need to continue to encourage home reading so that school doesn't begin to frustrate - a challenge I am more than willing to undertake). It is a slow and steady start but the foundation blocks are important, so persevere with love and patience and you will see the reading confidence in your child slowly but surely grow. It has taken us just over 8 months including holidays, lazy days and sick days but regularly reading the book, completing the lessons using an easel and chalk to start and pen and paper as we progressed has gotten us to the stage where not only are my childs reading skills fantastic, but writing (as encouraged at the end of the lesson) is also great. If you are a patient parent, willing to put in the time and encouragement (sometimes more than 20 minutes with tantrums, debates and meltdowns - as with most things for young children) required then you will come to see what a fantastic teaching aid this book is. We are now going to enjoy reading the library of books accumulated before and whilst learning to read.

Bought it reading the good reviews. Poor in illustrations, a simple reading exercise book, my son lost interest quickly, especially, in comparison to other, colourful, play-based reading books and real life play-based exercises, crafts, reading/writing challenges. We arre bilingual, learning to read in two different languages, so perhaps we need a different overall approach anyway. Looked/sounded good try but we don't use it.

Works well but lessons take a lot longer sometimes than advertised on the book

Book looks boring but my kids enjoyed the stories and it builds in such a way they never got frustrated. Used the book to teach 2 of my kids and now started with my three year old.

Thanks to this book, my son is the at the top of his class when it comes to reading. He blew the teacher away at his reading assessment. She said that once he blew through a late-2nd-grade book, and only slightly struggled through a 3rd grade book she simply stopped the test and assigned him to the advanced reading for 1st grade. I am one proud mommy! But please don't think I am boasting about my kid. He' smart, but he's not a prodigy. I am raving about this book!!! It's absolutely incredible. For those who think it's tedious or too technical, that may be. But even though many lessons, especially the early ones, are super easy, and the steps feel like overkill, it's about HOW the brain processes and builds on information. You are building a foundation for how the brain processes reading, and it happens without you even noticing. I'm not just amazed with what my son can read, but HOW he reads. He knows how to work out a new word and he almost always gets it right. This book hasn't just taught him to read, but how to think about words. It's something I never thought about, and I am so grateful. These are skills that will carry on throughout his educational career and help him not just succeed, but excel. He enjoys reading because he knows how to do it and doesn't rely on words he has memorized. I know I'm not explaining this well. Perhaps someone can comment and help elaborate. TL;DR Your kid will learn to LOVE reading because the mystery is solved. Get this book. Power through it. You won't regret it. I recommend starting as soon as your kid turns 4. UPDATE: I just had a parent teacher conference with my son's First Grade teacher, and she was telling us how well he's doing not just with reading, but sounding out words, putting word parts together, and reading comprehension. I know that she and my son's Kindergarten teacher taught him a lot, but I also KNOW that he got the solid foundation for those skills from this book. I want to jump in and tell every teacher about it! But sadly they never seem to care much. I think they think I'm over-exaggerating and believe that they are the ones that taught my son to read so well. Well my 4 1/2 year old is now going through it and he's already reading at an end-of-Kindergarten level (and we're on lesson 32). I'm also starting with my 3 1/2 year old and she's sounding things out on her own after only 6 lessons. These are three kids with very different personalities and very different learning styles. I strongly believe that this book can work for anyone. I do change up some of the wording a bit to suit each kid's different style, but that comes easily now that I know the book so well. I hope that this review helps others to make the choice to buy and USE this book. :) UPDATE #2: I just want to add one more little tidbit. My middle child is left handed and he is showing a strong tendency to write in mirror writing (backwards lettering and from right to left). This book has been helpful in teaching him to write correctly. When he writes on his own accord I don't correct him as I have no problem with him learning mirror writing as well, but when it comes to "school time" he has to do it the conventional way, which I tell him he needs to learn for Kindergarten. He would probably get this from any reading course, but I like how this book has the child follow the sounds/words with their finger and trace them too before writing. They really do cover everything and I can see how this book would be helpful for any child having difficulty, no matter how unique it may be. :) With the way it is laid out you are able to emphasize what you need to customize lessons if needed. UPDATE #3 As if my review wasn't already too long! But my kids are now in 1st, 2nd and 4th grade and I just have to say that HOW this book teaches your child to read truly sticks with them. They are still all excellent readers for their grade level. Now that my oldest is in 4th (he's the first kid I wrote about at the beginning of this review) the other kids are starting to catch up. He's reading at an end-of-fourth-grade reading level. My favorite aspect of this book is how they treat letters as blending sounds from the very beginning as greatly helped. In school they learn first the sounds, then they learn to blend. By the time they get to blending the kid thinks they have it all figured out and then they have to learn all over again! Blending should always be a part of letter learning. In this book, they are not "letters," they are always "sounds". Such a small differences that is invaluable! To this day whenever my kids are stuck we go back to the sounds and they can figure it out. Even when they start talking about the letters I say, "No, what is the SOUND?" It always helps the word "click". In this way they can sound out almost any word aside from all the lovely rule-breaking words we have in our language!

We have personally become big fans of Siegfried Engelmann because of this book. Based on Direct Instruction system: meaning teaching in very small incremental steps. If you are not able to teach your child how to read through this book, then there can be 99.9% two reasons only... 1. Your child is too young, so you need to try after a couple of months, OR 2. You are not following the book instructions properly, so read again the instruction part and focus on what are you missing out.

A veces los niños que entienden inglés pero su lengua principal es otro idioma, tienen problemas para leer en el cole porque cuando leen utilizan los fonemas de su lengua principal, estos no encajan con lo que tienen aprendido del inglés en la cabeza. Ha sido una gran ayuda, paso por paso, y ahora lee y entiende sin problemas.

We're on lesson 29 and he's learned so much already! I'm impressed with how he tries to sound things out in daily life as well. I love the script and my son gets so excited when there's a new sound or when he reads something new. This book makes teaching phonics-based reading so simple. We are supplementing with BOB books. I'll update this review if my opinion changes as we continue to work through the book.