Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

I used this book 4 years ago with my now 8 year old, and he's always been at least a couple years ahead in his reading level. I am now doing homeschooling with my 5 year old niece, and almost 5 year old son using this book again to teach the reading fundamentals, and they are both "getting it" so easily.

This book truly makes it SO EASY for anyone to teach a child to read--the teaching scripts give you everything (I mean absolutely EVERYTHING) you need to say. And seriously, if your child is ready to learn, this book will help teach them! The funny thing is, my 2 1/2 year old nephew had been interested in learning since everyone else is doing it (the older kids), and after I do the lessons with the older kids, he'll sit down next to me and say "now it's my turn". :) Although we are going at a MUCH slower pace with him (going over a lesson 2-3 separate times), he is getting it as well!

You really can't go wrong with this book.

Having a four year old boy who was completely disinterested in learning his letters at day care, let alone learning to read, led me to read up a bit on educating boys. "Boys and Girls Learn Differently", a terrific book on its own, informed me that boys tend to be two years ahead in math and sciences, but two years BEHIND in reading. "Learn Differently" taught me that this disparity often had profound effects upon a boy's education, often resulting in their giving up, thinking they were dumb, and rejecting reading altogether. As an avid reader, and a person who only succeeded because of a love of reading, I wasn't going to allow this to occur to my child. I purchased "100 easy lessons" based upon reviews posted on Amazon, and I can honestly say that it was one of the best investments of my life.
My little lazy reader resisted learning the sounds at first. So I dressed it up in a "treasure hunt." I would write the letters featured in a lesson on a piece of paper, place them around the room and have him "find" the correct sounds to match up to the letter. Then, very quickly, we progressed to treasure hunts for words (I completely admit to bribery - 3 successful hunts resulted in a pack of Pokemon cards, his love at the time). Within a matter of 2 months (and several breaks between consistent lessons), my son learned to read far, far more advanced than most of his class mates. I continued the lessons, and dressed them up in "treasure hunts" on and off over the next 6 months. By this time, he was beyond confident about reading - his reward for his hunts was now the Level 2 and 3 "I can read" books that you can buy at any book store (he never caught on to the irony that his reward for completing his reading was to get a book....)
Flash forward to three years later. My son has just been invited into the "gifted" program at school. That "100 easy lessons" (and the time investment of myself and my husband) were a big reason for this is beyond question. The confidence he gained from being one of the top readers in his class has also led to a "swagger" about his school work. Even better -- his brother, 3 years behind him, just started 1st grade. Desperately yearning to be just like his older brother, he has thrown himself into the reading lessons and "treasure hunts" with a focus I've never seen. On day 7 of first grade, he is at lesson 65 in the book. And he, unlike his older brother, LOVES the lessons, can't wait to show off how well he reads. I have no doubt he too will eventually earn an invitation into the gifted program. And their 2 year old brother can't wait to join them.
In short, if you want to realize the most unbelievable return on your investment in your child's education and future, buy this book.

This is an amazing book. It is an entire reading program in one book that costs about $20. I started this after I tried Hooked on Phonics and couldn't even get past lesson one with my 5-year-old son. He just couldn't understand the phonics concepts of that program and found it too boring.

Then a preschool teacher recommended this book which she had used in teaching small children to read. I can't believe how easy and how well this works. I agree with other reviewers that you must go at the pace of your own child. At first the lessons were simple and only took about 10 minutes to complete. Later lessons have stories which are longer and require more concentration. Once we got to that point I took about three days to do each lesson, so that way we still only spend about 10-15 minutes per day working on it. I find that to be a reasonable amount of time to ask my son to concentrate and focus on learning how to read without frustrating him or causing him to dislike reading. I also give my son special rewards every time he completes a certain number of lessons, since I consider his effort at learning to read to be a major accomplishment worthy of recognition. After nine months, we are on lesson 92. My whole family is so impressed with how well our son can read. My three-year-old daughter has been begging me to teach her how to read, so I started this program with her this year, too.

One more thing--be sure to read the entire introduction before you start or else you will not teach it correctly. This is a great book. I highly recommend it to everyone I know who want to teach their own children to read. I can't say enough good things about this reading program. (The best book I ever bought was the Bible.)

I have taught my oldest 4 children to read using this book, all by age 4. (they were ready!) One of them was even reading 3 letter, short vowel sound words by age 3. When my fifth child is ready to learn to read, I'm going to have to order another copy! Mine has fallen apart!

The only negative has been towards the end of the book, I get really tired of the lessons and am ready for my children to move on to "real" books.

My daughter and I loved this book!! I bought it when she was 4 and by the end of preschool she was reading at a kindergarten level. When she stared Kindergarten, her teacher moved her to 1st grade reading. The lesson are so simple and only 20 minutes long. The other great thing is that my daughter didn't feel any pressure coming from the lessons. I know that teaching your child to read can be very difficult and the child may feel the pressure of learning how to read and then shut down. So, we'd try to do a lesson a day but if she wasn't interesting in the lesson, then we'd pick out a bob book or some other easy reader to work with for 20 minutes. That way we still did some kind of reading every day to maintain the routine but diversified a bit to maintain her interest.