How can you teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons?
When I started looking into a reading curriculum for my daughter, I was overwhelmed with the number of choices out there! Being a newbie homeschooler, I wanted something that was all-in-one, open-and-go, with step-by-step instructions on how to teach reading.
Boy, did I find all of that with ‘Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons’! For any beginner homeschooler, this book is a must-have. Let’s get into the many reasons why I love this curriculum so much, and why I think you will too!
100 Easy Lessons
Like I said, this was my first time ever teaching a child to read, so I’m a complete newbie, but this book was perfect!
I had seen it recommended by so many people and so decided to try it out. I was pleased to find that the book is very reasonably priced!
Quick reasons why I love this curriculum:
- An effective method that will have your child reading quickly
- Open-and-go with no preparation needed
- A very inexpensive curriculum
- Teaches your child to read phonetically so that they learn to decode words they have never seen before
- Perfect for beginner homeschoolers with step-by-step instructions for parents
- Stories with pictures for your child to read
- Includes reading comprehension and discussion questions for each story
- Introduces sounds in a logical order that makes it easier on your child
- Comes with a pronunciation guide and a letter-writing chart for the parent’s reference
- An all-in-one curriculum that has everything you need to teach your child to read within one book
- Includes a book list at the end of the book with 20 books the child can continue with once they have finished their 100 lessons
- After completing the 100 lessons, your child can be reading on a solid second-grade level
Learn To Read In 100 Lessons
What does a lesson involve?
The lessons at the start of the book are focused on teaching individual letter sounds, blending two sounds together, and then reading three-letter words (CVC words). Each lesson gets progressively harder. Your child will be learning more and more sounds, longer words, and will start reading stories that are a few sentences long.
While sounding out each letter or word the child places their finger on the dot underneath it and moves their finger along the line. I love this method because it means that the child will learn how to sound out the letters correctly, and will easily learn how to blend letters together.
Part of the method also includes reading a sound or word ‘the slow way’ and then ‘the fast way’ which helps children progress from saying individual sounds to saying a whole word in one go.
Once your child has mastered all of the individual letter sounds, they will be introduced to some of the common diagraphs. They have to read longer words, and the stories get longer and longer.
By the end of the book, the lessons include reading a few words that will then appear within the story for that lesson. The stories near the end of the book are now an entire page long, with smaller text. Each story usually includes a picture, and there are questions to check reading comprehension and for discussion of the story.
I really like the order in which the book introduces sounds and words, it makes a lot of sense! It makes it so much easier for the child when everything is introduced in a logical order. This is also why I love Bob books so much, and why Bob books and Teach Your Child to Read go so well together.
How To Use 100 Easy Lessons
How much prep work is involved?
Other than reading the introduction, there is really no prep work involved for the parent. This curriculum is truly open-and-go, with step-by-step instructions. Even what the parent needs to say to the child is written down and clearly laid out in red text.
Each lesson has the same format, so after a few lessons you get familiar with it, and you can breeze through it. After a few lessons, I didn’t even need to read out the instructions to my daughter anymore, because she would know exactly what to do.
There is a pronunciation guide for the parent included in the introduction which can be quite helpful. For the vowels which have two different sounds, a symbol above the letter will show this difference. After your child begins to read well, the symbols are no longer included and your child will be able to read without them.
In the introduction is also a letter writing chart, which shows the correct formation for writing each of the letters.
If your child has never done any writing before, I recommend finding some wipe-clean books or other worksheets where your child can trace lines and work on their pen control.
It’s a good idea to help your child to gain a good pen grip right from the start.
How Long Does A Lesson Take?
Each lesson only took us about ten minutes, though this will depend on your child. Even by the end of the book, where my daughter was reading an entire page of smaller text, the lessons still only took ten minutes because by then my daughter had become a faster reader.
Do I Need Additional Resources?
All you need for this curriculum is simply the book itself, and a notebook so that your child can practice writing the letters specified in each lesson.
However, if you would like to use additional workbooks for practicing letter tracing, formation, and writing, then they would be a great additional resource.
Preschool Writing
My daughter Galilee used the book ‘Preschool Writing’ by Jady Alvarez to practice her letter writing. We found this to be a great resource to go alongside Teach Your Child to Read.
Jady Alvarez also has ‘Preschool Beginner Math’ and ‘Preschool Literacy’ which my daughter loved, and I have just re-purchased these three books for my youngest daughter.
Bob Books
I used Bob books as another additional resource. Bob books also teach children how to read phonetically. The child will learn to decode and sound out any word they come across and then read words they have never encountered before.
Each set includes ten short readers.
I bought sets 1-5, as well as the Kindergarten Sight Words set that came with 30 flashcards.
Dash Into Learning
Other great beginner reader books are Dash into Learning books, or check out what is available at your local library.
Before we even started the curriculum I made some letter flashcards to help my daughter memorize the letter sounds. This is not necessary, but it will help your child progress faster. I went through all the sounds of the alphabet everyday with her, and she soon had them memorized within a few weeks.
I also made some word family flashcards to get my daughter familiar with words that have the same ending. This was great because instead of sounding each individual letter out, she moved on to saying the whole word and not having to sound things out at all.
I picked up some sight word flashcards for a few dollars and started going over these several times a week to help her memorize them.
Sight words include words such as ‘the’ or ‘buy’ that cannot be read phonetically, and must be memorized instead. They also include high-frequency words that your child will encounter often, such as ‘it’ or ‘on’.
Those are some of the resources I used alongside Teach Your Child to Read, but like I said before, all you really need is just the book itself and some paper.
It’s up to you what else you want to add in to each lesson, whether it be games, worksheets or hands-on activities.
100 Easy Lessons Review
While being a very effective reading curriculum, it does lack somewhat in the fun and engaging department. The method is so effective though, that I can overlook the fact that it can be a little dull.
The book is in black and white (apart from the red text) and the pictures are pretty small and simple, but this just means that the book is that much cheaper!
The stories were interesting enough to keep my daughter engaged and reading, though not overly exciting! Most of the stories have a picture to go with it, which my daughter was always interested to have a look at.
Overall, despite being a little dull, the book is laid out well, is clear, and easy to follow.
What Age Should I Start?
The answer to this question will depend entirely on your child and their needs. I started going through this book with my daughter when she was 3 and a half, and she was reading words within the first two weeks of using it!
We’ve taken a little over a year to get through it, we’ve taken a few breaks, and we’ve added in lots of fun additional resources to keep learning fun and engaging.
If your child is craving knowledge and has a desire to learn, then I would encourage you to start. If they aren’t interested at all and don’t want to participate, then I wouldn’t force it.
After all, you don’t want them to start off by hating reading! You want them to love reading! Do other learning activities in the meantime and try the curriculum again at a later date.
How To Keep Motivated
A great way to keep your child motivated is by having a sticker chart. At the end of every lesson, your child can choose a sticker to place on the number of the lesson they completed that day.
You may also want to include a special treat after your child accomplishes a certain amount of lessons (say every 10 lessons or even at the end of each week), and a treat for finishing the book! I’m not against giving my children incentives and rewarding their hard work 🙂
I never had a sticker chart for my oldest, as it just never entered my mind, but I wish I would have! I have since come across this idea a few times on Instagram, and it’s such a fun idea that I will for sure be using it with my youngest.
Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons
Hopefully, by now I have answered all of the questions you may have about this curriculum, but if not, feel free to leave a comment down below.
I hope this review of Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons has been helpful, and that I have given you a few good ideas as to how you can get your child reading!
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