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What age is this book used for?
If your child doesn’t know how to read yet then you are in luck! Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is designed for preschool-aged children between the ages of 3 1/2 to 5 years of age and those who have not yet learned how to read. However, these lessons will not help a poor reader who has already learned to read but makes mistakes often.
So, how does it teach my child to read?
It is designed to reflect the Distar Fast Cycle Teaching Program. This program contains a different orthography than most are typically use. An orthography is a conventional spelling system on a language. We have the traditional alphabet but this program and book use additional lettering to help the child learn when to make a certain sound.
But what about the letters in a word that do not make a sound?
I’m only at the beginning of this book and I wish I was taught to read this way!
Growing up, I had a reading comprehension issue and it is something that still bothers me today but, I don’t let it define who I am or scare me away from writing. The point is, the traditional method of learning to read did not work for me and it failed so many other students.
Reading was taught by sounding out the word by pausing at each letter, slowly, in order to blend them. The book uses the word mat as an example. Try breaking it down by each letter. It sounds like emm-ay-tee. Now, say the same break down quickly and you get a weird sounding word, emmaytee. It doesn’t sound correct, does it?
But, there is a better way to teach your child to read...
Instead of breaking the word down letter by letter the lessons will teach your child to say the whole word very slowly. For instance, mmmaaat and then tell your child to say it quickly and they will pronounce the word mat. This is a new method to teach blending skills which can be challenging at first but, from what I understand they do work. I will tell you more about it in the weeks to come!
Now, you may wonder if your child needs to know letter sounds before starting this book.
Your child will not need to know the sounds each letter makes because they cover it in the very first lesson. They don’t teach in alphabetical order but rather in a method that is most common for word building. In addition, they show you exactly how to make the sound and stress the importance of fully understanding it before introducing your child to it. This will help avoid mistakes later on.
Some letters make several sounds and that is covered as well. As I said before, they use a different orthography, so every letter sound has its own symbol that will be used to teach your child to read. These additional letters will disappear as you get further into the lessons.
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons covers other important reading skills as well.
- Rhyming
- Irregulars and Comprehension
- Reinforcement and Corrections
- Sound Writing
- Coping Words
Things I am concerned about...
- They claim the lessons will only take 20 minutes to teach but, it will take a lot of time on your part to learn how to teach the lessons, correctly.
- I wonder, if I don’t say exactly what they have in the lesson to my child, will it distort their learning experience?
- Will the schedule be a challenge to stick to? They suggest a consistent 7-day schedule so your child picks up on the challenges that are occurring.
Did I miss part two? Just starting down this journey. Would love to see what you think having gone further down the road.
Hey Krystle,
I actually took a break from it because my daughter HATED seeing that book! I think I started too early for her. I just restarted it today! She still wasn’t happy to see the book, but we made it fun. We will see how it goes and I’ll do a part 2. My biggest tip so far is to NOT push your kids to do it if they are not interested in it.
Ashley